2014
Here's a look back at 2014 (yes, I'm keeping to my promise for once) It's definitely been a rollercoaster year (probably the most roller-coasterly in my life), and while I sit here on the last day of the year feeling blessed, happy & more loved than ever before, I am so glad for the year to be over. Alright, let's see how this year went down. I don't actually remember a lot of these so I'm relying on my organizer & instagram for this, haha.
P.S: This entry is Mother Long.
JANUARY
Spent the start of the year in Hong Kong & Malacca with my twin sister & friends. :3 By the way, I tried about 5 times but the Malacca/ HK photos just WOULD NOT be added into this post. :/
Breakfast at Tsui Wah is unlike anything I can find anywhere else.
Durian Chendol from Malacca! Hello from the Durian Twins!
Flew back to Sydney on 21st January, which was the earliest I had EVER left after summer holidays (seeing as normal term starts in March), and had to miss Chinese New Year. Moved to Canberra for 5 weeks for a placement at the Emergency Department! I shall talk more about this in February, since I spent the bulk of February there.
Chinese New Year fell on 31st January, my first Chinese New Year away from home.
Since Australia doesn't celebrate CNY, I spent the day at placement, and was even caught in the rain. Felt very, very gloomy the entire day.
Hahaha this was my attempt at self-consolation - my very sad CNY dinner.
FEBRUARY
The Emergency Department was definitely the toughest placement I had ever been on. Other clinical placements were all very department specific, but in the ED, anything goes, so I found myself switching rapidly between broken hands and legs, to strokes, to walking aid assessments etc. etc. Basically it was tough, I was studying and revising every day in order to keep up, but it was the best placement ever! I learnt so much from the placement. Not everyone gets a chance to do the placement as well (I estimate like.. 10 in the entire cohort?) so I was incredibly lucky to have gotten this placement!
One of the BEST cheap thrills a student could ever have - a hospital swipe card!!! Oh, I feel the powerrrr.
With my placement partner during our last week at placement! Now one of my good friends, but she is terrible to have on placement because she is so bubbly, good with patients and smart. *stressed* HAHAHA
Also helped that Canberra is So. Amazing.
Australian War Memorial, one of my favorite places in Australia.
National Dinosaur Museum (yes, this is really a thing)
National Museum of Australia
Yes, I am one of those grandmas who love museums and memorials and that kind of thing, hahaha. Thank you to all my friends who put up with me.
In February, I also went to an outdoor cinema for the first time ever! I caught Frozen at Bondi beach (and I was frozen that night)
Special mention to this photo, taken on the day I went hunting for sewing shops, because I loved the skirt I was wearing to death, but ironing it was such a bitch that I never brought it out of my closet ever again.
MARCH
Then came March! Saying goodbye to Canberra was hard. But before that, I had a bit of exploring to do with my friends (some of whom came all the way down from Sydney to play with me!)
Visited the National Dinosaur Museum (see above) and Cockington Green Gardens with Meowsha <3 She was even patient enough to let me run into a sewing shop at the last minute even though our bus was coming. This is how I know we are in too deep. ♥
I also said goodbye to the housemates I had in Canberra. I lived with Gino, my friend from high school, in his uni apartment with 4 other boys. The reason why there are only 2 other guys in this photo is that one of their favorite hobbies was to bitch about the other 2. HA HA HA. While this was simply a convenient arrangement to begin with (for me to avoid paying double rent), these guys became, and still are, my good mates. :)
Have to keep this funny shit that Ding sent to me after I left.
I got to choose the dinner place, so I chose Cantina, the Best Mexican Place in the World. I had this at least once a week in Canberra because I'm so crazy.
This explains my very grumpy Leaving Canberra Face. *sigh*
Leaving Canberra led to me right back to uni, where I had 5 weeks of super intensive uni lessons. They crammed 2 subjects into 1 subject, and then crammed 13 weeks of learning for 2 of such subjects into five weeks. You got siao not?!?! Most of my days were spent studying like mad and practicing (yes, I can crack backs!!! Okay, could.)
Then MY FANCY SISTER CAME TO SYDNEY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!
She arrived on her 25th birthday, and her friend (henceforth known as Jojobeans) kindly drove her all the way to my remote camous which must have been ~ 1 hour away D: There she waited outside my classroom for my lesson to end! *died of happiness*
Very excitedly bought her a strawberry watermelon cake which I knew she would love hehehe.
♥
Brought her to watch a Shakespearean Play at the Sydney Opera House after that! :) :) (The play was befuddling at times and I'm a bit to uncultured to appreciate Modern Shakespeare, but it was still a wonderful night ♥)
Other Sydney Shenanigans:
Of course I had to bring her to watch the beautiful darling harbor fireworks!
Weekend Markets, Royal Botanical Gardens, Bondi Beach
Also hung out with Jojobeans quite a bit! We went to my favorite bicentennial park and the blue mountains!
Jenolan Caves!
And then she left me to the doom of uni :'( By this time I was severely behind on uni work, since they crammed many lectures into one week.
There was a lot of this going on.
On the final week, the DAY before our exams started, my best friend was proposed to :') (I was stuck at home studying but still had time to send this photo over la hahaha) And of course, she said yes.
I also bought a pandora bracelet which I love, even if I have to begrudgingly admit that it is overpriced metal and that yes, some of the charms are quite ugly. (I had a photo to post but it got lost in all these text and I can't be bothered anymore. It has been 2 hours and I'm still in March. Time to move on! It's already 2015!!)
