here's to you

P.S. weekend's over

"P.S. I love you" was surprisingly a good movie to watch. I didn't expect it to be a tearjerker, but my table ended up with a few wet tissues. ;P

Still no reply yet. Oh well, it is the weekend anyway.

Patience. I'll keep reminding myself that.
"It's not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting."

I went a little camera crazy this morning while walking back from church to Unicol and snapped a few photos of scenery around uni. So few people walking about on Sunday mornings, a lot of them must have hangovers (grieving from All Blacks' lost last night maybe?).

River behind commerce building.
Always loved walking through this area, so calming and pretty

The arch thingy- on last year's student ID card

Love the shadow effect

a view of Richardson building- law, commerce, geography, etc.
also known as Chyi Chyi's 2nd home ;P

another random pic.
i must have walked through this path over 100 times already for the past 3 years

How photogenic is Uni of Otago compared to other boring-looking universities?

Hopeful

I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high just yet, but I can hardly contain my happiness =) 80% sure now, I just need the YES reply and certainty before announcing the good news. hehe.

If it's a yes, I might have to chiah some lucky few for lunch as promised at Bennu? aiks.

If it's a no, well I'll just have to keep trying and hope for the best.

***

The cold snap hasn't been pleasant at all. I think it went down to minus 5 degrees last night. BRRRRrrrr... Someone mentioned about the last few days being the coldest yet this year.

The roads were so icy this morning; I almost slipped on a patch where it hasn't melted yet. I love the feeling of walking on the frosty grass though.

I just had real, authentic (maybe) kebabs tonight at a Turkish kebab place at South Dunedin today after music practice. Not bad at all, considering the fact that I generally stay away from Mexican food (eg nachos, brueks!). It's just a bit messy though, which means a bad choice of food to have on a first date, or any dates for that matter. Oh, and spaghetti too. I seem to have never mastered the skill needed to eat spaghetti gracefully, i.e. having to wipe my face every 5 seconds or so.

***

I just remembered I haven't posted any photos from Raymond and Michelle's wedding here yet. Heaps uploaded on facebook already, but here are just a few of my favourites.

All photos taken by a professional photographer, Chris from seenindunedin.co.nz.

Location shoot was at St Clair beach.

All of us. Too bad not symmetrical, the guys seem to take up more space than us ;P

So confused when the photographer asked us to stand around the little fountain, haha!
It was FREEZING but thank God for the jackets from the guys

Sigh, too cute!
Daniel, the ring bearer =)

All for one, one for all?
Loved how the turquoise ties showed up really nicely in the photos

Beautiful, home made cake! (by Aunty Evelyn)

So many things happening around Dunedin at the moment, eg International Film Festival, Cadbury Chocolate festival, Science festival, Intl month etc etc. So tempted to watch a few of those really good foreign films at Regent theatre =)

Finding a musical neverland

OH. MY.

I think I just saw my favourite movie EVER. No kidding.

Well, at least I think it made it to my top 5 list of favourite movies, and that's a big thing considering I do watch quite a lot of movies.

Anyway, the title of this amazing movie is August Rush.

Remember him from Charlie and the chocolate factory?

Like father, like son.

look at those those dreamy eyes...

I have no idea why I had never seen it before. Released in 2007, it tells the touching story of how a young boy went on a search for his parents. When asked how he would find them, he always answers "by following the music". You don't have to like music to love the movie. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the hunky dad, and Lyla (Keri Russell) is the mum who after a night of passion, shall we say, never saw Louis (Meyers) again, and thought she had lost the baby as her father had put the baby up for adoption.

I love how the whole movie was magical, from beginning to the end. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, but the young boy (Evan aka August Rush) is depicted as a modern day Mozart. Being the musical genius that he is, for me the whole point of him composing and playing music was to find his parents again, not knowing whether they were even alive to begin with. Robin Williams plays the role of the "Wizard", "taking care" of the homeless yet musically talented children, and keeping much of the tips from the street performances they do.

If you're still not convinced, wait till you see Jonathan Rhys Meyers ~~serenading~~ singing while playing the guitar and you'll drool. Or if you're a guy, Keri Russell playing the cello was pretty amazing, and that's coming from someone who's not too crazy about classical music. And the music throughout the movie- mesmerizing.

