Happy Birthday to me, Merry Christmas to you.

YLSNE: Bizzare Love Triangle was originally done by New Order quite a while ago. I think it was sung by a guy then...if I'm not wrong. Frente's version is nice too. But there's a techno one out there that really butchers the song. -shudders and deletes said techno version-

Tags:
Huiming: Thank you so much!! :) Yay. I'm nineteen. -walks around happily- Oh yeah, by the way, I have a cookie for you! Do you have a topic? (I have one for Jo too, but I think you're first..)
Huiming (two days before the recentest tag :)): Brummies=people from Birmingham. ;) They sound like food..heh I could, but it's not the same. :( And it probably also means less people know about it, unless they're already anime or manga fans..sigh.
sb: Indeed, firefox. -innocently pretends she doesn't see the second part of sb's tag.- XD The paranoia was a while ago..and not only because of people you and I know.

I have just realised something that's somewhat disturbing because of how much I enjoy it. Stuffed toys. I mean, I know I'm a girl and all, but I have this nagging feeling I didn't use to like cuddling things so much. Be it Baby Baby (the adorable stuffed dog mom and dad got me for my birthday - they rock! :) pictures when I get them on my comp.), toto (pronounced tutu), doodoo, (t blue star jo and maria got for me, which I sadly had to leave with my aunt in Singapore for the time being cos we were overweight with luggage and had to leave one behind :( ) or my adorabro, I like hugs! A lot. Plus I'm a kissing fiend too, as my bro can attest to. XD [I say, "Kissu shite!" and he kisses me, awww so cute right. ;)]

Well, for obvious reasons, it's somewhat disturbing. I even had this dream last night that I told my nonexistent boyfriend the same thing and he kissed me. O.o I am either getting really desperate, or my bro's too cute. :) Or both.

In any case, I had an enjoyable though rather quiet birthday. :) My cake was mango cheesecake (oh my gosh, rich and very, very nice. Reminded me of the cheesecake PJ baked once. sigh. ), and because I thought I already knew my (Christmas) presents, I didn't think I'd get more. But I did! I got Baby Baby (previously mentioned.) - an absolutely adorable 2007 calendar featuring puppies (that I couldn't take a picture of because we had a blackout, and when I thought about it again my cam was out of batt and the charger in the car. :() -- and a funny set of pyjamas. (scroll up, to the right) Haha, I thought it was a set to wear outside, at first, so I was quite aghast. XD

Dinner on that day was a simple one at Chatswood...which looks nice and rather uptown, but has pretty expensive property. I ate the beehoon with szechuan chicken and veg, and it was surprisingly nice! :D The chicken was hot, though, so I ended up searching for water. XD

So yeah. And this morning I got a card, which was very colourful and cool, but I was really grouchy (I am not a morning person) so I couldn't really appreciate it. :( On another topic, sigh, when it comes to presents mom (in her birthday just over two weeks ago) really gets the short stick. Dad is too lazy to get her stuff (his excuse is that scully he gets something she doesn't like. -_-) -- asking her to get her own is practical but -_- -- and because I'm not working or anything I can't actually get her something nice. It's the same with Christmas. Bah.

There's an absolutely adorably cute samoyed waiting with his owner for a student at bro's school, that we've seen a few times. Its fur is so soft, and its ears are so small and furry...and it's so big! I love golden retrievers and dogs like them (that samoyed was :)) because though they're so big, they're very gentle.

My loneliness is killing me..

