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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Ryan's 21st and the return of anaemia

Time started: 18:53
Listening to: "Grab Thy Hand" - Chevelle
Weather: Cold
Mood: Disorient

I have been a little slack with updating this blog due to procrastination and a hectic time during university. I will use that excuse for now.

Anyway, we woke up early in the morning to prepare ourselves to go to the footy match at AAMI stadium. I regretted not getting any Crows merchandise to show our support for the team but I guess our plain selves just had to do.
The five of us squished into Jarrad's not so spacious Terrios and drove to the venue, a little unsure of the direction to go but we got there on time nonetheless.

There wasn't a huge turn out at the match but it being my first ever attendance of a sporting event, I enjoyed the surreal atmosphere of watching two national teams play the great AFL. The weather was beautiful that day too so we were very lucky.

I think Ryan enjoyed watching the footy despite the game being a white wash for the Adelaide Crows. I was having a lot of fun myself. There were a few epic moments in the game such as a Melbourne Demon's player being ninja-ed from behind and consequently gave away a goal to the Crows.

After the game we went straight home and it was time for Ryan to open his presents. I first presented my (well...our...but it's really mine! :D) present (which was heavy to carry from my room to his) and he was quite surprised with the size of the present. He opened it carefully, revealing the velvet case, still not knowing what it was. When he opened the case I think he was quite bewildered with the sight of the large, marble chess set. There was a long moment of silence with a stunned expression, followed by a "sweet" escaped his lips. I was glad to see that he loved his present. Later he opened Jordan's birthday present and I could see a lot of affection and love expressed on his face the moment he opened it and realised what it was. Jordan bought him the entire collection of Calvin & Hobbes, Ryan's favourite comic. I think Ryan felt very loved and spoiled that night.

Anyway, that was a brief overview of Ryan's birthday, now for serious matters. For the past week I have been dizzy, fainting, and extremely lethargic. On Monday morning I went to uni with Ryan, only finding myself stumbling and trying hard to stay conscious on my way to uni from the train station. Ryan helped me stumble my way to Lucinda's class so that I could notify to her that I was unwell. Then he took me to the university's doctor so that I could make an appointment to see him. Consequently he was late for class. I felt really bad but thankful that he was by my side when I was unwell. Well I made an appointment with the doctor for tomorrow morning and hopefully he will be able to help me. I have been missing out on uni all week and can't stop feeling really dizzy and sleepy. It's really stopping me from doing my work.

Well that is all. I don't have the energy to ramble on like I usually do...

Time finished: 17:30
Listening to: "Opaline" - Dishwalla
Mood: Disorient

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Birthdays, Crap Days and a Broken Umbrella

Time started: 09:51
Weather: Freezing, wet, and windy
Listening to: The trees being blown around and rained upon
Mood: Neutral

Due to a hectic two weeks at university I have been a little slack in updating my blog. Now that it's a Saturday morning and I just so happen to be awake before midday, I have decided now is the right time to update.

Adrian's 21st birthday party was on the Saturday, 3rd of May. It consisted of me going on public transport for 2 hours to get to his place since I was staying over. He lived well at the other side of Adelaide. We went to a nice salad bar restaurant with a few of his high school friends. His set of friends are interesting but I took a liking to Carmen who was very sweet, mature, and a joy to talk to. I must admit a lot of his other friends were the kind of people I would avoid hanging out with (sex and drunken addicts). I had a chicken parmigiana and it was quite a big serving. Then we indulged ourselves with chocolate and rum cake from the cheesecake shop and it was great! Nobody got Adrian presents except for Carmen and I. Carmen got him a brilliant digital photo frame keyring which he absolutely adores and I got him another keyring that has his name engraved on it.
After dinner, Adrian insisted on me playing on the restaurant's grand piano. I first played Rachmaninoff's infamous Prelude in C sharp minor and that was a huge flop due to nerves. Everyone in the restaurant was watching me and I WAS INTIMIDATED! Then I just played Debussy's Clair de Lune which was much more relaxed.
Adrian's interesting friends then forced us to go to the sex shop across the road. I wasn't all too enthusiastic about that and neither was Adrian. Oh well...it can't really hurt. I just sat on a chair, not looking at stuff around the shop waiting for everyone to finish. Anyway, we all just went home after this because everyone was tired and no-one wanted to go clubbing (thank goodness for me!).
Adrian and I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix until 3am then went to bed.
The next morning I was awoken by a pleasant sound of Adrian's budgerigar, Pisha chirping. We awoke to have muesli for breakfast and I was amused to watch Pisha hop along on the table and eat off Adrian's bowl.
After the lovely breakfast, Adrian walked me to the bus stop that would take me home. Overall, I had a good time at Adrian's party and I'm glad he had a good time too :).

