At Bankstown RSL

2OO911 - Anna X.'s 21st Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA =D !!!

Hey everyone, I'm terribly sorry for not updating my blog lately because 1. I had an assignment due every week (I still do, b ut I have a midsem break next week, so I can take it a bit easier now... hopefully) and 2. because of reason 1., I haven't been going out lately. Anyways, let's get on with the blogging =D. 

So last Sunday, my friends and I went to Bankstown RSL Club, organized by Derek. The price for the buffet was a bit more experensive than most RSL buffets. I think it was because of the sushi =P. Unfortunately, I ddin't really get the chance to get anything I ike, but Mimi aws kind enough to share a piece of her eel sushi with me =).It took us a while before we started eating because we were waiting for Yibo to become a member. Unfortunately, Yibo wasn't having a good day with his car. He accidentally carashed his car while going home to get his forgotten wallet. Poor guy =(.

I felt stupid for buying the refill cup ... I could've used the tea cups they provided instead! I felt ilke I wasted $2.50 for nothign =.=. I couuld've used that money fo buy snacks the next time I went out or something! Anyways, the food was nice, but I thought the seafood wasn't so great. Although it felt and tasted cold, it didn't look or taste fresh at all =/. 

Unfortunately, we were kind of kciked out of the buffet as well because they closed at 9:00PM.  I felt bad for not being able to finish my dish of desserts but I managed to taste a bit of everything. Poor Derek; he was in the middle of eating and was about to dig into another plate of food (yes, he had lots of plates of food around him =D) but the waiter took it away. I thought that was quite rude =/. 

When we left, we loitered around the car park, just talking and playing around. We even had a good exercise by pushing a car. Kenny put his car on nuetral so we decided to see who was strong; Yibo and Thanh at the back and Kenny, Mimi, Carmen and I at the front. I thought we were pretty even =D. Mind you, we also had to push the car with Eric, Derek, Wendy and Sarah inside it! 

Around 10PM, we all decided to go home. Since I drove Mimi there, I drove her home, as well as Thanh. While we were putting our seat belts on, we watched Yibo accidentally hitting the column with his rear. Seriously, it was definitely a bad day for Yibo and his car xO! Yibo was okay, but his poor car... 

I had a good night eating and catching up with people =). thanks for inviting me Derek =).

Congratulations on graduating Adrian =)

CONGRATULATIONS TO ADRIAN FOR GRADUATING =D !!!

I went to UNSW to congratulate Adrian for graduating from Commerce/Law on Monday. Luckily I bumped into Elwin and Vincent at the convenient store at Central station or else I would've had trouble looking for Adrian on campus =). So congratulations for graduating Adrian =D. It's been more than 5 years but you finally did it! You graduated =D. I hope you made wonderful memories during your last moments of being a university student =). To be honest, I felt quite tired that day since I only had one hour of sleep the night before but since I deeply respected Adrian, I was willing to make the trek down to UNSW =). He's been such a helpful, friendly and nice mentor/senior to me that the least I could do was to go there an congratulate him on graduating =). Anyways, many thanks to Elwin, Vincent, Chris and Tasman for accompanying me home =). If you didn't, I think I would've slept on the train... LOL! 

teen no more, part #4

Yesterday, Paz, MG and I went to eat after uni. While walking to the bus stop, I received a call from Tae. After the call, the topic of pet names/endearing names popped up. Paz said that she wouldn't know what she'd call her boyfriend. We had one hilarious conversation about what kind of endearment Paz will use for her future boyfriend. It went something like this (this was from the middle of the conversation to the end):

Paz: Maybe 'Hey boy.'

Fiona: Wouldn't he be a man?

Paz: 'Hey man.'

Fiona: *laughs* Oh! "Hey man!' (Jamaican accent).

(Reference to an inside joke of ours - a while back, while MG, Paz and I walked to the bus stop, Paz called out to a friend 'Hey man' in a Jamaican accent, and MG and I thought she said 'hey mum' instead LOL)

Fiona: Sometimes, I call him dude. Like, 'Dude! Why did you do that?'

MG: But then, that sounds more like a friend.

Paz: What animal do I like?

Fiona: Dogs. Doggie!

Paz: I like cats. Cat. That sounds so weird, calling someone that.

Fiona: Oh! Like puss boots! Wait, no. I mean -

MG: Puss in boots.

Fiona: Yeah. Oh! Pussy! 