YLSNE: This isn't really the usual ylsne(d), but I realised the pictures look horrendous in Internet Explorer. If you're using this and they're all out of whack, please tag and tell me. (Depending on the number of people who do, I'll decide whether I should try to fix it -- since I use Firefox, myself. XD) I tried, but I can't seem to figure out what's wrong...they work isolated, when I remove the img tags to a separate page. Preview in blogspot (IE) looks normal, it's only after it's published that things get messed up. Anyone else having the same problem? I don't know offhand anyone who puts pictures with left right alignment on blogspot..that said, look at the top for news about what conditions make this site look pretty. :)

Ah well. Wham: You look better being narcissistic than I do, most probably. ;) Good bone structure, you have! -nods sagely-

I went and did some quizzes. The one below was the one that struck me the most..it pretty much aptly describes how I feel nowadays, except I'm not making stellar work on the creative side..-sigh- If you'd like to see the rest, feel free to go over to my profile page.

What is Your Phrase? [for darker people]

"Awake, yet never truly alive, I seek valuation beyond reality"
Life is unfullfilling for you, and you aren't very fond of it. What you like is your own imaginative world, which can be your daydreams, stories you write or anything similar. You always prefer that before the actual life. To people you come off as quite lonesome, and you may wish you had more friends, but you are more of a hoper than someone who takes action. That is how you remain lonely. Or maybe you just don't find anyone who you can relate to. Inside you feel empty, like you are missing something important that you can't quite put a finger on what it is. Somehow you wish to be swept away from the normality and led into something extraordinary. This has yet to happen, and you keep on feeling dissapointed with the little that life has to offer. At least you continue to express yourself through art/writing/poems/daydreaming.
Take this quiz!

Desperation.

YLSNE: A bee has five eyes. Brummies hail from Birmingham. The most abundant element in the sun is Hydrogen. Google deskbar is good for giving me random trivia which I don't really need to know.

In an attempt to garner more tags, I have gone blog surfing. I realise that this is an activity I pretty much keep forgetting to indulge in. Personally, I don't leave tags unless I feel like I have something to comment on -- I do try, but I'll never leave tags like, "Hi! And bye!" Oh, hey, Nicole came to Sydney recently. And apparently she's gone to Bondi while I've been slacking around at home. T-T I wanna go to the beach too, but I have no one to go with..

Bondi's not very near the place I live at, so I can't really justify a day trip just going by myself..I wouldn't be bored witless cos I have BOOKS. Two-dollar, bargain bin, good books. (Mom bought some four-dollar on-sale ones.) Sophie's World, English Patient, and Kushiel's Avatar. The last is the one where Phedre (-blatantly ignores grave/accent-) gets tortured and kept captive by the Mahrkagir. Delicious stuff. Oh and Joscelin (ZOS-lan. XD) My, his daggers, his Perfect Companionness...-drools-

I mean...it's just strange going to the beach yourself. I'd go with my parents (that'd be a weekend activity, though), but the thing is, having parents around kind of prevents you from making friends..so I'm back to square zero. Friendless in Sydney. (Why does this have the same initials as "Friendless in Shanghai"? XD) Haha, Photoshop therapy.

I suppose it should be "more-or-less Friendless" instead, because I do have one friend here. She's a very cool girl who has a wardrobe of black and white, a bratty younger bro too, and is interested in yaoi (yay! XD). Haha. But she's going elsewhere on vacation until Jan! One friend is -not- enough. I also have a bunch of acquaintances in the Yaoi Team I met the other time..cool people. :)

I've never really appreciated how school pretty much threw you into socialising, while giving you mini-goals to achieve, and challenges to work towards.

"I think far less than I ever have..." - My gosh, I read this line on LiHang's blog and immediately went, "Oh no, that's too true." I'm deathly worried that one day, I'll realise my lucky streak when it comes to exams will run out, and I'll find myself not being able to think. Meh. Not a pleasant idea.

Just look at my writing. I know I'm not a supremely good writer. But this past year, I've done so little. Plus, I was happy with only a few. Where the hell did one year go? What am I doing with my life? Most of all, how can I change things?

I try, but the internet (Elleirot, my laptop, on the left) is an ultimately lonely place. I hide behind my user id when I chat with people -- I keep them at arm's length, telling myself I won't ever be meeting them. I have become so used to not being able to, that there's a comfort in it. And no one wants to venture out of their comfort zones. I want to, within limits, but -- there it is again, I don't really want to, do I?