On Tuesday, 6th May, Colin left the house and I must say the mood dramatically changed after he left. No-one was out of their rooms to have fun and make noise. It was all rather grim and it made me thought how much of a difference one person can make to set the mood in the house. We all miss you, Colin!

On Thursday, 8th May, Ryan's mother arrived in the afternoon to visit for the weekend. It was a pleasure to meet her and she made us really nice roast dinners and a delicious butter vanilla spongecake especially for Ryan as an early birthday cake. She also cleaned around the house quite thoroughly as well which made me feel quite guilty. Glenda was lovely to talk to as well and it made me wonder why Ryan was so nasty with a lovely mother like her =P. Haha, I'm just kidding. Ryan can be lovely too...sometimes...

On Friday evening, the next day, Jasper and I set off to various shops in Marion and in town to quest for Ryan's 21st birthday present. It took us 7 hours to find it and I am very pleased that I got it for him. I will not reveal this remarkable present of his until he opens it so all will be revealed later!

On Sunday, Glenda had to fly back to Brisbane and I was quite sad to say goodbye to her, even though she only stayed for a very short time.

Monday 12th May, HAPPY SWEET 16TH, ELLEN!!!

Tuesday, 13th. It was my 20th birthday. It was all very fortunate for me that Tuesday was my day off uni for the week and it just so happened to be that my birthday this year is on Tuesday. Overall I had a bit of a lousy day but it wasn't all too bad. I woke up and made myself pancakes for breakfast and throughout the day I was sent many text messages and received a few calls from a lot of my friends to wish me a happy birthday. I felt quite loved :). I stayed in my room practically all day doing my essay (somewhat mentally tiring) and a bit of vacuuming around the house. In the late afternoon, Jarrad and Ellen came home from staying over at their aunt's house and I was very happy to see Ellen. It's been over a year since I saw her. She came home with bags and bags full of anime. I gave her my birthday present to her. It was Love Hina and to my disappointment, she went and bought it the day before. *Sigh* I am going to have to give her another present.
In the evening, everyone in the house went to Salisbury Hoyts cinemas to watch Iron Man. This was probably the highlight of the day. The movie was brilliant! It was cool, funny, and yeah...I'd highly recommend this movie :).
By the time the movie finished I wanted to go out to dinner with everyone but Jarrad and Jasper disregarded this idea and we all just went home. I was quite disappointed considering I didn't have lunch or dinner and I was terribly hungry, not to mention it was my birthday and I just wanted us to go out for dinner together. When we got home I did the dishes too and made myself some instant noodles for dinner. *Sigh*...Ahh well...you win some, you lose some. So I had a bad day on my birthday, it's not a big deal...my birthday is just another day, the same as any other day.

Wednesday, 14th May, HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY, KYLIE!!!

