A Nomad's Space

Back from Blogging Hiatus - Filling in the years in between

2011-05-20T13:38:00.000+12:00

So I looked at the date of my last post and realise that it has been almost 3 years since I last blogged! What happened there?

I guess life kinda got in the way...and today I was contemplating setting up one of those micro-blogging sites when I figured it might be a better idea to just pick up from where I left off years back. And for a fresh start I thought I'd change the blog look since knowing what I know now about web design, blogs, rss feeds, social media etc....the design was seriously outdated.

It's a bit difficult to squeeze pretty much 3 years worth of happenings into a short post so the condensed version of my life in the last 3 years if anyone is remotely interested:

I moved to Auckland and got my first job with Kumfs Shoes, now they're rebranded as Ziera. Got great experience there working with agencies, magazines, fashion shoots etc. Also lost my naivety about product recommendations and reviews in magazines - the magazine staff don't actually write them...we marketing people who advertise in these magazines do. Funny when I think about it, my writings being published in well known magazines like Australian Womens Weekly....
I got engaged to Garth. He proposed in 2009 up the Cobb Ridge with a custom designed plat & sapphire ring. We're still engaged with plans to actually have a wedding sometime before I turn 30.
I took up circus arts while stumbling upon it when I was thinking of taking ballet classes. Of all the aerial apparatus, I love the silks the most. So I got my own...
And seems I was good enough to perform in the Sexy Recession Cabaret, which was a fun experience and I'm glad I didn't get too nervous and fall. That would be a) embarassing in front of an audience b) ruin the show c) be extremely painful and result in broken bones given that we were doing tricks pretty high off the ground with no safety mats below.
I changed jobs last year and am now the Marketing Manager of Heritage Tiles. Since I'm the only person in the Marketing Department, it's been great having the freedom to explore and experiment with online marketing. I'm now somewhat skilled in SEO, SEM, online PR and social media.
I am also now an active member of the twitter community, building the personal brand of being an online marketer and SEO manager.

Ok so the last 2 points are my automatic marketing/branding reflexes kicking in - oops...but there you have it - the last years in a nutshell.

Rings Blings & Sparkling Things

2008-10-30T20:26:00.004+13:00

Earlier this year (before I moved to Auckland for work and started on the path of misery from being apart from Garth), Garth and I discussed marriage. Well we discussed my desire to have one and his not seeing the point of having one. The long and short of it was I decided I wanted something colourful for an engagement ring and maybe a blue diamond might be nice - a real gemstone

Of course, Garth wouldn't be able to afford a genuine blue diamond, so I figured I'd settle for an emerald ring or a sapphire or a ruby. They aren't necessarily very expensive..not compared to a blue diamond. Plus there are discount jewelers out there...

Recently over the last fortnight or so, in our nightly phone conversations, Garth appears to be dropping hints...like maybe he's going to propose. I'm not entirely sure if he is or if he's going off about something else. If he is though, I'm not entirely sure if I should be elated or gutted.

Well why elated is pretty obvious...it is exciting to have the love of your life propose after all. I might be gutted however coz as a student he is pretty much broke, so how would he be able to afford a really really nice ring? You might be thinking "geez materialistic b***h", but hey gimme a break, we're talking about a ring I'm gonna be wearing the rest of my life! It has to be up to standards!

Oh well, at the moment it's all speculation anyway. But what with all the weddings and engagements going on lately, who knows? Hopefully when the time comes I'd be 100% elated and 0% gutted!

From the Pacific to the Tasman

2008-01-23T12:48:00.000+13:00

Where in the world can you cross from the shore of the Pacific Ocean to the shore of the Tasman Sea in 20 minutes on foot?

On the coast of the Pacific Ocean

20 minutes later: Standing in the water of the Tasman Sea

Answer: At the base of the Farewell Spit - the Northern most part of the South Island in New Zealand.

While I was up in Takaka, we decided to make a trip out to see the spit, it being a good day with not much wind about. Of course before actually starting out on what would be a longer walk than I expected, we needed some "fortification" which Garth's parents kindly provided with lunch at the Paddle Crab.

The Paddle Crab is a (really expensive) cafe that overlooks the Farewell Spit from the Pacific Ocean side.

View of the Farewell Spit from the Paddle Crab

They've even got a little viewing room with a telescope through which you can look at spit all the way to the end. They also have the most awesome seafood meal for 2, which includes mussels, cockles, cold meats, and a paddle crab. Yum!

Seafood for 2

Following a most satisfying lunch, we started the walk along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, which lines the bay just below the Farewell Spit. At low tide, the water recedes for miles leaving a wide expanse of mushy sand. It's not uncommon for whales to get beached here because the tide goes out so far, and the locals around the area are familiar with trying to save the whales (from a single one to an entire school).

The tide travels a long distance out

Half an hour and 1 dead very smelly sunfish later (Sunfish are huge, round and flat, and this one was larger than a bus tire), we reached a point where you could cut through the bush to get up to the lower part of the spit. The bush wasn't very dense, and there was only some gorse...and I rode of Garth's shoulders mostly (I'm so glad I've got a strong bf!!). So the hardest part really was climbing up a steep incline of sand to get onto the spit. What's so hard about it? The sand was burning hot after having absorbed the heat of the sun for hours. Honestly, it was scorching, and it isn't me just being a girl since the men found it very hot too. Garth's dad had it the worst since he decided to go barefooted and left his sandals in the car at the start of the walk.

When we reached the top, we saw...

sand. Lots of sand. A whole wide expanse of sand, as though we had warped into a desert. Basically the Farewell Spit consists of sand dunes. Many many sand dunes. Since there was no wind and no clouds, and the sun was really hot, it pretty much nicely fit it with the whole desert theme.

We started across the sand, with Ian (Garth's dad) trying to find cooler spots to step in since the sand was scorching (it wasn't a very fruitful endeavour because all the sand had been getting sun for hours). When we got a quarter of the way across, we could no longer see the vegetation bit from whence we first came up. Then there was nothing but sky and sand. And the sand dunes seemed endless.

An endless expanse of hot white sand

Eventually though, (and much to Ian's relief) we came across a damp area, kinda like an oasis in the desert. The wind had blown the sand into little stiff peaks across a damp patch. The damp sand, of course, was much cooler and nicer to stand on barefooted.

Hurray for cooler sand

The patterns in the sand made by the wind was a fascinating view of nature's artwork.

Nature's artwork: Patterns in the sand

About 5 minutes from the other side in the middle of the sand dunes, we came across an area filled with pebbles. Strange huh? These were pretty large pebbles too, the kind you'd find along the riverbed. And no, there was no river in sight. Just sand.

Huh? Pebbles?

Since the area has seen its fair share of ship wrecks in its time, Ian thought it may have come from ships, since ships put pebbles in their hull when they need more weight.

And then...the first sign of water!! A sight for sore eyes and hot feet 8)

Yes we had arrived at the other side of the spit, the Tasman Sea! And while the tide was out, it wasn't as far out as we saw on the Pacific Ocean. It was far out enough though to form little pools of sun-warmed water, just nice for soaking your feet in...

...although much later on I realised that it wasn't a very good idea to dip your feet into "nice" warm puddles without first checking for jellyfish, after Garth nearly stepped onto a very poisonous blue jellyfish that looked like a ring of blue plastic (the kind around a Sprite bottle).

And of course we had to get our feet wet in the Tasman Sea after all that hot sand.

The Tasman Sea

Frolicking in the water

Getting quite wet

Ok I'm tired

Thankfully, when it was time to head back, we had an alternative path to take, which didn't require going back over the "desert". Instead, we wound up cutting through a farm i.e. there was a path. Along the way we also almost got attacked by some native birds who thought we might be trying to attack their chick, which we could see was frantically running off in a distance while its parents tried to distract us.

All in all, a good if rather tiring day out crossing from the east to the west coast of the South Island on foot. 8)

And just to end off with a twisty fact, the North of the South Island is North of the South of the North Island!

2007 in a Nutshell

2008-01-20T09:17:00.000+13:00

Ok it's been a long long long long time since I last posted anything here. So I thought it might be a good idea to sum up 2007.

2007 has been a rather eventful year, being the year...

...I broke up with my summer fling over MSN

...I move into a flat with awesome views

...I met Garth (and ended up renting a room I never stayed in)

...I learnt to shoot a rifle with real bullets too!

...I joined the sync skating team and we won South Islands and South Island Masters

...I worked as a tutor and had 1 or 2 students who apparently had a crush on me

...I got flown up to Wellington for a job interview

...Roly and Sheena came down to visit and we spent a night at the bach

...I saw pregnant sheep being scanned

...I auditioned and was short-listed to film a skating commercial (but didn't get in)

...I finished my degree

...I did my Grade 3 hip hop exam

...I did my first skating tests

...I performed in a hip hop dance show

...Garth gave me a white gold and diamond ring

...I performed in the Dunedin Ice Show

...Garth went through heaps of trouble (and gorse) to cut me a 2.8m Christmas tree

...I attended the Takaka Christmas Parade

...I spent Christmas in Takaka and got loads of presents and a Christmas stocking

...I got to play with newly hatched chicks on the farm

...I went musseling in Takaka

Yeah it's been a great crazy year, with heaps of new experiences, new beginnings, and new people. Hopefully 2008 will turn out to be just as great, as I move forward into the next chapter of my life: Life as a Non-Student.

Energy Drinks: My New Best Friend

2007-09-25T18:37:00.001+12:00

Garth hates it when I consume energy drinks...coz it means I wind up staying up late and keeping him up by talking. But this week has been special. I've had the (mis)fortune of have 2 5000-word assignments due on the same day, with my dissertation due the day after. To finish everything, I haven't been sleeping for the last week or so. Needless to say energy drinks have been my new best friend for the last week...and miraculously Garth has bought them for me. Oh well, not that I'm home much to keep him up late. I practically have moved into the post-grad computer lab in the commerce building. It's kinda creepy at like 2am in the morning here with just me, my snacks, and my energy drinks lol. I predict I'm gonna be needing heaps over the next 2 weeks, or at least till exams are over. Maybe I should just move into the lab already...

Hobbies Online Survey

2007-09-25T17:20:00.000+12:00

South Island Skating Champs

2007-08-27T18:52:00.000+12:00

I've just returned from spending a weekend in Christchurch where the South Island Skating Champs are on. Our synch team competed in the Adult Synchronised Skating category against Christchurch yesterday (yes we finally have someone to compete against!)...and WE WON!!!!! It was a close win really, and totally unexpected. We actually thought we'd be second instead coz some of our members couldn't make it up to Christchurch, and the Christchurch team had more complicated and "cooler" transitions. Apparently we won based on our artistic interpretation, coz our costumes and moves suited the music.

I'm really stoked about it. Haha after all it's my first skating medal. Yep we all got pretty gold medals 8). After the event the team just had to go out and celebrate. We went to the Speights Ale House, and they serve really yummy wedges, with cheese and bacon on top. Tremendously fatty food, but hey even our coach had a whole plateful. It's actually been a not-so-healthy trip. We kept stopping along the way at cafes and little outlets to eat. Along the state highway between Dunners and Christchurch, there's this cafe run by a berry farm. They have amazing raspberry sauce. I had their raspberry and cream cheese brownie, which was divine...especially with the raspberry sauce! The sauce was full of whole raspberries. Pity they dun sell the sauce though, and they're famous for their raspberry cheesecake, but I didn't try that. Oh well, there's always next time.

Next time isn't all that far off anyway. Coz we're competing in the South Island Masters Games as well, and that's in Christchurch too. Gonna have to make our program more complicated though, to make sure we keep ahead of Christchurch! It would certainly be nice to bring another medal home!!!

Up to Wellington

2007-07-30T20:03:00.000+12:00

Given this is my last semester at uni, finding a job for the next year is one of the foremost things-to-do. I applied to the NZ Racing Board sometime in July, got through the CV elimination round to the interview round. Excitingly enough, I got through the interview round and this week, the NZRB is flying me up to Wellington for more interviews and an assessment centre.

On one hand this is really good news to have made it this far. On the other hand, I'm freaking out. I don't know anyone else who have made it into the selection...would have been so much easier to know someone so you could kinda work through the thing together. It's pretty freaky coz you have to socialise with all the exec members. The CEO himself is gonna be present and while making small talk, there is the pressure of ensuring you make yourself memorable. I hate small talk...

While I've yet to decide whether I actually feel entirely happy about being flown up for more interviews, it means I'll be missing a horse riding lesson on Friday 8( Now that's devastating coz I began last week and it only goes for 3 weeks and it's real fun. My horse's name is PJ and she's really nice. It's gonna be a bummer missing out on the lesson, especially when this time we'd be really getting into it. Still, getting a job's more important aye? I really hope I survive this final elimination round. On the other hand, well I'll get a free trip up to Wellington with good lodging! 8)

2007-07-12T12:54:00.000+12:00

Back again for the last semester after a long 3 week break away from everything. Yep, spent all the time up in Golden Bay with Garth on his parents' farm in the middle of nowhere...away from cellphones and the internet (well pretty much...dial up doesn't really count does it? 8p). The highlights of the holiday include:

1. Riding on the 4 wheel farm motorcycle (as a passenger mostly)...attempting to drive it through the opening of the gate, and nearly crashing into a tree. It's not as bad as it sounds really, I just didn't have the strength to steer at that time (think big bulky noisy machine)...

2. Staying up in the bach...no electricity and no hot water coz it's at the top of the hill (which my sister and I named Garth Hill), but cellphone reception is good there. I learnt why you can go blind trying to sew by candlelight...needless to say, I left my cross-stitching behind thereafter.

Candlelight dinner up at the bach (candlelight not optional)

3. Roly and Sheena coming up to visit. Garth tried to take us up Cobb Valley, only we got stuck in the snow and ice partway up the hill and didn't have snow chains on. Thankfully we managed to dig and push the car outta the ice so we could turn around and go back down! Good thing Ian (Garth's dad) had a grubber in the trunk of the car, or else we'd have been stuck near the top of a hill till 6pm in the freezing cold...not fun. We did have a fantastic snack of cheese and crackers in the valley by the Takaka River.

By the Takaka River...it's cold!

Garth had heaps of fun tormenting Roly...and Roly saw lots of the floor in Golden Bay courtesy of Garth...as can be seen:

4. Getting to see sheep scanning...and getting bumped around by muddy heavy sheep.

The sheep were being scanned using ultra-sound to see how many lambs they were carrying. Lotsa twins and 2 or 3 triplets! I got to see the screen and learnt to tell how many lambs the ewe was carrying, also got to push the sheep up the ramp to be scanned (they're heavy).

Scanning the sheep

Marking those with twins

The sheep are chasing me!!

5. Missing the awful cold weather in Dunedin. Basically it rained, frosted, iced, snowed, sleeted almost everyday. They even had to close the road between Dunedin and Queenstown coz of snow and ice. It's been the coldest winter so far. Brrr... Here's what I missed which I saw went we came back:

Just driving into Dunedin

While up in Golden Bay...

Sunshine!!!

I miss the warmth...

Where Has the Semester Gone?

2007-05-18T21:09:00.000+12:00

It never fails to amaze me how fast time flies. We're onto the last week of labs this week, and not too long ago I recall freaking out over teaching my first lab. Needless to say, my class has settled down since to stop talking over me. Plus after lecturing to a class of 19 to 20+ year olds every week, presentations are no longer quite so scary...even if they're worth 30% of your entire course grade like the one I had today. Probably the worst part of the job now is marking. It's amazing how 2nd year University students for whom English is a first language can have such terrible grammar and punctuation. I've found that most of my students love to replace full-stops and commas with a semi-colon. And English is only gonna get worse here in NZ now that they've actually allowed text lingo to be used during the national exams!!! Ok I should refrain from going on and on about it (which I can do). Although marking would be hell for teachers in future...boy am I glad I'm only teaching as a part-time job.

So where has the semester gone? Assignments, readings, teaching and marking, dance classes and skating lessons and practices...that's where. It's fortunate my boyfriend lives with me and so we see each other a lot, otherwise considering everything I have on my plate I wouldn't have time for him!

Speaking of my boyfriend, I suppose some might be wondering where he came from, considering that I wrote that I was single again back in Jan. Ok I confess to committing the crime of dating my flatmate, Garth (honestly we both tried to fight it...but hey there's only so much struggle you can put up when you get on really really well and are both single!). Surprisingly we're getting on really well living with each other and seeing each other so much. It's really good to be able to come home to him for a hug after a long day. The best thing about him is that my sister actually likes and approves of him. Good reason to hold on to him, considering that my sister has never liked or approved of any of my previous boyfriends. She was ok with them but didn't explicitly like them. 8)

We went home with him up to Golden Bay over the mid-sem break, which was wonderful...we had sun and his parents rented a house by the beach (Dunedin on the other hand had crappy rainy cold-as-usual weather the whole week). His parents are great and have kinda adopted my sister and I as family (and so have all his relatives...). They own a "small" hill (which is pretty darn big for a city girl) and run a farm. Garth usually lives in a bach at the top of the hill when he's home, which is pretty cool but has no electricity. Anyway we learnt to shoot coz he's got a gun license and 3 rifles. It was fun shooting at paper targets and learning to load the rifle. I've still got my bullet casings from the shots I made with the .22. Gonna see this break if I can get away to go back up with him again, otherwise a month apart would feel rather strange 8(. That's what happens when you get used to seeing someone first thing in the morning and last thing at night...

Costumes

2007-04-17T22:07:00.000+12:00

I recall looking at costumes online last year to get ideas for themes for my 21st. Eastern Toys was one of the sites I looked at among others. They've actually got pretty interesting stuff for sale, great for a 21st or Halloween...or just any theme party. Costumes make things more fun after all...even as an adult. These retailers of costumes do have realistic costumes for both adults and kids too.

For instance, Eastern Toys carry quite a wide variety of realistic Star Wars costumes, which incidentally is on sale. The masks look quite good...which is probably why they cost so much! I guess the problem with getting good costumes is the price. Most people would rather make their own or rent something. Still, aside from masks and body suits which are expensive, props that make a costume more real like a lightsaber isn't too expensive. I recall Peter buying "Captain Hook's Hook" when he was dressing as Captain Hook (duh!), which wasn't too expensive.

Anyway, to anyone looking for costumes, or ideas for costumes, try the 'net...always a good place to start even if you probably wouldn't like the price. Then again who said realistic costumes come cheap? Hmm I wonder if they can actually make profit from the sale of these things...

Icky Dissertation Project

2007-03-30T22:07:00.000+12:00

Ok this is gonna be a post where I gripe about my horrible dissertation project. If I haven't previously mentioned it, my project this year looks at the effects of gender of vocalists of in-store music in women's fashion retail stores. Basically I need stores to participate by playing music I've selected over a period of 3 weeks and then look at sales figures and store traffic.

Sounds easy aye? Hah! Trying to get stores to participate is a real pain... Common issues are that they're not comfortable with revealing sales figures, even if we tell them to disguise it by multiplying/dividing by some unknown constant, and that they can't change the music.