On a happier note, I'm slowly becoming more inspired than usual, partly due to obsessing over Death Note. I tell myself I'm going to get my essay on that foursome thing done -- and I will get it done, but I really have no clout when it comes to talking about relationships, do I? What makes me think that I'm right about this? It's all so theoretical.

Yet I worry about being lonely. I'm such an odd person, I don't know who on Earth would be interested in me. -jumps to random topic wrt relationships- Even though I read, joke, and sometimes (rarely ;)) write about sex, I believe abstinence is a better route than regretting a moment of passion and "having to marry" (aka shotgun). It's not that I don't like the idea of sex -- I just don't like the consequences of intercourse. Foreplay and such stuff, of course, isn't considered sex. XD (Ah, Anita Blake got this right. I find myself identifying with and envying her pretty often, actually.) And I don't want to marry one person. But I don't think marier bis frio will ever work out -- which means I actually will end up lonely.

A few months ago, I was freaking out because it seemed like everyone was getting hooked up. Now, I just feel desperate. Desperately lonely - desperately frustrated - desperately at a loss as to what I should do.

With my mind going in circles nowadays, the result is more or less, pretty much, lackluster.

Mangoes are really sweet, though. They're in season now, and we get to buy huge ones for two bucks apiece. Worth every penny.

Tag me and I'll, er, post more pics? :)

YLSNE: Ants do not die in the microwave oven because they're small enough to dodge the waves. Supposedly. (Thanks, Doug/Damian(Damien?) and book. XD Not that any are likely to read this..especially not the book. Haha!) And yeah, now we should try to put a whole bunch of ants there and see if they line up in waves. (Thanks, Siwei. :D)

I feel drained...I suppose some of this is from sleeping about six hours last night.

I have no tag wuv. XD By the way, some pictures at http://jennkei.shutterfly.com -- people who know me in real life, feel free to ask for the password. :) I got a pre-Christmas present, yay! Bluetooth dongle. :) Now my phone doubles up as a digicam, and I get to take cute pictures of Adorabro like the one to the left. :) Okay, I also get to take zilian pictures like the one on the right. HAHA.

I do have a narcissistic streak. Meh. But bro's much cuter in photos so I should take him more.. He seems really happy in school even though mom complains he lacks social skills...sigh. I can't really say anything to that, -I- lack social skills. I've become used to not going out...and I realise I'm seriously inarticulate when it comes to anything not involving writing. Gah! I can be friendly, but today I've realised I 1. Get bored very easily.
2. Prefer listening rather than talking cos I'm not very articulate...and there's only so much smiling and nodding you can do before 1. happens all over again.
3. Feel pressurised in groups.

All this combined to make me feel really tired. By the time I got home, I wanted to watch So You Think You Can Dance..then mom wanted me to go buy bread. So fine, I had some time, went to Woolworths...got lots of bread (hamburger, raisin, wholemeal), and milk, and nutella, and choc chip cookies cos I felt like buying them. Then I went home, and realised I'd left one plastic bag at the cashier's. For some reason I got really pissed off because of that. What's wrong with me?! I'm not supposed to have hormonal fluxes..-_- That is, I'm supposed to have frozen hormonal cycles. Plus my hair gets irritated when I get irritated, so I end up looking like..Granted, that's a simulated image cos I'm really bad at looking dao. XD Ah, and the reason those pictures are here are because...I realised of the stuff I have on my phone, those under "Aus Everyday (life)" have been uploaded to Shutterfly, and the rest are me, or bro. Or artistic-like ones.