Friday, 16th May, I had a pretty lousy day today as well. I went to the city in the morning to meet up wit Adam and we had brunch at Maccas (we both had Caesar salads which tasted soooo gooooooood!). It was nice to catch up with Adam again :). Then we made our way to the blood bank which was the whole purpose of us meeting. This is my second attempt to donate since Rebecca's visit (and what would've been my 6th donation). Unfortunately I was rejected from the blood services again. My haemoglobin dropped significantly in the last 3 months and my heart rate experienced severe palpitation which caused a great concern to the nurses at the blood bank. They warned me that the worst case scenario could be a terminal illness, have a heart attack, or a stroke and that I should go see a doctor. They wrote me a letter for the doctor to give me some free medical check ups and I am really hoping it isn't anything serious. I was hugely upset with not being able to donate and also having a possibility of having a serious health risk hanging over my head. The weather was extremely windy, rainy, and gloomy and I must say it suited my mood quite well. After the disappointing visit to the blood bank I made my way to uni where I met up with Pey Shin. We were supposed to be studying together for our major music essays but instead I tried to make an appointment with the university's doctor. Unfortunately I couldn't get a hold of him and left him a message. He hasn't called me back to make an appointment yet. On my way out my umbrella broke completely from the strong winds. WAH! NO UMBRELLA IN THIS HORRIBLE WINDY, RAINY WEATHER!
Pey Shin and I then had lunch together (McDonald's again, haha...this time it was a fish-o-fillet meal). We probably had a nice conversation with each other for a solid hour and a half. It was great getting to know her a bit more and I can feel a blossoming friendship happening. I hope so anyway, I like Pey Shin :). She's awesome! We talked to each other about our high school days, what we want to learn in life and yeah, just our general outlooks in life. I've learned that Pey Shin is a very strong person having been through a lot of different experiences in life and never lets anything get her down. I admired her and have a lot to learn from her. I also learned that she is genuinely caring and holds friendships close to her heart. It was lovely discovering this about her. I hope that I've left a good impression on her these last couple of weeks too. I think she thinks I'm a miserable nerd who takes things way too seriously...haha xD.
Anyway, we soon decided it was time to go home and when we left the eatery, the weather was even MORE miserable. Pey Shin offered me her umbrella but I decided not to take it.
When I walked a very long walk home from the train station, I was drenched to the bone by the rain. My hands became stiff from the wet and cold, and while I was walking, I just kept thinking about what was wrong with me health wise. Why did my umbrella have to break today?

When I arrived home, I found that Ryan's father arrived. He was down to visit for Ryan's 21st. Ryan then showed me that we both received a parcel so we went together to pick it up. To my delight, mine was a parcel from Erin. It was my late birthday present and card. She got me two gorgeous wooden cats with detachable heads on a stick (wow, that sounds somewhat morbid...). It looks really cute and I put it on top of my piano. It was rather sweet of her to get me a cute gift. Her card showed me a lot of "luff" too. <3 I also received a birthday card from Jordan that contained a bunny rabbit at the front offering a hug. It was such a cute card. Jordan is so thoughtful <3. Erin and Jordan made my day! Anyway, today is Erin's 20th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIN! Also, we're having a little BBQ dinner for Ryan tonight and maybe some of his friends would come over to visit too. Tomorrow is Ryan's big 21st birthday and I can't wait to see his present. I'm also excited about going to the footy match of Crows vs Demons. I will update on this soon :D.

Time finished: 11:02
Weather: Suddenly sunny and calm...
Listening to: Ryan's dad mowing the lawn
Mood: Content

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Catchin' up!

Time started: 02:35
Listening to: "Leif Erikson" - Interpol
Weather: Cold
Mood: A little overwhelmed

Today (or rather, yesterday) has all been about catching up. In the morning I was awoken by the sound of the beeping and the vibrations of my mobile phone, screaming to me that I have been sent a text message. It was a pleasant surprise to see that the message was from Lee-Ann, a girl I did Human Physiology with last year. She was one of the very first people I've been acquainted with since I came to Adelaide and has made me feel very welcome here. Her text message was to arrange for us to meet up and have lunch. I agreed and it was on like Donkey Kong, excited to see a familiar face I haven't seen for a while.