After much effort, I managed to get 3 stores which matched my criteria (yes there's that too!)...and now 2 out of 3 have backed out!!! 8( Yes I'm one unhappy camper here, especially when I thought I'd get everything sussed before Easter. Now it's back to store hunting (and getting multiple rejections)...depressing...

Teaching Nightmare

2007-03-16T16:36:00.000+13:00

It's been 2 weeks now since I began lab demonstrating. It's kinda scary and weird playing the teacher rather than the student in the lab. It's really not easy trying to lecture around 26 20-year-olds, many of whom are way bigger than me in size. Plus I've been so "fortunate" that the class I teach is full of noisy students. And it doesn't help that I look like a high-school kid either.

When I took the first class last week, one of the guys in the class kept laughing at me. He'd glance up at me talking, start laughing, glance down at his work and back up, start laughing again, glance down... Well you get the picture. It was a most disconcerting thing! Still, it wasn't as bad as this week's class, where 2 of the noisy ones (guys of course) were actually drinking beer throughout the lab! Ordinarily students do occasionally bring in cups of coffee or soft drink cans with them, so I didn't give much thought to them bringing in cans, assuming it was some soft drink. So I basically didn't realise that it was beer until as the guys were leaving, one of them said, "I suppose you would like us to take our beer cans with us." Like @#$%%^#$^@#?!!!

Anyway, so I mentioned it in the staff meeting today and apparently this is the first time they've come across students audacious enough to do something like that...and consumption of alcohol isn't allowed on campus premises. The head demonstrator suggested that I should swap labs for a week with one of the other bigger, scarier demonstrators like herself. The guys volunteered too...one of them's the "clown" of the psyc department really and he wanted to swap so he could make them cry. lol Funny how guys come up with "solutions" to problems...'beat the other guy and make him cry' seems to be the first solution they think of. Even my flatmates, when I related the incident at tea last night, the guys went, "Ok we'll come with you to class next week and beat them up." I've swapped with the head demonstrator for next week though, so perhaps she can scare some good behaviour into them...or my class might decide I really suck...sigh

Marking assignments is another tough thing...and trying to decipher handwriting or what the students are trying to say. Then there's the issue of what grade you should assign them. I'm not looking forward to marking the major reports which don't have a "right answer"...marking is gonna be rather awful. Plus we have to calculate standard deviations for the class grades and make sure we distribute marks according to a normal distribution. Can't escape stats....it's everywhere!

Online Dating

2007-03-03T15:10:00.000+13:00

It's always really interesting to look at online dating. There are heaps of these sites on the internet...country-specific, city-specific, global. Most of the sites as usual cater to people in the US,like JustSayHi.com.

Quite a couple of dating sites do actually cost to join or those who pay have more features available to them. The main matchmaking site in NZ allows only the paid members to initiate contact. JustSayHi.com claims to be absolutely free. I'm quite suspect of claims of "free" coz there usually is a catch. I mean these sites have to cover their operational cost after all. Aside from Google ads, I haven't seen how JustSayHi.com generates income to cover its costs.

Reading the descriptions people put up of themselves has gotta be the most interesting part of pretty much any dating site. You have everything from the ordinary Joe to glamourous chicks...to even a mother looking for a guy for their daughter as I saw on JustSayHi.com. I wonder whether her daughter knows that her mum has posted an ad looking for a guy for her daughter... I reckon I'd be pretty unhappy if my mum went to an online dating site to find a guy. Parents and matchmaking....'nuff said 8S.

Week 1

2007-03-02T15:03:00.000+13:00

We've now come to the end of the first week of semester. And it is not good...as far as school is concerned. Mean lecturers have decided that at 4th year since you're pretty much a post-grad they should just jump right into things. Hence I've a 1500 word essay on some vague topic due next week and weekly quizzes (who even does pop quizzes anymore...esp at 4th year!!!) and heaps of reading to do. 8( Plus my dissertation is not going very well coz I've not quite been able to get stores to cooperate with me on my project.

On the other hand, school aside, things are going great. I've started skating again...which does require me waking up at 5.30 in the morning to get to the rink by 6am but it's exercise. Hip hop is going great too although grade 2 is much tougher (but more fun!). Tango classes are beginning next week and Garth has volunteered to go for classes with me as my partner 8). Finally I get to learn the tango...haven't had the chance before coz none of my guy friends would sign up with me! What's it about guys and dancing anyway?

Even more good news this week: We've got internet connection at the flat! Finally finally finally! 8) Now people can expect to see me online...well if I'm not busy doing other stuff that is. Like hanging with my flatmates, who are pretty cool...everyone is crazy and it's quite awesome lol. Plus this week 2 of Jorinde's friends have come to stay with us from the Netherlands so we've been having 9 people for dinner and dinners have been really fun (though not too fun if you're the cook!).

Hypnotism

2007-02-23T12:13:00.000+13:00

Every year, one of the O-week events is the hypnotism show. Given this is my last year, I figured I ought to check it out since mates who have been to see it in previous years have said it was good.

And so it was. It was awesome and hilarious really. The thing about hypnotism is that you can't go under unless you allow yourself to. Guy, the hypnotist got 21 volunteers from the crowd and 18 of them did go under. Then the fun began...lol. He made the guys think they were ballerinas in a performance whenever he played a certain piece of music and it was really hilarious to see them prancing across the stage. He made one guy think he was James Bond and the guy was sneaking and creeping around.

It being a college event, you can't really avoid dodginess. At one point he told the hypnotised people that on a count of 3 they would put their right hand on their favourite body part and then they'd wake up but their hand would be stuck on their favourite body part. No prizes for guessing where all the guys' hands went. And the chicks? There was the assortment of lips, boobs or between their legs. The funny thing was their expressions when they found they couldn't move their hands lol.

Then he put them back to sleep and made the guys think they had x-ray vision where they could see through every chick's clothes (both in the audience and on stage) when they awoke. One poor confused guy when asked how he was feeling said, "I wasn't aware this was a nudist function!" Another thought he was on a nude beach. Then he told the guys that although they had x-ray vision it meant also that their male parts have started shrivelling. All the guys were grabbing between their legs and one guy actually shoved his hand down his pants to check! He also "gave" the chicks x-ray vision, except that he made them see that all the guys had tiny penises...except for him, when they "saw" through his clothes they would be impressed by his size. Some of the chicks actually covered their eyes and upon seeing him, one of the chicks asked if he would like to move into her flat with her. Another chick actually called out to one of her mates in the audience and was laughing at him.

Probably one of the funniest parts of the show was when he told them that when they shook his hand they would feel exquisite, almost orgasmic pleasure. It was funny watching them squirm while shaking his hand and trying to disguise the fact that they were feeling kinda "funny" when they were asked how they felt while he was shaking their hand all the while. Some of the guys turned all the way so their back was to the audience... The chick who previously asked if he wanted to move into her flat asked him to do so again (she was really hitting on him...and he's a balding old guy...). Another chick told him he had great hands, even better than her boyfriend...and her boyfriend was back in Christchurch (luckily). She kinda didn't wanna let go of his hand.

As a finale, he gave them instructions on how they would respond to 3 different kinds of music. When "Love Me Tender" was played, they would fall deeply in love with the first person they saw and would stroke their cheek and say "I love you". When this millitary march played, they would think they were famous conductors of a marching band and lead the march. When "YMCA" played, they would think they were The Village People and perform the song. So he put on the millitary march and YMCA and let them loose in the audience where they dispersed and marched/hopped/danced all over the place and then played "Love Me Tender" and it was hilarious to see them grabbing random people and professing their love for these strangers. The funniest moment? When during one of the times he played "Love Me Tender" and the first person 2 of the hypnotised guys saw was each other. They spotted each other right behind where I was sitting and within a few seconds they somehow jumped into each other's arms and rolled on the floor and actually started kissing enthusiastically. There were definitely startled screams and gasps from the chicks in the audience around where the 2 guys were making out. A rather disturbing sight I guess, considering that minutes ago these same guys were each professing their undying devotion to a random chick in the audience...and they were definitely heterosexual guys.

Well it was a really entertaining performance really and totally hilarious. I'd definitely recommend catching this to whoever is attending an NZ uni (he performs during orientation at quite a couple of universities around the country). 8)

Last Week of Vacation

2007-02-20T12:17:00.000+13:00

Yep this is it. The last week of my summer vacation...and it's probably gonna be the last summer vacation for me for a long long time, unless I decide to do my Masters next year. At least I can be grateful that we've had wonderful weather the last couple of days. 8)

I actually spent the whole afternoon sunbathing in a mate's backyard the other day and wound up mildly sunburnt on my back. Probably didn't help that I wasn't wearing very much while sunbathing...who does? Fortunately while it was a little sore, I didn't peel and now I'm nicely tanned to face the upcoming cold weather which will eventually fade my tan since your skin rarely sees sun during winter.

To make the most of my last week of vacation, I've been visiting people pretty much everyday. This year I'll also be going for the hypnotism show that's always on during orientation week. Definitely gonna hit the clubs!!! Plus I'm attending the Highlanders game on Saturday. Well the Highlanders are the Otago team and I'm really a Crusaders fan and my mate whom I'm going with is also a Crusaders fan... Still, since they're playing the Stormers who are South African we figure it's ok lol... Garth will be at the game too, but he was always a Highlanders fan so for once we're on the same side. Should be interesting to be in our flat when the Highlanders play the Crusaders, what with my sister being a very strong Crusader fan. 8)

Valentines Day

2007-02-14T11:09:00.000+13:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!! It's funny how we set aside a day especially to show our partners our affection...and for the other 364 days (365 if it's a leap year) nah can't be stuffed doing anything extra special lol. Well for those without partners, it's a good time to meet other singles or to spend time with good friends (who are either single or have partners who juz don't care...awww). It's a pity it's a Wednesday, otherwise I reckon the bars and clubs would be crowded with people...and most wouldn't be going home alone either lol. Come to think of it, the bars might juz be really crowded anyway. Still not much point in going I guess. After all, how likely is one to meet someone you'd actually wanna enter into a serious relationship with in a bar?

So I'm gonna be spending my Valentine's with friends...as usual. The other day Garth and I were discussing Valentine's and it occurred to us that we've not actually spent Valentine's with anyone...well I have once when I was in a 2.5 year relationship. It's mostly bad timing really, you tend to either break up before Valentine's or get together after. Speaking of Garth, he's pretty sweet really...he got a bunch of roses for us chicks in the flat (well he did that last night and banned us from the kitchen where he put them...and my sister thought that perhaps he might have been hiding a spider or bug to scare her lol). Most guys wouldn't have bothered...

Anyway new aim for my next relationship: Make it to Valentine's Day...and he'll have to be pretty darn romantic too lol so I know I'll have a great one ;p

Blogging for Income

2007-02-13T14:10:00.000+13:00

With blogging being a pretty common thing now, it's no surprise that someone thought of using blogs as a commercial marketing tool. I recently signed up with Blogvertise, having heard of it being mentioned in one of those forums I randomly read.

Basically the idea behind Blogvertiseis that they pay you to blog about a specific topic...which I reckon seems pretty good given how you actually get an income from blogging...and in my case, somethingto blog about lol. After all I only blog if there's something I can write about, which isn't all that often really.

Probably the only pain about Blogvertise is that you've to make a link to whatever website you're reviewing 3 times in your post... Oh and the fact that there's a 5-day dateline. Still it's a source of income...and if anything, the one thing a student needs it's income lol.

Views of Dunedin

2007-02-12T15:15:00.000+13:00

One of the great things about the flat I'm currently in are the fantastic views from the front coz we're up on the hill, overlooking town and the harbour.

I've placed my desk in front of the window so that the great view out might inspire me to spend more time at my desk this year!! lol Below are photos I took from the from window...

Straight out...the harbour and campus

To the North...Leith Valley and Mt Cargill

Town in the South but the bushes kinda block the view

The view's better from upstairs where we've got a wee balcony and a pretty much unobstructed view so you can see all the way to the South. I took a video of the view...hopefully it works!!

But in case it doesn't work or the image isn't clear (which I highly suspect would be the case)...I've got more photos from the balcony!

North

East

South

Full House

2007-02-07T19:54:00.000+13:00

Everyone in the flat has moved in now...well not exactly everyone since Oliver's girlfriend moved into his room as a substitute for him. He's "The Mystery Guy". None of us have met him and all we know about him is that he does rock-climbing. His girlfriend seems pretty cool though so I guess he should be a nice person too aye? He's upstairs in the room right beside my sister's.

Opposite my sister's room is Chrissy's. We only met her once prior to moving into the flat and we thought she was a quiet non-party person. Well...turns out she's quite the social party girl. The first day of her moving in saw her with a crate of beer and several mates over (1 of which was rather annoying since he kept slamming doors and left the toilet seat up). Still don't know her very well coz we hardly see her and usually when she's in she's had mates over.

And next to her in the prettiest room is good old Garth who has now taken to tormenting me everyday by poking me or otherwise squishing me by throwing himself on top of me on the bed (he doesn't look it, but he's heavy!!!)...except for when he's upset or when he's out at cricket practice. My sister and I are probably closest to Garth given how the 3 of us shared the flat initially before everyone else moved in. The 3 of us preferred having the flat to ourselves lol, but oh well...

On floor 1.5 (coz it's on the landing between the top and bottom floor) there's Jorinde who owns the flat with her boyfriend. She's from the Netherlands and is a pretty outdoorsy kinda person. She does tramping and mountain biking. It's great having your landlord (or surrogate one) living in the same flat coz it means if you have issues regarding bits of the flat you don't have to wait for ages to get it fixed...like I got new curtains coz the ones originally in the room were awful and kinda too short.

Downstairs opposite me is Josh. He's really really tall which was great when it came to hanging up my new curtains coz the flat's one of those ancient ones with really really high ceilings. He's a funny guy and into biking. The other day he cycled to Mosgiel to pick up a pair of mountain biking shoes kinda late at night, thinking that Mosgiel was only an hour's bike ride away...took him 3 hours instead coz it's really far away. I told him in future if he feels like travelling out of Dunedin he could borrow my car. Since then we've all been teasing him each time he goes out, asking him if he's biking to Mosgiel or maybe Oamaru lol. He's a funny guy though and great as a neighbour coz I wouldn't have to fear making too much noise coz he's partially deaf.

It should be an interesting year with the bunch of us...and I'll probably post a new opinion on the people in the flat in April...for some reason April seems to be the time when problems and quarrels among flatmates start emerging. I suppose 2-3 months is the tolerance limit of most students. So we'll see what happens when April comes round.

Super 14 Not-so-Good Start

2007-02-03T02:01:00.000+13:00

Super 14 began today with the first game: Blues vs Crusaders. Sadly, for the first game it was a bad start for the Super 14 season...because the Crusaders lost!!!! I'll bet that aside from the Aucklanders, everyone else would have been gutted that the Crusaders lost, simply because the Blues are the Auckland team and well, you always support whichever team is playing Auckland (unless you're from Auckland yourself).

I blame it on the fact that this year is World Cup year and since the Crusaders are the best team, naturally many of the players are also in the All Blacks. So the poor Crusaders lost 9 of their players to the All Blacks for this year's Super 14, a couple who are likely the best players in the whole International Rugby Union (think Daniel Carter...the guy is a real all-rounder). I think the Crusaders might have to give up the Super 14 cup this year (in favour of patriotism lol).

On the up-side, the All Blacks are ranked world's best rugby team (duh) based on game stats. The French are ranked 2nd and our Aussie neighbours, the Wallabies 3rd followed by the Springboks from South Africa and the English Lions (or was it the other way round?). The funny thing is that the last time we won the World Cup was in 1987... So this year being 20 years later we have to win it again...and we will too! 8)

Totally Random Note: Did you know that New Zealand has a larger population of possums than we have sheep?

Random Guys Random Texts

2007-02-01T21:13:00.000+13:00

It's amusing how the male mind works...especially when it comes to picking up chicks. Last night I got a text from an unknown number asking how's it going. As one usually does when seeing an unknown number I texted back to ask who it was, and got a text back saying "Ben". Right that speaks volumes seeing as to how Ben isn't exactly a rare name and I do happen to know a couple of Ben's as I told the chap.

I guess the guy finally got an inkling that perhaps he might have got the wrong number or something coz he asked who I was. Turned out he thought he was texting a "Shannon". So I texted back to say he had the wrong number, upon which he texted an apology. Now one would have expected the texting back and forth to come to a halt since both of us now knew he was texting the wrong person. However, right after the apology another text followed to explain that Shannon was a chick he met in a club last night and he must have written down the wrong number. Okkkay I wasn't expecting him to explain himself to me, but fine if he felt the need to assure that I didn't think he was a nut.

End of text volley? Nope. Guess he figured since Shannon was a lost cause now and here was some other chick he wound up texting, might as well take the opportunity...coz he followed with "Well Antonia sounds way better than Shannon anyway. So where are you from if I may ask?" An obvious pick-up line lol (one that even someone as dense as I got...). I've never actually been hit on through a text-by-mistake situation so I guess this was somewhat amusing. Hence I found myself entertaining the guy lol...well with encouragement from my sister (who kept saying it was so romantic...how so I still can't figure that one out) and Garth (who went so far as to grab my cell and try and text this random guy back in my place). After all I didn't exactly have anything to do at the time.

So turns out Ben is one of those beach dudes, totally into scuba diving, and is an Aucklander (figures...a third of the population lives in Auckland after all). Pretty interesting conversing with him although some of his text lingo took me awhile to figure out. Anyway some 20 texts later I ended the volley, being rather sleepy so he said he'll text again another time. I think if I'm gonna be having text conversations I'll probably switch plans to the 2000 texts for $10 a month thing. Good thing Ben's on Vodafone too since it only applies to Vodafone numbers 8)

Single Again

2007-01-31T05:44:00.000+13:00

Broke up with my boyfriend just now. I guess I'd already come to terms with it the last week since I'm completely calm about it. As usual my philosophy is don't look back, so henceforth it's over and I'll no longer think about it. It's always a good philosophy to follow...no point thinking of all the "what ifs" which would drive one completely nuts.

In any case I think I'll lay off relationships for awhile and stick to just-for-fun stuff. After all I've got heaps on my plate already with school and work and a relationship is a pretty risky business. Yeah places to go, people to meet and lotsa stuff to do...like start working more towards my goal (which I know I've been doing quite a bit of procrastinating on...bugger). 8)

Changes

2007-01-30T21:17:00.000+13:00

I'm not entirely sure I like change. Sometimes things seem to go really well and you're perfectly happy and content with life. Then BAM something comes along and changes everything. And then you end up floundering confused, wondering what the hell happened. Needless to say this rather unwelcome change is followed by negative emotion and the unanswerable question...Why me? On the other hand I suppose some change is good...like self-improvement changes. Like winning the lotto? lol Yeah I'd welcome that change...

