A year has passed.

Stumbled onto my blog again.

Looking back at the old posts, the memories, the stories...brings about a tinge of sadness.

Oh, how much I've grown, how much I've matured over the past year.

I'm changing. For better or for worst, I don't know. Seems like for the worst at the moment. All I know is I'm trying to grapple with emotions I've never felt before. Strong ones that make or break me.

2008 was a year of change, of maturing.


Reading back, I can't even keep up with my "hyperness".

I long for that side of me again.

Oh, how I've grown.

HR's pre-21st birthday celebration at BLVD

This was held on 11th August, and his birthday was on 14th August.

I felt that since it was his first time living away from home and huilin, and unable to celebrate his 21st birthday with them, I thought I'd make it memorable for him at the very least! Plus, 21st birthdays are treated VERY seriously in australia!! Usually, they'll have a big party where friends and family gather, and the birthday girl/boy would have to give speeches and all. But thats beside the point.

And so!, his impromptu celebration was held at BLVD.. (again??!!). Looks like I can never get enough of this place. I'm quite reluctant to suss out other places cause its like once you've experienced a place with good music, you're scared that if you go to another place, it'll fall short of your expectations entirely, which would so put a damper on the night. Anyway, I got together some friends, and there we were just trying to give him a good time.

Jagabombs as usual. Showed him what it was, and how it was done..domino style!


Me, Zi Xin, Wern Yii and HR.

Zi Xin is HR's primary school friend. HR and I were just walking in uni one day, when we heard from afar, "PAY HONG RUI!!!!!", and we were like..who on earth is that!?! Haha, it was pretty funny. Turns out she's a really cool girl who knows how to let loose when the event calls for it. So it was pri sch reunion time for the both of them after like many years of hiatus in their friendship.



HR and his Bacardi 151s. Thats a killer drink if you can't take liquor.
We were trying to get him really high, but turns out this guy can drink cause the navy taught him well. Bleah.



Marlin and me. He's a poly student that came in this semester. We're taking the same modules except for one. Really friendly guy, glad I met him! His first time clubbing here as well.


More pictures of the suakus.


Oh. Picture with the birthday boy.


BLVD's bar counter. HR was trying to get a picture of the bar girl, cause she was really hot, but he missed! Bummer.


Wern Yii, Zi Xin , Deasy, Angie, and me.


Tequilas.


Me having fun on the podium.


The indo gang!! Absolutely loveeee them!! Super nice pple, and never fail to help me when I'm in trouble. There's christine, angie, alfan, deasy and willy.

Ahh!..i love angie! She's my bestie in melbourne la. Naughty girl, but i love her. Haha, i hope she's coming to visit singapore in december!!


Oh. and here's HR looking fed up waiting outside the toilet for a someone. Heehee. I thk he waited for close to an hour.


Nevertheless, Happy early birthday!

From reviews the next day, he told me he had a rockin' good time. Viola! All thanks to moi. =)

A Memorable Weekend

On Friday (3 August o7), we went to have dinner at this restaurant called Monsoon which serves fusion food. We had oysters, fish, chicken, duck curry, the works! Awesome food man. I'm getting hungry just typing this.

For dessert we had Fried Ice Cream, Mango and Lychee sorbet, Green Tea Ice Cream (which I thought was the best of all of them, so rich and creamy and mmm), and one more, I kinda forgot the name, but its the chef's own special, made from many kinds of nuts including pistachio and some other spices. That was soooo good as well. Oh, not to forget, the Fried Ice Cream was topped with fresh strawberry jam mixed with wine. Sweet but oh so yummy. I want to eat it NOW! Heh.

Oh well, moving on..half way through dinner, I realised it was Joanne's birthday that day! I called her handphone only to realise she was home. I was like why are you staying home on your birthday!?!!! I shall not allow this!

And the result was her being dragged to this club called Lavish which has close to the worst R&B music. Ok, so I'm just bias towards BLVD. Fine, it doesn't have the worst R&B music, there's just nothing spectacular about the mixes. There were many anti-climaxes where you couldn't do any dancing, but just stand around and look bored. The only consolation were the friends and the view of the Yarra River. Oh oh! Not to forget, free entry and champagne for ladies before 11pm. Other than that, I'll never step in again. Bad memories.

And I know Joanne hates hip hop or anything to do with R&B for that matter, so I took it upon myself to entertain her. Haha, I danced on the podium just for the birthday girl, and the night turned better after all. She kept saying she had fun after that!! Haha, lo and behold, she's coming to BLVD this saturday to pre-celebrate HR's 21st birthday!!

Some random pics taken.

Ian, Joanne, Chik, Tavis.

Angie, me, and my ever so persistent pimple outbreak. ARGH!!!






I loveee this pic. I look so glamorous with that lime. Reminds me of that Sunkist commercial.