On my way to uni, I took many snapshots of my surroundings as I walked through the Road of Honour, one of the scenic routes to uni from the train station. The new camera in my hands, allowing me to take pictures of phenomenal picture quality gave me a buzz. I haven't taken photos of my surroundings just for the sake of taking photos for so long, and my deviantArt gallery has been somewhat neglected for several months because of this. Taking photos has made me feel alive again.

I arrived at the meeting place at the time arranged. I sat by the tables and chairs outside the Unibooks store and just sat there, feeling content, and watching the students walk by as I fiddled with my camera, looking at the world through the lenses. Despite being a little wet, it was a beautiful day. Being autumn, the leaves were bursting in colour, the air was cold and crisp and birds were flocking together all around. I sat there and snapped away at the uni grounds, waiting for Lee-Ann. She arrived at the sight of my face being hidden behind my camera. For a moment she completely missed me. I guess she has never seen this side of me before, seeing as I was only a Biomedical Science student for six weeks to her last year. We decided to dine at "The Café" at the Medical School. Lee-Ann knew nothing about this cafe, and thanks to Adrian who showed me this café a couple of weeks ago, I was able to give her the luxury of discovering this wonderful little café. We both had chicken burger with chips which was nice and fresh, and as we sat there and ate we reminisced about the short six weeks I had of studying Biomedical Science at this uni and talked about ourselves and discovered more about each other. I have discovered that Lee-Ann is genuinely compassionate, friendly and caring. It was a nice feeling knowing someone like her. I remembered when I went through the crisis of dropping out of the course last year and going through depression once more, although Lee-Ann hardly knew me, she still gave me her support. She rang me up to see if I was okay and offered her help. To me, that is a truly amazing quality in a person, being able to open up and lend your hands to a new person so willingly. It was unfortunate that we lost contact for several months after I left and went home to Darwin again. I had a tough time making friends in Adelaide and Lee-Ann certainly offered her friendship. I am glad that I was able to form contacts with her again and have had lunch with her today.

The short hour soon flew by and it was time for her to go back to class. As we said our goodbyes I felt like I've accomplished something good for myself. I gained a bit more confidence in opening up to people that I have found so incredibly difficult to do in the past year.

After the meeting with Lee-Ann, I walked myself to the River Torrens, just off the grounds of the University of Adelaide. To my disappointment, the sky was still incredibly grey and cloudy but there were some openings of blue skies here and there. I snapped away at my surroundings. I took dozens of photos of the river, the trees, the birds, and buildings. I had so much fun spying on the birds from afar with my camera's impressive zoom. At that point I remembered why I love photography so much. I felt the freedom of pushing the button and capturing moments of nature's beauty. The camera is truly a wonderful thing. Although I am nowhere near a prodigy at developing photos of impressive art, I am slowly learning and discovering ways of putting in the spice of life in my photos. Slowly...
Hopefully one day I can snap photos so beautiful, many people around the world will love and enjoy them. So in this aspect of taking photos, I was catching up on my artistic hobby and my standards of which.

I must've snapped away at that one spot for over an hour, so I started heading back to the busier part of the city. I decided that I needed a decent camera bag to put my camera in. Having it hang around my neck all the time just wouldn't do. I got to look after this beautiful camera and make sure it lasts for life. I went to a camera store at Rundle Mall and found a bag big enough to fit my camera, my spare battery and memory card, the USB cord, AND my two mobile phones in. It was a good bag. It had an adjustable strap that I could put around my body and have the bag hanging at my hips for my convenience to carry around. It was great. It's silly to think that I could get good vibes from a camera bag, but I did. It gave me such good vibes, I walked out of the store smiling with my beloved new camera tucked snuggly in my new camera bag.

I soon decided I spent enough time out of the house so I took the train home. As soon as I got home, I just crashed and did some catching up on sleep. Over the holidays I have not slept well at all due to sickness so I have a big sleep debt to pay.