Still change is inevitable. Everything changes every single day. Appearances, relationships, environment... Can't quite control it. I guess life would be pretty boring if everything stayed the same. It would be nice if one could control change though aye? I guess if you are able to control the changes in your life you'd be happier since people tend to be more content and happy when they are in control. Which makes sense really since you make the choices that decide your life rather than being controlled by fate. Argh if only I had more control over my life at the moment!

Broken Promises Empty Words

2007-01-29T14:52:00.000+13:00

Promises are really meaningless words until one backs them with action. It's saddening to know how easily they're broken or how much hope a person can place in them...even the slightest promises. Funny how you never realise how much you treasure a promise over the tiniest issue until you realise it was just empty words.

Making a promise (implied or otherwise) may mean little to you, but so much to the other. And breaking it without reasonable justification, even the tiniest simplest promise, would that not therefore signify that the one you've made a promise to means so little to you that you could not attempt to fulfil your promise to the best of your abilities?

I'll admit I've broken my share of little promises...without actually considering if I've hurt the other. Strange that I've never really thought about it till now, considering that I've been hurt several times by unfulfilled promises and empty words. So from now on I'm gonna try and keep all my promises...especially the little ones. It's really the small things that count the most after all. If some promises are too hard to keep or if you are unsure of your ability to keep them, do yourself and the other person a favour...don't make promises you can't or are unwilling to keep.

Of course, as with all things, special circumstances apply. Nothing is absolute after all save death (and even that is debatable, but we shall not go there...). Still, for those looking at self-reflection and character improvement, might be a good idea to consider what promises you're making in your life and whether or not you're keeping them.

Escape

2007-01-27T17:23:00.000+13:00

The great thing about living in NZ is that one can easily find somewhere peaceful to spend time with oneself. All you need to do is hop into the car and start driving...eventually you'll end up somewhere quiet with hills and a great view of the ocean. It helps if it's fine day too, although the view is great regardless.

So I found myself driving all the way round the harbour up to Port Chalmers. Never been there before so I was quite surprised to see that it's a kinda historical town coz apparently the first settlers in Dunedin landed there. And I discovered Dunedin has a maritime museum although I wasn't in the mood to go in, I reckon I'll probably drive up there again sometime and have a look.

Being the hilliest place in NZ, Dunedin has a couple of lookout points and Flagstaff Point in Port Chalmers overlooks the entire Otago harbour whereby straight ahead is where the harbour joins the ocean. I spent about 2 hours there in the quiet not thinking and left in a more peaceful and less upsetting state of mind. I highly recommend taking time out to not think...it's a very useful activity for preservation of sanity lol.

Finally A Real Summer Day

2007-01-26T16:04:00.000+13:00

Yes after days of gloomy weather we finally had sun and warm weather a few days back. Living in Dunedin, one must grasp every opportunity to soak up the sun's rays. Hence my sister, Lucy (ex-flatmate), Garth (current flatmate), and I found ourselves on the beach in the afternoon.

The sand was really nice (think white, fine, soft and warm)...the kind that makes me wanna roll around in it lol. The water as expected was freezing, but at least the sun was there to make up for it so it wasn't too cold splashing around. I really wouldn't go swimming in it though...although I guess it wouldn't have made that much difference seeing as to how we ended up having water fights and getting wet anyway.

Garth being Garth just had to try and toss us into the water. Didn't help that he's much stronger, fitter and faster (it's all that cricket training)...and could easily pick us up despite all our wriggling and struggling. It's appalling to know that some guy can easily sling you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes...a rather undignified position and none too comfortable too! His only saving grace is that while he carted us all the way to the edge of the water, he didn't actually toss us in. And probably the fact that we drove his car to get to the beach helped...lol

Unfortunately this is Dunedin and as expected sunny warm days are a rarity so since then we haven't had nice days. In fact yesterday was cold, rainy and miserable... Well, so much for the fine weather predicted by the weatherman (who is never accurate) for the week.

And then there were Three...

2007-01-15T23:39:00.000+13:00

One of our flatmates for this year moved in recently into the nicest room in the flat. Nicest coz it was recently renovated by the landlords. It's not a very big room though so I guess its "new-ness" makes up for its lack of size, seeing as to how we'reall paying the same amount for rent. He's been pretty cool so far and friendly and easy to talk to. He's a sports person and plays cricket very regularly and hopes to make the Otago team...and I muz say he definitely is a determined fellow. Presently he is still training and playing cricket with a broken foot and yet-to-be-fully-healed fractured ribs. How he manages to run with a broken foot I have no idea. Even better would be how he has managed to conceal the fact that he has a broken foot from the coaches. And he hasn't even been to the doctor...

Anyway I am glad to say that after 3 years I finally sorta get cricket. After many failed attempts by various mates to explain de game to me, our new flatmate has succeeded somewhat. It still doesn't change the fact that cricket goes way too slowly and long for my liking though lol. Nope, can't make a cricket fan outta me...even if cricket is our other national sport.

It's gonna be a pretty exciting sports year with the cricket world cup on and then the rugby world cup. Looks like the tv is gonna get plenty of use this year 8). I'm looking forward to seeing the All Blacks get the cup (which really rightfully belongs with us...after all we have the world's best rugby team...lol). 8p

Situation Update

2007-01-04T14:05:00.000+13:00

Ok here's an update on the current situation in good old Dunedin. We actually are having a summer day today (finally!)...sun, a couple of clouds, bright blue sky...

The state of things in the flat are however not so ideal. We still have no phone line so thank goodness for cell phones. Naturally we have no internet connection either and probably won't get any till Feb or something the way things are going coz we can't find an ISP that suits us as yet. I've taken to running over to my friend's flat where he has the whole flat to himself (coz everyone else is away for summer) and internet connection, which he has kindly agreed to let me use 8)

My room in the flat is still a furniture warehouse as renovations are going on in the flat and all rooms including the lounge are filled (we presently have a double bed sitting in the lounge). So I can't move my ex-flatmate's stuff out and shall (annoyingly) have to wait till she gets back to do something about it. Therefore I'm currently sleeping in my sister's room on the mattress/couch amidst unpacked boxes and furniture.

The good thing is I can get pretty close to the heater being on the floor. Typical of Dunedin we have cold nights and it probably doesn't help that the flat is over 100 years old and there are cracks and holes whereby the cold air can sneak in. According to documentation the flat was built in the 1890s and the landlords while renovating 2 of the rooms found 4 pretty mint copies of a Christian weekly newsletter dating back to 1902, 1903 and 1904. There's some thought of giving it to the museum but presently it's sitting on the table in the corridor. My sister suspects that the piping hasn't been changed since then and therefore the water smells funny, but nobody has died from it yet so I reckon the piping must still be good.

The flat has a great view of the city and you can see the harbour too since we're on a hill. I'll try and post some photos sometime when I get round to it lol. The great thing is that there's nothing to block the view really. We could clearly see the fireworks display in the Octagon (and hear the people singing) on New Year's Eve. Guy Fawkes is gonna be awesome...as long as they dun decide to implement the ban on fireworks they were talking about putting on last year after the many fires started as a result during the Guy Fawkes period. I reckon we would prob be able to see Carisbrook as well...

Me, well I'm down with the usual cold I get whenever I return to Dunedin from wherever. I'm still unemployed and looking for a job and there's still stuff to be done to settle into 2007. On the bright side I was given a cash award by the Uni for good grades for last year which would come in handy for paying rent 8)...but it doesn't come in till May 8(. Still any income is good aye? In the meantime I really have to do something about my not-so-fantastic financial situation...

A Random Post

2007-01-04T00:05:00.000+13:00

I wasn't gonna post anything till later when I thought up something to write but I couldn't resist making a random post...lol.

Try this: Go to google and type in "llama" in the search field and click "I'm feeling lucky"

And play the flash that loads...it's perfect for ending the day in randomness 8p

Life in 2007

2006-12-20T02:59:00.000+13:00

And here is the prediction for my "life" for 2007:

Classes
Assignments
Lab demonstrating
Assignments
Skating classes
Assignments
Skating practice
Assignments
Dance classes
Assignments
Job hunting
Assignments
Skating tests
Assignments
Dance exams
Assignments
Exams

Does anyone spot a trend here?

Holiday Takeaways

2006-12-19T03:08:00.000+13:00

I don't like knowing upon looking back that I've frittered away my vacation time...doing nothing and accomplishing nothing. It really makes one feel rather useless. Glad to say, in the time I've been in Singapore, I've managed to "acquire" some stuff at least 8)

1. A share trading account so I can now manage my own share portfolio

2. Knowledge on property investing courtesy of my dad, having followed him around to several investment presentations

3. A first aid certificate!! After 3 long days of torture in the form of absolute boredom and me trying to keep awake during the lectures...I am now able to bandage someone up nicely (if I'm not too busy wincing over the wound)

4. And perhaps most surprising of all...a boyfriend. Yeah the days of the happy swinging single are over and I've gotten over my "wild" phase lol. Yours truly has joined the ranks of the happily in love 8). It's pretty crazy when I think about it, considering the short time we've actually known each other. It started off as a casual thing meant to end (amicably) when I left...something I would have labelled a fling and filed away as a good memory. But it became something more...sorta to be expected in a way I guess, seeing as to how my "fling" guys never last beyond 2 dates and I was seeing him way more often than that 8p. It's probably not the best of times to start a relationship given how I'm not too sure when I'll next be in Singapore... Still, we're gonna attempt the whole long distance relationship thing and see what happens 8).

Life is sweet...

21 Years

2006-12-06T02:06:00.000+13:00

And so I am now 21...an adult. Do I feel any different? No. I've always thought when I was a kid that when one grows up, one distinctly feels more mature and more adult-like. But I find I'm the same old me... Still I guess maturity comes with experience rather than age. It's surprising how many people in their 20s seem a lot more immature 8p. I wonder if I'd feel the same way about people in their 30s when I hit that decade...

Ok this is just about all the reflection on being another year older I can do!!! Moving on... This is pretty much the last year I'll be in Singapore as a citizen given that the citizenship would have expired by December next year, during which I'd still be in Dunedin preparing for graduation 8). Despite the friends and family I have in Singapore, NZ still feels more like home...even with its random, cold weather. When will I visit Singapore next? Who knows? But travelling is definitely in my future...and Singapore makes a great stopover (think rent-free accomodation...people to entertain... lol)! N'est-ce pas?

Light Sounds & Flowery Bursts

2006-11-03T21:34:00.000+13:00

Once again it's the time of the year when fireworks are legal thanks to good old Guy Fawkes. Every night now one can hear the sound of fireworks going off and see an impressive array of colours exploding in flowery bursts. Unfortunately, much as I'd like to spend all my time staring out of the window, I still have one exam to go 8(. Ah well, it's kinda hard concentrating with all the noise of fireworks going off too. Maybe I should go get myself some just to get it out of the system...

Paintings of the Day

2006-10-31T23:30:00.000+13:00

Paintings of the day...by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691-1765)

Galerie de vues de la Rome antique (1758)

Galerie de vues de la Rome moderne (1759)

I suppose this is a rather random post but these are 2 of my favourite paintings in the Louvre...probably coz after viewing so many paintings in the Louvre and all around Italy and France (which is pretty much everywhere or in every church at least) they all start to look the same (not to mention your eyes start crossing...). And these, well they're different. Too bad photography wasn't allowed in the room. I liked these way better than the Mona Lisa. I find it amusing that the view of modern Rome as it was back in the 1700s included the Fontana di Trevi which is really old, Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona. Still, I suppose since they appeared in the 1600s they were kinda modern...

Moving Woes

2006-10-28T23:54:00.002+13:00

I hate moving. Yet I seem to be doing it pretty much every year now and will have to move again next year. Even though I love travelling, moving is something else entirely. With travelling you live out of a suitcase. Not much to pack, easy to pack. It's just a couple of belongings after all. Moving on the other hand is essentially packing up your life into cardboard boxes and shifting said life somewhere else. There's furniture to dismantle, glassware to pack, removers to call and settle with, working out shifting schedules... It's a nightmare. Presently the flat looks like a tornado has been through it. My room has certainly seen better times, and I still have 2 exams to go.

It'll be worse next year I reckon coz I probably wouldn't be in Dunedin the year after. I shudder at the thought of having to deal with issues like storage and selling off furniture. Plus I've grown rather attached to my furniture. Nope I'm not looking forward to next year at all. 8( I wish someone would hurry up and invent a teleportation machine or something that can easily transfer stuff from one place to another in a blink. Think of all the logistical problems that could solve, not to mention making my life infinitely easier. Now where's a genie when you need one?

Bubbly Times

2006-10-21T18:08:00.000+13:00

Yesterday we had a mini champagne, cheese and cracker party at our flat. The champagne was good stuff...courtesy of my flatmate's boyfriend who would never touch cheap wines. So we proceeded to get high on bubbly...and I wound up giving my flatmate's boyfriend's friend a makeover...think smokey eyes and blood red lips. All with his cooperation of course. In fact I recall that after the makeover he declared himself prettier than us chicks lol.

A couple more glasses of bubbly (encouraged by my flatmate) and he was out cold. Totally out cold. My flatmate being drunk spend half an hour screaming in his ear for him to wake up so she could drive him home. That was despite my sister and I telling her she was in no condition to drive and we wouldn't be able to move him anyway. So we left him on the couch and went off to slp.

Except that my sister hear a loud thump some time later and the guy had fallen onto the floor and hit his head on the table leg and he was shivering. So my sister got some blankets to throw over him and turned on the electric heater. For some reason he kept moving under the table (still completely unconscious) until his toe went into the heater and might have caught fire if my sister hadn't noticed and moved the heater away. I doubt that catching fire would have woken him really coz to stick a body part into the heater right onto the heating coil and not feel anything...well WWIII wouldn't have got him up. If that wasn't enough, he then proceeded to throw up while still unconscious, sending my sister into a panic coz he could choke to death. Despite her best attempts to get him to chuck in the bin he ended up chucking every where else except the bin. Ugh! Our lounge still smells a little odd currently...

Moral of the story: if ur guests are gonna get drunk and pass out, make sure they sleep over a bucket!

Blog Revamp II: All's Good

2006-10-17T04:50:00.000+13:00

Yay now it works in all browsers...although it appears best in Firefox. It's a minor problem of spacing in IE & Opera though so all's good (it was a layout disaster before...)

Right now that I've run outta excuse to procrastinate I suppose I should do some study...bother.

Blog Revamp: Warning Only Works in Firefox

2006-10-17T02:39:00.000+13:00

I've just spent the last 6 hours giving my blog a new look...(talk about procrastination what am I doing? I've an exam in 3 days!!!) Anyway I thought the old colour scheme was pretty bad. I've no idea what I was thinking when I picked those colours the last time!! Ugh! Now my blog looks much better...I mean the colours aren't as random as they were the last time...and I like my header. I used photos from my days in Europe 8). I must say I'm getting the hang of css since it took me less time to design the blog than it did de last time.

Oh fantastic...argh!!! My new design only works on In Firefox. It doesn't display correctly in IE or Opera! *sob* Bother...anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?

Strange Weather

2006-10-10T19:29:00.000+13:00

Honestly I dun think I've ever come across stranger weather than here in Dunedin. I woke up this morning to heavy snowfall. Hey it's spring you aren't supposed to have snow in the middle of spring! If that wasn't weird enough, after about an hour or so of snow, the weather realised it was spring and poof! It became sunny again. Then as if the weather couldn't make up its mind, a quarter of an hour later it decided to snow again...heavily (think overcast sky, strong wind and swirling snow). Then sun (blue sky, a few white fluffy clouds here and there)...and barely half an hour later sleet, then rain, then sun, then hail....well you get the idea.

Basically we've been alternating between snow, sun, rain and hail and it's kinda driving me nuts. I realise though that this may also perhaps be due to the fact that I'm supposed to be studying for upcoming exams and somehow have barely gotten a start on that. Still you've gotta admit...it's some pretty crazy weather...and it's pretty obvious I'm procrastinating again. *sigh*

Psyc BBQ

2006-10-05T08:51:00.000+13:00

To commemorate the end of a year's worth of PSYC 300 level honours seminars, one of the professors threw a BBQ at his place. His place is quite well-known in the department...mostly coz a murder was committed in one of the bedrooms. And the murderer wasn't just anyone...he happened to be the department head of psychiatric medicine who murdered his wife by poisoning her and being really stupid about it. For example, he actually lectured his students on how to murder someone by administering drugs that give the symptoms of natural diseases. In any case the place was massive, and my professor runs it as a B&B...he puts the guests in the bedroom where the murder happened but naturally doesn't tell the guests that. The bathroom is fantastic though...it's totally carpeted with a jaccuzi.

It was certainly a night of learning...all the gossip in the psyc department and stories of past events. According to the head of the psyc department (as one professor told us) said that the staff of the psyc department are so much more fun when they're bad.

For instance the lecturers used to form a band and had annual concerts. It's kinda hard to picture some of them in a band, but apparently they did actually make large profits from concerts. Unfortunately the band broke up after a disastrous concert where few people turned up...which was expected given that for some reason the organisers decided to hold it around the end of the year on the same night a big rugby game was on. Well nothing gets between a kiwi and his rugby.

Our other professor told us of the costume party the psyc department used to hold and who liked to wear what. Apparently she used to dress as a pregnant nun and another lecturer used to go in mini-skirts, fishnet stockings and thigh high boots (think skanky). We spent quite some time trying to convince them they should revive these traditions....it's much more fun than trying to pay attention to a lecture on attention!

Speaking of paying attention, the professors confess that the lecturer who organises department seminars falls asleep in every one of them. He said the guy sits beside him everytime and falls asleep on his shoulder and drools...lol Really unfair I reckon, since they make us go and we don't get to fall asleep since we're required to summit a report on it. 8(

Anyway I'm gonna be looking at the psyc department thru new eyes from now on...

When Do the Birds Sing?

2006-09-21T02:59:00.000+12:00

Dunedin is now evidently in Spring. I love Spring, I really do.

We've got:
1. warmer weather (strangely warm today)
2. fresh green leaves on previously bald trees
3. cherry blossom petals showering down when the wind blows
4. colourful flowers everywhere
5. more daylight hours

But this is really paltry evidence to mark Spring's presence, what really brings home the fact that Spring is here is:

1. Hay Fever
2. Allergies
3. Everyone getting sick
4. Pollen covered car
(washing it is redundant coz it remains clean for less than a day)

Oh and this may or may not have something to do with Spring, but I've noticed the birds start singing at 3am now and sing straight all the way to 6am at least. Why do I know this? (I also know that the street sweepers start work at 5.30am and the waste management truck goes round campus at around that time too, also at that hour traffic on the road consists of taxis and huge trucks that like to speed...but that's besides the point) Coz recently I've been finding myself spending the night in campus working once again on those never ending assignments.

Oh yeah I'm really enjoying Spring...

Broken Tail Light

2006-09-14T03:52:00.000+12:00

Some idiot hit my parked car and broke my tail light the other day and then just drove off without leaving a note or something to offer to pay for damages. Luckily for me, some other nice random person saw it happen while sitting in the library and actually wrote down the license number.