APRIL
April came! Back to placements! This time I was at the Aged Care department of a public hospital. Very chill, I had one hour long consultations with my patients every day and ran hydrotherapy classes two afternoons a week. It was supposed to be a very easy way to finish my placements.
Until Jesshitluck came along. I had patients fainting, falling, nearly drowning, DISAPPEARING (I had to call the police and the old man's children fml)... basically old people failing all over the place. This never happens. Old people don't give YOU heart attacks like this. (It is usually the other way round ha ha ha okay this is a really mean joke) By the end of the placement I was glad for it to be over.
I was so stressed that I actually paid 25AUD for a haircut (when I usually pay 3.80SGD for one at Snips Avenue). This had to be immortalized in a selfie.
Then came Easter - time to play!! :D My department had an easter egg hunt and we left our patients sitting in their chairs in bewilderment as we all tore around the department looking for chocolate eggs & having tea. (They also made it a Jessica's Farewell Tea and brought cakes and shit! Using all sorts of excuses to have cake).
Went to the central coast with some mates in uni! All I remember was a VERY ambitious walking plan to go from one beach to the other, and then about 8 hours of walking after that. Thank goodness I liked this bunch of people, or I might have killed them! Half the time the walk wasn't even that scenic because we were walking in random neighborhoods. Hahahaha.
(Wahlao by the way talking about Jesshitluck I had actually already talked all the way till JUNE. But livejournal died on me and only recovered up till this point. :'(
The Royal Easter Show - got overly excited over alpacas hehehe.
I also met Meowsha briefly but I couldn't find any photos of us?!?! (She also helped me buy my amazing new school bag, which eventually received a record breaking number of disses from my friends.)
I do however, have photos from the sleepover we had a few days later! ♥ Only she would have this much fun with me shouting at our 3DSes I swear. Hahaha.
Went fishing at a god forsaken place during the long weekend as well - set off before the sun rose and drove for ~ 3 hours in a storm to reach this beautiful lake/ body of water (not before getting lost in a rubbish disposal area, though). Didn't catch any fish at all, but it was definitely a memorable day. P.S: One of the times that I'm thankful that I don't have a driver's license *the driven club*
MAY
In May I said goodbye to placements forever, watched a lot of rugby, and it was finally time for the holidays!
Look who flew 8 hours to be with me for nearly an entire month!!!! :D
Tbh I was very very very worried that we would fight and hate each other (seeing as we are both very stubborn) because we had to be joined at the hip for 24 hours, but the trip turned out to be so great! In fact, looking back on the photos gave me so many feels!!! It truly cemented our friendship and I love how we always have fun no matter where we go, and no matter what kind of shit gets thrown our way. (Youngest Child Theory)
Lots of sightseeing, museums (by the way the bottom right hand photo is seriously us in a sentence)
Nights were spent watching AKB48 videos HAHA (and see how non-judgmental he is, of me taking a photo of my computer screen while dying over my oshi's graduation)
We even met Leah, our friend from high school and had a crazy day at the salvation army (ya, I know. I wish I could post up photos too but after my sappy sentence about our friendship I'm not about to let it be canned.)
Sydney got too boring for us so we moved on to Queensland! There we spent days frolicking in theme parks and at the beach. We also had the shittiest day on earth, which started off with us missing every single bus in the world and having our plans foiled, causing us to need to go shopping, then walking a thousand years (~ 30 min) to play mini golf and back, then realizing that Nigress left all his shi at the golf park, so we had to walk again, and then finding out that all the restaurants had closed at night. We ended up in a bar, eating the best cheese fries in the world (of course, I believe in Circumstantial Deliciousness), and laughing at ourselves.
After that we moved on to Melbourne! I had too much fun at Phillip Island (the penguin parade made us die), the great ocean road was a lot of sleeping and gloomy skies, and Melbourne officially has the best cafe food. (You win, you snobs, you.)
The Best Dessert in the World (that left us speechless and almost in tears, I know, so dramatic, but oh, so true.) and the (self proclaimed by the shop) Best Juice in the World. Okay la, it was pretty good. We went back for seconds.
In Melbourne we stayed with my uncle (my dad's brother), and they organized a family gathering with all my cousins/ uncles in Melbourne! It's been many years since I last met them (some I've never even met in my life) but they treated me & N with such warmth and kindness :')
We then went back to Sydney for Strictly Ballroom, Vivid Sydney and the Blue Mountains (which was a Last Resort thing because we were getting very bored and tired of traveling by then)
It was finally time for me to go home! :D I was really looking forward to doing so because I had been away for very long.
Until we missed our flight. FOLs ?!?!?!?!! This is when we concluded that we are the Best people for each other to have in a crisis because we were both quite calm and frankly, quite amused throughout the entire thing.
After our very costly mistake, I was left with less time in Singapore! :( Had a whirlwind afternoon with my twin sister (before she left for America) with shopping and good sushi (finally, shame on Sydney!!!)
JUNE
On the first of June I flew off again, for the first solo overseas trip in my life! (Flying to Australia to study for four years does not count) I signed up for two weeks in China (specifically, Bi Feng Xia, which is a mountainous province about 2 hours away from Chengdu) to volunteer at a..... PANDA CONSERVATORY CENTER!!!! My dream came true :') Every single day was so amazing I couldn't even (wow, look who's hip). We started the mornings cleaning out the panda cages (scooping poo, carrying A LOT, and A LOT and A LOT of bamboo, sweeping the floor, cleaning the walls etc.) and then we fed the dear things 4 times a day. ♥ ♥ ♥ I felt very at home in the dingy room all the way up in the mountains and being with the pandas made me so happy. Life was so good.
