Simplicity at its finest is NOT what i would depict how my life was, nor would i suggest the continuation of my naivety however, as my life escalates into complexity, i hope to keep my optimistic hindsight on life in order to live. Just live. My personal ordeal is to live with no regrets, as though i will die tomorrow. I follow the path that will lead me to who I want to be: someone who people can confide in, to go to when they are in their deepest hour; that's who I want to be. That is my aim in life. Hobbies and interests make my path more flamboyant and enticing, while my family, pet, and friends are the reasons for my existence; the reasons why i try and improve myself. My lack of self motivation for change may be quite obvious, but it doesn't mean that improvement did not occur. It may be so petite, so small, that it's practically invisible, but i guarantee you, i do try. Indefinitely.



Blog By EGO BOX

Monday 29 November 2010

a sense of vertigo

On Sunday, Derek made an outing to Villawood's indoor rock climbing gym. I'm actually kind of afraid of heights (batophobia), or the fear of falling (bathophobia) anyways. However, since it's the first time I've ever been to rock climb and since it's such a fun sport, I can't restrict myself from such enjoyment just because of my fear of heights. Hence, I continuously challenged myself to reaching the top of a number of different rock climbing activities. Although I had a sense of vertigo once I reached the top, when I finally got back down again, I felt quite satisfied and accomplished =). I know it's a small achievement for most people, but it meant quite a bit to me =). I wish I bought icecream just to reward myself =P oh wells. There was one that i wished I could've been able to accomplish further, which was the rope one. Of course, knowing that I lack upper body strength, I wouldn't have been able to reach the top anyways, but I wish I could've went further. I guess it wasn't so bad since the first time I tried it, I couldn't even go past the 3rd knot, but in my second try, after analysing how other people did it, I managed to get up to the 5th knot or something =). It wasn't half way, but at least I went past my previous record, so it's all okay. 

Once again, the strength of males fascinated me. With my own eyes, I saw Derek lift himself up 10 steps with only his fingers; I saw Nicholas climb a wall that I couldn't even jump onto; I saw Kenny challenge himself and climbed on the rock wall using only specific coloured rocks; and Edim's flexible will always fascinate and annoy me. Yes, I am envious of Edim for being so flexible because I want to be flexible myself. He have me a few pointers but it really depends if I'm motivated enough to use those pointers to help make myself more flexible. Speaking of males, Kelly and I saw Jason S. and Peter D. #2, along with people a grade above us, there as well. Apparently, it was also their first time too, like me =). We talked a bit before going our separate ways. They just came while we were leaving for lunch ^_^ oh wells.


That's Mimi (white), Nicholas(light blue) and I (dark blue) climbing =).


Many thanks to Kenny and Derek because we used their cars to get back to Cabramatta for lunch. For lunch, we ate at the Noodle House. It was a bit more expensive than your average Cabramatta restaurant, but I think it's worth it because the food taste better than the average Cabramatta restaurant. Seeing that Kelly was leaving to America in a couple of days, we decided to shout her the meal. *Sigh* another person leaving =(. So far, it's mostly been girls who're on vacation =S. I honestly wonder why. Anyways, I hope she has a great time and that she takes care of herself and her sister =). Hopefully, I'll get to see her again just because she leaves this Thursday. Well, we had nothing else to do after lunch/dinner so we all just went home =). I should stop typing now because my arms are killing me from yesterday T_T, so that's it for now =). Hopefully, I'll  be more consistent and on time with my blog posts next time =P.

PS. Many thanks to Andrew, Mimi's brother, for driving us to Villawood =).
PSS.Thanks to Hanh for the photos =).

thai-sation

Recently, I've been eating out a lot, either with family or with friends, and it's mostly been Thai food for a change. Last Saturday, Mum and I went to Mounties to celebrate an early Christmas dinner. Apparently, mum got a discount on dinner tickets fur playing table tennis at Mounties.Mum thought it was a buffet that's why she bought them, but it was actually a dinner where families and friends in table tennis sit together and eat =S. Since it was only my mum and I, I thought we will be sitting by ourselves. Luckily, mum's friends joined us because it would've been embarrassing if it was only us two sitting at a table for ~10 people =S. Though, I must admit, I did have the urge to just go home instead because I was the only young person on the table and I was getting lonely, but since mum has already paid for the tickets, it was okay. What they meant by buffet was the dinner was a buffet type. The food was okay; I mostly ate salads since I already earlier that day. I guess it wasn't so bad since I get to talk to senior who does/did nursing, like me =). That's one family dinner over and done with.

