All I want is you - Actual Footage from Juno

This is the actual footage from Juno. Also found on YouTube. But the beginning is cut off slightly.

All I want is you - The Movie Juno

I just watched Juno, and although I didn't really find the movie especially nice (not exactly a comedy, not exactly a sad or touching movie kinda thing), I do like the songs. This is one of the cute songs in the movie. I found this on YouTube and decided to post it here. And it's dedicated to my dear Gladys. :)

Relationship: A Joining of 2 Social Circles

Looking at some relationships around me recently and our own, it seems that there are some people who seem to believe that a relationship is just between 2 people and do not make an effort to get others "involved".

But I feel that a relationship can hardly be seen as just between two people. It's a joining of 2 social circles. Like it or not, a relationship affects not just the 2 people involved in it, but also the people around them. Who can have a happy relationship without the "blending" of two lives, two families, two social circles?

But of course, sometimes it's not easy. Two lives suddenly becoming one. Yet no matter how hard it is, only when a couple works hard to make accept each other's social circle that the relationship can work. One of my uncle's mother is quite the terrible mother-in-law, and I often hear complaints from my aunt (actually, even my uncle complains), but my aunt still accepts her and respects her as a mother-in-law. Well... My aunt and uncle have a great relationship, happily married for almost 20 years now, with 3 kids.

I just think to make a relationship work, it's important to get involved in the other person's life. Family and friends are part of that life. I do see people who do not seem to want to make such efforts. They don't try to make efforts to make the friends and family of the other partner accept them. Some people don't even want to meet the other partner's friends and family. Sorry if I sound like I'm talking about you (whoever is reading this). It's just some ramblings in the middle of the night.

I'm quite glad that Gladys and I had this same thinking all the while, which is why we try to get involved in each other's social lives. I know her friends, she knows my friends. We join each other's family activities. In fact, we're very much part of each other's families (at least I hope so. Haha).

Some people might disagree with what I say. Some people still feel that a relationship is just between two people. I don't know. Do comment on this post with what you feel, and what you have seen/experienced.

Side effects of Ranitidine

I'm feeling so sick after taking Ranitidine, the medication for my GERD. Having nights of insomnia. Even after I fall asleep, I'll wake up a few times in the middle of the night. And I'm starting to lose my appetite, due to the feeling of nausea. It's helping my GERD, but the side effects are not good either...

Went to church today

Went for mass for the first time at St Benedict Church today, and the place is so beautiful! The church also has a very small community, with less than 100 people attending that mass. It's so different from St Mary of the Angels, which has a very modern architecture and a really huge community. Also got to meet Fr Dom Murphy there, who happens to be the chaplain of University of Sydney! What a pleasant surprise!

Stepping into the church

The pews

The altar

St Mary's shrine

The Stations of the Cross

They even use a real pipe organ!

Outside church after mass

After mass, I walked back to Unilodge, and found a little convenience store called Orange Supermarket on my way. To my pleasant surprise, it sells lotsa asian groceries at a much lower price than what I've seen in other places!

Bought these 3 big packets of MSG free chinese pork dumplings (all different flavours), all for just AUD$10! Thank you God!

Also bought these 4 items for AUD$6. Really worth it, especially the mushrooms, which is half the price of what Coles is selling them for. So happy today!! Shall celebrate by eating the dumplings! =)

It's Just Me Now

My parents just left for Singapore this morning, so finally, it's just me here now. Mong Ling is still around of cos, her sis left for Singapore too, 2 hrs before my parents. So technically, it's just the TWO of us here now. Haha.

After sending them off, we decided to haf smth more Singaporean/Malaysian for dinner, so we went out to buy some groceries to cook mee hoon kuey. The highlight of the whole shopping trip for me was of cos this GIANT 大白菜 tt we bought for AUD$4.69. Never seen anything this big in Singapore. It's an Australian-born Chinese vegie! Lol.

Feeling kinda photogenic today, cos I actually blew dry my hair in the morning. Hope nobody feels that I've put on weight! ^_^


Look how small my spoon is beside it!

