boo

yay finally made it out to see the MHS boys tonight, with a dinner at Wagamama's at QV.

was a good turn out, myself, steve, pete, jason, sanji and nate. food wasn't that great, overpriced for the amount you got.

after that we sat on the lawn outside state library having ice cream from trampoline. it was such perfect weather tonight just to chill out talking about our impending travels to japan and old school times like how we'd graffiti things about a certain teacher over desks in high school hahaha

basically pete, jase and i were killing time before our movie The Departed at 9:10pm Hoyts Melb Central. later julz dropped by for a bit and then everyone left except the three of us watching the movie.

so we bought out tickets and made it to our seats. the movie started and then this lady came and told us we were in the wrong seats and that we were sitting in 3 of her 4 seats. both jase and pete checked before coming in and they swear it was row M and not row N.

anyway in the end the lady got an usher to kick us out, and so she did.
"ok guys, you can have seats in the front row, there are seats over there..."
"what the hell? they're crap seats, what happened to row M like it says on our tickets??"
"im sorry, but the lady was furious so i had to kick you out of those seats..."
"yeah well we're pretty furious now too"
"look guys i cant move the whole cinema for you"
and that kinda continued for a while, but in the end we opted to get a refund since we had spent 10mins pissing away the movie with the usher basically telling us she kicked us out of our seats but she wouldn't do that again coz she didn't wanna "move the whole cinema" which in reality probably means like 3 more people. idiot.

so, after getting our refund jason being well peeved goes, "f**k that we're getting beer!"

and so we did.

f**k yeah.

January 2006

I woke up on the first day this year off the back of a solid 10 hours sleep, in my nice king-sized bed with the sun streaming through my window in rays created by the elm tree outside my room.

AS IF! Firstly, I didn't sleep a wink on New Year's Eve! Haha secondly, any thoughts to be in my bed at home was quickly swept away as I was in fact 16,690kms away!

Yes, I was in New York, New York, NYC, The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps...neither did I.

New Year's Eve was spent at Charlie's apartment playing some drinking game with Charlie himself, his brother Gyver, Norman, Diana, Anna and myself. Needless to say, Anna and I somehow made our way back to the "Roach Motel" (where I actually got an offer to appear on American national television to share my experience there - because of my stinging review of it on TripAdvisor.com) and collected our luggage which was already packed and caught a premium luxury cab to JFK airport.

From there we flew to Toronto where my cousin put us up in the beautiful neighbourhood of Mississauga. We spent five days there visiting the main attractions like the world's tallest building The CN Tower, Niagara Falls and Casa Loma.

We went back to New York after that and were there for another two days where we tried to squeeze in as many last minute buys as we could before catching three connecting flights over 25 hours through LA, Sydney then back to Melbourne on Monday, January 9th.

Being back "home" after the longest trip I had been on ever was interesting. It was weird not having to rummage through a luggage bag for clean clothes, or think about where to eat next and whether I had a map of my destination. I think the biggest difference was waking up in the morning and not having to think "Okay! Where to today?"

Within a week I was off again on a day trip up to Belgrave for Soul Survivor which was really good. Seeing heaps of familiar faces again was nice, but what topped it off was the talk by the speaker that night about what makes a great leader - mistakes and the ability to learn from them. That was exactly what I needed to put me in the right frame of mind for the year.

Another highlight (or lowlight) of January was farewelling and wishing Carol a safe and smooth transition to Sydney and a happy birthday at Belgian Beer Cafe on St Kilda Rd. I remember that day well, it was really hot and Garry drove us in his Mini. We got there late as usual, but it was the first time in about 3 months since I had seen the Uni bunch! It was deja vu since my 22nd birthday the previous year (which is around the same time as Carol's!) was at the same place with a similar crowd. This time though, instead of going to Lygon St to get gelati for dessert and set garden sprinklers off, a few of us including the birthday girl went to St Kilda beach afterwards to have some ice cream which I enjoyed. I think that night felt like the proper beginning to the year, when friends who'd been around for years prepared to move on.

It's like this was a month for birthdays because a week later it was Vanessa's birthday at Airstream in Glenny on a 38 degree day! That was also a good night to catch up with everyone I hadn't seen yet, and after a hearty meal, everyone came back to my place to play poker and mah-jong. I think that night helped to push along the house gatherings which eventually led to the legendary Pictionary nights which were so prevalent in the beginning of the year.

January also provided me the opportunity to see one of my all time favourite celebrities, Charlize Theron, in the flesh. She was in town to promote her movie North Country at Rivoli Cinemas in Camberwell. Being just a stone's throw away, I was willing to forego two hours of the church's Chinese New Year's dinner at King Whale in Springvale, to wait for Charlize to show up and get pictures of her! I didn't manage to get her autograph, but I did get Pete Helliar's which was still okay haha.

So the first month of this year was filled with plenty of activities and a few especially hot summer days! I remember one Sunday being a 43 degree day and a group of us ended up heading to Camberwell and I had a guava juice with my lunch to cool myself down. Ahh January, always a happy time for me, a time when everyone's deep into holiday mode, the tennis comes to Melbourne, beautiful summer days and waiting for the rest of the year in earnest.