That Lavish night was one to remember! Cause other than the podium dancing, tensions were high among certain people in the group. Group chemistry has changed. =( Gotta do some reassortment for the time being. Oh, and to top it all off, there were 2 fights outside the club. Childish. Tsk tsk.

Anyway, Saturday was spent recooperating from the traumatic night on Friday, but it was also in preparation for Sunday! Ling's friend was going to bring Ling, me and a few other friends for winery visiting at King Valley! (We rented an 8 seater SUV for the road trip, SUPER BIG!!). Anyway, for this visit, cause she's aiming to be a global distributor of wines, its her passion. Whereas Ling's just tagging along cause she needs to top up her wine supplies, and as for me, some fresh air would be good!

I know nuts about wines! But it was a good experience. I learned a LOT. From red wines, to white wines to dessert wines, to the preservatives, to the grapes, to the climate, soil and variety that contributes to the ultimate taste. There's more than meets the eye!

Walking to the wine cellar in Pizzini.


A pity its winter, so the rows and rows of grape vines are just bare. I can't imagine how it'll look in spring or summer! It must be beautiful.


In the whole journey, I learnt how to appreciate wine. However, what I was more interested in was the scenary! The vast open green pastures with grazing cattle, sheep, chickens, the works. The blue sky, the winter breeze that tells of the approaching spring, the smell of fresh dew, the barren trees that hold on to promise of the coming warmth of a new season. And me, taking in the sights, sounds and smells. Too overwhelming for me to contain. Makes me ever more sure I'm not meant to be confined to the science laboratory, or in lecture theatres for that matter of fact.











When I look at your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens,
and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the
paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalms 8: 3 - 9



Here we are, all tired out from all the wine-tasting.


The last stop was a Cheese Factory!! The cheese was good, but the chocolates in there were the best!! I bought this beer chocolate for 4 bucks. Tasted so good. Half beer, half chocolate. Yummy! Pity it was only a small slice. If only I had the money, I'd buy one of every kind of chocolate they have there! Mmmm.

Chocolate will be my downfall one day.



It was a well-spent weekend. Have never jam packed so many activites inside one before. Good times I'll remember a long time to come!

Jelly Bellys Galore!!

This I have to post. I'm not exactly a fan of Jelly Beans unless they're from Poiful which I think has the BEST jelly beans ever, but this is just so cool.

My friend was super sweet, he came over and brought me jelly beans!! Its the gourmet version man, I've never seen it before (kudos to those who have) but its like..WOW. Thats my reaction when I got it.

Check out the package man! Its like 30cm by 40cm. Super cool la!

Thats the back of the package.

Zooming up, you can see why its so cool. They've got 50 different flavours, and you can mix and match them in recipes to get the taste you want! For example, as quoted from the picture:

Take 2 blueberry flavoured jelly beans + 1 Buttered Popcorn flavoured jelly bean, pop them in your mouth all at once and TADAH!! You get.... Blueberry Muffin!! Haha, I tried it, its pretty sweet! Doesn't mimic the taste all that much, but good try!

Here are all the 50 different flavours. You can click on the picture to get a larger view. They've got some super nice ones to the downright outrageous like jalepenos.

Here's what you get when you open the box. 600grams of jelly beans staring back at you!! I counted 40 grams is about 15 jelly beans so 600 will be.......go figure! I didn't even bother to count. I was @@ at the amount of colours they had.

Our messy puny dining table. Joanne and me were like picking the jelly beans out one by one, trying them out, and giving critics. Haha, you should have seen our faces. We dared each other to the jalepenos, it tasted...ehh..out of this world.

It was spicy la!! I mean like how can a jelly bean be made spicy man, thats totally out of whack. The person should be shot. It was sooo yucky, and not to mention, the jelly bean beside it was sizziling cinnamon, which we thought would have been nice, but it also turned out downright horrible. Haha, when we bit into it, we were like..mm..nice...then the more we chewed, the more the taste came out, and it became..mm..errr....

EWWW!!

Yuck! I wanted to spit it out. Luckily we left those 2 for the last. My favourite flavour is Magarita. Its got that sizzling sweet taste. After the Jalapenos and Sizziling Cinnamon, we felt sooooo sick. Our stomachs were turning knots.

Not to mention, Joanne brought out her Midori to try. And trust me, midori and jelly beans don't go well. Too sweet for the palate.

All in all, it was a fun night. But boy, were we sick after that. We felt so nauseous, both of us went to bed early.

Just so you want to know more about the extensive flavours they have, below is the website to jellybelly!

http://jellybelly.com/

The Weekend Before School Started

The weekend before school started, I was just dying to go crazy. Couldn't let my holidays just pass me by without any craziness right?! Plus, I spend a whole week staying over at my friend's house spending some alone time with myself.