First day of work!!!!
Princess Jun-Zhu, my favorite snipey panda. She's so so so pretty. (Recognizable by her right ear, which looks like clouds. I am not obsessed.) By the way, I love Jun-Zhu. Stupid things like her hugging rocks to sleep drives me crazy and I take a million photos of her. However, she is quite unpopular amongst the keepers because she never responds to them and does whatever she likes at feeding time, sometimes swiping for food as she doesn't like being hand fed. She's also super picky and if she catches sight of her favorite food (red bamboo shoots and apples), she drops everything else and refuses to eat. However, the keepers taught me to shout her name out randomly so that she could recognize my voice and by the end, she was lettting me hand feed her every single day and would come to me when I called. ♥ ♥ I am also seriously considering adopting her when I'm more financially ready & able to do more trips to China to see her.
... In other words you can make fun of any other panda but this one! I'll keeel you if you do!
This is Zhen Zhen, a very docile and gentle panda, who was pregnant at the time! She's also the only panda who has a tree she can climb so she's often spying down at us from her tree. :) During our last few days, she was taken away to another place (for mothers to be), and it broke my heart to see her leave :(
Yao Man, a cute girl panda with the prettiest eyes!!! I fed and stroked her the most (as she was the most willing HAHA) ♥ ♥ ♥
My swooning panda commentary ends here, because there are 12 pandas to talk about and I'm sure everyone would be dead from reading it. I've also covered my Top 3 Favorite Pandas huuhuuhuu. (I'm mad.)
You tell me that the Panda Kindergarten is not the single most cute thing on earth????????!!!!?????!?!!? Arrrrrghhh so QT.
On this trip, I also met a bunch of girls (+ one guy) and we became like a little family by the end of it :) I hope to meet these girls again some day in my life!
Some sightseeing around the area over the weekends. Would love to have said that the experience was as grand as the locations itself but it was way too crowded and we were jostled back and forth by a million tourists. :/ However, I am very proud to say that I brought 3 non-Chinese speaking girls around on my own (which on hindsight was very dangerous, erps) and was praised many times for my good Chinese heeheehee.
Went back to Singapore for a few days (which I spent mostly in hiding) and flew back to Australia because I was trying to make the most of my last few months there! In case you haven't realized, I have, at this point in my life, conceded to the fact that I'm never going to be able to write proper posts for any of these trips (seeing as I'm still trying to write a post for my Korea trip in 2013). My best hope is to document them as much as I can in this cheating post, and try to post more regularly about my other adventures in 2015. *coughs*
Spent a short weekend in Jervis Bay, my happy place. (Photos? Where? Not sure.)
Went to help Roachie with her engagement photoshoot at the Royal Botanical Gardens :) (Very cute hor? I think so too.)
The next day (and stretching into early July), I went to Adelaide.
JULY
Adelaide was the. best. I have to say that Kangaroo Island is up there with Tasmania as my favorite destination in all of Australia. So beautiful, surreal and every moment was so enjoyable :)
Wintry Wonderland! Ice Skating at Glenelg :) I only stayed in Adelaide for a day or so before moving to Kangaroo Island, which was the highlight of the trip :)
Random wildlife park, where I cuddled an orphaned joey. In areas like KI where lots of toursits drive around and there are wallabies/ kangaroos present in the millions, a lot of them get killed on the road :'( Some of the babies, like this one, get rescued from their mum's pouches, thankfully.
Remarkable Rocks (not named by me). I'm standing next to a rock formation that amusingly looks like a pig's face HAHAHA.
Vivonne Bay (which has been voted as one of the best beaches in Australia, if not, the world). At that time I was having real bad panda withdrawals so I dyed the bottom part of my hair pink and was drawing pandas everywhere I went.
Oh my god. Seal Bay. No words.
Driving through vineyards and catching sunsets. :')
*Cough* What I did next, I'm not proud of. I... flew back home to Singapore again. Just to have a few weeks with my family. (I know. Wasting money :/) But I guess I was home for a good reason la.
My twin sister and big brother both graduated, within a week of each other. :') I think my parents were so proud that their heads almost exploded.
My brother and I (six years ago and today!) Same Same, but Different. ♥
What followed was a flurry of outings. Sibling outings, Cousin outings (which by the way if you look very carefully, is just my siblings plus ONE cousin. This said cousin also has 2 siblings of her own hahaha /burn), class outings, friend outings... suddenly I found myself back in Australia again.
With a few days to spare before uni started up again (for the last time in my life), I decided to run off to Darwin on my own. Darwin was better than I had ever expected. While lonely at times, I had some really great (and expensive) experiences as I was attempting to prove everyone (and myself) wrong about how boring and lame Darwin is. I'm so glad that I succeeded :)
Katherine Gorge, Litchfield, History Tour, Oil Tunnels
Bare Sand Island - stalking flatback turtles around this uninhibited island. (The blurry photo that looks a bit dubious is the moment after a turtle has laid one of its hundreds of babies). On this trip, I saw my first sand dollar, learned to read the stars, and also saw my first shooting star.