Like...a cool Bridge (very precise architechture, left) -- or sailing boats on the way to Manly (right). Strange pictures aside, this past week I have been fairly disturbed by my seeming insensible attachment to a few pairings with one common trait -- cute, sweet, innocent girl meets brooding guy. (Namely, Gakuen Alice's Natsume X Mikan, Basket of Wishes's Jourdian X Splendor, read the latter a looonnng time ago, but I loved the book.) Doesn't make sense because I neither aspire to be one, nor the other. Neither are they the general types I go for...so...is it just a normal pairing? People like that are supposed to end up together? :) Perfect for each other, eh.

On the other hand, I have been afflicted by Death Note mania, and CANNOT BELIEVE they're not gonna show that show in the theatres. Sadness. Matsuyama Ken'ichi (chap playing L/Ryuuzaki) is absolutely hot when he moves. He looks a tad new in his pictures, though, of which I could barely find enough of. Guy playing Light/Raito looks a bit disappointing...I expected him to be more striking, sly, sharp. Then again, I haven't watched the movie yet so his acting may be fantastic.

Trepidation.

Tags:
maygalai: heyla, I'm doing great. :) still somewhat lonely, but good. you?
ruilin: I'm so sorry, I can't do it. :( In Sydney liao! Have fun in SG, though, k?
dongni: I think so too. :) But..well I don't know, at least mom seems a lot more easygoing now. :)

I confess, I seem to have narcissistic tendencies. Just spent some time extracting my face from eight of my studio pictures and making them into avatars. With masks. XD

Then, now, I open my folder of Hot Girls (to drool at? ;)) and feel woefully inadequate. Haha! Ah well.

I have high standards, so not many made it into this folder - which has a sister (ah, brother?) folder - "Hot Guys". They're eye candy for when I feel bored.

And bored seems to be a state I'm in nowadays. Tomorrow I'm gonna visit the library in this suburb. Praying that it'll be decent-sized, AND they allow me to borrow books. Since I'm only a PR, I'm not sure if this'll happen, but we'll see.

Back to boredom. You know you're bored when you actually...fall asleep reading manga. And I did that yesterday and today. It wasn't the manga's fault. (Well, Baby Birth -was- pretty uninspiring, though.) Partially because of siesta lethargy, and because I'm doing it on my bed. Parents have been chasing episodes of <24> (some show) for a while, but I find those kind of thrillers pretty boring. I don't like choppy filming technique, either.

I prefer heartstring-tugging (I surprise myself by actually being pretty emotional with what I've been reading nowadays - guess I'm not as jaded as I thought I was) or sexy, thank you very much. Or music-related. Though that's really more for fiction. Movies..I like eye candy. :D I enjoy romcoms too, though I have little occasion to watch them. (People who went to watch 50 First Dates with your partners, damn you! XD I'm not a fan of Sandler, but I love watching Barrymore, and that story is so Date Movie. -wistful-) I did watch Wedding Crashers in a cinema (with Insa) though, and that was marvelous fun. Still, no slight on thee, Insa, but you're not a guy. XD And it might take an enlightened guy to laugh at some of the scenes in that movie, though, wouldn't it!

I also fell asleep this afternoon digging through my Photoshop brushes. Many I've never touched, many I've deleted. Now that was really pretty -_- (sleep-inducing), but I do have to clean up the brushes, make sure I know what's there and all...

Also went through the calendars/artbooks I downloaded and derived some bar/top images for future web templates to work on. I don't have any Ouran wallpapers at the moment, but I'll be looking, cos I really want to make an template featuring Hikaru and Kaoru, and I'll slate it to come on when uni starts. (Fall 07? Fall for Aus, that is. ;)) Then I've already planned a great picture of X's Nataku for Winter...then after that possibly Seishirou's Devastation. That man is dangerously hot. I need to get my hands on Tokyo Babylon (which features him)! Damn, it seems like yesterday Mich was telling me about it. :( But gee, it's actually been two years...how time passes.