The problem here is that even with the license number, a driver can be pretty hard to track down...you have to pay to get the name and address of the owner from the post shop. There isn't even a phone number you can call or an email address...funny how used to technology one can get. The amount of trouble one has to go through to get compensation makes me one very irate owner-of-a-car-with-a-broken-tail-light. I now have to write a note to this jerk...threatening a police complaint if he/she refuses to pay *evil laugh*.

Hopefully the jerk will call me soon. Moral of the story: If you hit someone have the courtesy to leave a contact number!

Where Has The Year Gone?

2006-08-25T17:24:00.000+12:00

Mid-sem break has begun...and it seems like it was just yesterday that the semester started. Where has all the time gone? I reckon I oughta quit pausing to think about it coz it's getting too scary how fast time flies. Before I know it I'll be tossed out in the big bad world to struggle for a living...

Workload is presently at high-stress level (3 assignments due soon), together with other stuff like working on the marketing campaign for Arthritis NZ's Appeal Week, dance exam, finding a new flat for next year (have I mentioned how much I hate moving?) and even throwing a party is stressful. How much can one fit into a week of holidays? Plus I'm going skiing for 3 days as well, although on hindsight perhaps I shouldn't have agreed to go...on the other hand winter is once a year... To accomplish everything I need to do by the end of the holidays, I figure I'm gonna have to work from 7am to 12am for the rest of the break. Some break huh?

On a happier note, fuel prices have gone down, spring is round the corner and the weather is getting warmer. I'm already beginning to daydream of summer...haven't had a summer in 2 years...

Logic

2006-08-16T22:14:00.000+12:00

Parental logic is something I don't get. What's wrong with walking to and fro every Wednesday night to dance class which is just down the hill from the house? Especially when one's been doing that for the past 6 months? According to parental logic, now that I own a car it is not safe to walk down...drive down, that's what the car is for. Excuse me? We're talking just down the hill here...a 6 min brisk walk down and 10 min walk back up. It's not even in another suburb! Apparently, buying a car has rendered me incapable of walking and turned walking on a Wednesday at 8pm in a residential area unsafe ("because your sister said it's dark and scary"). Is it me or has logic been completely warped here? If you consider the astronomical fuel prices nowadays and the fact that I no longer climb hills (which used to be my best source of exercise), really walking is more economical and healthier.

Try telling my mum that... Naturally I gave up trying to explain that
a) it's just downhill not even as far as town or campus
b) it's not a Friday or Saturday night where people get drunk and violent
c) it's a residential area with no bars around for people to get drunk in and very few uni students
d) it's only 8pm
e) my sister starts claiming it's dark and scary the moment the sun sets which varies according to season
f) I've been walking for the last 6 months with no problems
g) it's a waste of fuel to drive down when I can easily walk
h) I get exercise

How do you argue logically with someone who has a totally different kind of logic altogether? Answer: You can't. The most logical thing is to give up. That's not to say I'm gonna start driving down...it just means well ignorance is bliss! 8p

The Lies They Tell You

2006-08-05T23:51:00.000+12:00

If anyone tells you...

1. Workload at 400/postgrad level is heavier than 300 level
2. A professor helps you become less confused

They are lying.

Why?
1. Postgrad students seem to have more free time and a lighter workload than undergrads...and they do admit so too. This postgrad German student I know is free all the time and has 5 day weekends. Hello? Does that even qualify as studying full-time? Also, I did a 400 level paper last semester and didn't need to work as hard as I have this semester!

2. Went to see my psyc lecturer for my honours seminar paper regarding clarifying feedback on my essay. Instead I came out more confused than ever. It probably didn't help much that he told me his job was to make students confused. Well, if that was his job, he earned himself a nice fat bonus...

Just brightens up a poor stressed out undergrad's day aye?

Expanding Household

2006-07-24T21:52:00.000+12:00

It seems that we're to have yet another addition to the household. My flatmate announced yesterday that she's getting a dog. Our flat muz be in a growing phase...first a parent, now a dog... I wonder what's next? I like dogs though so I'm not complaining about new household members...yet. Let's hope the dog will be house trained and well, we do have a rather large garden.

The presence of a dog might also help break up the weekly cat convention in our garden. Cats courtesy of our neighbour Barbeque Bill (no it's not a nickname really...BBQ Bill owns the house next door and a food business named Barbeque Bill's...no surprises there), who breeds rats and hedgehogs (off the unsightly garbage dump in his driveway), hence the numerous stray cats who love hanging around his place. Since we're his neighbours, the cats have assumed our garden as theirs and gather as a group weekly...rather annoying when they keep walking around you while you're trying to hang up the washing.

BBQ Bill is not a very pleasant neighbour. He blasts Phantom of the Opera early in the morning all through the afternoon on Saturdays and has numerous vehicles (some labelled with Barbeque Bill's and some not) all strategically parked to hide the entrance to our driveway and make reversing out a challenge. I've taken to parking on the street amongst BBQ Bill's vehicles except that BBQ Bill's daughter enjoys stealing my parking spot outside our flat! Evidently, taking up both sides of the street at his place isn't enough. Now if he made a move to clear that huge pile of junk in his driveway maybe some vehicle could park there instead of encoaching on our bit of street!!

Out of sheer viciousness I do hope BBQ Bill does not like dogs. 8p

Housekeeping

2006-07-21T21:09:00.000+12:00

My flatmate's mum moved in with us this week...for the rest of the semester. It's weird having a parent around. For starters, our flat is very very neat...owing to the fact that since her mum has nothing to do all day she cleans and tidies. Her mum even arranges the many many pairs of shoes that used to clutter our doorway in these neat rows everyday. The kitchen is sparkling clean and any occasional dishes left in the sink miraculously disappear. I reckon we probably won't have to do housecleaning aside from our rooms ever...8p

On the downside, partying is definitely outta the question so I've lost my clubbing buddy and will have to hunt for a new one. Plus her mum sleeps really early so we've sorta got quiet hours now...seems like I'm back in a residence hall again. Quiet hours aren't too bad though...the worse is that her mum wakes up early in the morning...early being around half past 7. Then she putters around doing stuff (I have not idea wat) in the living room and u can hear her, or she turns on the tv. Either way, the end result is the same: I wake up. Not cool...coz I'm not quite a morning person. 8(

I guess it'll take some getting used to having a parent around...not tt we do much that provokes disapproval haha. I could get used to a really clean flat...we prob have the cleanest student flat in Dunedin. Now if only her mum could make the bills disappear...

Up the Hills

2006-07-13T14:35:00.000+12:00

Having recently bought a car after shopping for weeks for one, I have achieved total mobility lol. Living up in the hills certainly hampers my desire to go where the distance is far too great to walk and a 40 min walk to town isn't the most fun thing to do if the weather is awful (as it usually is).

Up the hills, we get frost and ice a lot more often. We had ice for 2 weeks straight a while ago...during the coldest June in 34 years. Walking down to campus on icy ground is certainly an adrenaline rushing experience where you're slipping and sliding down a very steep hill with high chances of falling over. It's really like skiing without skis and no way of stopping (except by falling over or if you're lucky, by grabbing an available lamp post). Even on flat ground, if it's icy, your feet won't stay in one spot. Snow isn't bad...ice is horrible.

I suppose driving would be pretty dangerous, but it seems that the roads where the cars run dun ice over as much...and if there was ice, it would have been gone relatively quickly, unlike the sidewalk where ice can happily stay the entire week.

But, it's pretty up the hills...and quiet...like you'd only notice the neighbours are having a party if there are more cars parked around than usual. Wish it would be a little warmer though!

Friendster Messages

2006-06-08T21:42:00.000+12:00

After a year my Friendster account is active again coz it really is the best way of still staying in touch with friends from Singapore.

I've gotten messages now and then from various people...well guys actually...over the time I've been a member on Friendster. Recently though, the messages all tend to be guys from the Phillipines. I'm guessing maybe they juz caught on or something. Anyway, from all the messages I've received, a pattern is noticeable:

Their online profile says practically nothing. Almost all of them send the first message saying "Can I be your friend" or "I hope to be your good friend", which I find a rather dumb thing to ask since the last time I checked 'friend' meant that you actually knew something about the other person. Now with empty profiles...sorry but you can't even be filed under 'acquaintances'.

Ok so I try to be nice to get to know these wanna-be friends and ask them about themselves (when I'm in a nice mood that is). Almost all of them would introduce themselves saying "I'm quite handsome actually" or "I'm good-looking"...without saying much else about themselves. So essentially all I learn about them is that they're ego-maniacs who'd probably spend more time in front of a mirror than I do. Then there are some who have the audacity to ask if they can be my boyfriend... Excuse me? I most certainly don't date someone I know absolutely nothing about, have never met before and who introduces himself as "I am handsome".

I am now thinking of putting a note in my profile that says:
"If you have nothing in your profile and introduce yourself as handsome, congratulations you have already pissed me off. Please stay away from me."

Post-grad Flexibility

2006-05-31T01:05:00.000+12:00

It's finally almost the end of semester and the end of my pile of assignments. I'm currently working on my last one for the semester which is for my post grad marketing paper. I would actually have 2 due on the same day for that same paper, but the beauty of post grad papers as I discovered last week is the flexibility. 8)

The lecturers having deemed that we have had learnt what they set out to teach through the assignments, decided to be nice and remove the need to do one of the assignments. That assignment would have carried 20% of the grade which is now redistributed over the other 2 assignments. On one hand this is great coz I've one assignment less to do, on the other hand I didn't do too fantastic for the other assignment so with the percentage raised to 50% on that I've lost even more. Despite the lecturers saying we've satisfied their objectives, I feel as though I've not actually learnt whatever it is they say we're supposed to have learnt... Ah well, I suppose most of business is more of common sense and analysing stuff anyway. I wish all my other papers were as flexible as this post grad one though...then my workload would be so much lighter!

Radical Action

2006-05-27T15:19:00.000+12:00

Every now and then I get this compulsion to do something radical and the radical stuff have a range of magnitudes. Well this one is not a big shaker I guess, just radical for me... Anyway I've always been kinda curious about matchmaking services. You see plenty of ads for them on the net. I was clicking around on Trade Me and clicked on the personals section just coz I was bored. Then I found myself signing up with NZ's online matchmaking network thing (whatever you call it).

Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy being single with all the freedom that comes with such a status, but I guess I was curious to see if it works and I dun understand why people sign up (unless they do it outta boredom comme moi). I mean quite a few of the younger people listed are good looking, with attractive personalities (if they are speaking the truth of themselves)...it doesn't quite make sense that they'd be lacking for partners. It makes one think there has to be something wrong with them...lol or perhaps I'm just pretty cynical about all this. In any case I should be able to find out having signed up myself! Still, I really would like to ask each and every one why they signed up which is the most effective way to satisfy my curiousity but I doubt people will be too comfortable with some random asking a kinda personal question.

I've had a couple of messages so far. I feel bad for replying selectively though, although it seems I have this tendency to attract really old guys (and it's not just in this case either!!). There are people whom I'd like to get to know just coz they have interesting jobs...but if I contact them I'm afraid they might get the wrong idea which is more likely to happen with an older guy as I suspect that these guys are in it for real. In any case, it's a form of entertainment for me (yes I know tt's kinda sad...) and it's something new. It's amazing what boredom and procrastination will drive you to do! If I do make a couple of friends outta this, I wouldn't mind either!

Spark of Technological Advancement

2006-05-15T21:57:00.000+12:00

It never fails to amaze me what people think of selling. On Trade Me, NZ's version of eBay, you can pretty much find people selling everything from smiles to diamonds. In case you are rubbing your eyes and thinking you've read incorrectly, yes, there is actually some idiot/smart aleck listing smiles for $0.50, in hopes that a bigger idiot will come along and actually bid for it. The description of this listing is as follows:

1 smile.
If you win this auction you will receive nothing but the guarantee that I will smile at you through my computer. Thanks :)

And if you think there hasn't been anyone who has bid for this. Well one person actually did. Just goes to show that some people really have nothing better to do or no better way to spend their money. The jury is still out on whether the seller is smart or an idiot with nothing better to do. Still if he's making money off idiots...

Other interesting stuff you can now purchase or auction for on Trade Me include horse manure, firewood, bricks and landfill. Oh kittens are also up for grabs too. I've not looked to see if they've started selling livestock online but I suppose when it does come to that, the economy has crashed. However, I must say that for a technologically backwards country, we seem to be amazingly advanced when it comes to online shopping/selling!!

New Look

2006-05-12T14:51:00.000+12:00

Having got tired of the boring design style of my blog, I have decided to give the blog a new look. As of the moment, changes are slowly being made coz I'm customising it myself (rather than merely plonking down one of the templates) and I've never written in CSS before so it's taking some figuring out. I guess the most annoying is trying to figure out the exact size of de boxes to make the background images fit. Well that and trying put images on a textured background. I got the header background right yesterday after 7 sizing tries. Then when it came to putting my blog title (which is an image) on the header today, matching the background by positioning was awfully tedious...ended up doing adjustments px by px in different directions. It doesn't look seamless but close enough I guess.

Well hopefully I'll have better luck now that I've somewhat got the gist of CSS. Nonetheless this sure beats working on my assignments!!! Lol Yeah, yeah I know, I'm procrastinating...but it's for good cause...it'll soothe my aesthetic spirit.

Cannabis Freedom Day

2006-05-07T11:38:00.000+12:00

Perhaps NZ isn't has liberal as the Netherlands, where everyone knows weed is not condoned but not illegal either. Still, I didn't realise we were liberal enough to legalise cannabis for 1 day each year. That day was yesterday. According to an acquaintance who smokes all sorts of stuff, on this day many people gather at the octagon smoking cannabis...and there'll be many who deliberately smoke in front of the police stations simply coz de police can't do anything about it.

It's funny the way the human mind works. We find it exciting to do the forbidden, proud if no one can stop us, thrilling when there is a risk of getting caught. Lots of people think that the Netherlands would be full of drug addicts given their liberal laws, but in reality, that's not the case. It's probably the tourists who'd make up the bulk of those who take advantage of the law. Again it's the whole psychology thing whereby people do it coz it's illegal, but if it's legal everyday, less find it a thrilling act.

Certainly there's a whole debate on whether or not legalising certain stuff would act in reverse psychology on people. I'm not saying that we should legalise drugs and all sorts of stuff coz there are those that do need to be controlled, but I think that legalising certain things together with public education may be helpful.

Complaint Against Time + Some Randomness

2006-05-02T20:49:00.000+12:00

Why is it that in the second half of the semester, everything seems to happen so fast? In a blink of an eye, weeks are gone and deadlines come rushing at you. Yeah I know, I'm griping about my piles of assignments again and I really really need to begin some of them soon. That plus work on scholarship applications and CVs and business plans. Why is it that a day only consists of 24 hours? Someone should change the whole time system...30 hours a day seems nice. It's not asking for too much aye?

On a random note, (just coz I feel random today) I was surfing for articles related to one of my marketing assignments and came across this quiz. Peter and Maiko and whoever "a rainbow trout" is if it isn't one of them should probably like this:

How Will I Die Quiz

You will die at the age of 65

You will be killed when the chimpanzee's rise up and take control of the planet

Find out how you will die at Quizopolis.com

Figures that some monkey would kill me....

Drunk-Driving

2006-04-23T23:28:00.000+12:00

Life is really unfair...especially when you're the passenger of a drunk driver. A while ago there was a bad car accident near my place. Just to give you an idea of how bad, the car was totally crushed, the roof of the car was several metres away from the wreck and parts of the engine were scattered in several directions away from the wreck. Of course everyone was stopping to look at the wreck up from the flyover which overlooks the road where the accident occurred. People parked along the side of the road to get out and look.

From all appearances, the driver was as good as dead in that wreck. However, miraculously, the driver escaped with very minor injuries. His passengers, 2 18 year old girls, on the other hand entered the hospital in critical condition. Turns out the driver was drunk and was showing off by speeding and then lost control of the car and hit the divider. What's really unfair is that he got off 'unpunished' while his passengers were badly hurt. He practically killed the 2 of them with his irresponsibility! It's disgusting drunk-driving and injuring others because of your irresponsibility...I reckon he should be charged for man-slaughter at the very least. Kinda scary how ridiculously dumb people can get...

Interesting Read

2006-04-12T17:42:00.000+12:00

While waiting for my sister on campus a couple of days ago, I wandered around the management section in the library and happened to chance across a really interesting book by Wayne Lotherington. It's entitled "Flick your Creative Switch - Developing Brighter Ideas for Business". It's a really interesting book, a guide to creative thinking which has too often been stifled by the rules and regulations we face in everyday life.

Just something I read in the book that I was inspired to share:

Who am I? I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.
I will push you onwards or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.

Half of the things you do you might just as well turn
over to me and I will do them quickly and correctly.
I am esily managed, you must merely be firm with me.

Show me exactly how you want something done and
after a few lessons I will do it automatically.
I am the servant of all great men and women and,
alas, of all failures as well.

Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not machine, though I work with the precision
of a machine, plus the intelligence of a person.

You may run me for profit or run me for ruin,
it makes no difference to me.
Take me, train me, be firm with me,
and I will place the world at your feet.

Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I? I am Habit.

- Gary Kroehnert

End of Term

2006-04-08T01:46:00.000+12:00

Jazz class ended for the term yesterday 8(. For a last class, it was pretty vigorous and poor unfit me is now aching from the stuff we did. Still, jazz classes have been pretty fun and I'm pretty certain I'd be continuing with it and probably so will my sister and flatmate.

Jazz isn't the only thing that has (or is going to) end for the term...so are classes!!! 4 days to go till Good Friday and Easter break. I can't wait. Although it's not that I'll have much of a break, seeing as to how I've lotsa work and catch-up reading to do... It's the idea of a break and of course not having to go down to campus for classes that rocks. Lol

Speaking of end of term, students at Unicol, one of the residential colleges on campus, are likely not gonna have a pleasant break. The university sent out an email to everyone to tell them that Unicol has been quarantined due to an outbreak of gastroenteritis there. Gastroenteritis is the irritation and inflammation of the digestive tract. Certainly not a good way to spend the end of term down with the infection...you'd be seeing more of the inside of a bathroom than anywhere else. Ugh!

Online Shopping

2006-04-04T23:47:00.000+12:00

eBay is a celebration and a curse. There's an unbelievable amount of stuff you can get there for unbelievably low prices...or at least much cheaper than what you pay for at retail stores in NZ. Plus the virtual world has no boundaries so international shopping is possible...as long as the seller is willing to ship to wherever you are.