2006: The Year in Review

Holy moly! I've just realised I've done so much this year and there's still two months till it ends!

I've been in six different countries (USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia) and I'm set to visit another four (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China) before the year is out! Wow!

Not only that, but I also graduated from Uni! After five and a half long years it's over. And so begins another chapter in my life.

I would however, regard this year as a transition year. One in which I dabbled in some soul searching, where I spent a lot of time by myself and learnt so much more - not necessarily in an academic sense, but more in a worldly way. Admittedly I did have a lot of spare time this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did many things I had wanted to do for a long while but always said to myself, "Okay later when you have the time," and time I did have. I travelled, watched films you always tend to put off and say "I'll hire it next time," and read more books that gave me greater knowledge with a pinch of wisdom.

As such, I've decided to do a series which outlines what I experienced, what happened and what I learned each month of the year. Hopefully I'll be able to give you the lowdown for the month of December while I'm overseas but in reality it'll probably be short and vague. Speaking of which, I learnt this year that vague in French means wave...

Hope you guys enjoy this year as much as I do.

The Guitar

I got a new guitar!

More grammatically correct, I received a guitar, as a gift from people who came on the Mt. Hotham trip! Thank you so much guys!

I'll be sure to compose some sweet, sweet melodies on it! Haha, now I'm makin' melodies!

Optimist

Hmm so once again I'm sitting in front of my computer with half the day gone and yet another half to go without anything really planned.

It's weird but despite the freedom of not working or studying full time, it isn't the totally awesome lifestyle people would have you believe. I guess one of the cons is that hardly anyone is free to hang out with you because everyone's either studying or working. Damn!

But I make do with what I have. Don't get me wrong, because I'm so not having a gripe. So I manage to do the things I like doing like watching movies and taking KJ for walks.

I was thinking recently I might ring up Hugo Personnel and ask them if they have any work as well. Since I'm only working about 20 hours a week I can fit more in and perhaps have more cash inflow to fund my Asia trip at the end of the year.

I've been pleased getting stuff out of the way as well, that I would NEVER get done if I was working or studying full time. All these little loose ends that have been only tied up recently has eased a lot on my mind. Although my mum would vehemently object to that and immediately point out the current state of my room.

Hmm but then again a lot of people are also telling me to chill out now, whilst I can because they all warn me of the painful life I have ahead of me when I begin full time work in March next year. I guess I have a fair idea of what's in store for me but oh well, everyone has to work full time to earn a decent living right?

I've also been thinking about what society perceives as "acceptable" and what isn't. A fair majority of people would agree that if you don't have a legitimate disability and not working full time before you're 30 then that's considered NQR. Just typing that sentence reminded me of this radio segment I heard last week on the way to work - this woman who'd never had a job in her life (I think she was over 25 and on the dole) and in her own words "couldn't be bothered" looking for a job, won $500 for being caller of the week because it was so ridiculous. I was a little annoyed that people like that are glorified. Yes it might sound ludicrous and it's funny and all, but in reality, rewarding someone a $500 cash prize for that is even dumber.

Then you have those lucky heirs who don't have to work if they don't want to. But I'm totally at peace with not being super rich because I believe it's a curse in a sense. I've seen so many documentaries on those people (yes, those people) and the ones that aren't grounded (which means almost all of them) have a really warped sense of reality. I was reading somewhere recently that most of the developed world had psychological issues one way or another and it was almost unheard of in Third World countries. It makes perfect sense though, because the more money you have, the more you worry about losing it or where more is going to come from. Or whether your friends are you friends because of you and not because of their loyalty to your money. And those kids who come up from poor beginnings are those that are the happiest, or really hard working because they know the true value of money.

I don't want to end on a depressing note, but I guess that's the way it is. You can either accept it, or get depressed and see a therapist - who will gladly help you out and take loads of your money. You can either live in a developed country and have psychological problems, or live in an undeveloped country and have health problems.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Sat'dee Night

Whoaaa it's been two weeks since I last posted! Time sure does fly!

I can't remember what's been happening but I have more happy snaps. Oh wait I do remember I went on a Cell Leader Retreat last weekend, and then the weekend just passed I experienced the new Jamie Oliver restaurant, Fifteen Melbourne and attended Monica's 21st bash.

So um, here are photos from Saturday night. Man I gotta start experiencing some intense D&M/life inspiring moments or something coz my blog just screams out camera whore and nothing more. Hey that rhymes...

1. Julz and Pete enjoying themselves
2. The girls
3. Julz thinking, "What happened to the glass is half full?"
4. Crumbed olives
5. Rabbit
6. Rotolo
7. Lamb
8. Salmon
9. Tiramisu
10. The eight of us
11. Front view of the kitchen at Fifteen Melbourne
12. Our little "Thank You" for the staff, made with cheese
13. Us at the front
14. Girls at Monica's 21st
15. Myself and the birthday girl