Darwin = reptiles! Cuddling up to some of them (and watching the others warily from afar.)
Sometime after Darwin, Kai Yi flew to visit me for a few days! (Photos? I don't know where they are.)AUGUST
August came and uni started again. I was embroiled in weeks after weeks of lessons, trying to write my thesis and doing research! Also had troubles in my personal life. I was sad a lot of the time and lost myself for awhile. :(
The only exciting thing that happened was SMASH - and seeing Meowshy Cat again! We got matching charizards :)
SEPTEMBER
My research professors were finally getting through to me, every day was busy and I tried to connect with my friends again, after a depressing August.
I am doing research. (Perhaps I should have researched on How to Rotate Photos on Livejournal.)
Still spent every day in uni, but I got closer to this group of crazy people. We called ourselves Singaporeans (even though only half of us are.) HAHAHA. In our spectrum of 'Singaporeanness', I am always at the lower end. *sighs* hahahahahahaha
Went to Bowral, in attempt to tick things off my Sydney Bucket List (which by the way, failed miserably as I decided to tour the other states instead)
Went to the opera house a second time to watch the King and I. I spent the next few days singing "run, Eliza, run!" and hopping along in the most irritating of ways.
OCTOBER
Finally the mid semester break! My uni mates and I went camping at palm beach HAHA. We spend the time bushwalking, having barbecues, playing games, running, screaming, FIGHTING WALLABIES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and basically just having the grandest time.
Had a magical day at Watson's Bay :)(At this point, more than 6 hours in, livejournal's photo uploading service is pissing me off to no end. Only a few select photos can be uploaded, seeminly decided by whatever livejournal wants to do. What is the point of this post? Who am I doing it for? Who is even going to read this? ... Me. I shall soldier on. Hopefully I can finish this by 2016.)
Graduation Ball - it is happening. I am graduating omg.
Last day of October was Halloween - the last day of classes ever. Only 6 people bothered to show (4 of us 'Singaporeans', of course) By the way, I made all of us fun packs with small costumes like headgear, and put lollies in! I'm very proud of my pink pumpkin basket because it is upside down. Obivously a factory defect, but Daiso was very lucky to have met me, the only person in the world who would want such a basket.
NOVEMBER
Exam season. Thesis writing. The days flew by.
Submitted my thesis. Is this childbirth?
End of viva exams! (As you can see, I really don't have many friends. #fourforlife)
Went to gold coast with my uni mates! (should also have researched on how to turn photos upside down on livejournal. As you can see, I can't be bothered anymore. I've also given up on LJ's photo uploader and am using dropbox to create this post. And no matter how hard I try to resize the photos... it turns up damn big in the post itself?!?! LJ is also creating many strange gaps in my posts. :/ I am such a grumpy LJ user hahaha oh gosh.)
..... where I turned 23 (without Jasmine, for the last time ever, I hope.) Birthday presents she was gifted includes this mug that is bigger than my head. I had to return this to Target a few days later after she told me she hated it.
I've also sworn never to go back to Gold Coast again. Sorry future kids.
Also found time to run to Tamborine Mountain and Brisbane! Thank you to this bunch of friends who always know how to go all out to play. It's been a great 4 years and while the ride felt way too short, I'm glad to have done it with you guys :)DECEMBER
After Gold Coast and bidding many friends goodbye, I headed to Cairns (see my previous post for some more photos)
Cycled 50 km to a hidden waterfall to swim (there were eels in the water so I was a little deterred. *shudders*)
Got on a little boat and went to an island off the Great Barrier Reef for watersports and chilling! (and some hiking, where I was truly traumatized by lizards :'( )
Stand Up Paddling is so easy on sand!
Saying my last minute goodbyes x
NEWTON finally makes an appearance!!! (By the way he was there in Hong Kong when I was talking about January - remember that? - but thanks to LJ's grand cock up, here he is again, in DECEMBER.)
Sydney was the hardest goodbye :'( The 4 musketeers are now split up (three of us headed to Singapore, poor Gu Yu). Thank you for sending me off, it means a lot to me :')
Home. I experienced the biggest mix of feelings in the world that week, so so glad to finally be home, but hating everything here because I wanted to be back in Sydney. (To be fair, I hate everything in Sydney when I'm actually there because I want to be home. #girls)
Christmas was very soon to be upon us! Life was full of meet ups, catch ups, grown ups (To our absolute horror, that's all of us! How did that happen!)
Claimed one of my birthday presents from my twin, a secret 2D0N escapade where we WALKED across the causeway. By the way, we didn't stay over because 1. Our mother would have killed us, and 2. I was too afraid to anyway.
Champion Selfies - root beer float, yummy chicken chop plus my face all in / Weird Twins
Day 2 was just a disappointment - but massages and good korean BBQ saved the day <3
Christmas Eve with the extended family. I was crowned Weirdest Face by my very rude sister. *Sniffs*
After they left, the clock struck 12 and my family tore our presents open excitedly. YAAAAA! (That is how my dad spells "Yay")
♥ Christmas with my bimbos ♥
Parents flew off to Penang by themselves, leaving us siblings alone (how rude!) We cooked a feast, each of us making a dish.
Last meet up with M for the year!
New Year's Eve, always thinking of my 4 musketeers XOXO HAHA SO GROSS.