The curse of it is that it's pretty addictive. Yes I admit I'm an eBay shopping addict. You can easily spend hours just surfing around ebay looking for stuff. It's unending coz every few minutes, someone is selling something new! It's much like a gigantic mall really, but ever-changing. Bidding is addictive too with auctions and when you aren't on ebay, you're thinking about your auctions or wondering if the seller in the auction you lost might restock and hold another auction. You'd have to be vigilant to get good deals too. I can recall quite a couple of times where I was kicking myself for not being quicker to bid. Quite recently I missed out on bidding on a 1GB SD card from the US. Postage included, it was really really cheap. I only saw it when the auction was about to close....like a minute before, but internet service here is so awful that by the time the page loaded to put in my bid the auction was over. The card sold for US$7.50. Argh! Even if I counted in postage costs and currency convertion costs a 1GB SD card for US$7.50 is dirt cheap compared to what NZ retailers are selling and even on NZ's version of eBay - Trade Me, where it sells for at least NZ$90.

Still, what I really like about eBay is receiving your item. The anticipation is killing of course much like knowing you have a present and can't open it yet. The best part as I've mentioned is receiving the item. It's basically like Chirstmas or your birthday every time and you conveniently forget that you've paid for it. I'm sure those of you who have shopped online before understand the joy of ripping open the package and getting to feel the item after seeing only pictures of it online. While sometimes there are a couple of glitches in purchasing stuff online, especially where clothes are concerned, most of the time if you're a careful shopper you don't make many mistakes i.e. you ask heaps of questions before purchase. I think I've only gotten a bad sizing for an item once. Still, I suppose I could always resell it.

While shopping on eBay brings back the happy moments of Christmas and birthdays, I must say that the horrific side of eBay ultimately shows itself....in the form of my credit card bill. Ouch! Definitely I feel the hole in my pocket after payment catches up with me, but then it brings me back to the point where I did get the stuff at bargain prices.... Oh yeah...

What's New?

2006-03-12T13:56:00.000+13:00

The "new-ness" of starting classes again has definitely worn off and taken with it the excitement of assignments. I've been busy gathering a hefty workload in the past weeks and I now have a huge amount of work. Ugh! Yeah, things are definitely in full swing now that my projects have all begun. Already I'm behind on my readings, having only just completed my psyc honours seminar readings today.

I've yet to complete even a single one of my marketing post grad course readings and I'm 1 week behind. If only there was a way to beam the info into my brain... Speaking of that course, we met the client last Thursday and besides gathering more info on the business, our lecturers wanted us to play dress-up as clients of the client to see how the client works (our client is a photographer btw). I'd been possessed to volunteer to bring a ball gown the week before except there were supposed to be other people as well. Turns out that they didn't bring anything and so it was just me and this guy who brought our formal stuff. Right. I felt totally ridiculous and it didn't help that playing the client involved a mini photoshoot, which is bad enough if you weren't having a "good photo day" but throw in the fact that you're alone on "stage" with all the rest of your class watching you...you get the picture. As expected, I looked awful in the photos...terrible hair sigh and everyone got to see it on the display screen. Unfortunately I've yet to come across a formula for overcoming self-consciousness and so if anyone knows of one, please share...especially before Thurs when I've to see all these people again!

Despite my piling workload, I don't think it's sunk in that I've heaps of work to do...I've no begun to panic yet. The down side of that is I'm still in holiday/party mode. Didn't go clubbing this week though but since our neighbour's brother came back, we had a drinking party on Friday instead. I wasn't gonna attend, having settled down to try and catch up on my readings, but the neighbour kept calling and asking me to go over and my flatmate kept texting so in the end I gave up and went. After all a party is more intereseting that some article regarding behavioural genetics aye? Of course the party had it's consequences and yesterday I woke up feeling decidedly ill. A result of 8 shots of vodka and a couple of cocktails. I ended up chucking when I was brushing my teeth and lost my breakfast which didn't sit too well in my stomach anyway. Any thought of the night before induced bile to rise up in my throat. Honestly I've never experienced a hangover that bad before (the other 2 I've had were just mild headaches). It probably didn't help that I had an appointment to go skating with a couple of friends and skating with a hangover is not fun. Now I've decided to cap my drinking at a hangover-free 6 shots in future! 8)

Survived

2006-03-04T01:46:00.000+13:00

One week down...eons more to go. Still, I've survived the first week...and it wasn't too bad a first week either, but that's coz it's been mainly introduction lectures and stuff so we're not really moving into the very intense stuff yet. So far the workload has not gotten too awful to handle..yet. After all, I merely have 4 assignments to begin work on. Ugh! In the meantime, while I still can, I'm gonna party every weekend. :)

I must say though that so far the lectures I've attended have been pretty exciting and my marketing papers have really interesting projects. We're moving into doing actual marketing consulting for local businesses which require us to meet up with our clients and write proposals and design promotion packages. It's exciting really. My 4th year marketing paper looks to be quite fun as well...we have pretty dynamic lecturers and our projects are quite interesting. In fact, our next lecture is held on the client's premises in town rather than in the room it usually is in. As our client is a photography studio, in order to see things from all perspectives, some of us are gonna experience being clients...which involves dressing up. Sounds fun aye? Somehow I ended up volunteering to play a client and wear a ball gown. This is gonna be interesting, but I figure whatever, I might as well get into it.

Of course, while all this might seem exciting now, I'm pretty sure next week I'll be singing a different tune. Currently I'm conveniently forgetting the awful workload that's involved (I have more than 10 dues dates written down). Soon the workload will be pushing for attention and I'll be bitching about it lol. Until then, there's time to party.

Speaking of partying, my flatmate and I went clubbing again...except this time she's back to being attached. Bad timing to have a change in status I guess, since she got kinda drunk and ended up making out with some random guy whom she was dancing with. Thereafter she felt really guilty for making out with him...which is good..I mean at least she did feel guilty (I've known many who've done the same and passed it off as normal). Perhaps I should have grabbed her and dragged her off...I did kinda poke her from time to time but it's kinda hard to do when you're dancing and making out with the guy's friend (my ex roommate would probably be cheering if she knows this)... Well she won't be doing it again and her boyfriend was understanding enough so all's well. Still, I reckon at this point, being single is probably the best thing...less complications and sweet freedom. ;)

Note: If this is incoherent and I tend to repeat myself, it's gotta be those vodka shots and whiskey and coke I had not too long ago... ;p

Beginning of the End

2006-02-25T02:56:00.000+13:00

Yeah it's back to reality for me. The year is gonna be crazier than I thought, especially after I did course approval and was somehow talked into doing a 4th year post grad marketing paper as opposed to one of my 3rd year ones. Honestly, I'm somewhat scared that this time I've really bitten off more than I can chew. I mean doing 51 points when the max is 48 is already crazy enough, but throw in a post grad paper...everyone else thinks I'm nuts. Well, I suppose if I do end up in a psychiatric ward, at least it's close by! Lol

I've got one weekend before hell breaks loose and during this time, I shall be praying fervantly for a freak blizzard to snow all the lecturers in or an earthquake or a fire that somehow burned the uni such that lectures have to be cancelled. I suppose it's pretty obvious that I desperately don't want lectures to start... In the meantime, while waiting for one of these miraculous events to occur (I'm banking on the blizzard coz it snowed yesterday up till 1200m), there is much to do. Moving in completely being one and partying being another.

Our living room looks like a typhoon hit it and resembles a storage closet. The sink is currently full of dishes since we've yet to run the dishwasher, having only bought dishwashing powder yesterday. Perhaps the only thing that's settled is my room. I've completely moved in, set all my furniture up and filled all the drawers and shelves...somewhat. In moving into my room, I learnt that my dad has absolutely no sense of interior design. He told me he set up my furniture and arranged it for me. To my horror, he put all my furniture to one side of the room...and it looked terrible. I ended up having to expend considerable effort to move every single piece of furniture (with the help of a friend of course!)

One weekend... I'm dreading Monday, but at least today we went out clubbing. It's good to be back in Dunedin...entering clubs are FREE!! My flatmate and I managed to drag my sister along with us, but she sat in a corner and stoned the entire time, leading several people to ask her if she was ok...including a bouncer. I think the next time we go out, we'll leave my sister at home...she's much happier that way. Still, it was a good night out...good music in intervals...met a couple of guys and one was pretty cute. I wound up giving him my number, much to my sister's horror...and yes I was completely sober. Lol Well hey I'm 20, single and it's fun to meet new people...not to mention flattering. :p Anyway, soon I'll be too busy to have a life so I should probably have as much fun as I can now. Monday is the beginning of the end of my life...and I'll be too busy to attend my own funeral. *Sigh*

Ireland: Home to the Leprechauns

2006-02-01T23:54:00.000+13:00

Despite having been in many cities in Europe, there's something about Dublin that make it somehow different from the rest although it looks the same. Plus the fact that it was really warm there at 2 degrees compared to Scandinavia didn't escape my notice.

What I can say about Ireland is that it's a green place. It just makes you feel like green if you get what I mean. Cheerful irish music from gift stores, so many people on the streets, sunlight, and unlike Scandinavia, the gardens were still lush and green and some had flowers too, like an early spring...well duh I guess, it is almost spring. Then there are the statues and monuments everywhere commemorating great poets, writers etc. Not unexpected though, since Dublin is known for it's literary prowess.

At night, even at midnight, it's crowded and noisy and everywhere you turn there's a pub serving beer and grub till the wee hours of the morn. Almost all pubs have live music on every night and some with dancing and the likes. It's a pity though that I was by myself coz it meant I didn't get a chance to go into one of those pubs for a pint (of guinness what else?) and music since I didn't think that it would be too practical for a single female to do so...except maybe if I was bigger... Nonetheless I did have a good irish dinner at one of the restaurants in Temple Bar with a glass of guinness laced with blackcurrent. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but guinness with blackcurrent is really nice! The waiter was also kinda cute with typically irish green eyes. Lol

I think Dublin is definitely one of the places I will have to visit again coz I didn't have enough time to see everything, but when I do go again I'll definitely not go alone! It's a place for 2 or more... The only annoying thing about my time in Dublin was that someone messed with my towel which I was pretty sure I left on the bed but when I returned it was in the bathroom and really damp as though someone had just used it. Ugh! Maybe it was the leprechauns....

Scandinavia: Viking Land

2006-01-30T21:50:00.000+13:00

Winter in Scandinavia is really the epitome of winter...or at least it sure seem like it while I was there. Think complete white all over with black leafless trees and large snow covered areas that would be water in the summer. Oh and of course it has to be snowing too, with the wind blowing snowflakes about, making them dance in the air.

Beautiful? Certainly...as long as you're indoors looking out. It's an entirely different story if you're outside and then the whole situation I've just described takes on a far less pleasant view. For starters, the temperature would be about -10 degrees or lower and the snow covered ground while pretty, gives cold feet and makes the ground slippery and more strenuous to walk upon. The wind blows the snowflakes into your face, especially your eyes, numbing your face and making it tough to see where you're going.

I guess beauty pretty much always comes with a price. It's too cold to even make snowballs coz de snow doesn't melt enough to stick, but it's perfect ski snow though. I ended up having to purchase furry boots for walking through the snow coz if I stayed using track shoes, I reckon I'd have lost my toes long ago! Still I liked Stockholm even though it snowed every day I was there. It was pretty imressive seeing the snow-covered frozen sea that was just tempting me to step on it. Fighting the temptation wasn't very easy, especially when the hostel I was staying in was really a boat and the docks make it pretty easy to just step off!

I spent quite some time in museums simply coz it was warmer and most museums were free. I think I know more about viking history and the whole royalty back when they wore armour and such better than I know NZ history. Anyway it made for an interesting experience. I think the only complain I have about the place is that the stores all close by 6pm...even the huge department stores. By 6.30, the streets are pretty much deserted, and can seem a trifle scary in Gamla Stan which is the old town with it's tiny alleys and cobbled streets.

Compared to Sweden, Finland was much better, it being warmer by the time I arrived and certainly stores were opened till much later. I really liked that there were so many outdoor skating rinks, simply coz all the lakes were completely frozen over so anyone can just ut on a pair of skates and skate (which many did). The "rink" I went to was the size of 2 olympic size rinks. It rocked. There's just something about skating outdoors, plus there's plenty of space for everyone!

During the time I was in Helsinki, I also went to Suomenlinna, an ancient island fortress listed on the world heritage list. As they wanted to preserve it as it was, there wasn't any railings or stuff anywhere and you pretty much could climb everywhere at your own risk. The view is great from the top of the fortress walls and climbing up is pretty easy with lotsa natural footholds. If you slipped though, it would mean a nasty plunge down to the rocks and the frozen sea below. Being very helpful, signs are posted from time to time reminding people to look out for small kids if they have them with them. My friend told me many a person has met an unpleasant end at the bottom of the cliff, her grandmother being one of them and the most recent being a 9 year old girl last year. It's easy enough to fall and die without any railings as it is, but it's even more treacherous in winter, when the place is totally snow covered. The problem with snow covered ground is that you don't know how deep it is so if it turns out deeper than you think it is you end up slipping...which I did at the edge of the cliff and almost fell if not for this plant I grabbed hold of. I like plants. Not many tourists come in winter so the fortress was pretty deserted while I was there and you really feel totally alone in a silent fortress with the stone walls all around you and caves and canons. It's almost magical really, you feel like you're really looking into the past. Unfortunately I am unable to put into words the intensity of the feeling so please do go and experience it yourself!

Netherlands - Land of the Giants

2006-01-10T12:14:00.000+13:00

Staying with Wouter here in the Netherlands is great! For one I get to see him again. The funny thing is it feels like we've never been apart as though I've still been seeing him everyday. Secondly, coz he's currently staying with his mum, he's staying in a national monument...so I get to live in a monument. His stepdad is really rich and the house is really pretty. It's funny coz there's this plague that says "monument" right beside the front door and the year the house was built 1633 is painted on one of the walls (the age of the house is what makes it a monument).

The Netherlands is great, although I can't read the street names, people do speak english. I've not had to look at a map at all since arriving since Wout has been taking me around and he picked me up at the train station when I arrived. Nothing in Holland has been made for small people though and I certainly feel tiny compared to the Dutch! On Sunday I went to church and even the pews were made for bigger people. My feet could touch the ground and when kneeling my feet couldn't touch the ground either! Not a very comfortable experience! But the Dutch are nice, well all Wout's friends and his family is nice.

Tomorrow we're heading to Amsterdam and it's great having someone else decide where to go and what to do. Planning an itinery is somewhat tiring! I'll be going to see coffee houses there too....which don't sell coffee but 'legal' drugs. The thing is most of the customers of the coffee houses are really tourists rather than Dutch which is expected since by restricting something you only make people want it more. Strange how the human mind works that way...

Flings

2006-01-09T11:01:00.000+13:00

I'm not cut out for flings. My french guy and I have been either emailing of texting each other almost everyday, even though it takes me about an hour to write an email in French. He writes to me in English, but it's really bad it takes awhile for me to comprehend. I guess my French is better than his English.

Anyway now that Bovy can't make it to Germany, which was our next stop after Netherlands, I am going back to France. To see Bovy again (she is still stuck in Paris)...and of course to meet up with my French guy. Lol Guess I'm not really bummed out about not seeing Berlin or Cologne, but I think I'll go ahead to Frankfurt earlier if only to get the Ritter Sport choc with yogurt in it that you just can't find anywhere else in the world (believe me I've looked in every country I've been in!).

London

2006-01-07T23:30:00.000+13:00

Since Bovy lost her passport and with it her visas, she couldn't travel to London and I ended up having to travel to London by myself. My London trip didn't go very well right from the start. First off, I missed my train to Tours despite rushing to get there in time, but the RER took ages to arrive. Had to pay extra to catch the next train. Then when I got to Tours, because it was late I missed the airport shuttle so I had to take a cab to the airport which cost me heaps. Then when I checked in my luggage, they told me it was too much past the weight limit so I had to pay for excess baggage.

I was totally exhausted after arriving in London coz I had been lugging all my luggage which was really heavy around almost all day...and I had to take a cab to the hostel. In London, the cab drivers don't help you with your luggage, they make you put it in the cab yourself. Upon arriving at the hostel, I discovered there wasn't an elevator and I was on the 3rd floor. Think heaps of stairs and very heavy luggage. Plus the room I was in was only for 1 night before I was supposd to change rooms. So I lugged everything up, with much difficulty and when I got into the room, it pretty much seemed to be an all guys room coz there were 6 guys taking a nap there. Didn't feel too comfortable taking a nap myself (although I really really wanted to) so I had to go out wandering around in the cold. The other big prob;em with the hostel was that for some reason the luggage room is located on the 3rd and a half floor. I mean of course that is the most logical place to locate a luggage room. After all, everyone just loves carrying their luggage up a few flights of stairs!

Being alone and female in London is not nice...London is full of dodgy guys, but don't tell my mum that coz she'd freak. Anyway my experience with dodgy brits amounts to meeting a flasher at a bus stop at 5pm (by then it was already dark) and having this man older than my dad try to kiss me and ask if he could take me home. I am still trying to forget the awful image of the flasher and I still shudder at the thought of that old man whom at first seemed like he was just being friendly. Well moral of the story there is don't talk to strangers. Honestly he seemed harmless... Give me grabby, clingy Italians over Brits anytime...at least they dun attack you!

My last 2 days in London were pretty good though, mainly coz I met these German girls who stayed in the new room I moved into and so I had people to go around with. It also meant I could take photos with me in them too! Lol

Overall London was ok I guess (if frightfully expensive where transport is concerned)...just not nice to be there alone. I definitely love the theatre there I went to watch Fame which was fantastic and they've got pretty good deals for students. Shopping was good too with all the post New Year/Christmas sales. Sandwiches are great. It was also nice to be able to understand everything...the ads, the road names etc!

New Year's Eve

2006-01-01T11:10:00.000+13:00

There's something about New Year's eve that makes you wanna spend it somewhere special. And so I did. In Disneyland Paris. It was a fantastic New Year's eve despite all that had happened before. The 'before' I'm talking about is Bovy's handbag getting stolen and in her handbag was her passport among other things. We definitely didn't have a very nice eve of New Year's eve. I spent 7 hours sitting on my suitcase in the RER station in Paris outside the ticket counter while Bovy went running around trying to find the Thai embassy.

Still, Disneyland was great...and tremendously crowded. I've never been to Disneyland before and neither had Bovy so I guess both of us were catching up on our childhood. It's a huge place and despite the whole day we spent there...from 11am to 1am, we still didn't manage to cover everything or see all the shows. The highlight of the day would have had to be the christmas parade. Disneyland screwed up our tickets so to compensate for that they gave us VIP spots to watch the parade which was fantastic (we had all this space to ourselves and an unobstructed view).

I'd studied about EuroDisney as a case study in Business Strategy earlier and one of the things the case mentioned was that Disney is very selective about the appearance of their employees...they all have to be beautiful. I guess it's true coz all the princes on floats in the parade were really drop dead gorgeous...certainly fairy-tale like. The thing is, even the bad characters looked good too! I don't suppose it would be very pleasant to get rejected for a job because one isn't good-looking enough. I wonder how many people apply and get rejected...