Honestly, I didn't mean it to sound like that when I said it. I wasn't even thinking about it in that way! It was only after I said it out loud that it sounded so wrong and inappropriate. When I was saying it in my head, it didn't sound wrong. It's just, endearments sometimes end with a '-ie/y' sound, ie. sweetie, honey, etc. Early, I said doggie, so I thought 'hey, dog became doggie, so puss becomes pussy!' The topic itself was pretty funny, we were all laughing throughout the conversation. I just made us all laugh harder after that comment ROFLMAOS!

Speaking of hilarious, something funny misinterpretation occurred during one of our morning nursing lectures. The lecture was about different type of drugs and our body various body receptors. I wish the lecturer would slow down; she was speaking in a way that she assumed the students already knew what she was talking about. Seriously, if you didn't listen at the beginning of a slide, if you try to tune into the explanation when she's halfway through, you wouldn't be able to understand what she's talking about at all. Anyways, I was sitting next to Patty and Patty asked me what 'beasting' meant. I thought she said obesity, so I said 'when something is really, really overweight.' She laughed and said that she said beasting, not obesity. Since I didn't know what beasting was, I asked her what it was and where she heard it from. She said she heard it during the explanation of the previous slide the lecturer was on. Since I couldn't answer her question, she asked Anna, who was sitting next to her, on the left. Anna said that it was bee stings, not beasting LOL!!! Now that definitely made more sense, since the lecturer did mention about histamines before. She must've  been talking about allergic reactions. The three of us were laughing so much that the lecturer had to stop talking to tell us to be quiet LOL!

I digress. We met up with Tae at Capitol Square's food court. Since I didn't have uni on Thursday, Paz and MG couldn't celebrate my birthday with me, so MG decided that she'll shout me dinner =D. We ate at Yumei for dinner after I suggested that we do. That was because I haven't really eaten there yet. The price was a bit expensive but the food was pretty nice =). I ordered a bento B but I received a bento A instead. That was because I wanted wagyu beef as my main, and I thought it was an option for bento B. Unfortunately, it wasn't and hence, they gave me bento A instead. Bento A was a bit more  expensive than bento B so I was kind of unhappy about it, even if MG was the one paying for it. Since I felt bad, I gave her back $2 so she was paying the price of bento B instead =).

Paz said she was going to dedicate a song to me as my birthday present =D !!! After suggesting a number of songs, we ended up with Angel of Mine by Monica. That was because a) it's the only song Paz was most confident with in singing, compared to all the other songs that I suggested; and b) it was our song ;D. Since we were talking about song dedications, Tae asked if Paz could dedicate a song to him as well since his birthday it was his birthday recently as well, and she agreed =). Paz asked us if we had a couple song. Since I've never had one with my exes, I never really thought about it until now. So now, Tae and I are on the search for a couple song LOL. We thought of Hero by Enriques, Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat, and Fallin for You by Colbie Caillat, but nothing is certain yet.

After dinner, we went to take capitols for fun =). Honestly, I felt a bit awkward taking capitols with Tae LOL. I think I prefer taking actual photos with him instead. I also feel that he was a bit uncomfortable taking capitols with a group of girls LOL. We took the train home. Tae and I almost got squashed by the closing doors of the train. When we reached Cabramatta station, I ran back into the train because I accidentally dropped Tae's jumper. Tae was stopping the doors from closing. When I got out of the train, I had to squeeze through the gap or else I would've been seriously hurt LOL. Tae drove me home afterward.

so begins the clinical placement

On the 27th of June, I started my clinical placement at Sydney Hospital and Sydney Eye Hospital with Paz, Ali, Rachel, Lauren and Claire, with Julie as our facilitator. Rather than talking about what happened every day, I'll just mention some highlights of my 2 weeks clinical placement.