When I woke up from my pleasant afternoon slumber, I did a bit of catching up practise on the piano. I had difficulty accommodating time to practise over the holidays so I had to get cracking with my Bach's Prelude & Fugue no. 15. Unfortunately, I didn't learn many new bars and I still have a lot to catch up with. I am not looking forward to Lucinda's upcoming disappointment in my next lesson. I want so much to impress her but I have yet to do so.

In less than 12 hours I have to take my leave to Adrian's 21st birthday. I am stressed out to the max on what clothes to wear because according to him, the place we are dining for dinner has a very strict dress code. Being a poor, unfashionable university girl, I have no nice clothes to wear. One must leave home early and go shopping before attending the event. Gosh, I hate clothes shopping. I never know what to look for, neither do I do nice clothes any justice when I wear them. I don't think I make any piece of clothing look good with my odd and plump features. Oh well. It probably won't help with me staying up and giving myself big black, sleepy bags around my eyes when I wake up in the morning, either so I guess I'll go to bed now.

Time finished: 03:22
Listening to: "Ole Black 'n' Blue Eyes" - The Fratellis
Mood: Exhausted

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Getting the results!

Time started: 02:12
Listening to: "Everything To Gain" - Fischerspooner
Weather: Cold and raining
Mood: Supportive

Today (well...yesterday, according to the clock) I had a good day at uni. In choir I talked to my classmate Josephine, a girl I was getting acquainted with at the end of last term. I also got to talk to another classmate I've never spoken to before, Joanna. They're both quite funny. A girl named Lucy also expressed concern during Aural class today because I didn't show up to Monday class because I was sick. It was a pleasant surprise, I thought it was very sweet of her. There are a lot of nice girls in my classes, actually. I just got to have the courage to talk to them. This guy in my history class also took notice of a dragon drawing I drew and stuck on at the front of my folder. I don't know his name but he seemed really enthusiastic about my drawing O_o;;. I was surprised that I wasn't startled or scared when he complimented me. I don't take compliments very well, especially from strangers...MALE strangers. No, I have not developed a crush because I'm new and a guy is nice to me xD. The guys in music are kinda weird, anyway. Weird, if not idiots...haha. Well, fun idiots anyway.

I think I'm slowly progressing in making friends at uni. I have yet to make any despite being here for a while already. I think it's because the uni is so big and there are just so many students and I can't help but feel intimidated by the greatly intense amount of people. I've never really had any problems with making friends before or elsewhere. In fact I've always found it quite easy, but here in Adelaide, it is very difficult for me. I noticed today that I was more familiar with my surroundings at uni and I was a little more confident in having a conversation with other people. I've made a few acquaintances, Josephine, Lucy, Joanna, Sarah, Anna, Taneka, Caitlyn, Paul, Warrick and Annabel. This makes me feel good :). I was beginning to think that I was just anti-social and snobby.

Anyway...in aural I got my test from last term back. I got 99.5%! Top of the class by 5.5%. Muahahaha! xD I'm such a show off...I'm really happy because I haven't had marks like this since 9th grade. I lost half a percent because I wrote vii6 instead of vii
°6 at the Figured Bass section. Yeah...all because of a missing circle. The circle indicates a diminished chord. I didn't realise it was a diminished :(. I guess it's not as bad as me accidentally leaving it out and knowing I should have gotten 100% for the test, but in a sense that is bad too because it means that I actually didn't KNOW the answer. Hahaha. Mih, now I sound like a nerd. I should be OVER THE MOON about 99.5% which I am so yeah. Haha. I'm tired...shush.

Well right now I'm still up because I am offering my support to Jarrad and Ryan who are desperately trying to finish their essay by today which is due at 4pm. Tsk tsk...always leaving homework til the last minute (like I'm one to talk, haha). I guess I should sleep because I have class reasonably early today. It's not like I can help them much anyway. I know nothing about marketing.

My sleep patterns are so messed up...

Time finished: 02:34
Listening to: "Ballad of a Paralyzed Citizen (Medicine Remix)" - The Faint
Mood: Tired