We definitely had a magical, if cold, New Year's countdown. Might have been better with a partner I guess coz during the countdown we were entirely surrounded by couples, which made Bovy miss her kind-of boyfriend and me...let's just say I hadn't gotten over my french guy yet. 8p

Barcelona French Fling

2005-12-30T01:39:00.000+13:00

I never dreamed I'd actually get into a fling...much less with a French guy. Those 4 French guys staying in the same room? Well went out with them last night for a drink at a bar and though they didn't speak much English, we did actually manage to communicate. Had lotsa attention coz I was the only girl since Bovy decided she wasn't feeling well enough to go.

I must say that French guys are really something. Definitely way better than Italians. For one thing, they aren't cheap. They bought my drink. Then when we were walking back, all of them were finding some opportunity to hold my hand or put an arm around my waist. It was definitely very flattering for my female ego. Luckily for me, I only really like one of them...lol so at least I didn't have to make a choice as to which one I'd go for!! Hahaha

French guys are definitely great kissers...and wonderful for a fling coz of the language barrier. It's a pity I'm leaving today although he did try very hard to get me to extend my stay in Barcelona. I must say that I was sorely tempted, if I hadn't already paid €70 for my bus trip back to Paris and booked my accomodation and bought disneyland tix. Ah well, I suppose at least I'll have some nice memories! 8p Now just where has the conservative me gone?

Barcelona

2005-12-28T09:13:00.000+13:00

Being sick on a holiday sux. Here I am in Barcelona and I've just wasted the entire day staying in the hostel coz I was sick. I threw up when there was nothing to chuck (which is the worst kinda feeling) and I've still got a headache and I keep getting chills. I'd planned a full itinery for today too, but now I'm gonna have to revamp the entire itinery to make up for lost time.

On the upside, we met some cute French guys who are staying in the same room. They're design students from southern France. The downside is that I'm sick...so although they invited us to join them to go out clubbing, I don't feel up to going. Argh! They don't speak much English though, but one of them is really hot... Sigh. They're gonna be around tomorrow though so maybe we can go out with them then.

I might as well have not taken a course in French for all the French I can speak. Everything I wanna say comes out in Italian. On the upside, I can actually understand some Spanish since it's so similar to Italian. Italian is still stuck on me though when I find myself saying 'Sì' instead of 'oui' and 'grazie' instead of 'gracias' and going 'ciao' pretty much all the time. The whole language switching thing as you cross borders really mucks up your brain...

2005-12-26T08:42:00.000+13:00

Christmas

Merry Chirstmas to everyone! Spent Christmas eve at the Eiffel Tower and we walked for 16 hours that day. The Eiffel Tower was real crowded. It seemed everyone wanted to climb the Eiffel Tower that day! It's definitely worth going up though. From the top they tell you in which direction different countries in the world are and how far it's from Paris. Wellington is almost 19 000km away...definitely one of the furthest. The view of Paris at night from the top of the tower is fantastic...a very romantic spot.

I attended the midnight mass at Notre Dame...and yep all of Paris wanted to attend too. It was so crowded and they had to get police control. It was in french though, but the gospel was in English. The choir was fantastic...as it would be for such a grand affair.

We met some of the other backpackers in the same hostel yesterday. They're from Canada...asian Canadians who speak better French and understand more French than Mandarin. We spent the day with them, went to see the Moulin Rouge, which was really disappointing compared to what it looked like in the movie. The one in the movie is more impressive! I'd have liked to watch one of the cabaret shows, but the cheapest tickets for the shows cost more than €80! One would think that with those kinda prices, they could have renovated the exterior...make it more impressive. As it is, it was kinda small.

We ended the night at this fantastic french restaurant with the Canadians which wasn't too expensive I guess. Then went to Place de la Concorde for a ride on the ferris wheel. Bovy was squealing the entire time...she doesn't like moving heights much. She squealed going up the Eiffel Tower as well. One of the guys mentioned he saw a guy propose to his girlfriend at the top of the Eiffel Tower yesterday. Pretty romantic...and of course she said yes. He said he didn't think the tower was romantic until he witness that and now he would like his future wife to propose to him at the top of the tower too! I think a proposal at the top of the tower is kinda romantic I guess, but not too original.

We're leaving for Barcelona tomorrow, to begin phase 2. Time is really flying! It was kinda sad having to say goodbye to the new friends, but we're probably gonna see them in Germany in Cologne coz they're on exchange there. One of them, we're gonna see him again when we get back to Paris coz we're going to Versailles together. Should be interesting, together with the countdown in Disneyland Paris! My sister is gonna be so jealous!

2005-12-23T08:09:00.000+13:00

Paris

It's phase 1 of the Big Europe Trip. I saw Wouter off at the bus station the morning I left for Paris...and was trying desperately not to cry (without much success). I think the people at the bus station must have thought I was pathetic...red nose, running eyes...you get the picture. Saying goodbye is always the hardest for the people staying behind.

Anyway, as I was saying, the Big Europe Trip has begun. I can't quite believe I'm in Paris...seeing the Eiffel Tower, and going to the Louvre. It's pretty surreal. the hostel I'm at is kinda awful...they don't have an elevator and we had to carry all our luggage up 3 flights of stairs!! It smelled bad and there wasn't much lighting in the rooms either. Staff isn't very friendly and they lock you out from 10 to 3pm. For those who wish to stay in Paris, my advice is don't stay at Auberge Internationale Jeune (I think that's the name, or something pretty similar). Despite the lousy accomodation, Paris is fantastic. You can really tell the difference between buildings in France and Italy...even though they're almost as old as each other.

Bovy and I paid a visit to the Louvre today...mainly to see the Mona Lisa. It's not very impressive though. Lol...it was kinda like ok this is the Mona Lisa and that's it. Nothing very 'wow'. There were some really nice paintings though, especially Galerie de vues de la Rome moderne and Galerie de vues de la Rome antique. They were my 2 favourite paintings in the Louvre. The medival section of the Louvre is kinda creepy, being underground and it was especially creepy close to closing time when no one was about. Think dark and chilly and bare. You'd expect to see something floating towards you any minute. I'd hate to get lost down there! The Louvre building itself is really impressive being so long. We never got to see everything and after awhile you get bored...

Gonna scale the Eiffel Tower tomorrow. I can't believe it's almost Christmas!

2005-12-20T07:58:00.000+13:00

End of Exchange

Another chapter of my life has ended, with exams being over and everyone leaving. Funny how fast time goes. I really hate to leave and to say goodbye, knowing that chances of seeing certain friends you've made again are pretty slim.

Despite all it's shortcomings, I'm gonna miss Italy...it's nightlife, the great (if non punctual) transport system, aperitivos...and yes, pizza and pasta. There's no pizza anywhere like in Italy. Or mozzarella. Think brick oven, traditionally baked pizzas.

Definitely, what I'll miss most are the people...even returning to Italy in future won't be the same coz the people make the difference. Actually I still can't quite believe I've been in Italy. I think maybe it'll really hit only after I'm gone.

Naturally the people I'll miss most will be Bovy and Wouter. I'm gonna be travelling with Bovy all around Europe over the next month, but we'll only see Wouter some time in January when we go over to the Netherlands. I'm gonna miss seeing him everyday... As Alex, my roommate would say 'Charlie's Angels' is no more. We're going to Simon's tomorrow to hang out and stay up the whole night...and cry over saying goodbyes. Did I mention how I hate saying goodbye?

2005-12-02T06:49:00.000+13:00

Turning 20

Gosh time really flies…can’t believe my birthday just came and went like that! Not that I didn’t have a good time of course, I had really good friends to celebrate with and it was one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had. It started off the night before, watching a movie with Wouter and Bovy until midnight when they surprised me by bringing in lighted candles and singing happy birthday. It was so sweet…but then I wouldn’t call them my best friends for nothing would I?

I’d actually intended to just pass my birthday quietly…probably just with Wouter and Bovy, but my room mate objected to that…she’s definitely more of a party girl than I am…so I ended up inviting about 20 people to dinner at this Chinese restaurant where some friends had been too before and said it was great. And so it was…good food, good friends, great birthday. 8) They even ordered a cake thing and asked for a candle to be put in as a substitute birthday cake. They tried to get me drunk though, ordering a glass of grappa which is about 70% alcohol and telling me I had to drink it. They didn’t know it was so strong….and neither did I but we figured since it was served in such a huge portion, it couldn’t have been too bad. I mean, pure vodka is served in shots and this drink came in a portion similar to a full wine glass…which lead me to make the huge mistake of taking a gulp from the glass, because if it was gonna taste bad might as well take it like a shot right? I nearly died….or came close to anyway. It totally burned like drinking liquid fire…and it burned for awhile. Of course I didn’t finish the drink (if I did I’d probably be in hospital right now) and I passed the drink around for them to try the poison they just tried to feed me lol.

Speaking of alcohol, I received a bottle of liquor from Will and a bottle of wine from Ben and Mike (figures it’ll be the guys who give alcohol 8p). How it’s all gonna be consumed by the time I leave beats me. Fiona and co got me this really nice scarf, which would certainly come in useful for when I head to Sweden and Finland! Pietro gave me roses. Wouter and Bovy got me something, but it’s not here yet or not ready yet…and I’m dying of curiosity juz wondering what it is.

Originally I’d intended to go out clubbing after dinner so I gave Will the roses and wine (since he lives 2 doors down from me) to take back. He was being accommodating since it was my birthday, although he looked funny carrying 4 roses and a bottle of wine walking down the street. When I cancelled plans to go clubbing and decided to head home instead, he and Julie disappeared…alone, so I couldn’t relieve him from the task of carrying wine and roses. Must have been a sight though, he had wine, roses and a girl…now all that was missing was the guitar…

2005-11-22T01:07:00.000+13:00

Work & Projects

Finals are around the corner, got projects to complete, really need to study, but somehow can't bring myself to do it. I can't seem to get outta holiday mode!!! The thing is, neither can most of the other exchange students and while we're all ordinarily not like this at home, there's something about going on exchange that makes you not wanna study.

It's been more than 2 months now...of not really studying. I wonder what's gonna happen when I return home to reality. In the meantime, I'm still not studying (but trying hard...well kinda) and when I'm not trying, I'm busy going out or planning my travels. Can't wait till school is over so I start my big 1.5 month Europe tour! Gonna spend Christmas in Paris, then head to Spain and back to France for New Year's then to London and after that Holland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Ireland before meeting up with Addie in Warwick and going to either Denmark or Norway. I so love how easy it is to travel within Europe!!

2005-11-20T01:20:00.000+13:00

Prague Photos

And here are some of the photos I took in Prague. Era bellisima!

International travel mates: Wouter (Holland), Me (NZ), Nadia (Singapore), Julie (Canada)

Prague Castle

In the Prague Castle courtyard: Nadia, Me, Wouter

Old Town Square during the day

Almost magical: Old Town Square at night

Tyn Church - much like a fairy tale castle aye?

On Charles Bridge at night

View from Chrales Bridge

View of the city

2005-11-10T22:00:00.000+13:00

Mid-Semester Break I: Prague

Prague has gotta be one of the most beautiful cities in the world! I returned to Milan Tuesday night from my way-too-short trip to Prague (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria) and Bratislava (Slovakia). We (Julie, Nadia, Wouter and me) spent 2 days in Prague, 1 day in Vienna and about ½ a day in Bratislava…that is not counting the time we spent traveling from place to place.

We left Milan 3 November to catch the flight to Bratislava in the evening coz Ryanair doesn’t fly to Prague and landed in Bratislava at around 6.30 in the evening, only to find that we had missed the bus to Prague. That’s one of the problems with flying with a low cost airline…you get flights at inconvenient times and to small places, but hey it’s way cheaper (€40 for a return trip). Anyway, this left us with no option than to catch a train to Prague which was about 4 ½ hours away (5 hours by bus). Getting to the train station from the airport was another story altogether….we ended up taking a cab and got entirely ripped off. My advice to those who wish to travel to Bratislava: Don’t take a cab!! One would expect it not to be so expensive since the Slovakia isn’t exactly a very developed country, but the cab drivers really rip tourists off!

We had to switch trains to get to Prague and it was kinda scary coz they didn’t speak English (only Czech) and for quite a couple of stops we didn’t see the name of the station on the stations so we were quite afraid we would miss our stop. The other worry was that we’d miss our connecting train as our train was late and there were some problems along the way. Julie was pretty worried and kept telling us not to worry; Wouter’s Dutch so he was cool throughout (I never seen him worry before…); Nadia and I were kinda in-between. But as Wouter says, it all works out in the end and we did stop at the right place (nearly got off wrongly though!) and we did make our connection.

Arriving in Prague at midnight, we then faced the problem of getting to town, or rather to our hostel. The train station was kinda dodgy with bums lying around and scary-looking people. I can’t figure out why Wouter said he felt safe there…honestly “safe” didn’t come to mind when Nadia, Julie and I looked at the train station. We ended up taking a cab and getting ripped off again. The Czech Republic is also not a good place to take a cab!!

Day 1 in Prague was spent at the Prague Castle, with its gothic cathedral and numerous museums. The cathedral was definitely impressive…I’d say it was on par with the Duomo here in Milan, but scarier looking…the gargoyles looked quite evil… It was cold in Prague though, which made the grog (hot spiced wine) we had in the afternoon much welcome. Food isn’t too expensive in Prague, although having to convert from euro to Czech crowns to evaluate prices was rather tiring (1 euro = 30 Czech crowns).

Night time found us wandering about Staré Mesto (Old Town), with its cobbled streets and alleys and the stores lining them. The buildings looked gorgeous lit up at night and the view from Charles Bridge was totally breathtaking, with jazz buskers playing at certain points on the bridge. We had dinner at one of the outdoor restaurants which had decent prices and wonderful food. I had pork medallions in port wine sauce with potato purée which was simply divine. Ended the night in a jazz bar recommended by the Lonely Planet but the book gave the totally wrong address…thankfully we found the right place by accident. The band playing that night was good and the saxophonist was female (a nice change from the usual male players!), the bar was warm and the drinks were good….a lethal combination to put you to sleep coz you’re so relaxed. When we got back to the hostel we met these 2 Belgian chicks who were staying in the same room. They assumed we didn't speak French though and were talking about Wouter and whether he was 'dangerous'...probably coz he was the only guy in the room. They kept glancing at him throughout talking to us...and about us. We didn't tell them that Julie, being Canadian, studied French as a 2nd language coz it was compulsory in her school and Wouter, being Dutch, also had to study French among several other languages in school. For me, my French has gotten really rusty so I only managed to pick up certain things. It was funny though.

Day 2 was spent wandering about town and visiting the Jewish part of the city as well as the St Nick's Cathedral and the Child of Prague Church which were really impressive. We also visited the Charles Bridge in the day...and it was awfully cold and rainy. Still, the view from the bridge was great! At night we found ourselves having dinner at the same place since the food was so good there and the prices were decent. Then we headed back to the hostel which had an underground bar for drinks...and an early night since we had to get up at 6.30 the next morning to catch the bus to Vienna.

2005-11-02T21:52:00.000+13:00

Lost Wallet

Ok I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that I'm never gonna actually catch up with my travelling blogs so I've given up writing them...well for most places except when I feel like it. I'll try and post photos, but it's rather annoying to upload them coz I've to resize them first.

Anyway, this is really outdated but on the way to Portofino I lost my wallet on the train and I only realised it was gone when I wanted to pay for ferry tickets and couldn't find my wallet. Chances of me ever getting it back are negative so although I asked the guy at the station to call the staff in the train to see if they could find my wallet, I pretty much expected that they wouldn't find it. I mean it was a Versace wallet and it had quite a sum of cash inside and...it's Italy. Probably if it was another European country, my chances of getting it back are higher but oh well... Thankfully my credit card wasn't in the wallet though as I forgot to put it back into my wallet and had shoved it into my coat pocket in the morning so I guess it wasn't so bad. The worst thing about losing my wallet is losing all the cards I had in it. Sigh...they're a real pain to replace and my pretty Otago student ID is lost forever and can't be replaced coz I get a new card next year and it'll be different. 8( I lost my NZ driver's license too which is also kinda a pain but I can only get that replaced when I return to NZ next year. My insurance company is pretty good though (did I mention I love insurance...especially travel insurance?) so they're compensating me for my wallet and for the cash I lost and are playing for my card replacements.

Filing for the insurance claim was a bit of a hassle though coz I had to submit a police report. In any other country I suppose it wouldn't be so bad, but this is Italy. Since it's Italy, filing a police report was naturally a horrendous experience. Naturally they don't speak any English at all (which I expected and so I asked a friend to come along as a translator) and naturally their computer system had to crash for an hour. Naturally they also gave priority to Italians rather than foreigners so even though this Italian lady came after me she got to go first. Now I'm just waiting to hear from my insurance company as to how much they'd be willing to compensate me coz I couldn't find the price of my wallet online, although I found a similar looking Prada wallet and gave them the link to that...so maybe they'll get me that wallet (it was really nice). 8P

2005-10-28T21:46:00.000+13:00

Italian Exams

I just finished my mid term exam (had only 1 for Innovation and Technology Management) and am now blessedly free and will soon be heading to Prague, Vienna and Bratislava for the rest of the break. I've come to understand why Italian students can still afford to party hard when exams are just around the corner...they cheat. I don't mean sneaky cheat, but rather openly cheat...like take their friend's paper and copy it or discuss the answers or copy from a cheat sheet. They do it right in front of the examiners too! The examiners know that they cheat but they don't do anything about it. In one exam (unfortunately not the one I took), the professor told the class “Just don't cheat too much”!! Or if the professors do anything it would just be to shush the class from time to time. For the “stricter” ones, they'd give students who were cheating too obviously a verbal warning once and if they caught them again, they merely take 1 or 2 points off their grade. Like Hello? This is a university exam counting towards your final grade right? What's 1 or 2 points out of 30 if you can get 30 by cheating?!! Us exchange students are completely astounded by this Italian way of doing things. I mean all of us have discussed the issue several times and the consensus is that never would you find a university where cheating in exams is so widely accepted except in Italy!! It's insane!! Anyhow, people didn’t cheat too much in my exam...coz my professor is Swiss, rather than Italian, so it'll probably be more fair considering that they moderate results according to a Normal curve.

2005-10-15T02:30:00.000+13:00

Note on travelling blogs

For those who have noticed, my travelling blogs tend to be somewhat backdated...unfortunately I've been travelling more frequently than I blog. Lol In my backlog of travel blogs there's still Pisa, Siena & Bologna and later Portofino coz I'm leaving for Portofino tomorrow. I wonder if I'll ever catch up with the travelling...

2005-10-14T02:27:00.000+13:00

Intellectual Stimulation

My date was a really nice guy and very different from other Italians…intelligent and philosophical too. While I don’t think anything of romantic nature is gonna happen between us, I think he’d make a great friend. We talked a lot the whole time about different cultures and about food, music, life etc. It turned out to be great despite my initial apprehension, unlike the last Italian guy I went out with (who seemed nice at first but turned out to be real sticky). Perhaps this guy turned out to be decent coz I met him when I was completely sober…lol…the sticky guys I’ve met were after I had a buzz in my head. Or maybe it’s coz he’s older (well 1 year older than the last guy who was 25) and so more mature?