I've changed, I know I have. But I don't know if I like the person I am, now, more than the one I used to be. (Considering I've never really liked myself, and actually downright either despised or felt nothing for myself for quite a while, this probably isn't a good thing.) I've realised I'm very isolated - somewhat reticent - can't be free - and starting to be attracted to a rather narrow variety of girls. -grins- I suppose it's time - considering mom has been trumpeting, "Girls safe, boys dangerous!" for several years. I still obsess over guys, though. And lovin' it. :D

Right at this moment, it seems I lack drive. Hopefully things will pick up, preferably with uni, regarding which Dad says I'll "get used to having exams every three months". -_- Riiiiight.

Tingles up my spine.

I swear, shoujo manga is sometimes like this shot of happy bubbles (not literally, which would be fatal) effervescing through your bloodstream. Ahh and yaoi manga gives a shot, too, to certain areas in a very different way. I guess it's the difference between "so sweet!" and "so hot!". There are some manga, though, that just make me go, "Huh." Unlike movies, I haven't been disturbed by manga (yet) - though the anime Night Head Genesis was pretty freaky, in a pointless manner. Blue Heaven was just predictable. Ahh, Fatal Frame disturbed me, though that's really a game more than anime or manga...and I want, I want the English version for that one..-sighs- Not that I'd play it.

The last few days in Singapore were searching around online for scanlations - and in the short (?) time I've been there, partly because I haven't been able to meet up with as many people as I like, partly because when I obsess, I go overboard. I am aware of this, but it's not a habit I want to kick - I figure burning out fast is better than plodding through something for too long. Though, in the case of certain things, "fast" is a relative term. XD (Mudding got me in its hold this time for almost a year.)

Lately I've been thinking more and more that I'll never meet someone who'll love me. I mean, hey, do I even believe in love? If I don't, how's it possible for someone to love me?

I joke with mom that "my future boyfriend" will do this and that -- but inside, I'm really worried because...well, I know who I am, and I know I'm...weird. I'm prickly, unattentive, have tunnel vision at times, am absolutely horrible in keeping in touch with people, and...well, you get my drift. Sometimes I don't really like myself, which's partly why I love getting praised. As my neesan can attest to. ;) I'm also jealous. Haha, it may not be obvious (I mean, hey, what do I have to be jealous of, most of the time?) -- but I don't like it if you suddenly raise someone else while you're talking to me, unless it's related to what we're talking about, or both of us are concerned about someone. It probably has something to do with my tendency to obsess too. I'm scary, see what I mean? -sighs-

So yeah, it's not like I'm a catch. What makes me think I'll be able to get a boyfriend in uni when I haven't been successful so far? (Not that I've been allowed to try, but......) It makes me wonder - am I too desperate?! (I certainly sound desperate. T-T) Another concern is height...I have already passed by several guys who appear like trees to my bean sprout! Considering the max height for a guy for me is about 1.75cm, things do not look good.

Though, yeah, mom may say I'm "short but proportionate" -- but even this proportion is getting blown. My time in SG has allowed me to put on three or four kilos. XD I missed the food too much, so I don't regret this at all. Ahh speaking of food, the importers in Australia have been busy! I've found lots of Chinese food stuff here - we even have three Chinese grocery stores (small ones, to be certain) near our place. The vegetables, etc, microwaved pau, like home. :) [They even have those cool Japanese gummy chocolate Cynthia (?) brought to school once! I only saw them in Cold Storage somewhere, in SG..] The peaches are pretty cool, but different from Chinese ones - smaller, but they look prettier, though the one I ate today wasn't so good. (I like my peaches soft and juicy - I like my Packham pears and apples soft too, though if the latter is sweet it doesn't matter. :))

Living close to a semi-shopping mall consisting mostly of supermarket places definitely has its perks. Food is expensive, true - lunch for us four averages to about 20 bucks (with us sharing) - though I predict that if I eat out, I'll definitely have to grab a friend to share. The portions are ghastly. (Well, they come with a "fit to share" price, too, so...)