And then it ended. I spent the last moments of 2014 with my family. We had hotpot, then made coconut shakes. After that, my mother insisted on making us carry our craft table downstairs so we could all hang out together. We counted down in front of the TV, shouting embarrassingly and loudly during the countdown, and then opened a bottle of red wine.
Here's to the new year.
P.S: This entry is Mother Long.
JANUARY
Spent the start of the year in Hong Kong & Malacca with my twin sister & friends. :3 By the way, I tried about 5 times but the Malacca/ HK photos just WOULD NOT be added into this post. :/
Breakfast at Tsui Wah is unlike anything I can find anywhere else.
Durian Chendol from Malacca! Hello from the Durian Twins!
Flew back to Sydney on 21st January, which was the earliest I had EVER left after summer holidays (seeing as normal term starts in March), and had to miss Chinese New Year. Moved to Canberra for 5 weeks for a placement at the Emergency Department! I shall talk more about this in February, since I spent the bulk of February there.
Chinese New Year fell on 31st January, my first Chinese New Year away from home.
Since Australia doesn't celebrate CNY, I spent the day at placement, and was even caught in the rain. Felt very, very gloomy the entire day.
Hahaha this was my attempt at self-consolation - my very sad CNY dinner.
FEBRUARY
The Emergency Department was definitely the toughest placement I had ever been on. Other clinical placements were all very department specific, but in the ED, anything goes, so I found myself switching rapidly between broken hands and legs, to strokes, to walking aid assessments etc. etc. Basically it was tough, I was studying and revising every day in order to keep up, but it was the best placement ever! I learnt so much from the placement. Not everyone gets a chance to do the placement as well (I estimate like.. 10 in the entire cohort?) so I was incredibly lucky to have gotten this placement!
One of the BEST cheap thrills a student could ever have - a hospital swipe card!!! Oh, I feel the powerrrr.
With my placement partner during our last week at placement! Now one of my good friends, but she is terrible to have on placement because she is so bubbly, good with patients and smart. *stressed* HAHAHA
Also helped that Canberra is So. Amazing.
Australian War Memorial, one of my favorite places in Australia.
National Dinosaur Museum (yes, this is really a thing)
National Museum of Australia
Yes, I am one of those grandmas who love museums and memorials and that kind of thing, hahaha. Thank you to all my friends who put up with me.
In February, I also went to an outdoor cinema for the first time ever! I caught Frozen at Bondi beach (and I was frozen that night)
Special mention to this photo, taken on the day I went hunting for sewing shops, because I loved the skirt I was wearing to death, but ironing it was such a bitch that I never brought it out of my closet ever again.
MARCH
Then came March! Saying goodbye to Canberra was hard. But before that, I had a bit of exploring to do with my friends (some of whom came all the way down from Sydney to play with me!)
Visited the National Dinosaur Museum (see above) and Cockington Green Gardens with Meowsha <3 She was even patient enough to let me run into a sewing shop at the last minute even though our bus was coming. This is how I know we are in too deep. ♥
I also said goodbye to the housemates I had in Canberra. I lived with Gino, my friend from high school, in his uni apartment with 4 other boys. The reason why there are only 2 other guys in this photo is that one of their favorite hobbies was to bitch about the other 2. HA HA HA. While this was simply a convenient arrangement to begin with (for me to avoid paying double rent), these guys became, and still are, my good mates. :)
Have to keep this funny shit that Ding sent to me after I left.
I got to choose the dinner place, so I chose Cantina, the Best Mexican Place in the World. I had this at least once a week in Canberra because I'm so crazy.
This explains my very grumpy Leaving Canberra Face. *sigh*
Leaving Canberra led to me right back to uni, where I had 5 weeks of super intensive uni lessons. They crammed 2 subjects into 1 subject, and then crammed 13 weeks of learning for 2 of such subjects into five weeks. You got siao not?!?! Most of my days were spent studying like mad and practicing (yes, I can crack backs!!! Okay, could.)
Then MY FANCY SISTER CAME TO SYDNEY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!
She arrived on her 25th birthday, and her friend (henceforth known as Jojobeans) kindly drove her all the way to my remote camous which must have been ~ 1 hour away D: There she waited outside my classroom for my lesson to end! *died of happiness*
Very excitedly bought her a strawberry watermelon cake which I knew she would love hehehe.
♥
Brought her to watch a Shakespearean Play at the Sydney Opera House after that! :) :) (The play was befuddling at times and I'm a bit to uncultured to appreciate Modern Shakespeare, but it was still a wonderful night ♥)
Other Sydney Shenanigans:
Of course I had to bring her to watch the beautiful darling harbor fireworks!
Weekend Markets, Royal Botanical Gardens, Bondi Beach
Also hung out with Jojobeans quite a bit! We went to my favorite bicentennial park and the blue mountains!
Jenolan Caves!
And then she left me to the doom of uni :'( By this time I was severely behind on uni work, since they crammed many lectures into one week.
There was a lot of this going on.
On the final week, the DAY before our exams started, my best friend was proposed to :') (I was stuck at home studying but still had time to send this photo over la hahaha) And of course, she said yes.
I also bought a pandora bracelet which I love, even if I have to begrudgingly admit that it is overpriced metal and that yes, some of the charms are quite ugly. (I had a photo to post but it got lost in all these text and I can't be bothered anymore. It has been 2 hours and I'm still in March. Time to move on! It's already 2015!!)
