Betting In The Dark

so, on monday night i received an email from TAB saying that i hadn't used my online betting account in 6mths, and that if i dont bet at least 50c by the end of sept, they'll charge me $5.50/mth account keeping fee.

so i naturally did what guys like me do and i placed a bet at 1.65 for barca to beat celta vigo. i had no clue which players were playing, the clubs' match history, or their form. but i bet $10 anyway. (despite this being a joint account with quoc and chops hehe)

needless to say, yesterday the account was $6.50 higher than the previous 6 mths.

sweet.

Salsa!

oh yeah, forgot to update you guys on salsa.

i went to a dancing class last tuesday night with vanessa and victor.

mmm not much to report, 'cept that HUGE german lumberjack women with pigtails sure can dance. and make me feel supremely uncomfortable.

hmm...

D-Bomb

Hmm...was sifting through my "documents" folder, you know the one that you file everything in, like school report cards, medical info, tax returns, swimming competition certificates from 1992.

Anyway, I was actually looking for a pink slip, one that I received late 2004 notifying me that I was prohibited from driving. It's basically to pass on some info to RACV so I'm a nominated driver on Anna's car since I have it this week while she's up in Brisbane.

After searching long and hard in that folder, I didn't find anything relating to my driving history, but instead stumbled upon a letter from Box Hill Hospital. The letter begins with, "Thank you for reviewing this patient who presented to the Emergency Department on 22/7/01 at 0015 hours."

And further down under the heading "Presenting problem(s)" it is written:

1/2 HOUR OF LOWER ABDO PAIN RELIEVED BY 1 X DIARRHOEA. AT TIME OF EXAMINATION HAD BEEN PAIN FREE FOR 2 HOURS.

Yeah, I remember that night. It was all sorted out with a serving of "1 x diarrhoea".

Karaoke Birthdays

On the way home from watching "Hoodwinked" at Vic Gardens and looking at the clock in the car tonight, I came to a realisation that the frenetic pace of my lifestyle isn't so much due to external forces requiring me to be here, there and everywhere, but rather because I don't feel like I've maximised utility (ooo yeah haven't used that one in a while - that's for all you economics geeks out there) unless I wake up early in the morning and stay out till at least 11pm.

So tonight after having a nice cheap dinner at Xiao Ting in Richmond opposite Co Do's (we didn't feel it was right to go there without Juzzy) I felt slightly unfulfilled when I arrived home just before 10pm. I think I'm so accustomed to being out so late every single night doing one thing or another that whenever I come home early it feels like one of those times where you wanna go out but no one else can make it.

Having a lot more reflective time on public transport given my current "car-less" status, I also realise that I haven't had one of those massive, massive, late, late night karaoke bashes in a long time.

The culmination of my argument is as such: let's do a massive karaoke session like the days of old (or maybe not so old) and I'm gonna try and not be soft this time and stay till the end! You MHS guys know what type of k-session I'm talking about! Yeah you know - like last year when we kept on getting shots from those bar girls Baloo and Fifi or whatever the hell their names were, and also last year when everyone went nuts during a rendition of "Y.M.C.A." for Chops and Ben's birthday! Speaking of which, their birthday is in 3 weeks! So I reckon we should try organise one for 4 weeks time, say Friday 15th or Saturday 16th September? Chops, Ben, what do you reckon?

Ooo I'm getting excited already!

Name-Dropping

ok yea well....i was browsing around looking at blogs of other ppl and stuff, and came to a realisation. that if i only usually stopped to read the blog if i knew the person well enough, which led to the conclusion that i'm self-centred (whoa huge surprise there) because if i knew the person well enough, they might make a mention of me on their blog.

so this post is for those people out there who might usually just skim my posts, i'm gonna try to name-drop a lot of ppl out there that i know from somewhere or another.

so let's see...where will i start? well right now im listening to this CD that anna let me borrow coz i was interested to hear a debut album. it's by a girl called Ai Hui who's a friend of a few people i know. she had a CD launch about a month ago i think and i was meant to go but i had something else on that night so i didnt make it. anyway, it's kinda soothing music which im in the mood for. she's got a really sweet voice too. but yeah, back to name-dropping....oh yeah ok so i heard that pete and julz went to her CD launch as well, then went to line up for ages at krispy kreme. man, props to you guys coz that's full dedication for some soft, soft donuts.