1. I say, waking up at 5:00 AM everyday was a pain but I eventually got used to it. I didn't have any problems sleeping earlier either since working for 8 hours each day, with 2 20-20 minutes long breaks only, and having to look after all those patients can be quite exhausting. But I don't regret it because it was a rewarding experience =). 
2. The very first patient we talked to was a young NZ man who practically opened his entire emotional, personal and spiritual life to us. I found it quite enlightening and thankful too for this rare opportunity. I never realised how open patients can be towards nurses; really, we are their advocates and I'm quite proud of that =). He said that our encounter was meant to be and I agree - there's no such this as coincidences.
3. One of the elderly patients gave me a nickname; he named me Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 depending how many days it has been since I started my clinical placement. I found it quite endearing and appreciative because he bothered to remember how many days I've been at the hospital already =). 
4. I was following this young registered nurse (RN) one day and she was quite helpful; she gave me advices and criticisms, she really helped me realise all my flaws in my nursing care and technique, and helped me improve on my skills. As thankful and grateful as I was, I also couldn't help but feel incompetent, realising how little I actually knew about nursing care. Even the things that I thought I could do properly was proven to be not enough when providing care to actual patients. I felt disappointed for the rest of the day, but I quickly gained my enthusiasm again =). If I'm down, then it'll be evident in my care, and I don't want to make the patients feel worse than they already are.
5. I didn't actually save a life, but I felt like I help prevent it from becoming worse. Paz and I were taking a patient's vital signs when we noticed how low his blood pressure was. We did it twice to make sure it wasn't a mistake. We also checked his observational charts to see if he usually have low blood pressure. His average systolic was around the 100s, so we realised something was definitely wrong. We were going to ask the RN who was in charge of the patient to check it for us, with a manual blood pressure machine, just in case but before we could ask that RN, another RN also noticed the low blood pressure score that we noted down so she went to take the patient's blood pressure manual instead. Thankfully, it was the machine's fault and it wasn't as dangerously low as we got in the first place. If it was genuinely that low, even with the manual blood pressure machine, then we would've activated PACE (which is like the procedure for an emergency in the hospital). I was happy that we did the right thing and managed to 'potentially save a patient's life' xD.
6. There was an Aboriginal Appreciation Day of some sort at the hospital one day. We (USYD nursing students and facilitators) went to watch the performance, got a free badge and had free sausage sizzle and salad. We also went to a session to listen about the culture and health of Aboriginal people. It was interesting =).
7. We also went to other sessions at the hospital. There was one that taught us how to use the vital signs machine and another taught us about wounds and how to care for it. I learnt quite a lot from those sessions =).
8. Paz and I got to watch a cataract operation and wear scrubs. We thought we wouldn't be able to watch it and it was the last day of us working at the hospital, so we were a bit disappointed however; when we got back from our lunch break, the nurses were all saying how they were looking for us and all because we finally got permission to watch an operation. The last patient went up 20 minutes before we came back and we thought we were too late, so we were disappointed and sad, but a nurse brought us up there just to try and see if we can still make it. Lucky for us, the patient was still waiting in the waiting room =D, so we get to watch it. I wished we brought our phones with us so we could take photos of us in scrubs! Though, we did get to keep our disposable eye protectors =). It was disgusting but fascinating at the same time =D. At times, I just wanted to look over their shoulder to see what was really happening, but we just stuck to watching it on the TV screen instead. The screen was pretty clear (HD quality) but apparently, it was much clearer under the microscope O_O! It was actually a strange scene... It was more casual than I thought it would be, maybe a bit too casual... Like seriously! Soft classical/jazz music playing in the background; the anesthetic doctor was just sitting there, playing his sudoku O_O; sometimes, they would even pause and chat a bit =S. It really wasn't what I was expecting. Though, in such serious a situation with lots of pressure, I guess you really would need a bit of mild entertainment to ease the mind a bit. 
9. The stereotypical separation between nurses and doctors was blown away from my mind. I thought that doctors and nurses will have this definite separation between them due to their jobs, but I was proven wrong when I witness such friendly interactions between the nurses and doctors. The anesthetic doctor was nice and was very willing to answer all our questions and was detailed with his explanations =). Yes, some nurses and doctors do have this tense, inexplicable atmosphere around them sometimes, but most of the time, there was barely any hierarchy between them. Well, maybe Sydney Hospital is just a really friendly place =P. 
10. Julie, our facilitator, was a wonderful woman =). Her enthusiasm really helped encourage me a lot during the clinical placement, and seeing her as a nurse was quite inspirational. I admit, she really does love to talk and sometimes get so lost in the conversation that she forgets about what her nursing duty was, but it's quite endearing when I watch her talk so cheerfully with the patients; it really does bring a smile to my face =). Now that's what I call aesthetic knowing - the art of nursing. I'm very grateful and thankful that Julie was my very first nursing facilitator for my very first clinical placement. She really helped me a lot by giving encouragements and helpful advices. I wish she would go to USYD and teach us nursing. Even though it's over now, I still have her number, so it's okay xD.
11. The very last day of clinical placements was Friday 8th, July. We spent half the day working on our booklets, discussing and talking about nursing related topics (well, most of the topics were related to nursing...) and bidding our farewells to the patients and RNs at the hospital. We gave a card to the RNs, and Ali was considerate enough to buy a card for Julie too. We all wrote in it before giving it to her. We spent our time inside this private room at the library. The room was called History Room (or something along those lines...) and it really did look like an old room, with a mantle, sofas, a wooden table with six chairs and a wall occupied with bookshelves, all of them had books, with no space to spare. After everything was done, we went to Lindt Cafe at the corner of Martin Place, across the Channel 7 building, and had lunch there. It was a bit expensive (especially the desserts), but it was worth it =). After lunch, we took a photo, exchanged emails and bid our farewells. Paz and I joined up with my friends after that, but I'll blog about it on another blog post =).