APRIL
April came! Back to placements! This time I was at the Aged Care department of a public hospital. Very chill, I had one hour long consultations with my patients every day and ran hydrotherapy classes two afternoons a week. It was supposed to be a very easy way to finish my placements.
Until Jesshitluck came along. I had patients fainting, falling, nearly drowning, DISAPPEARING (I had to call the police and the old man's children fml)... basically old people failing all over the place. This never happens. Old people don't give YOU heart attacks like this. (It is usually the other way round ha ha ha okay this is a really mean joke) By the end of the placement I was glad for it to be over.
I was so stressed that I actually paid 25AUD for a haircut (when I usually pay 3.80SGD for one at Snips Avenue). This had to be immortalized in a selfie.
Then came Easter - time to play!! :D My department had an easter egg hunt and we left our patients sitting in their chairs in bewilderment as we all tore around the department looking for chocolate eggs & having tea. (They also made it a Jessica's Farewell Tea and brought cakes and shit! Using all sorts of excuses to have cake).
Went to the central coast with some mates in uni! All I remember was a VERY ambitious walking plan to go from one beach to the other, and then about 8 hours of walking after that. Thank goodness I liked this bunch of people, or I might have killed them! Half the time the walk wasn't even that scenic because we were walking in random neighborhoods. Hahahaha.
(Wahlao by the way talking about Jesshitluck I had actually already talked all the way till JUNE. But livejournal died on me and only recovered up till this point. :'(
The Royal Easter Show - got overly excited over alpacas hehehe.
I also met Meowsha briefly but I couldn't find any photos of us?!?! (She also helped me buy my amazing new school bag, which eventually received a record breaking number of disses from my friends.)
I do however, have photos from the sleepover we had a few days later! ♥ Only she would have this much fun with me shouting at our 3DSes I swear. Hahaha.
Went fishing at a god forsaken place during the long weekend as well - set off before the sun rose and drove for ~ 3 hours in a storm to reach this beautiful lake/ body of water (not before getting lost in a rubbish disposal area, though). Didn't catch any fish at all, but it was definitely a memorable day. P.S: One of the times that I'm thankful that I don't have a driver's license *the driven club*
MAY
In May I said goodbye to placements forever, watched a lot of rugby, and it was finally time for the holidays!
Look who flew 8 hours to be with me for nearly an entire month!!!! :D
Tbh I was very very very worried that we would fight and hate each other (seeing as we are both very stubborn) because we had to be joined at the hip for 24 hours, but the trip turned out to be so great! In fact, looking back on the photos gave me so many feels!!! It truly cemented our friendship and I love how we always have fun no matter where we go, and no matter what kind of shit gets thrown our way. (Youngest Child Theory)
Lots of sightseeing, museums (by the way the bottom right hand photo is seriously us in a sentence)
Nights were spent watching AKB48 videos HAHA (and see how non-judgmental he is, of me taking a photo of my computer screen while dying over my oshi's graduation)
We even met Leah, our friend from high school and had a crazy day at the salvation army (ya, I know. I wish I could post up photos too but after my sappy sentence about our friendship I'm not about to let it be canned.)
Sydney got too boring for us so we moved on to Queensland! There we spent days frolicking in theme parks and at the beach. We also had the shittiest day on earth, which started off with us missing every single bus in the world and having our plans foiled, causing us to need to go shopping, then walking a thousand years (~ 30 min) to play mini golf and back, then realizing that Nigress left all his shi at the golf park, so we had to walk again, and then finding out that all the restaurants had closed at night. We ended up in a bar, eating the best cheese fries in the world (of course, I believe in Circumstantial Deliciousness), and laughing at ourselves.
After that we moved on to Melbourne! I had too much fun at Phillip Island (the penguin parade made us die), the great ocean road was a lot of sleeping and gloomy skies, and Melbourne officially has the best cafe food. (You win, you snobs, you.)
The Best Dessert in the World (that left us speechless and almost in tears, I know, so dramatic, but oh, so true.) and the (self proclaimed by the shop) Best Juice in the World. Okay la, it was pretty good. We went back for seconds.
In Melbourne we stayed with my uncle (my dad's brother), and they organized a family gathering with all my cousins/ uncles in Melbourne! It's been many years since I last met them (some I've never even met in my life) but they treated me & N with such warmth and kindness :')
We then went back to Sydney for Strictly Ballroom, Vivid Sydney and the Blue Mountains (which was a Last Resort thing because we were getting very bored and tired of traveling by then)
It was finally time for me to go home! :D I was really looking forward to doing so because I had been away for very long.
Until we missed our flight. FOLs ?!?!?!?!! This is when we concluded that we are the Best people for each other to have in a crisis because we were both quite calm and frankly, quite amused throughout the entire thing.
After our very costly mistake, I was left with less time in Singapore! :( Had a whirlwind afternoon with my twin sister (before she left for America) with shopping and good sushi (finally, shame on Sydney!!!)
JUNE
On the first of June I flew off again, for the first solo overseas trip in my life! (Flying to Australia to study for four years does not count) I signed up for two weeks in China (specifically, Bi Feng Xia, which is a mountainous province about 2 hours away from Chengdu) to volunteer at a..... PANDA CONSERVATORY CENTER!!!! My dream came true :') Every single day was so amazing I couldn't even (wow, look who's hip). We started the mornings cleaning out the panda cages (scooping poo, carrying A LOT, and A LOT and A LOT of bamboo, sweeping the floor, cleaning the walls etc.) and then we fed the dear things 4 times a day. ♥ ♥ ♥ I felt very at home in the dingy room all the way up in the mountains and being with the pandas made me so happy. Life was so good.