I rate: 10.5 out of 10. =D

Making the most of it

Random: taken in a restaurant in Auckland.

3 days of holiday left and I still haven't had my haircut yet!!!

I wish there were more Korean hair salons in Dunedin. Apparently they're not keen on starting up businesses here as with more than half of the population gone during summer, business would be bad for 4 months. Which means for a good, reasonably priced haircut, I'll still head up Christchurch for one.

I'm so tempted to just trim off the ends myself, buy DIY dye kit and dye my hair black.

***

I've finally had CounterStrike installed on my computer, but somehow lost the "kick" to play. I'm still too engrossed in reading the Left Behind series =) Up to my 3rd book now since last Saturday- "Nicolae- rise of the antichrist". Walao super intense, definitely unputdownable. Highly recommended to all!

No work today, but went around town running errands and lunched with Jaq, Miss Claus for the day. She went around town "distributing" presents she bought in Auckland, how thoughtful! I'd be broke if I do that every time I travel somewhere.

Speaking of which, I still have the terrible urge to travel. Which is bad, since lectures are starting again this Monday and the next break is not till end of August. No chance to travel then too, as Shine '08 camp is on that week. End of year- time to do work placement, so limited time to travel! =(

I still don't believe in working, earning money THEN travel. When you start work, don't you get less holiday and even less chances of getting leave? Then there are other priorities too.. and the list goes on and on until people just give up the idea of traveling around the world.

I'm rambling.

Better stop now.

Back to the books.

A longer holiday, pretty please?

I'm quite surprised 1000Minds is only NOW used for the "Otago Choice"- it's a program/software whatever you want to call it designed to help students decide what to major/minor in uni. Try it here.

I tried, just out of curiosity (not expecting to find biotech as the 1st choice). Lo and behold, my first choice was MEDICINE. (!!!) Genetics was in the top 10 choices, but medicine?! Then again, if I don't tend to have a panic attack when showed blood, I would definitely consider it. FYI dentistry was the 2nd "choice". Funny how the top 2 most expensive courses in Otago showed up as the top 2 choices of study. Ahem.

Anyway, the first time I heard about this software was during a MANT201 lecture; my lecturer had been talking about his colleague designing this apparently million-dollar software designed to help us fussy decision-makers decide based on the factors we feel are important. Such a simple idea, but took quite a long time before someone actually came up with one such as this one. I remembered my lecturer telling us its popularity- being used by Boeing, and even the NZ ministry of health eg. to decide who gets the heart transplant first etc. important decisions.

Our class, was one of the first who ever got to use the software itself early last year; that time was to see what factors we value most in a lecturer, e.g. how smart, easy to approach, teaching style, etc he/she is. The software was certainly really simple to use, and straight to the point with its results- little analysis was needed.

I also remembered him saying one of the creators of the software, though most probably now a millionaire, still rides a yellow bike and parks it ride under a big tree just behind the commerce building. If you happen to pass by the bridge just before the psychology department, go have a look- you can't miss the yellow bike.

***

Only less than a week of holiday left. So sad.

My "real" holiday only lasted for less than a week- during the Auckland trip. Before and after that was all work and work. I'm supposed to work 20 hours this week, but got home earlier yesterday as was feeling hayfeverish again. Teary/tired eyes not good for data entry. Plus, it was so freaking cold at the office- especially when people went to the toilet and the cold wind rushes in whenever the door opens/closes. I have a feeling I might to change workstations once again. Oh well, another few months to go before I can stop working and focus fully on studies again, not that I'm looking forward to that.

Results are out- not perfect but not too bad either. I'm grateful the dreadful C wasn't there- but still means I have to do extra hard to get a B+ average by the end of this year to guarantee a good research project next year.

***

Last night during cell group, Ramon made us his famous laksa again. Can't even remember the last time I had it. Spicy but so yummy. Great for winter. Speaking of which, the highest the temperature will get today is 7 degrees. Winter's always a time when I feel (just a little) homesick- almost everyone from youth is back in Kuching, and I'm reminded of the hot & humid weather back home. But then again, I'm comforted by the fact that winter will be gone in 2 months' time. Spring, I shall count the days till you're here again.

Finally. Just a few of the many photos I grabbed from Davina last night. All are of events/activities of the bestest cell group in Dunedin- Lighthouse Fellowship! ;P