Anyway, it was an intellectually stimulating conversation and we’re gonna meet up again sometime next week or the week after. He suggested cooking for me coz he likes cooking…so well, see how it goes. Got back from the date and I ended up having another intellectually stimulating conversation….very intellectually stimulating (involving poetry and history and politics) with the night-shift security guard for about 2 hours. Honestly, I really don’t get why he’s just working as a security guard because he’s very widely-read and very intelligent. He’s my favourite security guard and we have good conversations every time, although since he doesn’t speak English very well, our conversation is a mix of English and Italian and his dictionary. Still, I’ve learnt much from him and I was really flattered when he said he learnt much from me too…coz he’s really way more knowledgeable than I am (also partly due to the fact that he’s over 50) 8)

2005-10-12T02:25:00.000+13:00

Settling Down…Am I?

I think I’m probably at the end of my wild phase. I don’t go out much at night anymore (or rather I don’t go out every single night) and I’m drinking less…plus I’m not making out with random guys. Lol Not since the last one I made out with had smoked something disgusting and I nearly puked when he kissed me…had to brush my teeth twice afterwards!! (Yes and he was Italian) Going out at night on weeknights for me is now restricted to aperitivo with a couple of good friends where you go to a nice bar sit down, have a yummy cocktail and help yourself to the free buffet. There’s a really nice one down the Naviglio Grande with a wonderful buffet and their cocktails aren’t so bad either, although all Italian cocktails are pretty strong.

As I said, I’m being a good girl…or maybe I’m looking for more intellectual company rather than some dodgy guy who likely just wants to get laid. I still meet lotsa guys whenever I go out with friends to the club. They just come up to you and start talking to you…but I’ve not met many who are “decent”. Which is pretty reasonable coz how often do you meet a “decent” guy in a club? Last Friday I went with a friend to this club that was located in a rather isolated area (we got lost and walked around for hours trying to find it and we didn’t have a map) and then she hooked up with some Dutch guys and they were all speaking Dutch so I was pretty much on my own…which isn’t so bad really coz there are guys who constantly approach you to talk. So I ended up meeting this whole bunch of Spanish guys on exchange from Barcelona but they were studying at another university in Milano. It was fun talking to them though there was only one guy out of the group who struck me as more of the decent type. Unfortunately, they had to leave early so I didn’t get to talk to him much.

I did meet a decent guy though later when I was sitting in the foyer of the club waiting for my friend who went to the bathroom. Basically this guy comes up to me and says, “You’re too beautiful to be sitting alone.” Nice pick-up line but flattery doesn’t work on me…much lol. Turns out the guy is Italian, but he spoke good English coz he worked in the US for awhile and he’s an engineer but he’s currently doing an MBA. We actually had a good conversation….something you don’t usually get with an Italian guy you meet at a club. He was sober too. What gave him many points in my book was that unlike other Italian guys, he wasn’t sticky. He gave me his number but said he wouldn’t get mine so the choice as to whether we’d meet up again was left to me. Definitely different from other Italian guys and I must admit, I liked it. So I contacted him a few days later (although after the last Italian guy I kinda told myself I’d keep away from Italians) and we’re meeting up tomorrow…although occasionally I’m wondering what the hell I’m doing, but I’m gonna see how it goes tomorrow and reserve further judgement. Lol

2005-09-24T02:12:00.000+12:00

Travelling: Venezia

I’ve always wanted to go to Venezia and I can’t quite believe that I finally have been!!! I went the weekend of 16 September with several of my classmates and friends (12 of us in all). It was a really last minute thing. I mean there had been some talk about maybe heading to Venezia during the weekend, but we hadn’t actually made any final decisions till about 1.30am on Thursday (or should I say Friday), after we had finished watching a French/Spanish movie at one of my classmates’ apartment…which pretty much left us only a couple of hours to do whatever was needed (go home, pack, sleep) before catching the 7am train. All of us probably got about 2 to 3 hours of sleep that night, but there was the long train ride where most of us eventually fell asleep on after the initial chatter. Lol

It seemed everyone was going to Venezia that weekend though coz we met heaps of other exchange students on the same train and when we arrived in Venezia. The first thing you see coming out of the train station is the Grand Canal with the many buildings on the other side and the huge government building.

Since we couldn’t check into the hostel till 2pm, we decided to hop onto the vaporetto for which we bought a 24hr pass. The vaporetto is basically the equivalent of the public bus coz in Venezia there are no buses and no cars….everyone travels by boat or by walking coz the land area isn’t very large and the streets are more like alleys – way too narrow for a bus or car to pass through. Anyway, the vaporetto took us down the Grand Canal so it was kinda like a sight-seeing trip down, with lotsa stops along the way.
Along the Grand Canal
Waterways between streets

One thing we noticed on the trip down was that there were hotels and buildings with red penguin statues on the balconies…they were pretty common, but to date we’ve not found out why there are the red penguins there coz it wasn’t written in the guide books and the Italians we asked didn’t have a clue.

We kinda wandered around mostly waiting to check into the hostel and had lunch at some restaurant in the middle of a maze of alleyways. You can quite easily get lost in Venezia coz it’s a maze, plus there are lotsa dead ends at the end of alleys…I wouldn’t like to be running from someone there, you’d just turn left and right and get lost or find yourself at a dead end.
Typical Venetian streets...and Michael

After checking into the hostel, we went out and wandered around some more, mostly taking it easy. Probably the one place that really stood out was Piazza San Marco…which should probably have been named Pigeon Square instead. There were hundreds and hundreds of pigeons all over the place. You just wanna stomp on them really….think pigeon sea. They wander so close and there are so many of them that if you kicked out, you should probably be able to kick one of those annoying things. As you can see, I bear no love for pigeons…but they’re unhygienic, fat, greedy and ugly. If you hold out a piece of white paper, you’ll find a whole swarm of them flocking to you, flying in your face and perching all over you (and transferring billions of germs to you), thinking that it’s food coz tourists can purchase a paper cone of food (at an exorbitant price of course!) to feed the pigeons (which honestly that should be banned). Now if anyone is into hunting…

Actually Piazza San Marco is where the Basilica is and is just beside the Doge's Palace and it’s really beautiful at night…also partly due to the fact that it’s pigeon free then. The cafes around the perimeter of the piazza would have tables and chairs outdoors and there would be mini stages set up with quintets or quartets playing lively tunes or classical music. It’s definitely a place for lovers then…or a bunch of good friends just chilling 8).
Basilica

Dinner was at this nice restaurant with typically huge Italian portions and I enlisted Michael’s help in finishing off my pizza. Between us all we had 4l of wine as well…except that the 2 American chicks and this French/German one got drunk and got kinda embarrassing as we walked around after dinner.

Piazza San Marco is pretty in the early morning as well…coz there are no tourists and NO PIGEONS!! Anyway we spent some time exploring the Doge's palace and visited the Basilica. Getting into the Basilica took quite awhile though coz not only was there a queue to get in, but we also had to queue to move from the entrance of the palace to the Basilica as there were heaps of tourists and it was high tide so you could only walk on the raised platforms they put up. During high tide, the piazza is flooded and they set up raised pathways for walking. Unfortunately, the pathways are narrow and there are few of them…much fewer than the number of tourists, so it ended up being more like a queue just walking along the pathway!!
Doge's Palace courtyard
Piazza San Marco at high tide

2005-09-21T01:51:00.000+12:00

Classes

Actual classes have begun this week and I would still be feeling like I am on holiday (which I kinda am…) if not for the fact that classes are outrageously long!! I’ve never had classes that went straight for 3 hours. I’m taking a Business Strategy class which goes from 2.30 to 5.45pm every Monday. It’s crazy…you tend to find yourself losing concentration after the first hour. The thing is, the lecturer’s are Italian and speak with a strong Italian accent so you’ve actually gotta concentrate hard to figure out what they are saying. Plus their handwriting is completely illegible… I supposed the lecturer for Business Strategy isn’t so bad coz he doesn’t have too strong an Italian accent, plus it’s a pretty interesting class and he’s not boring. He keeps telling us that the real title for the class is “How to Make Money…Legally”.

I’ve gotta say that the worst lecturer I have is the one for International Marketing. His Italian accent is so strong that half the time I wonder if I’m sitting in an Italian class instead. His handwriting is illegible and he mumbles from time to time to make himself even more incomprehensible. Perhaps he’s aiming to bore everyone into dropping the class, especially since there are so many of us taking that class and the lecture theatre assigned is too small to hold everyone.

Speaking of small lecture theatres, the one assigned to us for Management of Fashion Companies is ridiculously tiny considering that they knew how popular the class would be!! Plus the theatre isn’t even the bench type like the others, thereby disallowing fitting of more people on the seats. Rather, it has individual seats which are extremely uncomfortable for sitting in one place for half an hour never mind the fact that the lecture is 3 hours long…

Contrary to my expectations, my class in Technology and Innovation Management has been the best so far. I thought it would be really boring coz it wasn’t a paper I’d have taken by choice, but I didn’t have a choice and it’s the last paper I can get credit for back in Otago so I had to take it even though it totally clashes with my International Marketing class on Wednesdays (I’ll have to attend classes alternate weeks…). Anyway, the lecturer is hilarious and he’s really young…or at least he looks it…he looks like he’s under 25, but he’s a professor. He’s really loud and his English isn’t too bad. He has a funny way of speaking though…rather than dropping his voice inflection at the end of a sentence as people normally do, he maintains it so it sounds really weird as if the sentence is uncompleted but not quite.

As I’ve mentioned he’s hilarious. In today’s lecture, he constantly went on and on about how big companies can’t grow and survive and he kept telling us, “What I’m saying here, ragazzi, is that to survive you must grow! And you must grow in double digits otherwise you’ll die and you won’t have enough pension to pay for a room in a 5 star hotel.” He also loves asking “Giusto?” after making a point and then he’ll answer himself half a second later, exclaiming, “Giustissimo!” At one point in the lecturer, he leaned into one of the guys sitting in front and said, “In 15 years, ragazzi, you should be at the peak of your career otherwise you’ll never survive. Giusto? Giustissimo!” (exclaiming the ‘giustissimo’ of course). The look on the poor guy’s face was priceless…he was pretty much staring at the lecturer as if the lecturer had just sprouted 2 heads. I’m definitely looking forward to the lecture tomorrow.

Note: For the curious, “giusto” means ‘right’ and “giustissimo” implies that something is “more right than right” i.e. extremely right…whoever said Italians were sane?

2005-09-21T00:58:00.000+12:00

Travelling: Varenna

One of the places many Italians recommended that we should check out was Lake Como. Lake Como is huge, with many small towns located all around it. Each town is different, with it’s own coat of arms and there was some rivalry in the past between the rulers of the towns to see who could build a better palace etc so there’s definitely plenty to see in terms of palaces and villas in each town. Alex and I took another day trip on our 2nd weekend to Varenna which was reachable by train from Milano (some towns can only be reached by taking the ferry from Varenna or Como).

Since Lago Como is slightly North of Milano, it’s closer to the Swiss border so the Swiss Alps can be seen across the lake.

There are 2 Villas in Varenna with very famous gardens (everything seems to be famous to the Italians) – Villa Cipressi and Villa Monastero. They really have lovely gardens, especially in Villa Monastero, plus because it was still summer, the flowers were still in bloom so there was plenty of colour around!

Villa Cipressi at the side
Villa Cipressi grounds
Villa Monastero
Villa Monastero gardens

Aside from the villas, whose grounds took hours walking through because we were taking photos and admiring the plants, Varenna also has really old buildings…which of course has gotta be a church coz most of the old buildings in Italia are churches. The Chiesa San Giorgio is 13th Century architecture….impressive stone building with an even older but more impressive interior because of the statues and paintings and carvings.

It was a pity we didn’t have time to travel to some of the other towns, but I suppose I could go another time. There was this store, Il Pozzo, in Varenna which sold absolutely gorgeous jewelry, which was kinda expensive as well. The earrings were really beautiful…and despite not wanting to spend anything, I ended up buying a pair coz the storeowner gave us a discount when he learnt we were students and well, I really really liked those earrings (and a couple of other pairs as well, but I couldn’t afford that many). Most of the jewelry is handcrafted in Firenze (Florence) though, so I might be able to get cheaper stuff when I go there. I have to make a trip to Firenze for shoes coz I broke both my pairs of heels!! Apparently Firenze has a good selection at reasonable prices and I do need them…lol

2005-09-21T00:42:00.000+12:00

Travelling: Stresa

It's great being in a big place that’s so connected. You’ll never run outta places to see. I have no idea how I’m gonna be able to go everywhere in the short time I’m here! I doubt I’d be able to cover all of Italia, never mind the rest of Europa. Anyway I’ve been meaning to blog about my trip to Stresa some 3 weeks ago, but I never really got round to doing it…

I went to Stresa with my roomie, Alexandra (Alex) during my 1st weekend in Italia. Classes hadn’t begun yet and we didn’t know what to do over the weekend, so she picked up her guidebook and flipped through it before suggesting we go to Stresa which is 90km out of Milano, which made it a great day trip.

The train system is great. You can basically get almost anywhere in Italia (and to other countries) by it. It wasn’t too difficult for us to buy tickets at the railway station to Stresa which was about 1 ¼ hours train ride. The seats are pretty ok in the trains and the price was decent, being €4.75…not much to see on the way there but that gave us the opportunity to take a nap. Lol

Stresa is a small beach town, where there are many hotels…the really expensive ones. It’s also famous for the Grand Hotel where Ernest Hemingway once stayed at. They now let out the very same room he stayed in for a princely sum. As can be seen from the photo below, it is a really grand place and people there were dressed in formal wear in the middle of the afternoon…formal wear meaning guys in suits and ladies in designer gowns, much like what one would wear to a ball. It wasn’t just the Grand Hotel though. Guests at the other hotels were also similarly dressed, and no there was no function on.

To me Stresa was built for tourists, but different…the streets were these paved paths with white street lamps. It seemed like something out of a storybook…and so very English.

Most ordinary tourist who visit Stresa take the ferry out to the islands on Lake Maggiore – Isola Bella, Isola Pescatore (Superiore) and Isola Madre. Being ordinary tourists, Ale and I did the same although we just visited 2 of the islands, Isola Bella and Isola Pescatore.

Out of the 3, Isola Pescatore was the only residential island and specialized mainly in fishing (why does that not surprise me?). There wasn’t really much to see there, but they had lotsa seafood restaurants and good beaches to suntan or have a picnic, as many people did. Isola Bella on the other hand is smaller and the Borromeo Palace is located there. The palace is huge with beautiful grounds, built by Count Borromeo for his wife Isobella.

Stresa was a nice place (wonderful according to Alex who comes from New York where you don’t see nature), with definitely much fresher air than in Milano! I did think it was too commercialized though, which spoiled it somewhat, but it made for a good day trip.

2005-09-14T06:11:00.000+12:00

Sono a Milano: Partying

Probably one of the great things about being on exchange is the number of parties the student network here organises for us. We had 3 parties in a single week. 1 on Friday when we first went to uni, which was kinda like a get to know everyone welcome party; 1 on Tuesday at this really great club, Casablanca, which was a get to know everyone better still and dance and another 1 on Thursday, which they called a "What's your name again" party.

I've gotta say that Tuesday's party was the best coz the club was big with 2 dance floors and 3 bars and it had good music. Practically everyone was there so I met heaps of people, plus there were italians who weren't from the uni as well (coz the club is still opened to the public but exchange students get in free with a student card) and I met quite a couple of Italian guys...come to think of it, all the italians I know are male... I guess that's coz Italian guys are pretty bold. They pretty much come up to you and pick you up...like they clearly hit on you. They know how to do it pretty well too lol and they're definitely charming in their own way. Like quite a couple of the Italian guys I met, rather than shaking your hand after introductions, they kiss it, look right into your eyes and tell you you're beautiful, but they pretty much tell every chick the same thing so while it's
romantic, I don't suppose it's something that a girl can take too seriously. As I've
mentioned before, italian guys are bold. I was looking for my friend in the club and I met this italian guy and had a short conversation with him in my limited italian (almost all the italian guys I've met only speak italian). Then I told him I had to go coz I was looking for my friend...and I've also mentioned before that italian guys are rather persistent and sticky so naturally he tried to get me to stay but I told him I really needed to leave, so he was like aww and then he kinda grabbed me round the waist and kissed me full on the lips...something I wasn't quite expecting...

I gather that I'm getting influenced by my very typically American room mate and the
alcohol...which would probably explain why Tuesday night I wound up making out with this Moroccan guy on the dance floor. We were just dancing and then somehow it happened... The thing was that he lives in my residence which was bad because I definitely see him around. Even worse was that I couldn't remember his name. I mean I met the guy on Friday and I knew he lived in my residence, just couldn't recall his name and I had to ask my roomie the next day coz he's in her italian class. It was one of the things whereby you come back and lie down and go "What the hell did I just do?" He wasn't too bad a kisser though, although the best kisser I've come across so far was this aussie/kiwi guy I made out with in a club a couple of months back (whose name and face I can't recall...). Anyway I don't suppose the Morrocan guy remembers making out with me...or at least he doesn't seem to, which is good coz it's not awkward when we see each other (in fact he went to Thursday's party with my roomie and I). Of course there were classes the next day and everyone was just really stoned in class although the teachers understood coz they knew we were at the party...they're quite cool really.

Thursday's party was at a small club which wasn't very good coz it was too crowded to dance. Still it was fun coz you meet more people...and collect more phone numbers. Maybe I'm going through a wild phase...but it's good being single at large parties. You're pretty much free to hook up with anyone. Again I'm blaming the alcohol...had 3 drinks that night and italian drinks are waaaay strong. Usually back in NZ, when they make a whiskey and coke (my usual drink), it's 1 part whiskey 3 parts coke....in italy it's 3 parts whiskey 1 part coke. Plus I had a vodka redbull and a vodka lemon...on an almost empty stomach, so my head was buzzing happily throughout the night...had some trouble climbing up and down the stairs, but that wasn't too bad and I dun think anyone could tell that I had to concentrate to walk straight...lol Anyway, towards the end of the night I met this Italian guy whose dad owns a restaurant in Hamilton in NZ...at least he spoke English pretty ok and well...ended up making out with him. At least he doesn't stay in my residence and I'm gonna go out on a date with him sometime this week so he won't really be just a one-off kissing partner...I think. I can't quite recall his face (oops), but we've been texting each other to make a date except that it's been in italian so I've been flipping through my dictionary to supplement my limited vocab. I have mentioned that italian guys are sticky so I'm still uncertain as to whether it's a good idea to go out with him...but I figure I'll deal with that later. After ignoring the other sticky guy (although I did feel kinda guilty doing so) he's stopped trying to contact me...