First day of work!!!!
Princess Jun-Zhu, my favorite snipey panda. She's so so so pretty. (Recognizable by her right ear, which looks like clouds. I am not obsessed.) By the way, I love Jun-Zhu. Stupid things like her hugging rocks to sleep drives me crazy and I take a million photos of her. However, she is quite unpopular amongst the keepers because she never responds to them and does whatever she likes at feeding time, sometimes swiping for food as she doesn't like being hand fed. She's also super picky and if she catches sight of her favorite food (red bamboo shoots and apples), she drops everything else and refuses to eat. However, the keepers taught me to shout her name out randomly so that she could recognize my voice and by the end, she was lettting me hand feed her every single day and would come to me when I called. ♥ ♥ I am also seriously considering adopting her when I'm more financially ready & able to do more trips to China to see her.
... In other words you can make fun of any other panda but this one! I'll keeel you if you do!
This is Zhen Zhen, a very docile and gentle panda, who was pregnant at the time! She's also the only panda who has a tree she can climb so she's often spying down at us from her tree. :) During our last few days, she was taken away to another place (for mothers to be), and it broke my heart to see her leave :(
Yao Man, a cute girl panda with the prettiest eyes!!! I fed and stroked her the most (as she was the most willing HAHA) ♥ ♥ ♥
My swooning panda commentary ends here, because there are 12 pandas to talk about and I'm sure everyone would be dead from reading it. I've also covered my Top 3 Favorite Pandas huuhuuhuu. (I'm mad.)
You tell me that the Panda Kindergarten is not the single most cute thing on earth????????!!!!?????!?!!? Arrrrrghhh so QT.
On this trip, I also met a bunch of girls (+ one guy) and we became like a little family by the end of it :) I hope to meet these girls again some day in my life!
Some sightseeing around the area over the weekends. Would love to have said that the experience was as grand as the locations itself but it was way too crowded and we were jostled back and forth by a million tourists. :/ However, I am very proud to say that I brought 3 non-Chinese speaking girls around on my own (which on hindsight was very dangerous, erps) and was praised many times for my good Chinese heeheehee.
Went back to Singapore for a few days (which I spent mostly in hiding) and flew back to Australia because I was trying to make the most of my last few months there! In case you haven't realized, I have, at this point in my life, conceded to the fact that I'm never going to be able to write proper posts for any of these trips (seeing as I'm still trying to write a post for my Korea trip in 2013). My best hope is to document them as much as I can in this cheating post, and try to post more regularly about my other adventures in 2015. *coughs*
Spent a short weekend in Jervis Bay, my happy place. (Photos? Where? Not sure.)
Went to help Roachie with her engagement photoshoot at the Royal Botanical Gardens :) (Very cute hor? I think so too.)
The next day (and stretching into early July), I went to Adelaide.
JULY
Adelaide was the. best. I have to say that Kangaroo Island is up there with Tasmania as my favorite destination in all of Australia. So beautiful, surreal and every moment was so enjoyable :)
Wintry Wonderland! Ice Skating at Glenelg :) I only stayed in Adelaide for a day or so before moving to Kangaroo Island, which was the highlight of the trip :)
Random wildlife park, where I cuddled an orphaned joey. In areas like KI where lots of toursits drive around and there are wallabies/ kangaroos present in the millions, a lot of them get killed on the road :'( Some of the babies, like this one, get rescued from their mum's pouches, thankfully.
Remarkable Rocks (not named by me). I'm standing next to a rock formation that amusingly looks like a pig's face HAHAHA.
Vivonne Bay (which has been voted as one of the best beaches in Australia, if not, the world). At that time I was having real bad panda withdrawals so I dyed the bottom part of my hair pink and was drawing pandas everywhere I went.
Oh my god. Seal Bay. No words.
Driving through vineyards and catching sunsets. :')
*Cough* What I did next, I'm not proud of. I... flew back home to Singapore again. Just to have a few weeks with my family. (I know. Wasting money :/) But I guess I was home for a good reason la.
My twin sister and big brother both graduated, within a week of each other. :') I think my parents were so proud that their heads almost exploded.
My brother and I (six years ago and today!) Same Same, but Different. ♥
What followed was a flurry of outings. Sibling outings, Cousin outings (which by the way if you look very carefully, is just my siblings plus ONE cousin. This said cousin also has 2 siblings of her own hahaha /burn), class outings, friend outings... suddenly I found myself back in Australia again.
With a few days to spare before uni started up again (for the last time in my life), I decided to run off to Darwin on my own. Darwin was better than I had ever expected. While lonely at times, I had some really great (and expensive) experiences as I was attempting to prove everyone (and myself) wrong about how boring and lame Darwin is. I'm so glad that I succeeded :)
Katherine Gorge, Litchfield, History Tour, Oil Tunnels
Bare Sand Island - stalking flatback turtles around this uninhibited island. (The blurry photo that looks a bit dubious is the moment after a turtle has laid one of its hundreds of babies). On this trip, I saw my first sand dollar, learned to read the stars, and also saw my first shooting star.
Darwin = reptiles! Cuddling up to some of them (and watching the others warily from afar.)