The next night, I had another family dinner for my cousin's birthday at this Thai restaurant called Yai. My cousin decided to change restaurants for a change of taste, or location, etc. Since majority of the family stop liking the Golden Seafood restaurant, I wonder if we'll continue changing restaurants for the rest of our dinners... Anyways I bought my cousin macaroons from Adriano Zumbo, a a famous French patisserie. Speaking of which, many thanks to Linh for driving me there the other day. We went to the one located at Rozelle. It was a completely different place there =S. Everything was more expensive, there were many dogs, many rich cars like BMX, and there was even a wedding horse carriage driving down the road! As expected from a rich area. Though, to be honest, the Vietnamese food that we tried wasn't as great at Cabramatta. Both the meat and rice as a bit too try for my liking. Maybe we just grew up in Cabramatta and just got used to the taste there =S. Anyways, back to the family dinner. The food was pretty nice though I think I'd like it better if it was more spicy. Unfortunately, I ate an entree that was made of chicken because my cousin ordered it for all of us to eat. Because it was inside the dumpling, it was kind of hard to remove the chicken without removing the entire filling. Though, I must say, it was delicious =D. I think it was one of the most delicious dishes I had all night. Since I don't usually eat Thai food, the food tasted different, in a good way, especially that dish with banana leaves, prawns and noodles in it; it tasted kind of exotic to me =). Anyways, overall, I had a pretty good evening with the family =).

Monday came, and I was out and about again. This time, I was out with friends. I went to Broadway to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows #1.I must say, the movie wasn't bad but i thought they added a bit too many irrelevant scenes and shorten scenes where they shouldn't have. Oh wells, I guess they had to since it was a pretty long book. I think I'd rate it a 7/10 overall. Watching the movie makes me want to read the book again, but I don't think I'm bothered to do so =P. Anyways, after the movie we went to eat at Newtown, at a Thai restaurant called Atom Thai. In my opinion, I thought the food here was better than the food at Yai. Maybe it was because of the food we ordered or the company of friends. Overall, the meal was quite delicious. My favourite dish of that night was the beef salad that we had first. I don't know if it was an entree or not, but it was really nice. We mostly ordered curry and shared it amongst everyone. Half the food was spicy because half of us liked to eat spicy - Thanh, Derek, Mimi, Hanh and I =D YAY for spicy food! It was kind of funny watch Derek ask the waiter if the chicken was free ranged because it seemed like the waiter didn't really understand English that well. Ah, that's okay because I've haven't been eating chicken for a while anyways, so it's okay if I didn't eat it for another night. The ice Thai tea that Hanh recommended was delicious! If there was another restaurant that had that, I'd order it again =D. Anyways, after dinner, we all went home since we didn't have anything else to do. Many thanks to Mimi's brother, Andrew, for driving me home =).


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows #1 official trailer.

PS. Farewell to Wendy because by now, she would be in Hong Kong with her family, enjoying herself =). I hope you have a great time and take care =D! Hope to see you soon! We'll miss you!!!
PSS. Thanks to Hanh for the photos =). 

Tuesday 16 November 2010

when farewells don't seem like farewells

This is a continuation from my previous blog post =).

The dinner at Lianas' was a get-together-after-being-separated-for-so-long dinner and a temporary farewell dinner for Shirley, Kelly and Vicky, and Wendy too if she had been able to make it. Lianas' was an Italian cuisine restaurant where Derek made reservations for us, as well as getting us a 25% discount on the bill YAY =D. Many thanks Derek =).

To me, it honestly didn't feel like a farewell type of dinner because it wasn't like they'll be gone for too long. However, it was until after dinner that I found out that Shirley was actually going to Taiwan for her university course work experience for 6 months. All this time, I thought it she was going to go on a vacation with her family for a month, or two. I felt a bit sad to realise it so late and to know that she'll be gone for so long but, I'm also quite happy and excited for her for being about to have such an experience.