I need friends. I want to join an interest club. I want to meet up with the yaoi team here and I hope they're nice. :) I hope I'll get into USyd. (I keep wondering...would the paperwork have messed up? Will I get in? I don't exactly have good vibes about this...) I hope studies will be great. I hope my family does well. I doubt I'm going to be driving soon, there's kind of no real need to - dad's taking train to work cos parking rates are ungodly, and we live one stop from USyd, according to dad. (I look at the subway map and I catch no ball, so I take his word for it..)

Bro just started school today, and he came back pretty happy. :) Mom was so worried he wouldn't fit in...and, now, that his standard will deteriorate. Me, I think it's good for him to socialise, or he'll become like his neesan, on the computer 18/7. XD Even though I've quit, my parents still think I mud all the time. Come on, there's not even an internet connection!! How to mud?! (They just don't believe I have other stuff to do on my pc, though that's what I've told them, hahaha...-sly-)

That important?

Just out of the shower - and I was thinking while I was in there - that in terms of evolution for humans, it seems survival has been taken to be within context of society. And this society has, largely, been focused on appearances.

Is it because it's the only thing we can fixate on? I don't know. While it's easy to say nature selected against a crab with smaller, weaker pincers cos it couldn't catch as much food as one with stronger ones, to take this as the basis for human evolution is inaccurate. Attractiveness cannot be measured by something as concrete as the number of fishes you catch - or even the amount of money you earn. Yet the latter remains linked to the former. Why?

It is my belief that an appreciation of beauty is innate within humans. Having done my fair share appreciating bishounen and various fictional characters (whom appearances I can freely imagine), this's probably only natural. Yet, again - why? Studies would probably show people are, naturally, more inclined to believe in or trust someone who is attractive than someone who is not. Why? Is it because we remain, fundamentally, shallow, judgemental creatures who let our first impressions rule us?

While the self-help books might say we make choices every day, and our lives are in our hands depending on which choices we make, the cynical could feel the truth is, we actually judge, every day. And the accuracy of this judgement is the measure by which our success is determined. Because no one is omniscient, no one can view all the components on both sides of the equation - no one can decide something that is not a judgement. The thing is, is it right to judge based on appearances? Nature seems to think so -- so in this case, is it right to go against nature? Would education and societal conditioning actually allow this to be overcome, and would our evolution then be taken into our hands?

Yet, no matter what, it seems that even those who've been gifted with appearance may actually spectacularly squander their natural fortune. Is this human folly, or is Nature laughing at our dramatics, or even at me, for pondering such odd things? We can only wonder.

It's not Sydney that's made me wonder these things - but I've realised that, hearing people talk about racial discrimination..I don't want that. I know I will meet intolerant people - and I, too, have certain preconceived ideas about others who look a certain way, even if I would not act on them unless they do the same first, or they insult me grievously.

So far I haven't had the idea that anything might be wrong - Burwood, where I live, has a fairly large Asian population comprising mostly of Koreans. But at a company party with Dad yesterday, the four of us felt distinctly out of place. And for more than a few times now, it's seemed like Mom has gravitated towards the Asians. And Dad says the people here cluster together - even within a suburb it may actually be Koreans on one side of the road, and HongKongers on the other. Think about zoning in Singapore, and that's exactly the case again.

It's not that I'm against this, but...why? Why is it even happening? This caution - this isolation. Without a reason - I would not just spontaneously talk to someone. Does everyone think this way? Perhaps we all afraid to find absolutely nothing in common with whoever we speak to. Then, is the world generally getting so lonely?

My bro is starting school tomorrow. I hope he does well, makes many friends, and learns to judge after observation.

Appearances. Do they count for so much, yet so little? (Even if you're together, so what, if you don't actually know who your neighbours are, etc?)

Delayed contemplation.

This is delayed, I know -- at the moment I'm already in Sydney, and in the last rush of packing and running around and packing, I have been unable to write one last, nostalgic blog post about how much I'll miss Singapore, everyone and everything here.