havent seen you guys in ages! but it'll be really cool seeing you guys tomorrow, plus the usual MHS suspects Vo, nathan, frankie, steve ta. and i also managed to rope in norman! who's only in melb for a little bit to graduate before he heads back to bei jing to finish off his year-long chinese course. and i cant forget ppl like winnie and lea who i havent seen in like...yeah i cant even remember. and i hear duncan might even make an appearance? are you for serious??

in other news, victor and i went to have a drink at fed square with norms yesterday and it was such a warm sunday for winter! afterwards was shopping and wanted to buy t-shirts and realised i'd have to part with at least $50 to realise the dream, then remembered that tam and dave did the whole self-made tees not long back and rang tam to find out how to go about doing this! so thanks to tam, i'll probably save heaps on t-shirts i'll love even more than ones that will be like three times the price!

so yea as you might have read, i also graduated on saturday. which was cool coz that means i dont have to worry about failing or doing assignments or getting into admin trouble at uni no more. sweet. good to see nam and ben who i haven't seen in a while either. and while i didnt actually see quoc, i heard him when he cheered for me while i went up to get my certificates hahah.

speaking of cheering ppl on, i anticipate to get back into DBB soccer soon. luckily for me, SCUC soccer has changed from being in the same div as henry, heng, sanji, derek, simon and co, to doncaster on tuesday nights with juz, liang, daz, peter and vic!

so i planned to keep it quite quiet this week, since i havent been home before 11pm for 9 days straight! stuff has always seemed to come up. and ive managed to reply to some emails, namely steve who's in japan, and alice who's currently in hk or vietnam or something. which reminds me about my impending trip to asia over the aussie summer. at the moment i've got no one travelling with me, which i think will be ok in the end. maybe it's meant to be that i go alone and just spend a long time by myself for once in my life and face one of my fears, to be by myself. it'll be much harder as well being in non-english speaking countries in japan and korea but oh well. although in japan i'll have my aunty who lives in tokyo or nagoya i think, and steve who i can get accommodation from. also, adam's gonna be over there studying in sapporo so i'll probably visit him too. and his jap is real good so i feel comfortable hanging out with him and him doing all the speaking for me!

"oh greg you're so hot - anonymous" not so anonymous anymore hey christina? gimme the number of your drum teacher! and gimme more recommendations of your fav movies!

so moving on, i think i'm going to have a late, late, all out night soon coz i havent had one of those in a while. which probably means clubbing. who are the main instigators? well, the perennial clubbers like garry, chris, lena and cat hahah and dont deny it you guys, you know you're hardcore! but yea looking forward to one of them soon.

although it's not always easy to do it tough on friday nights since i'll have a full day (after a full week) of work, followed closely by YG, then clubbing. usually after YG i'll have supper at box hill or pannies where heaps of us went last time incl. fonga, leanne, james, jeri, moni, ken, mikey, becky, matty, mel, mel etc.

and last but not least, i look forward to having one of those mad mah-jong/dinner/singstar/akira kurosawa dubbing sessions we used to have, with the likes of vanessa, drew, manz and katie in the fold. although this time we'll be without the K Show because of course, she's in the UK!

anyway i think this has been quite a massive post, hopefully i havent missed anyone that reads this on a regular basis, but yea, a bit pressed for time, i gotta go to bed now coz i have work tomorrow....argh it never ends! ok bye

The Graduate

So at long last I officially closed another chapter in my life on Saturday when I graduated.

Took a lot of photos, did the whole conferring of degrees thing and walked up the stage and back down without falling on my face. Also got some cheers from the family, Quocca up the back and Vic yelling out "Greggie!" much to the amusement of the crowd.

Congratulations to Benny and Nam for graduating as well!

But after doing it tough (yeah right!) for five and a half years, I received two pieces of paper and can finally put these letters after my name like so:

Gregory Wong BCom BIS (Melb)

Wow, I'm glad I put things into perspective hehe

spontaneous inspiration

thailand - phrao - when it rained during the concert - beauty of your peace tim hughes

thailand - surin - looking down long road outside banchok school


on the way to lakes entrance - the country, smoke billowing from power plants - great indoors john mayer

sorrento dec 2000 - hot summer, shades under the trees on the way to the back-beach

santa monica beach - setting sun, perfect evening

Christmas at myer music bowl

apollo bay jan 04 - messages buried at the top of the mountain

park behind key arena seattle - winter, 2nd Dec 2005