It was an exhausting 2 weeks of clinical, but I experienced many things that made it all worth while. It was definitely a rewarding experience, and you feel appreciated when the patients are thankful for your care. It's nice to know that I can be able to ease their pain or make them feel better. I regretted nothing, and wouldn't mind doing it again (even if I don't get paid, though it'd be nice if I did =P).

two down, none to go =)

NO MORE EXAMS!!! Well, for this semester anyways =). 

I had an exam in the morning, which was Biological Aspects of Ageing, which wasn't too bad. I would like to thank the nice girl and librarian who directed me to the building =). I was seriously lost =S. So before the exam, I met Lisa, Cathleen and Carly again. Lisa actually waved to me in the library when I was asking for directions to T block but because she wasn't wearing her glasses and her hair looked different, I couldn't recognise her. So I waved back, but in an awkward way and pointed to the door to indicate I was leaving. When I was alone I was wondering who that person was and was hoping that maybe the girl mistook me for someone else instead. When I saw them outside the exam room, Lisa was jokingly saying how I don't know her and realised it was her that waved to me. My apologies to Lisa xD. I was happy to see them again since it's been a semester since I last saw them =). They were doing the same exam as me =). 

Anyways, I tried to stick with my routine of staying until the end of the exam duration as some sort of hope that I'll be more likely to have better marks that way, but after it strike 11AM, I decided to leave. I waited for about 15 - 20 minutes already after all. My next exam was Health Informatics. I felt like I made up most of the answers up because I really didn't know much. I studied the lectures, read some of the recommended readings and read the tutorial work, but still I couldn't grasp the objectives of the subject properly. Hence, increase of nonsense occurred in my answers. Oh wells, the point was I finished my exams xD !!! 

We are going to celebrate it officially tomorrow, but Paz, MG and I decided to do something together as a mini celebration for us finishing our exams together at the same time. Since we all lived in different places and we didn't have myMulti tickets, we decided to head to Lidcombe's RSL club, Dooley's, for dinner. After dinner, we met an old couple that Paz knew and we talked for a while. I wish we were sitting down instead to have a bit more comfort while listening to them lol. We were standing because we were in the middle of going to the toilets when we met them while they were at a table eating. They told some pretty interesting stories that was pretty much all over the place hahaha. Apparently, they were married for about 51 years xO !!! I envy them =) We asked for advice and the secret to their success in marriage was open discussions on everything and good planning for the future =). I shall take that advice on board and hope for the best =).

After talking, and the trip to the lady's room, we went to the game's room and played air hockey =D. The puck kept on getting stuck on one side because someone was stupid enough to use those cardboard glass stoppers (or whatever they're called) as a replacement and got it stuck inside the whole. Majority of the time, I was the one who had to try to get it out again *sigh*. It was pretty funny to watch each other play and overact when losing xD. I guess I was especially loud hahaha! MG was really funny =D she did so many funny things that was cheating that she didn't know LOL! And she played so hard that she accidentally threw her mallet across the floor! We were so surprised that we didn't realise when the puck went into the goal! We had to leave after 2 games because a family was waiting to play after us. I felt a bit bad for taking so long xD.

We were about to leave when we passed the pool table room. We got intrigued and went in. I asked if we need to pay for it but we don't, so we just played =D. We all sucked... but Paz seemed to be the most skilled out of the three of us =). While we were playing, an employee came in and asked us if we were eighteen and we said yes. I guess he still didn't believe us because he asked us for our ID hahaha. I guess we looked like kids since we were short girls and every other table were filled with tall young looking adults. It took a while before we all got the balls in and at the end, we each consecutively got a ball in and as Paz suggested, "it was an epic ending!" To me, it was quite a surprise but I don't know if I'd call it epic, but to her it was definitely epic =). I guess it was pretty awesome =). I think us three girls have some sort of fate between us all =) just because of all the things we experienced since we started university and knew each other =).