But that's easy to say. I'll miss Singapore. Everyone and everything here.

The bad thing is -- those last moments on Singaporean soil, I didn't feel as emotional as I expected to feel. Mostly, I felt amazed that my relatives would go to such trouble for us. An aunt (Aunt Jo) put us up in her place for a month while we were back, and another (Aunt Van :)) is going to help us take care of the renting of our place, the sending of mom's luggage that got seamailed slowly back from Shanghai, and take care of the luggage we had carried, over the limit. (I don't want to talk about that, but suffice to say I was angered enough to want vengeance. Maybe I'll rant one day, but it's not worth a blog post.) Plus, three cars drove us and our luggage to the airport, and we had a party for our leaving last weekend.

I suppose it's the same amazement I felt when I'd realised my friends had organised a similar party for me when I'd initially got back to Singapore. Even though everyone was busy cramming, even though the few guys'd just booked out of NS (?). Sometimes I feel like I'm unworthy of the trouble people go to for me. It's this same feeling of discomfort that has made my stay at Singapore somewhat lonely. "I don't want to bother you.." has become a common statement, particularly to my neesan. -wry-

But enough about me. Sydney. I got this fantastic (free from dad?) Nokia phone today, but I'm more delighted by the fact it can take 2 megapixel photos. Hopefully it can link up to the PC. XD Come to think of it, it kind of reminds me of Greg's (Neesan's Bro) phone, or maybe it was Maria's..Ah well, it's a manly phone (black and somewhat chunky), but I've been happily snapping photos.

Bro is going to start in Elem One next year. Supposedly children born after July (aka Spring of the year) are considered a previous class. Hey, that means I'm kind of half ahead compared to other people. XD Haha, but after the gap year I've taken I probably wouldn't be..but well..

Sydney is a surprise. It's less high tech than Singapore, and sometimes even China (in terms of MRT, certainly). One thing you notice after being in high-rise Singapore, and medium-rundown-rise Shanghai, is that there are a lot more landed properties here. But they aren't exactly new.

The one we're staying in, though, -is- pretty new (the walls and doors are white. O.o Hallway's very hotel-like), and hostel-like. In fact, the exterior brought the Jugendherberge (hostel XD) in Munich to mind. I looked at the colours, went, "Eh? It's (the project's) small! Hostel!"

Dad was moaning and groaning (haha) about how it was tiny, but I feel it's really quite an okay size, since it's a two-bedroom apartment, after all. I mean, hey, I use a laptop, I don't need a table. (If I need to study I suppose I could always go to school. -angelic-) Speaking of laptops, I'm glad the shocks dealt to me when I placed my laptop on my bare lap in SG are over. I think it's overpowered there. (240V compared to 230V? Or something.)

There're a -lot- of churches here. Every few steps, there's a church. But because the parishes, priories, etc are all beautifully gothic buildings, it fits right in with a somewhat old-world charm this place has. Services in Korean, Chinese, as well as grocery stores catering for those minorities (?) can also be found. I suppose it's partly because of the area I'm living in (Burwood)-- it has a pretty large asian population. Oh yeah, if you want my address, grab me on msn. And if you want some summer Christmas card or something, please give yours to me when you grab me, and I'll think about unlazing myself to send one. ;)

Sydney is huge. Driving takes forever. There are a lot a lot of roads. However, it's somewhat easy (according to dad) to navigate cos these roads are parallel...me, I'm just wondering whether I should really take my driving test. I saw a sign advertising lessons for 43 bucks an hour. ?! Bloody ex. Not to mention my parents are actually gonna take public transport to work cos it costs to much to park in town. (Parking is expensive, apparently.)

Have been sleeping on and off today. No internet, so this'll probably be backlog by the time I post it. I'll keep y'all posted about my now-incongruous life in Sydney. Exciting, eh? ;)