janice, u're 22!

Janice Lee (aka Lenik the menace) is 22!

Once a neighbour, always a neighbour! ;P
Once a friend, forever a friend.

From Jane Malthus (Studholme Hall) to 4/777 Great King Street last year, and this year (well, still sort of neighbours) at 157 Queen Street. Oh, should I say from the high school days since we were on the same car to school (provided by Mr P'ng, haha!)

So we planned a surprise dinner for Janice at the Cargills Hotel's Chocolate, Jazz, and Shiraz night (in conjunction with Cadbury's chocolate carnival this month) on wednesday, 16th July. $45 per person, not too bad. It was a 4-course dinner with lots of chocolate involved. Well, actually 3-course, the fourth being chocolate(s). Everyone took home a BIG bar of chocolate, and even the whole table was randomly scattered with roses choc. The jazz quartet was good, all of them being more than 2.5 times my age.

We had the jazz band dedicate a birthday song and announcement for Janice ;P
She's looking very pretty here, agree?

Very distracted by the lady in red behind Janice. Ahhh, my eyes!
The BIG card we gave her (plus a brand new cybershot camera)

Black and white shots- Greg with his slr.
I like this pic.

Jaq being shy.

My choice of entrée- "red wine poached pears on chocolate ripple
tea bread with Baileys and a milk chocolate ganache". couldn't resist typing in full =)

dessert- choc marble cheesecake. very yummy.
I got quite fascinated with the shape of the mint leaves- looked like the shape of a butterfly

Jaq and I

The guys

Sam- where's my food?!

So full, happy, and satisfied at the end. Birthdays are fun (and expensive).

***

We did something quite random yesterday.

The weather was as usual, a typical Dunedin mid-winter day. Gloomy, cloudy, no sunshine, a bit drizzly, temperature below 8 degrees. So nice to wrap up in my duvet and sleep.

But we chose to go swimming instead at Moana Pool.

Sharon, my flatmate, was like O___O!!! when we told her that.

Anyway, it was WARM at the pool! Even went to the sauna section, so hot la. The angmohs were all red in their faces from the heat. But very nice and relaxing. The waterslide was the fun part- we kept bumping into each other. The aqua jogging is a new concept to me, mostly old people use that exercise as a form of therapy for arthritis?

My neck and abdomen muscles are hurting a bit now. But so fun! 9 dollars for swim and waterslide. I think we might make it into a weekly event now, haha! Exercise for the lazy people.

Thinking as positive as possible

It's not a YES (yet), but still, it's a positive response.

THINK POSITIVE ;P

I'm not superstitious or anything like that, so I don't care if blogging about this is going to jinx my chances of getting the work placement.

Ok. So about a week ago, after being frustrated not having heard back from potential employers, I decided (well, Michelle helped in making sure I did that hehe) to call one particular investigator (researcher) which I was interested to work for in one of his research labs.

Problem was: he was in Singapore, I was here. Also, I'm terrified to speak (over the phone especially) to people of higher importance, especially if it concerns my future. I started to think about the what ifs. What if I say something stupid, eg mispronounce his name, or mention the wrong institute, or worse, stutter and not manage to get any info through? Or what if I sound TOO keen, aka desperate, or not interested enough to want the job?

So many factors on the line, ok.

And it's not like I'd never handled (important) phone calls before. I've had experience dealing with grumpy, racist, drunk customers calling to Domino's Pizza, and more recently, having to call dentists to settle claims/payments at the office.

Anyway. After 1 week of no reply, Mr (Prof/Dr?) Seielstad of the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) (part of A*Star) finally replied my email/cv/letter of endorsement. It wasn't a yes, like I said, but just another email to ask about the dates of my attachment (Singaporean term for internship -__- ), and who/how the report would be assessed etc info.

So yea. I have been stressing over the past few weeks (still am) over this. Only 3 or so months to go before it starts, so scary! I don't even know whether we would get paid for this, and trying not to think about the loooooong report we have to complete to pass the APPS499 paper. And also other details to consider: booking air tickets to/fro, accommodation (super expensive walao), whether or not I have enough lab skills to prevent from looking dumb to the researcher/other students.

Hopefully can get an answer soon, then start consulting people on accommodation (near uni preferably), book air tickets, plan a possible traveling trip (Taiwan/Philippines/Brissy- yes I am being a bit ambitious) before uni starts again early March.

***

Chyi: you owe me coffee sessions for making me answer this. In BM some more! *faints*

7 fakta tentang saya:
01. name saya kalau ditranslasi kepada bahasa Cina jadi "sayur dengan udang"
02. kawan-kawan saya panggil saya KAKAK
03. saya suka menyanyi semasa mandi- syoknya
04. saya selalu pergi ke "restaurant asian" sampai orang yang kerja di situ sudah tahu muka saya
05. rumah saya sama sejuk dengan peti ais
06. saya patut tulis repot sekarang
07. saya "tengok depan" pada malam esok- ada makan malan fancy! woohoo

7 perkara menakutkan saya:
01. lelaki kacak tertengok saya mempersiasoikan diri.. tak ada muka
02. orang yang ikut saya pergi sini sana (stalker)
03. komputer saya hangus
04. balik malaysia- tak pandai cakap BM lagi lah
05. orang "buat letak sama" (matchmake) saya dengan orang lain
06. kawan-kawan saya hilang dari dunedin
07. terpelanting apabila jalan di uni

7 lagu buat sekarang:
01. langgar (collide)- Howie Day
02. peeeeter-pet (pitter pat)- Erin McCarley
03. anak kuda (pony)- Erin McCarley
04. bodoh untuk kamu (stupid for you)- Marie Digby
05. cinta kamu sampai habis (love u til the end)-the Pogues
06. itu hanya hayat (it's only life)- Kate Voegele
07. lagu desert (desert song)- Hillsong

7 perkara yang selalu disebutkan:
01. kamu tahu tak...
02. OHH. saya tengok
03. lapar lah. ada makanan?
04. pergi mana makan?
05. sangat sejuk
06. saya mahu tidur
07. saya mahu beli barang

7 perkara yang amat bernilai:
01. tangan saya
02. mata saya
03. kawan-kawan
04. lagu
05. memori
06. air
07.minyak

7 "pertama kali" dalam hidup saya:
-__- pertama kali buat quiz yang bodoh macam ini

7 orang bertuah (JAWAB TAG INI BALIK)
saya sangat baik hati. tak payah jawab balik.

***

Finally. GOSH. No more BM for at least 4 months.. phew.

Anyway, a special Happy Graduation wish to bunny aka Chok! Wah everyone's graduating soon already, feeling a bit nostalgic knowing I'll have to leave uni after next year.

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