We all went home after that. For me, I had a D'n'M with mum in the car and at home. We didn't have one for a long time and this one kind of helped cleared some misunderstandings that occurred in the last couple of days. I'm glad mum's feeling okay now =). My apologies for making her sad in the first place (it wasn't intentional!).

Exam Fever Again

O1O611 - Maxine's 19th Birthday. 
O4O611 - Edim's 19th Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDIM =).

 GOOD LUCKIES FOR THE UPCOMING EXAMS EVERYONE =).

Because of the assessments all due in the second half of the first semester, I haven't been going out much and hence, there wasn't much to blog about. With the up coming exams, the exams itself AND my clinical placement period, I don't think I'll be going out much either so much apologies for the lack of blog posts lately =). Well, I'm sure people are too busy to be reading my blog posts anyways. I just want to say good luck on the upcoming exams and happy holidays everyone =).

'Blue Valentine' under the stars

1OO311 - My Linh's 18th Birthday.

Yesterday, Derek invited us to eat pizza and watch a movie together =). It was the first outing, of the year, where I get to see most of my friends again =). Thank you Derek for inviting me =).

But before that, I had a great time exploring the university and taking photos with MG =). We didn't have to go to the main campus yesterday, but we went to get our NURS5081 books. We went taking photos of the university; went to get our books from the copy centre; and talked to 'The Wilderness Society'  and the struggles of the Western Australian Kimberley ecosystem against the government plans for a gas station. I wanted to join and donate every month, but their donations only received debit cards, not cash, so I couldn't join. I have a debit card, but I've never used it before; mum always look after it. We met up with Wendy and caught up a bit before she left for her tutorial and we left to go to the park. The Victoria Park was near the university; I think it's now one of MG and mine favourite places in the university =D. We had heaps of fun playing on all those strange looking playground equipments. There was the miniature flying fox; this circular spinning thing; this miniature cone looking swing where it's big enough to even cross your legs on it; there was this S-shaped balance beam which I tried so hard to walk along it (I accomplished it, but I ended up falling right at the end =.='); and then there was also this big soccer ball looking rope thing which MG and I have reached the top of. I had quite a few injuries but it was fun =D.

The doggy helpers of 'The Wilderness Society' =).

Victoria Park, the park that MG and I now like =).

After and hour or so, MG went to the library while I went to meet up with Wendy. I was supposed to study as well, but I didn't have the time too =( I brought my heavy NURS5002 book to uni for no reason T_T. Wendy and I took the train to Bondi Junction and met Edim. Since everyone else was late, we decided to meet them at the restaurant instead. We went to Svens, a pizza restaurant, for dinner; it was Derek's recommendation. The place was designed to look like the Viking era; even the menu and toilets were in some kind of Viking/Swedish language LOL =D. The pizza was great; I especially like 'The World Tree' because it had prawns in it =D. Maybe because the glasses looked intriguing, we drank more water than usual =P. Sarah and I ate the most salad; I don't even know what it was. A Viking styled coleslaw? I thought the vinegar (balsamic vinegar?) was extra strong, but it was still delicious =). It was also funny to see Sarah and I both taking photos of the food hahaha. I couldn't help it; it's been a year since I last had a camera =P and I really like my latest camera too =D.

Svens, the pizza restaurant.

'The World Tree,' my favourite pizza =).

After dinner, we went to Centennial Park where the Moonlight Cinema was. When we got there, half of the group decided to go buy some ice cream. After a while, we bought the tickets and Edim, Thanh and Derek went in to rent the bean bags while Sarah, Vicky, Eric and I stayed back to give the others their tickets. We were so bored that we started irritating one another; Eric was mostly the victim =). It was about an hour later when they came back with bags and bags of junk food. They even bought juice O_O but we end up not having any. 

Blue Valentine is a realistic, melancholy movie about a couple on the road to divorce. Directed by Derek Cianfrance; the movie compares the past and present of a couple, played by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, the changes in their romance, their expectations, their lifestyles and their goals. By the end of the movie, I think the most upsetting thing about the movie was how realistic it was; it's true that the rates of divorce is increasing every year. I pitied the male protagonist more, but I believe they're both at fault. It seemed that the female audience was more likely to pity the male protagonist, while the male audience was more likely to pity the female protagonist. In the end, I think the child was the most innocent and most pitied person in this broken family. The female protagonist made me think that love and romance didn't exist anymore. I'll never want to have a family like that. I do admit that their acting was really good though. I think I would rate this movie a 7/10; the plot and ending lost the points. The plot was good and all, but I just don't like sad movies/stories in general, especially this movie because it reminded me a lot of things I didn't want to remember.