During the wait for our meals, we played some games like personality quizzes which led to some pretty interesting results *nudgenudgeEric,Thanh&Vickynudgenudge* AHAHAHA!!! Then we played another game during our meal, which was the ums... 'figure-out-the-rule game?' I actually don't know what the name of the game is. I must say, Shirley's rule was downright clever; she deserves a round of applause =). It took us a while to get but eventually, we got there =). I had an argument with Eric about who figured the rule out first. Eh, it doesn't really matter now lol, but I personally felt pretty happy about being able to be one of the first people to get such a hard rule =). Oh, a funny, repetitive incident occurred. When I was trying to get their attentions, I gently slammed my hand onto the table and instead of just listening to me, one after another, they put their hands on top of mine LOL!!! It's as though we were doing some kind of team cheer ahaha =D. 

I would rate the food about 8/10 =). I really liked the fettuccine and the risotto was pretty nice too. The risottos that I had before wasn't that good, but this one was pretty creamy =) though I thought the muscles were a bit hard. We also had a variety of pizzas and appetizers but because each person can only have one piece, I couldn't try the other types. I think the others now think I'm a bit picky with my food because I was like... I don't want seafood pizza, but it's okay with prawns, and I can't eat the chicken, unless it's free-ranged. Yeah... the seafood pancakes that Eric ordered me at Pancakes at the Rocks last time left me a bad impression =S. I prefer not to eat seafood with a Western dish. Seafood by itself or Eastern style seafood dishes are fine =D. Prawns' the only exception that I'll eat almost anything with =) kind of like mangoes =P. I think I should expand my palate to other types of food from other cultures, and not limit myself to just Asian food =). 

After dinner, everyone except for Shirley, who went home by car, went to the station. Though, only about half of us took the train and the other half got driven back home. We took a group photo just before we got to the station, courtesy to Derek's camera and a friendly stranger. It was a shame that Shirley wasn't there when we took it =(. We can always photoshop her in though =D. Not me, since I don't have the program not the skills to do it ^_^'. Many thanks to Vicky and her dad for driving me home =). 




To Shirley, Vicky, Kelly and Wendy, 

Have a LOVELY, FUN, EXCITING and SAFE trip. We'll all miss you guys heaps, so for our sake, have fun for us too =D!!! We'll always be there in spirit =D. When you guys come back, let's all go party =D. Shirley, 6 months is too long T_T but if you're having the time of your life, then keep going forward =D. I wish you the best with your work experience, and may you become a wiser and more experience lady once you get back =D. I'll wont say goodbye, because it's not like you guys will be gone forever, so instead, I'll say SEEYA =D!!! 

Much love, 
Fiona =).

PS. MY BAD! Apparently, Shirley's just going over Taiwan for 6 weeks, not six months ^_^'. 

when animals start roaming outside their areas

131110 - Puiyi 姐姐's Birthday.
151110 - William 哥哥's 34th Birthday.

On last Saturday, before heading to the zoo, we had yumcha at Cabramatta at around 9:30AM in the morning so we can eat earlier and go earlier. I haven't been to yumcha in a very long time. It was funny to see Linh ordering the same plate 4x's before she got sick of it LOL. Usually at yumcha, I barely see people order the same thing twice because people just eat a bit of everything that's on the menu or something. Oh! The coke bottles that they gave us was like the ones they used to use in the olden days except they were plastic and not glass. I actually wanted to take one home for memory =) but I don't think they would like that. Many thanks to Raymond for shouting us all yumcha =D!!!

Before going to the zoo, Linh went back home to pick up her cousin, Tammy, and her piano student, Lyn. Linh, Tammy, Lyn and I were in Linh's car, and Raymond and Anthony were in another car. The little girls were full dissing the boys about being losers and slow and that girls are smart ROFLS. I can't believe that I was like that before. I guess I still am like that, but not as much as the kids =D. I need to thank the person who invented GPS. My God. Life is made SO much easier with a GPS. I'd rather read a GPS than a map xD. We got to the Featherdale Wildlife Park within 30 - 45 mins.