So the last saturday before school started, I decided that it was time to go out and let loose!! Dragged HR, Stacey, Wern Yii and myself to Lions at Melbourne Central!! The music there was sooooo good and IS still awesome!!

Its like a really dim, wide and cool chill out pub, the kind where you can opt to sit at one corner and talk with your friends and still hear them very clearly, or either sit nearer to the stage/dance floor where you can get into the dancing crowd moving along to the beats of the bass drum. The live rock band was GREAT! They belted out tons of hits, and everybody was just crazy. If you don't like doing all that, you can opt to play pool at one corner of the pub as well, or either just sit and watch soccer still playing on the few tvs around the place.

We went there around 10+ and football was on!! It was sooo packed!! They were showing live footage of Japan vs Australia, and everybody was just cheering and jeering. Haha, it was so cool, cause when the Japans scored the 4 of us were like YEAH!!!!, amidst the vast sea of Australians. Haha, a cool way to start the night. Oh, Japan won by the way. Whee!

It was champagne galore again.

Stacey's still stuck on her first pot of beer. Thats what we had first before we moved on to champagne. Haha, she took quite long to finish it. Keep going!




Wern Yii and me. I've known Wern Yii since the start of this year but only hung out ONCE before this. Haha, I never called her out cause I always had the idea she had a lot of friends and was having the time of her life. But little did I know, she was rotting at home. So, I pulled her out that night, and boy, did she have fun!! Haha, we're meeting up more now. Everytime either one of us is bored (ie, HR/me), who do we call!?
WERN YII!!


We had a long list to cheers to.
Cheers to getting together!
Cheers to aiming to have at least 2 H1s next semester!
Cheers to the start of school!
Cheers to anything and everything basically. We went bonkers. Haha


Lousy posing. She makes it so obvious the bottle is empty la!!

Look at my pose. This is called getting into the role of the character. Ok, Im starting to talk rubbish.

All 4 of us in the dancing crowd. Whats with the "twist" sign man?!?! All 3 of them are doing it. Haha, I'm not going to conform.

After our rockin' night in Lions, we adjourned to Chilli Padi where they serve the best Roti Reuben (Closest thing you can get to a Murtabak) in Melbourne. Wahhhhhh....super good la!!!

HR under the heater (that black thing behind him is the most useful thing in winter) playing with his uber cool camera.

Hong Rui's Arrival.

Well, the title says it all.

14 July 2007

HR arrived on saturday evening after a screwed up 17 hours of flight. Power man, but the best thing was that I pulled him to club with me that very night itself! Haha, I was dying for some BLVD lovin' and the rest (meaning my melbourne phamalia) were either busy or sick or just didn't wanna come, so I was just pouting and whining the whole night through while walking and showing HR around the city. Hee..

Little did I know, the only guy that I didn't ask to club that night cause he stays in the suburbs, went to BLVD!! So I'm so thankful Jen msged me and asked me whether I was there, and off we went at freaking 1am!! Haha, the cover charge was 16 bucks, and BLVD closes at 3am, super not worth it, but nonetheless, I had fun at the end of it!


HR got to see why I loved the club so much. The music's AWESOME!! And to my dear Huilin, I kept my promise! No 151s that night. We were super good, didn't drink much at all. Actually, even at the dance floor, we were too sane, but with the music that good, it was fun! Wished you were there! A pity we took no pictures.

Oh! and one thing I must include. Haha, I think the friends HR made on his first day of orientation think he must be damn cool cause when they ask him what he did on his first day in melbourne. He told them, clubbing! Needless to say, they all had a shock. =D


16 July 2007

Last night, I went to watch Harry Potter with Jialin, Stacey and Hong Rui. We bought tickets at Nova Cinemas, which is the cheapest tickets we could find, and cause it was my first time watching at that cinema, we didn't know it was free-seating. So there we were 2 rows from the front, and for HR, 1 row. Haha, our eyes and neck were super pain after that! Especially for HR cause he's the tallest and he sat in the front row. Damn funny.

We went to eat at subway, Jialin went home, and Stacey, HR and me, went walking through the city pass Federation Square to the Yarra River, and then we saw the Ferris Wheel!! We didn't feel like going back home, or rather it was more of me la. I'm always so hyper, thats why they call me energizer bunny!


Tickets to the Ferris Wheel! Its not GIANT la, cause the people reading this will most probably be Singaporeans, and as usual Singapore has the BIGGEST ferris wheel in Asia, haha.

I like the shiny tint of the tickets!


HR posing with the tickets quite unsuccessfully.


Stacey stuck her hand out so far, we were scared she was going to lose it half-way by the passing carriages.


The wheel.


The 3 of us freezing our ass off at the top of the wheel. Super cold man. My lips and hands were numb.


The view from the top taken by my camera. A pity it can't take night landscape shots that well.


After that, it was just chilling at Lyncontro' til about 1am before we adjourn to the warmth of home sweet home.