After the movie, it took us a while to leave because we were enjoyed relaxing on the bean bags too much; we almost wanted to take them home with us. When we did, conversations about the plot continued on. Everyone had strong opinions about various things; I think Shirley had one of the strongest ones - she strongly thought the female protagonist was weak even though she did empathise with her. Anyways, Shirley's dad drove Vicky, Mimi and i home. Thanks Shirley's dad =). I got home by ~ 12:30 AM *sigh* it's been a while since I went home this late.

PS. The weather was kind of hot during the day but by evening, the weather felt nice and cool =).It felt like Autumn.

even hand hygiene has a technique to it

O2O311 - Mikky's 19th Birthday. Happy Birthday =D !!!

I had my first nursing clinical simulation laboratory (NURS5081) yesterday and I thought it was pretty interesting, so I'm going to post up some of the notes I took in class =). 

Hand Hygiene (HH) or washing your hands is the single most important practice to reduce transmission of infection by reducing the number of micro-organisms on your hands. There are 2 types of soaps: 

1. Antimicrobial - hand rub that doesn't require water.
2. Non-antimicrobial - where soap and water is required.

There are 5 key moments where hand hygiene is required:

1.  Before touching a patient.
2. Before a procedure.
3. After a procedure / body fluid exposure risk.
4. After touching a patient.
5. After touching a patient's surroundings.

There are 4 different types of hand washes:

1. Routine / Social Hand Rub - when your hands aren't visibly dirty.
2. Routine / Social Hand Wash - when your hands are visibly dirty; wash with water.
3. Aseptic - when you're trying to be as sterile as possible; when washing, the entire process should be ~ 60 seconds.
4. Surgical.

I'll won't blog about the other topics that I learned about because I found hand hygiene to be most interesting, besides Sim Man and the simulation mannequins used for practice. Now, they're just disturbing, especially the ones in the classroom because they actually have their eyes open. The ones in the simulated hospital rooms had their eyes closed. They're disturbing because they're made to behave just like how an actually human being would behave in that scenario. With just the press of a button, you can make them breathe heavily, quicken their pulse, moan in pain and even vomit! Very disturbing indeed... I wouldn't want to be near them alone, at night >.> ...
 

Anyways, back to hand hygiene. I found a moderately detailed video that shows you how to properly wash your hands. We actually had to do that in class. We would first use the 'glitter bug' cream to rub our hands in; then we would wash our hands, with soap, and then by using a UV light, we would see how well we washed our hands. The first time I washed my hands, it turned out pretty bad =S I had a lot of white patches (bacteria). The second time I did it, it was better, but I need to remember to wash my wrists and my fingernails better =.='. 

Hand Washing Technique.

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 =).

being memorable can be defined as good AND bad

28O71O - 妈妈 's Birthday.

3OO71O - Jessica P.'s 19th Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOMAN =D!

Out of my 70 hours of legit driving, I've only properly driven at night once, and it was the night when I drove mum to Granville RSL Club for a buffet dinner. Let me say, besides the fact that the raining did not ease my discomfort with driving during nightfall, but the food was really not worth it. Yes, it was a buffet. Yes, there was a variety of food. And yes, it was an offer of pay for two people for the price of one; but no, it was not of good quality. I like eating, but I must say I was quite disappointed. That is all I'm going to say about their food. By the way, please don't mix seafood and oily food together, they'll just upset your stomach ... 

On another note, may I say what an excellent job Christopher Nolan did with Inception? Linh and I went to watch it the other night and it kept my glue to my seat. Now, I don't know if you would feel the same way as I did about the movie, but I do highly recommend it. I would rate it a 8-9/10. Rather than writing my hindsight about it, I'd rather not spoilt it. So I'll just provide you the trailer instead =). Next stop, hopefully Toys Story 3 =).