I haven't been to any types of zoo for a couple of years so I was pretty excited =D. It was mostly Australian animals, besides a small area called the Farmyard and as you guessed it, there were farmyard animals, but I'll talk about it later. A couple of interesting things happened at the zoo. There were the male peacocks knock out - i guess they were fighting over for territory or something; the workers had to spray them with a hose to stop them from fighting any more. No, they don't actually have a hose at hand just to stop fights, they were washing out the animals' areas. I guess the peacocks didn't like water because they flew up onto the roofs of the shelters. I don't know if they continued fighting on the roof, but I didn't hear any aggressive sounds so I guess they didn't. They weren't the only ones who left their areas. Kangaroos, emus and the Albino peacocks also went jumping all over the place ahahah =D It was pretty cool actually. The Albino animals, the peacocks and wallabies, were really beautiful, especially the peacock =D I was so fascinated by it because it was my first time seeing one =D. I even saw one jumping on the wooden fence and jumping out of its area O_O.

I took a lot of photos of the animals, touched quite a few and fed some too. At first, I thought I saw a lady feeding the animals icecream. You're not suppose to do that because it's bad to feed animals human food; it can affect their appetites and can upset their stomachs. It was only later that I realised that you can actually buy animal feedings in a coin for $1. Of course, we all got a cone each and took this chance to feed the kangaroos and the emus. At first, we were afraid of feeding the emus because people have been telling us that they peck at us if we give them food - unintentionally, of course. So most of the time, we fed the kangaroos, but I wanted to feed the emu as well so i didn't really care about being pecked at. I think I'm kind of used to getting injured by animals anyways (cockatoos, dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.). Anyways, they weren't actually that scary at all =D. They may look huge and all, but their beaks are quite blunt and they don't have any teeth either. Everyone else joined it after me. There were two emus but i think one of them was more aggressive than the other. When I was standing next to one of the emus, another emu can along and just pecked my animal transport out of my hands. I squealed because it was all so sudden and out of nowhere =S. It continued pecking at it on the ground and I attempted to take it away from it. I guess it thought it was food since it was green. Oh! Although the exterior feathers are quite rough on the emus, if you touch underneath, it's actually quite soft. Oh, speaking of pecking, another small bird pecked at my leg when I was standing next to its cage lol. It must've been really hungry.

During lunch, everyone else had a hotdog while I just had an icecream because it was too hot to have hot food =S, in my opinion anyways. To kill time, we played that 'rule of the game' game and Anthony was the last one to get the rule hahaha =) It's a pretty fun game because it makes you think, but then you can get pretty frustrated but then you'll feel good if you know the rule and everyone else doesn't =P. After we finished the game, we went to watch the penguins and Tasmanian devils feeding sections and learnt a bit more about them. Our last stop was the Farmyard area and OMG... the animals there were HUGE O_O!!! The turkey, the pig, the goose, etc. were huge!!! I think the one that surprised me the most was the turkey. I swear, I had NO IDEA that a turkey can be so BIG!!! 

Anyways, it was until around 4:30PM that we started heading back. Many thanks to Linh for driving me home =). I had a blast =). I actually had dinner later that night, but I'll continue it on another blog post seeing that this blog post is pretty long already. Here are some photos I took at the zoo:

 Albino Peacock.
 Albino Wallaroo.
 Barking Owl - yes, it really does bark =D.
 Cape Barren Gooses.
 An eagle.
 A kangaroo.
 A kangaroo and its joey.
 Kookaburas.
 Some kind of bird that I do know because I forgot to find its sign with the name on it.
 Penguins and a Great Egret.
The Great Egret.
 Saltwater Crocodile - very big!
Look at this huge ass turkey O_O!!!
 I thought this looked funny =P This sign was at the parking lot outside.