But it's been fun so far playing on the wild side and it's good being female in Italy coz if you ask for free drinks you're more likely to get it from a male bartender and drinks here are horribly expensive!If my parents see this, they'll definitely flip...thank goodness they don't even know I've got a blog... I mean it's not really me...I'm not the wild type really. It's just this year and it's Italy...lol I think I've gotta cut back some on the partying though coz I was really tired and stoned on Friday in class which made understanding the class even harder than it usually is. Honestly if they have parties 3 times a week I'm gonna die...I'd probably flunk all my papers. There's a party every Tuesday at Casablanca though. I wonder where my self-discipline has gone?

2005-09-14T06:09:00.000+12:00

Sono a Milano: Italian Class

It's been a week since my language classes started and I'm hoping my Italian has improved somewhat by now...actually I'm pretty sure it has, except for my pronunciation which is still lousy coz I still pronounce it the English way. Everyone in my class seems to speak Italian really fluently mainly coz they're super multi-lingual and majority of them speak Espagnole (oops...Spanish) which is very similar to Italian. There are heaps of Portugese in my class and portugese is similar to Italian too. I'm probably the worst in the class coz it takes me way longer than everyone else to understand when the lecturers speak fast. I can read and write it way better than I can speak or hear it. I'm thinking maybe I should have tranferred one class down coz apparently I'm in the highest level of the elementary classes (there are 4 levels of elementary classes). I must have done pretty well in that italian proficiency test they gave us before classes began to be placed in a class higher up, but then again it was a written test...

When they said it was an intensive course, they really meant intensive. We have classes everyday from 11.30am to 4.30pm with only a half hour lunch break in between sometime at 2pm!! It's insane really...at least my teachers are nice and they give us half an hour, some classes only get 15 mins (but everyone just takes 45mins...the 'italian' 15 mins). The other day we had to go for this "special lesson" on the italian economy, whereby it's a mass lecture and we nearly didn't get a lunch break at all coz italian class was supposed to run from 11.30am to 2.30pm so a 5hr lesson was supposed to be condensed into 3hrs and then the special lesson would run from 2.30pm to 4pm thereabouts. Honestly the schedule is insane! Actual classes are gonna begin on Tuesday and then we'll be having the language classes everyday from 6 to 8pm so I'm not quite looking forward to that. I don't even get these kinda hours back home!!

One wouldn't expect these kinda crazy hours from Italians, considering that if you go out every night the bars and clubs are always crowded. Restaurants and pizzerias are opened till 2am every night and clubs open till much later. Just seeing all the people out at night, one would think that Italians never seem to need to work...I mean it's kinda hard going to work in the morning when you've been out partying late aye? Well at least for me...

2005-09-09T03:44:00.000+12:00

Sono a Milano: The Italian System

I have never come across such an outrageously inefficient system before. Honestly, everything here is so disorganised and you've gotta wait ages to get anything done. Order something at a restaurant and they take like half an hour before the bring it over; call for the bill and it gets to you an hour later.

I'm supposed to get a foreigner's stay permit to make my stay here legal, even though I have a visa. To apply for a permit, you have to go down to the main police station with 4 passport photos and a couple of documents. The police station does this thing starting 8am in the morning till like 1 or 2pm and then they close. However, in order to actually get inside the building, you've gotta start queuing at 3 or 4am in the morning!!! Like seriously, if you arrive any later than 5am there'll be like 100+ people in front of you and you will be refused admittance because they only issue like 80 permits per day and there are lotsa refugees and all sorts of people, mainly indian and african families who come to get a permit. I've currently yet to get one coz I went once but we only arrived there at like 5am and we queued till it opened at 8am but were refused admittance. I was so totally pissed off and so was my roomie who had been refused entrance twice already. Plus, the staff there non parlano inglese!!! One would think that given that you're working with foreigners, you'd at least employ people who speak english, but no that would just be too easy of course and too organised for Italians... I'm not sure if I actually wanna go again. It's pure torture really and you don't exactly need it unless you're planning on getting into trouble...like if the police stop you and ask for a permit and you dun have it you'd be in deep trouble, but otherwise...

I dun think I'll ever understand how italians get things done. You definitely have gotta have lotsa patience here, waiting for them to get things done. Like to pay rent we had to queue for about an hour and then class was supposed to start at 11.30am and they asked us to come collect our books at 11am. Naturally there was a mile long queue and naturally they never got around to giving everyone their books on time. In the end they just told everyone to check what class we were assigned to and then they'd give out the books in class...which is what they should have done in the first place!!!! Things are just pretty messy around here really which definitely takes some getting used to!!

2005-09-06T06:47:00.000+12:00

Sono a Milano: Italians

Milan has fabulous architecture, especially around the city and all the buildings are so old. I've not seen any modern buildings yet! Other than the really old architecture, frankly it's an ugly place, but it has it's charm and especially in the city it's so european.

But I digress and to continue from where I left off the last time, about that Italian guy... It would seem that Italian guys are very persistent and bold. I mentioned before that that guy was becoming somewhat of a pain coz he seems to think that he likes me. Perhaps you're wondering why I used "seems" basically coz I knew him for less than 24 hours and he asked me if I liked him and if I wanted to kiss him. Like hello?!! I don't even know you! Perhaps if he was cute I might have considered it lol but he's not even close...ok I know that's mean but he's really annoying now and everytime I think of him I get annoyed. Anyway he's being a real pain because unfortunately he has my cell phone no (coz he went with me to get it and he took it down) and so he keeps calling and texting me to ask me out. I have completely ignored him, deleted all his messages and still he doesn't seem to get the hint. I'm hoping if I continue ignoring him he'll go away...

From observing people in Milan, Italians pretty much drink a lot, eat a lot and smoke like chimneys!! Practically everyone smokes here...honestly...I think if I were to develop cancer it'll be coz of all the second hand smoke I breathe in here. Regarding drinking, people order drinks in the middle of the day...like it's not surprising to see someone having a cocktail at 1pm in the afternoon. Plus, every night, the clubs and bars are open and there are heaps of people having drinks or dancing...even on a Monday. Milan's party spot would have to be the streets along the 2 canals in town...Navaglio Grande and Navaglio Pavese. There are heaps of restaurants, bars and clubs and there are night markets every night. These streets are dead in the day though.

I've mentioned that Italians eat a lot...like heaps!! I went out for dinner one night with my room mate who is American Russian and we went to this restaurant on a boat on the canal and we ordered pizzas. We were told the pizzas were for 1 person so we each ordered one. The "single portion" pizza turned out to be the side of a large pizza from Pizza Hut!!! We could barely finish half of the whole thing. On our left and right were these couples and the chicks ordered pizzas too...but they managed to finish the entire thing! Plus the one on my left not only had a whole pizza, but ate 2 other courses (similar huge portions) as well. The thing is, the chicks were still super thin... I've yet to figure out how they eat so much and still stay so thin...or how they even manage to stomach so much food!!

The night we went out for dinner, was the first day I checked into Capitanio and was also the night I lost my keys...at the restaurant where we had dinner. I think I must be the only resident in Capitanio's history to lose my room keys so quickly!!! When I realised I lost my keys I called up the restaurant, but the waiter couldn't speak english! So I was trying to explain that I lost my keys in italian while frantically flipping through my dictionary for the words due to my limited vocabulary. It took me fifteen minutes and mentioning "perduto" and "chiave" like a gazillion times before the waiter finally got it and proceeded to help find my keys, except that he couldn't find them and he was like "no find key, I look but no find." So now I'm gonna have to pay €26 to get a new set of keys. My key problem didn't just end here. The keys I lost included the key to my closet which I had locked coz I had important documents and stuff inside. It took me another hour trying to explain to the receptionist that I couldn't open my closet and to ask if he had a spare key. Of course, given my luck that night, he didn't have one...or rather there was one but he couldn't find it. Luckily the next morning another of the management staff found the key and managed to open the door so I could get my stuff. As of now, my roomie and I are sharing a key which can get rather difficult given that we aren't together all the time (just most of the time).

Ok this is another really long blog and I believe I shall continue the story tomorrow...

2005-09-04T09:57:00.000+12:00

Sono a Milano: Getting There

Ok as anyone can tell I've totally given up ever blogging about my North Island trip so if anyone is actually interested to know, I'd be most willing to talk about it. For now the "hot" topic would have to be my last 3 days in Milan so far...

Ok starting from the beginning, I was totally freaking out before my flight to Milan (and it was fully justified) but nonetheless I got on the plane where I was supposed to make a stopover for 4hrs in Frankfurt. Anyway my seatmate was this German guy who was heading back to Germany to take up a job as brand manager for Unilever after graduating not too long ago from a uni in Australia and he majored in marketing too, so it was really interesting talking to him (and he was kinda cute too, but that's besides the point). Unfortunately, after we landed and we parted in the airport I realised I don't know his name...he asked for my email address though and so I gave it to him and my name, hopefully he'll email some time. The Frankfurt airport is confusing and huge and not very convenient...I ended up missing my flight coz they changed the boarding gate and I didn't hear the announcement coz there was so many gate changes it wasn't funny. So I was waiting at the wrong boarding gate and when I finally realised something was "off" and I asked about it, I'd already missed my flight...so much for a good start. I shall blame it on fatigue from the horribly long flight and the fact that it was 5.30 in the morning... Luckily, they managed to get me on another flight, except that it was 4 hours later. Well in any case a much later flight is better than no flight at all. It also saved me the problem of wondering what to do when I arrived in Milan coz with my original flight I would arrive in Milan at about 10am and I could only check into the backpackers at 2pm...although it took me so long to get there it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Anyway, I got to Milan and I discovered that it's really hard getting around when u only speak sparse italian and understand even less! I think I wandered around the airport for awhile trying to read the signs to find out how I'd get to the city...and I think I annoyed the person at the info counter asking her heaps of questions. I finally managed to get on the right bus though which took me to Station Centrale. Then came the horrible process of lugging my luggage (36kg in total) around the station, looking for the metro! It was awful coz they had no elevators and I had to lug my stuff up the escalators to enquire at the info counter which was on the 2nd floor. If that wasn't bad enough, when I did find the metro, to my horror there were only stairs and no elevators OR escalators!!! I ended up having to carry my stuff down 2 flights of stairs. Thankfully there was this nice italian guy who helped me carry my suitcase down after seeing me struggling with it. Unfortunately he spoke only italian and so he couldn't help me figure out how to buy a ticket for the metro and I ended up having to ask one of the station staff, who thankfully spoke some english. When I got to my stop, the darn station had no escalators or elevators and I ended up having to carry my luggage UP the stairs this time...which was worse of course and there wasn't anyone to help.

By the time I reached the backpackers I was truly exhausted, plus the temperature was pretty much like Singapore's...but less humid. Then I was trying to use the phone to call my mum when I met this other italian guy (who is now becoming somewhat of a pain...but that's another story) and ended up having dinner with him, having a conversation through my trusty italian-english dictionary (because of course he spoke only italian). Ok this has been a really long entry so I guess I'll leave everything else for parts 2, 3, 4.... 8p

2005-07-27T20:22:00.000+12:00

Back to the Real World

I returned to Dunedin this afternoon from my all too short holiday around the North Island...and yes it's back to the real world of having to deal with whatever life throws at you and important stuff...like finding a flat for next year. The weather even changed accordingly to fit the situation and mark the end of my break from reality coz I left sunny Auckland and as we flew down South the weather gradually turned bad (It was all rainy and foggy in Dunedin). Still perhaps it's good that my trip has ended otherwise the big hole in my bank account may be even bigger. Ouch!

It was a great trip though....also made interesting by a certain travel companion and details of the trip will be posted in several installments over the next couple of days. I reckon my travel companion will probably give his version of events (although his blog is dreadfully outdated and perhaps there may be a chance that he won't which would be nice ;p) but as always one should note that his version would be skewed towards preserving his "decent" image...

2005-07-06T23:29:00.000+12:00

Going Nuts

It suddenly hit me today that I really don't have much time left before I've to hop onto planes and zip here and there. At the same time I realised that I've got so much I need to do before I zip off. I finally overcame inertia today to actually start packing. I've got heaps and heaps and heaps of stuff and packing is such a major headache. I hate packing...plus I'm shifting flats next year (I don't even know where!) so I've to pack for my upcoming trip around the North Island (RJ I'm totally blaming you for the extra headache), pack for Milan and pack for storage.

Aside from packing there's the whole matter for foreign currency. My parents have been trying to transfer euros into my euro account and there are all these complicated forms to fill in with details you don't have...makes the whole thing so darn complicated. All these silly rules and forms and paperwork...designed juz to make you wanna scream. What's wrong with these banks? I just want my money!!! Why in the world do different countries wanna have different currencies anyway? I swear they do it just to make life difficult and foreigners miserable (especially foreigners with parents who keep texting and calling the whole day regarding one matter or another about the whole money-transfer-currency-conversion-form-filling-in thing). Honestly I'm going nuts! Life would be waaaay simpler if the world ran on 1 common currency.

2005-07-03T03:09:00.000+12:00

Daniel Carter Rocks!!

Today was Test 2 in the All Blacks vs the British Irish Lions series. The score: 48-18 to the All Blacks (of course!) Since we totally trashed the Lions in last week's test as well, this means we've won the series and don't exactly need to win the last test. Still, it'll be nice to win all 3 tests. Carter was the star of tonight's game. He was so totally awesome!! I've never seen him play like he did tonight. He scored 2 tries and converted every single try save 1 and didn't miss a single penalty...even the ones from the corner! 33 out of the 48 points we got were scored by Carter.

Tonight's game was way more physical than the last test though. The Lions are a nasty lot, kept rucking during tackles i.e. stomping on the All Blacks which is illegal. Last week they deliberately stomped on poor Chris Jack and kicked him too. Tonight, Bryon's face and arm got stomped on. The referees had to break up more fights this time coz de Lions kept picking fights. I think the referee should have given the ruckers and troublemakers a yellow card since they were deliberately trying to injure our players. At least this time the Lions didn't bite our players. Last week one of the Lions literally bit Chris Jack. He was banned from the series of course after that...

Prince William flew down to NZ yesterday to support the Lions in today's and next week's test. His arrival was such a secret that the airport staff didn't even know he was arriving (only the higher powers knew) and the passengers who were on the same plane he was on didn't even realise they were travelling with royalty! The cameras briefly showed Prince William in the spectator stands as they showed other spectators. The commentators didn't even mention him and spectators didn't even bother about him. Clearly, rugby beat royalty hands down. Lol, I would say that Carter was more of a royalty than Prince William... It's a pity though that William came all this way to see the Lions eat dust. Muahahaha

2005-06-26T20:06:00.000+12:00

Skating Competition

My week of non-stop skating is finally over...wow now my blisters can rest!! I've got this huge blister on my left heel and another on my right ankle. Skating with blisters today was agony and I consider it an achievement to have managed to skate properly with the humongous blisters! My left one hurt when I was spinning, the right one hurt when I was landing my jumps... Plus, yesterday when I got in some last minute practice, I fell during the program and hit my knees really hard. It hurt so bad I couldn't move, much less breathe. Needless to say, walking was out of the question. I've never cried from falling in skating, but this time it hurt so bad I did a bit. After all, rebruising my bruises for the 4th time does hurt and my knees now look ghastly.

I was kinda worried that my injury yesterday would make me unable to skate today, but surprisingly I managed to land all of my jumps! Wasn't too sure I could coz during the 6 min warm up I fell while doing the salchow. I did travel while spinning and I kinda mucked up my footwork a little, but it was alright and I managed to finish on time. I came in first in my category although there were only 2 of us in the category...so that wasn't much of a competition. It was all over really really quick...much to my surprise. Anyway I'm glad that's over and my feet can rest and I can break in my skates properly...well till Friday that is.

2005-06-22T12:29:00.000+12:00

Back to the Land of the Living!!!!

Exams are OVER!!!!!!!! Yay!!!! So once again I'm back to the land of the living...and I shall worry and stress over my results later. In the meantime, I've got the skating competition to prepare for *panic* and my old skating boots broken down on the right such that when I land after a jump it can't support my ankle so it hurts. Anyway, I had to switch to my new boots, which is potentially disastrous coz I need time to break them in....time I don't have!! Boots usually take a few weeks to break in and I've only got 1 week! I've taken to wearing them around the flat to try and speed up the breaking in process...although I look rather silly.

Funny how you have a tendency to forget that breaking in new boots is always a painful process....still, without them broken in I can't do anything!! I'm sporting this massive bruise that covers almost my whole knee coz I fell while attempting a waltz jump in boot that haven't been broken. It's pathetic....since it's such an easy, no-brainer jump...which only goes to show how awful it would be if I didn't have them sufficiently broken in by competition day. Then I got my blades sharpened and now they're so sharp they're grabbing the ice. While that's fantastic for my edges (I skate great edges now!!) it also means I CAN'T stop...coz I can't turn the blade. My coach suggeested using a piece of wood to dull the edges to skatability which I need to do sometime...probably today.

I can't believe that this is the end of my year in Otago...it went so fast!! Hopefully my semester in Milan won't go as quick...it'll be such a waste otherwise! I haven't really thought about what I'm gonna do for the rest of the holiday...I'll need to pack up my room and clean the flat (coz nobody seems to bother) I'm thinking of getting a short term job...but my plan for the rest of the week goes something like Thursday: skate, Friday: skate, Saturday: skate, Sunday: skate (competition).

2005-06-03T09:46:00.000+12:00

Snowed In

It's been snowing on and off since early in the morning today. I was about to leave for my last lecture of the semester when it started snowing really heavily...prob more so since I'm on higher ground. Needless to say I didn't go for my lecture...who wants to walk in heavy snow? I kinda feel bad for missing the lecture...especially since I'm not doing tremendously well in all my 3rd year papers. Sigh

Ok I'm gonna have to start pulling 7 to 12s...or maybe 8 to 12s...ugh! I'm gonna be disappearing for awhile...so if anyone is wondering, I'm gonna be freezing in my room trying to study....

2005-05-31T20:19:00.000+12:00

Rugby Super 12

I didn't have the time to make a post on the Super 12 after the finals last Saturday, so I thought I'd just say something now.

The Crusaders WON the Super 12!!! Now the cup is back in NZ...where it belongs really. I only caught the 2nd half of the game, having decided to compromise between studying and watching the finals. I must say that it was a well deserved win...considering the fact that the South African referee was so biased towards Australia! It was soooo annoying how he kept giving the Warratahs the ball even though in some cases the Crusaders didn't actually do anything wrong. Like for example, when Chris Jack tackled a Warratah and pushed him out the boundary, the blasted referee blew the whistle and called for a scrum and gave it to the Warratahs. Geez come on it's rugby you're supposed to tackle and the tackle was perfectly legal too!! Every time the referee blew the whistle, it was to give the ball to the Warratahs...all the way till the 65th minute when he finally decided to be fair! Most of the S. African referees are biased towards Australia though...like honestly biased.

The sad thing though is that Justin Marshall is leaving the Crusaders and the All Blacks to go play for England....he's gonna play for Leeds (traitor!) and Andrew Merton is leaving too (dunno where he's going but he's going). Not too sure if Merton is leaving the All Blacks as well...I wonder though what his dad would think since Merton is "genuine All Black stock" so to speak. Dad was an All Black, granddad was an All Black....