By the way, I'm back at uni again. It was only just last week that I was still on holidays ... *sigh* one month of holidays was just too short - compared to the three months holiday we had after HSC that is. Anyways, yes I chose psychology again. It's not so bad. Just the fact that we have completely different lecturers except for Caleb, our Stats. lecturer *sigh*. This time, he's teaching Cognitive processes. Why, oh why, couldn't we have Lisa, our social psychologist lecturer, again? Ah, I guess it's not so bad. At least he's better than the Human Development lecturer. Speaking of lecturers, we have a young, recently graduated, from our university, handsome, Korean man as one of our psychology lecturers =D. He teaches perception, so it's a pretty fun topic to learn about *sigh*. He makes up for our HSBH1009 lecturer; an Indian woman with a very strong accent. Seriously! There's no point of having lectopia if you can't even understand her. If you can't understand her the first time, listening to her 100 times again isn't going to make it any easier. Anyways, my other elective is an online subject and... let's just leave it as that =). You don't need to know what it's about ahahah... Anyways,  I should stop here, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Ciao!

I SURVIVED MY FIRST SEMESTER OF UNI!!!

Yep, the title said it all =). I passed my first semester of uni and all the challenges it threw at me >=).

PHOTOSOC T-SHIRT

13O51O - Jennifer On's 18th Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY =D !!!
14O51O - Kelly's 18th and Mun Hong 哥哥's 24th Birthday.

YAY!! I finally got my free t-shirt from PHOTOSOC =D !!! I'm going to wear it to uni as often as possible to promote the society hahaha =D !!! YAY, don't have to worry, as much, about what to wear everyday anymore =D !!!

Death, Dying and Bereavement

Just last week, 21st of April, during HSBH1006 (Foundations of Health Science) we were given a lecture on death, dying and bereavement for 2 hours long.

I've decided to bring this up because lately, I have been hearing a couple of unfortunate incidents where my friends experience sorrow and grief when their family members or friends had, or still are, experience a health-related issue. In regards to their health, it would be wise to leave it to the professionals or specialists in that field. Rather, I would like to talk about the patient, and their family and friends, when they've realised that they're going to die. We have learnt about the 5 stages of dying, suggested by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1960s), and they were: 

1. Denial;
2. Anger;
3. Bargaining;
4. Depression; and finally
5. Acceptance

Although there were problems about this theory, it became the foundation and encouragement for present, and future, health researchers to continue dwelling into the process of dying, along with the process of grieving. Many theories about grieving all suggested that people eventually move on from the past however, recent studies suggested the opposite. Silverman and Klass (1996) came up with the 'Continuing Bonds' thesis where the survivors experienced a continuous bond with the dead. It's suggested that grieving occurred because it's based on a framework of interdependence where people intimately involved their lives with others and when those people become deceased, it might lead to a loss in one's self. Marwit and Klass (1994-5) suggested a notion of inner representations as a part of the 'normal' grieving process; in a sense it allowed people to continue to interact with the dead:

"while the intensity of the relationship with the deceased may diminish with time, the relationship does not disappear. We are not talking about living in the past, but rather recognizing how bonds formed in the past can inform our present and our future." - Silverman & Klass 1996:17.

The Continuing bonds thesis suggested that:

• People should not be encouraged to seek 'closure,'
• Bereavement is an on-going process of negotiation and meaning-making,
• The significance of loss and place of the dead in the lives of survivors will be continually negotiated as feelings lessen or intensify.

I can't say I complete understand the grief that people experience when a loved one is deceased, though I have experienced something similar; my first dog, Twister, died from a hit and run. This is one of the reasons why I chose to work in the health science field; I would like to increase my knowledge in health-related issues and hopefully, be able to help those who are suffering; leading them to a better life that they deserve. 

mask or no mask, we know you got SMASHED minhky :D

23O41O - Minhky's and Cindy H.'s 18th BIrthday.

24O41O - David Chen's 19th Birthday. Happy Birthday David =).
26O41O - Lisa L.'s 18th BIrthday.

I'd tell you what happened at Minhky's masquerade party, but I was only there for half of it. That was because I still had uni during the party *sigh* how sad =(. According to other people, before I came, there was a BBQ, games like past the parcel and chucking flour at each other, Singstar, chit chats, and photos. 

Vicky, the BIGGEST idiot of all, chucked flour RIGHT in my eyes when I just entered the drive way and knowing me, I wasn't intelligent enough to close my eyes when she chucked it at me. I didn't expect it and she thought i was 'taller' , meaning she didn't expect to chuck it at my eyes either; she thought she chucked it at my chest *sigh*. No Vicky, even in heels, I'm STILL short =.=. 

Vicky chucked flour at Fiona's eyes and ran away.

Fiona dropped her bag and started screaming.

Fiona: AH! VICKY! MY CONTACTS! AH! I CAN'T SEE! AH!!!

Everyone ran toward Fiona, checking if she was alright. Shirley and Brandon cleaned her eyes while everyone else dusted the flour off of her. Cindy tried to make her cry to help wash the flour out of her eyes, but it was a futile attempt.