Anyway, on Wed and Thurs, we were supposed to be attending our orientation, but due to some unforeseen circumstances (sian-ness, in particular), we went to Chinatown, Sydney Fish Market (yum yum!), Darling Harbour, Sydney Harbour and Taronga Zoo instead. Too many photos to edit, so will be posting abt that at a later time! =)

Oh, by the way, we decided to pop by Salvo (Salvation Army) on our way home today. Managed to get a pair of preloved Levi's jeans for AUD$10 and a nice denim skirt for AUD$7! Also bought a pair of very nice Esprit berms for AUD$19.95 (UP: AUD$69.90) yesterday! So cheap! Yeah! Love end-of-summer sales.

Saw something on the way home from school today...

Went to school this afternoon for my enrolment today, and guess what I saw on my way home, hanging high above my head?

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Well, these photos are pretty self-explanatory. I have no idea whether it's dead or alive, but thank goodness it didn't fall on me. *shivers*

More fun!

Just found out yesterday that we'll be having our enrolment on Friday (can't miss it!), and since my original plans was to go out with my parents to Taronga Zoo on Friday (their last day here), it only makes sense for me to skip the orientation today (boring programme!) and go to the zoo! Hey, busy pple like me gotta prioritize, you know! =P

So anyway, at 10am this morning, we set out for Taronga Zoo. Took a bus down to Circular Quay (AUD$2.88 for a 20 mins ride) and bought a ticket to the zoo, which was a ferry ride away. The ticket cost AUD$44, which includes the ferry ride, cable car transfer, and the entrance fee. Not too bad considering things are so expensive here.

The view from the pier (that's the Sydney Harbour Bridge)

The ferry passed by Sydney Opera House

Taronga Zoo

We're here!

This little girl looked so sweet, I just had to asked her mommy to let me take a picture. ^_^

My turn! We saw...

The koala sleeping like a (really fat) log

The graceful Australian pelican

The Australian red kangaroo

And this GIANT spider hanging from a tree! Click on it for a closeup if you dare!

There were also two dusky moorhens building a nest

A peeing giraffe

And a crocodile looking for it's next prey!

There were many other animals that we saw, but I can't post everything here, so click here to see more!

After leaving Taronga Zoo, we returned to Circular Quay and took a stroll down to the Sydney Opera House.

Great view from there!

We can even see people on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb! Looks really cool, but gotta think twice before I splurge on it. One climb costs over AUD$200!

Suspected of having GERD

Today I went to see Dr Victor (a doctor in University Health and Wellness Center who attends mass at the same church as I do) about my cough again. He was commenting that he'll rather see me in church than to see me at the clinic. Anyway, after asking about my history, he suspects that the cough might be due to GERD.

GERD stands for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Basically, it has something to do with the gastric. Too much acid. He checked my tummy and told me that I'm having reflux. So it's very likely GERD. Well... Given that I had been having refluxes quite often recently, it should be the case. So time to improve my lifestyle. Less oily food, more veges, take meals more regularly, that means no eating dinner late, drink less coffee, eat smaller meals etc. He also gave me some medication.

I also mentioned that I had some pain in my ear, and after checking my ears, he sent me for syringing of my right ear. The nurse took this HUGE syringe, filled it up with water and pumped the water into my right ear. At the same time, I was holding a kidney dish below my ear to catch the water. The water washed my wax out into the kidney dish. There was slight discomfort, but still bearable. I did feel a bit giddy though. After the nurse was done, I could see quite a lot of brown wax washed into the kidney dish. According to Dr Victor, he has seen worse. Haha.

Seeing doc at UHWC is really cheap for students. Syringing, plus cough medicine, medicine for phlegm (non-standard drug) and medicine for GERD (non-standard drug) cost only $13.35. Actually, I was just paying for the non-standard drugs.

Hopefully my cough gets better. I've been feeling very tired from the cough and it's affecting my daily life.

Wedding Bells Are Ringing

Have I grown so old that wedding bells are ringing around me? It seems so... I can't deny that I'm not young anymore with all these news of people around me getting married. Don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm not happy to hear such news. In fact, I'm happy for those people.

I'm attending a wedding dinner of one of my army mates in March. And Yuan Deng has proposed to Xiao Fen on V-day. CONGRATS TO XIAOFEN AND YUAN DENG!!! Any more weddings coming up? Please let me know in advance. Haha. Hopefully any more weddings to come will only come after August. Because that's when I'll be getting my 1st pay. No work = no money to give ang bao.

Skipped Orientation!