Friday 5 November 2010

games night

Taking a break from study, I went to Linh's house for a family dinner after she invited me over. Besides her family, there was Allan (ML's boyfriend), Vi, Linda and I. It was a Vietnamese dinner with spring rolls, pork, rice noodles and lots of herbs. This green looking, sour mango was for dessert. I think it was because of Linda that made the night so interesting. We played a couple of games, like scategories, personality analysis games, and this naming game.We played around for a couple of hours before everyone started heading home. Thanks to ML for driving me home =). That was just a short update. Now I have to go back to studying again *sigh*. 


This was one of the personality quizzes that Linda gave us:


Imagine of an open space (preferably an empty room):
  • Imagine a box - Where is it located? Is it small, medium or large in size? Is it solid or transparent?
  • Imagine a ladder - Where is it located/leaning on? How far up is it leaning?
  • Imagine flowers - Where are they located? 
  • Imagine a horse - Where is it located? Describe 3 characteristics/personality traits about the horse.
  • Imagine a storm - Is it going away, coming, or staying?
The reasons behind the questions:
  • The box is you; your ego/self-esteem - depending on the size, it shows how happy or unhappy you are with yourself; the solidity of the cube, if it's solid, it means your personality changes depending on which group you hang around with, while if it's transparent, it means that you're exactly who you are in, no matter what group you're in (people see you as who you are); the location will be of use for the latter.
  • The ladder is your career - depending how far it's located from the cube (you) means how long it took you to realise that career; how far up it's leaning implies the difficulty and/or duration it'll take you to achieve/reach that career.
  • The flowers are your family and friends - depending on where they're located and the distance between the flowers and the cube (you), it implies how close or distant you are from them, relationship-wise. 
  • The horse is your life partner/soul mate - where it's located and the distance between the horse and the cube (you), it shows how compatible and/or close you are; the 3 personality characteristics are the characteristics of your future partner, or that you want in your future partner. If your horse is a mythical creature (eg. unicorn) it means the guy you want is too ideal/doesn't exist but if they do, they will be close to what you want them to be.
  • The storm is your problems/issues - If it's going away, then your problems are slowly going away; if it's staying, it means you still have some unresolved issues; if it's coming, it means that your problems are slowly gathering up.
I thought this was a pretty interesting quiz and I wanted to share it with you guys =). I wonder if it's accurate for you guys =). It was fairly accurate for me =).

Wednesday 3 November 2010

my first DIY pancakes

Yes, you've read it right. I've never made pancakes before until yesterday afternoon. After a job interview at McDonalds at Stockland, Prairiewood, Linh and I did a bit of shopping around. Maybe I shouldn't have since I was suppose to be saving up money for the holidays. I bought quite a few summer clothes that I plan on wearing to Malaysia =). Anyways, big thanks to Linh for driving me there and for lending me money for my shopping. To repay her, I treated her to lunch, which she didn't end up finishing *sigh*. Then I finished the rest for her >.> ... couldn't help it since I didn't have breakfast or lunch yet.

After buying pancake mixture, we headed off to Anthony's house seeing that he lived so close to Stockland. I made my first pancakes at his house yay!!! It may not look edible, but it was! I burnt a couple, but I end up eating them anyways, so the other two didn't have to suffer my horrible cooking =P. Anthony attempted flipping his pancakes; he failed the first time but succeed the second time. After pancakes, we just watched a couple episodes of various animes and played on his brother's piano =).

Around 4:30PM, we went back to Linh's house to wait for the government inspection, but they already came. So I just ended chatting to Linh and My Linh for a couple of hours before Linh drove me home. Linh's mum included dinner for me as well but unfortunately, I couldn't eat it because I was too full from earlier =( I feel bad, I'm sorry! Up until yesterday, I always finish the meals that Linh's mum made for me. Sometimes, I do wish I grew another stomach =S I did manage to eat some mangoes though. How? Maybe either because it was mangoes or because it wasn't a meal. Either way, the mangoes were delicious =D. After Linh drove me home, I paid her back for the clothes and also included a deposit for paintball. YAY! Paintball =D! I know I said that I prefer laser tag over paintball, but it's been so long since I've been to one. This will be my second time going =). Hopefully, I won't spill all my ammunition before I finish my game, like last time =S.


Anyways, I don't think I'll be updating again for the next two weeks seeing that I'm on STUVAC right now, and next week I'll be having my exams. Wish me luck though =).