Fiona: Oh my God Vicky! I can't believe you! Ah! I can't open my eyes!

Vicky: Sorry!

Yeah, that continued on for a couple of minutes before I could finally see again. *smacks VIcky on the head* That sure was a great start to the party for me *roll eyes.* Ah, I forgive her anyways since she's done a lot for me =P Vicky, you better not do this again =.= my eyes won't be able to handle it a second time. Anyways, thanks those who helped me out, and yes that includes you too Vicky LOL =).

When it was night fall, everyone and everything went a bit ... chaotic. Thanh succeed in getting Minhky drunk; Danny continued drinking even though he was coughing half the time; there wasn't any sparklers but there were burning utensils; Minhky's speech of 'how I met _____' was touching; Derek's style of knock and run was hilarious: he knocked and stood there until they opened the door, and then slowly walked away; the 'IT'S OVER 9000' mudcake was delicious and the meaningful gifts were fun to open.

Now that was just the beginning. It got much worse at night. MUCH worse. When Danny and Anna came over, things just got more exciting. Thanh, Eric, Wendy and Nigel went to buy more alcohol, but with about 15 people in his house, it was obviously not enough. Ironically enough, Minhky's mother allowed us to drink the wine and campaign bottles she'd been saving up in her kitchen. Now watching Minhky get smashed, and then looked after by his mother was epic =D. I would never dare to get drunk in front of my mum =P. So with the new supply of alcohol, we played 'I Never.' I won't say what was said, because things were getting a bit personal by the end of the night, but Thanh, Minhky and Lily definitely got wasted by the end of it =D. Minhky should thank Eric for filming it all for him hahaha. Anyways, I honestly think I wasn't drunk. I was tipsy, but not drunk. I think a person drunk would be someone who can't walk in a straight, can't remember what happened the night before and/or was vomiting a lot. I experienced none of those, well.. maybe I was a bit wobbly when walking in a straight line, but I definitely remembered what happened the night before and I definitely didn't vomit either. So there!

I must say, with funny drunk people at the party, things became more intimate, louder, nosier, crazier and funnier HAHAHA =). I hope you had a SMASHING TIME Minhky =D! HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY !!! We should do this again another time =). Here are the photos from Danny and David's FB:

IT'S OVER 9OOO!!!

 Minhky's first glass of wine.

 Minhky's mother's bottles of wine...

 Us drinking it all away =D.

 Minhky's drunk face!

 A disappointed Rosalyn on the phone >.<.

 Danny and Anna's birthday cake present to Minhky.

 Yes, I made the mask myself.

PS. Thanks again to Danny, David and Julie for the photos =). Danny, your photos were great =D and good for you to upload all 200+ photos!.

PSS. Thanks Vicky's Dad for driving me home again =).

sniff me, i dare you

17O41O - San San 姐姐's 22nd Birthday.

No, I'm joking. I don't want to be strip naked and felt all over just to justify myself that I have no drugs on me, what so ever. Strange how it was only males who were sniffed out by the police dog. For once, I'd like it if it was a female who gets singled out. You know what's also strange? The attractiveness bias.Today, I experienced, first hand, how policemen bias people due to their physical characteristics. They were more likely to target people that were less attractive people. It was stereotypically dark-skinned, bearded males who were clothed in dark clothes. No wonder social psychologists hate humans, ie. Lisa Zadro (my social psychologist lecturer).

For the second time, in a row, I volunteered for the Bring It On Festival, which was held at the Fairfield Showgrounds. However, unlike last year, it was more spacious, less crowded and less entertaining unfortunately. There really isn't much to mention about besides the usual freebies, the rendezvous with old friends and the dog sniffing. The t-shirt colour was the same as last years, the sausage sizzle for the free BBQ voucher was not filling and they didn't provide bottles of water this year =/ I think it was mostly because of bad organizing skills. OH! I did manage to make something for Minhky's up coming birthday =). I hope he'll like it because it's all hand-made =).

 

Me, Mark and Livia.

Livia, Wendy and I.

 Shirley and I got our faces painted =).

Gah! This week's going to be one hell of a busy one: Human Biology exam, Foundations of Health group meeting, PhotoSoc executive meeting, PhotoSoc photoshoot, masquerade birthday party. I hope I'll be able to cope this week =/. 

PS. Adrian a really good job in looking after the volunteers =) thanks! 
PSS. Thanks Livia andMark for the photos.