Today was SUPPOSED to be our first day of orientation, but after a couple hours of presentations and lunch, we got too bored and decided to just go exploring Sydney instead. Heh!

First off, we decided to make our way down to Haymarket. Saw St Benedict's Church on the way, which is where I'll be going for mass on Sunday. It's just 5 mins walk from Unilodge.

St Benedict's Church. Don't you love it's Neo-gothic architecture?

After another 20 minutes walk and taking a left at Hay St, we finally found outselves at Market City, which is in the heart of Haymarket. We've always thought tt Haymarket is a flea market, but it turned out that Haymarket is the name the suburb, and Paddy's, which is the flea market there, is not open today. So we decided to take the light rail down to Sydney Fish Market before it closes at 5pm instead.

Market City

The light rail

The Fish Market is only a couple of stops away but it costs $5.70 for a round trip ticket! The one-way ticket cost $4.60, so doesn't make much sense to buy a one-way. I'm missing how cheap public transport is in Singapore now. I'm never complaining about Singapore public transport fares again...

Sydney Fish Market Stop

Sydney Fish Market

This was quite a sight. Lotsa seagulls chasing the guy who's transporting the fish!

The market was closing by the time we got there (4.30pm), so this was the ONLY shop that we managed to go into.

Lotsa gorgeous fresh seafood!

We bought all these stuff for AUD$30! Sashimi, oysters, abalone... The oysters were especially delicious! Never tasted oysters this good before. Really really tasty!

The view from the pier after dinner was great too. That's Anzac Bridge in the background.

Took the light rail back to Haymarket and made our way to Chinatown. Sadly, there wasn't much to see, although it seems like a pretty good place to buy souvenirs. Not sure if it's the cheapest, but it's the best price we've seen so far. Singapore's Chinatown is much more interesting.

Chinatown

After a short walk thru Chinatown, we took the underpass and walked to Darling Harbour, which was just a stone's throw away. On our way, we saw lotsa birds resting at the fountain outside a shopping centre. Sometimes it's just hard to believe that you get such beautiful sights right in the heart of the CBD.

Pacific Black Duck

Silver Gull

Enjoying the evening sun at Darling Harbour

This gull is obviously very well-fed!

By the time we reached Darling Harbour, it was already evening, so we went home shortly after that. Everything here closes by 6pm and it's not very safe to be out after the sun sets!

Anyway, the abalones that we bought at the Fish Market ($4 per piece) turned out to be too hard to be eaten raw, so I brought them home to cook, Chinese style!

Turned out pretty yummy! =)

In Search of Sydney U

I was so tired after unpacking til 3am last night, I slept til 11am before getting up to shower and have brunch. Met Mong Ling after tt at Broadway to buy some groceries and then took a taxi down to her place at Mallett Street, which is just a stone's throw from the Mallett St campus. Basically spent my day exploring the route to the main campus and the Mallett St campus, since I'll be having my orientation at the former and studying at the latter.

The place didn't look half as bad as what pple described, altho it does look much less glam than the main campus.

Sydney is Spiderland! There r lotsa huge webs everywhere (especially in Mong Ling's place, which has been vacant since Nov 07).

Took this photo along the road while walking back from Mong Ling's place, which was approximately 25 mins walk from Unilodge. These spiders are really FAT, but not yet the biggest I've seen.

After walking 20 mins, I arrived at the main campus of Sydney U, which is where our orientation will be held from 20-21 Feb.

The entrance.

The road leading up to the main building.

The sun was so strong that I could hardly open my eyes!

This is the path leading from the campus to Victoria Park.

It's a pretty neat place. Small, but at least it's got a pond and lotsa birds.

After walking around Victoria Park, I went back to Unilodge (just across the road) and cooked dinner.

Had kangaroo sausages with pasta for dinner today. First meal that I cook in Sydney. Kangaroo meat is supposed to be environment-friendly cos kangaroos eats less than cows and sheeps and does not emit methane (a greenhouse gas) like they do. Kangaroo is also high in protein, iron and zinc, and very low in fat. Well, tasted like PIG LIVER! Lol. Will prob eat it again tho, since it's environment-friendly, healthy and CHEAP! This whole box of gourmet sausages cost me just a little over AUD$3.

I'm missing Singapore food already! Bought this at Bi-Lo for AUD$2.47 on offer. Heh.