Sometime after Darwin, Kai Yi flew to visit me for a few days! (Photos? I don't know where they are.)AUGUST
August came and uni started again. I was embroiled in weeks after weeks of lessons, trying to write my thesis and doing research! Also had troubles in my personal life. I was sad a lot of the time and lost myself for awhile. :(
The only exciting thing that happened was SMASH - and seeing Meowshy Cat again! We got matching charizards :)
SEPTEMBER
My research professors were finally getting through to me, every day was busy and I tried to connect with my friends again, after a depressing August.
I am doing research. (Perhaps I should have researched on How to Rotate Photos on Livejournal.)
Still spent every day in uni, but I got closer to this group of crazy people. We called ourselves Singaporeans (even though only half of us are.) HAHAHA. In our spectrum of 'Singaporeanness', I am always at the lower end. *sighs* hahahahahahaha
Went to Bowral, in attempt to tick things off my Sydney Bucket List (which by the way, failed miserably as I decided to tour the other states instead)
Went to the opera house a second time to watch the King and I. I spent the next few days singing "run, Eliza, run!" and hopping along in the most irritating of ways.
OCTOBER
Finally the mid semester break! My uni mates and I went camping at palm beach HAHA. We spend the time bushwalking, having barbecues, playing games, running, screaming, FIGHTING WALLABIES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and basically just having the grandest time.
Had a magical day at Watson's Bay :)(At this point, more than 6 hours in, livejournal's photo uploading service is pissing me off to no end. Only a few select photos can be uploaded, seeminly decided by whatever livejournal wants to do. What is the point of this post? Who am I doing it for? Who is even going to read this? ... Me. I shall soldier on. Hopefully I can finish this by 2016.)
Graduation Ball - it is happening. I am graduating omg.
Last day of October was Halloween - the last day of classes ever. Only 6 people bothered to show (4 of us 'Singaporeans', of course) By the way, I made all of us fun packs with small costumes like headgear, and put lollies in! I'm very proud of my pink pumpkin basket because it is upside down. Obivously a factory defect, but Daiso was very lucky to have met me, the only person in the world who would want such a basket.
NOVEMBER
Exam season. Thesis writing. The days flew by.
Submitted my thesis. Is this childbirth?
End of viva exams! (As you can see, I really don't have many friends. #fourforlife)
Went to gold coast with my uni mates! (should also have researched on how to turn photos upside down on livejournal. As you can see, I can't be bothered anymore. I've also given up on LJ's photo uploader and am using dropbox to create this post. And no matter how hard I try to resize the photos... it turns up damn big in the post itself?!?! LJ is also creating many strange gaps in my posts. :/ I am such a grumpy LJ user hahaha oh gosh.)
..... where I turned 23 (without Jasmine, for the last time ever, I hope.) Birthday presents she was gifted includes this mug that is bigger than my head. I had to return this to Target a few days later after she told me she hated it.
I've also sworn never to go back to Gold Coast again. Sorry future kids.
Also found time to run to Tamborine Mountain and Brisbane! Thank you to this bunch of friends who always know how to go all out to play. It's been a great 4 years and while the ride felt way too short, I'm glad to have done it with you guys :)DECEMBER
After Gold Coast and bidding many friends goodbye, I headed to Cairns (see my previous post for some more photos)
Cycled 50 km to a hidden waterfall to swim (there were eels in the water so I was a little deterred. *shudders*)
Got on a little boat and went to an island off the Great Barrier Reef for watersports and chilling! (and some hiking, where I was truly traumatized by lizards :'( )
Stand Up Paddling is so easy on sand!
Saying my last minute goodbyes x
NEWTON finally makes an appearance!!! (By the way he was there in Hong Kong when I was talking about January - remember that? - but thanks to LJ's grand cock up, here he is again, in DECEMBER.)
Sydney was the hardest goodbye :'( The 4 musketeers are now split up (three of us headed to Singapore, poor Gu Yu). Thank you for sending me off, it means a lot to me :')
Home. I experienced the biggest mix of feelings in the world that week, so so glad to finally be home, but hating everything here because I wanted to be back in Sydney. (To be fair, I hate everything in Sydney when I'm actually there because I want to be home. #girls)
Christmas was very soon to be upon us! Life was full of meet ups, catch ups, grown ups (To our absolute horror, that's all of us! How did that happen!)
Claimed one of my birthday presents from my twin, a secret 2D0N escapade where we WALKED across the causeway. By the way, we didn't stay over because 1. Our mother would have killed us, and 2. I was too afraid to anyway.
Champion Selfies - root beer float, yummy chicken chop plus my face all in / Weird Twins
Day 2 was just a disappointment - but massages and good korean BBQ saved the day <3
Christmas Eve with the extended family. I was crowned Weirdest Face by my very rude sister. *Sniffs*
After they left, the clock struck 12 and my family tore our presents open excitedly. YAAAAA! (That is how my dad spells "Yay")
♥ Christmas with my bimbos ♥
Parents flew off to Penang by themselves, leaving us siblings alone (how rude!) We cooked a feast, each of us making a dish.
Last meet up with M for the year!
New Year's Eve, always thinking of my 4 musketeers XOXO HAHA SO GROSS.
And then it ended. I spent the last moments of 2014 with my family. We had hotpot, then made coconut shakes. After that, my mother insisted on making us carry our craft table downstairs so we could all hang out together. We counted down in front of the TV, shouting embarrassingly and loudly during the countdown, and then opened a bottle of red wine.
Here's to the new year.