And may I just add that it is simply unforgettable. Dad, mom and Jie came over to Melbourne to support me. Alas, my house is a little too tiny to accommodate all of us but Tika was so considerate to excuse herself for a whole of two weeks! So we get to go CUCKOO!! And weather was very very co-operative too, which added to our cuckoo-ness.
Before my big day, we were actually travelling every single day. Let me just list out the itinerary: Phillip Island, Yarra Valley, Dandenong Ranges, Great Ocean Road, Geelong and most importantly, shopping. So many things to do, so little time! We had such a great time exploring and doing crazy poses albeit a little tiring.
Graduation was good too. We rented a small house at Geelong and it turned out to be the best decision ever! On graduation, we were all dressed up smartly. Mom and Jie imported a whole lot of dresses for my graduation so my garments department was no way short of choices. Not to forget my lovely Terence too. He had been such an amazing host to my family and was indeed very patient. Really supportive! Best BF ever! Hehhe. Anyway, although the amount of time I actually got on stage is approximately 5 precious mins but it’s worth it!
Now that my dearest family has gone home to Malaysia, life resumes to its usual self. Filming, editing and job searching. Sigh… so quiet… But honestly, I think my family had brought along a lot of luck to me. So hopefully, a job offer is not too far away! =)
“Have been doing”…”Have done”..Yeap. I had been studying IELTS voraciously, something I’ve never thought I would need to do. I don’t know if I would even get Band 8 for all components but there’s no point ponder on things that had not happened eh?
Apart from that, my career is also taking some joyrides down the path of video development. Also something that I NEVER thought to do.. In fact, it is something which I am totally unfamiliar with. It started with Tika showing me some of her videos, a year ago, which I find really exciting. So, as the team leader at that time, I requested a video to be made of my team. I was turned down by the mere fact that it is too costly and time consuming. They told me it would take months!! Determined to have a video before I leave the team, I made one myself. Just for fun. I was so wrong… What I thought to be for my own personal eyes soon became the official promotional video for my team. Funnily, people seem to be interested in the video I made. Perhaps I’m their cheap and faster way to get a video done. I was then asked to do another video for the undergraduates which turned out alright… I think. And now?? I’ve three projects at hand and been pouring in hours to ensure they are as nice as they can be. Also, I’m crash and self- learning on video equipment and editing softwares. Honestly, I’m not really a creative person myself. So I had to spend some hours here and there doing research on how things should be done... Oh blimey!
I watched Bridesmaids the other day. Not sure what the reviews said but honestly, I hated the main actress! (forgot her name cause I dislike her so much)… she’s this self-pity lad that is pretty much pathetic if you ask me. The whole world does not evolve around her and yet she seems to expect people to just focus on her sad little life. The movie, as a whole, is not bad though.
I believe that your life is in your own hand, after you minus out the religion’s influence of course.
Andif you choose to pity yourself, how can you expect others to respect you?
It’s a principle I hold close to my heart. As a matter of fact, I do have a couple of friends who has exactly those traits. “Oh, my life’s so bad.. and yours really good”, “I am really in a bad luck for these few years.. rather die than be alive”.. HELLO!!!Wake up, damn it. If you think you’re in bad luck or unhappy, then just bloody change! Like the lad in the movie, she’s so bitter. Its like she’s blaming everyone for her lack of boyfriend or career when she, herself, had caused all that. Change is inevitable and embracing it is probably the easiest way out. In any case you do not have to be afraid of change or even avoid it. That would be the worse thing you can do to yourself. If you have no partners or friends, perhaps you should start reflecting on your attitude and change! Its never too late and I hate those bullshits. Or if you have no job, then start working to improve your cv. Go take up a class or a part time job or something. Or the worst I’ve heard, I can’t pass the subject. Then perhaps you’re not doing good enough! Or perhaps you’re doing the wrong thing.. but in any case, nothing is impossible if you make an effort to it. Comprendo? Good!
So here’s the post which everyone is waiting for. You know, the one in regards to my house.. Not really? Sigh… Anyway, I will be making this more of a pictorial post since a ‘picture says a thousand words’ and perhaps more efficiently than I do.
Let’s start at the time when I found this unit in the real estate website. It wasn’t exactly one that we were looking forward to. What’s more, the price is $345 per week as compared to the market’s $380 per week. Over here, the price of the property pretty much determines what you would be getting. And its not like the pictures are good anyway.
Surprisingly, it turned up way better than what we expected! There were lots of sunshine coming into the house and its much warmer that way. Also means, that our electricity bill will hopefully reduce since we won’t be needing to turn on the lights during the day. In general, the whole block of apartment looks like this from the outside. There is a tree right in the middle of the block and I suspect that it would start bloom come spring. Surrounding it are bushes of what I called ‘Winter Roses’ because they only bloom during the winter.
Below are pictures of how it looked like when we stuffed all our belongings in the house rather than packing them. There were lots to clean up for this unit. We re-painted the cupboards, fix the knobs, lubricate the windows, clean the cupboards and even bleach the carpets. In fact, considering that we had been cleaning our previous apartment, it was our fourth day of hard labour.
The entrance to my unit is as below. On the left, is my bedroom and on the right is the Tika’s bedroom, toilet and bathroom. Straight in front is our living room. The good thing about this apartment is; there’s a separate door between the living room and our bedrooms. In essence, we can keep the living room warm and the cooking smell wouldn’t invade our rooms. The bathroom is a little bigger than my previous one AND their light is heated!! That means no more shivers when I come out from the bath cubicle. =)
And here would be my bedroom. Yeap, its bigger than my previous bedroom. And yes, I have a bedframe now. And those polaroids in black & white are my pride and joy, together with the cards I received from home and a special photo frame. If you squeeze your eyes really well, you’ll see whose faces are there. Hehehe.
Next is the living room. We tried to keep the layout similar to our previous one so that we’ll know where things are. The only difference is the bar right next to the entrance. WE HAVE A BAR!! Our crown jewels have their rightful place now. Where they actually belong! =) The weird thing is the fact that I've placed so many cat figures around the house. Cats are not the species that I particularly fond of AND Tika hates cats. Weird... but they ARE cute though.
The kitchen, at the moment, is still in good condition. Lots of sun coming into it but the ventilation fan is a total wreck. We are hoping to get the landlord to fix them up rather than ourselves.
And here’s the view from the balcony. Its great, compared to staring at the road but the downside is, we’ll have to look at our neighbours who is unfortunately located right opposite us. Its not even a good sight to start with.
So here it is, the floor plan of our apartment. Cheers!! =)
As promised, I'll list down all the bad news I had in this past weeks. Honest to god, these few weeks has been the most farcical and turbulent weeks I had in years!
It started on the day when I got my final MBA results.. It ain't pleasant. I do not care what others say but I do set a high standard for myself. To get two Credits is just plain disappointment. It brought my WAM all the way down to another grade! That's how devastating it is. Then my dearest homie's result came out similar to mine too and SHE got disappointed as well. Blah!! To make matters worse, on that bloody same day, we found out that we are required to vacate our lovely homey apartment, the one we are thankful for each single day, within two months time coz the landlord decides to sell his house. Otherwise, we'll get served. Geez... This is my third house already and it obviously does not contribute to my homesickness at all if I keep hopping from one to another like a bunny!
Then I received a letter from Auz Fed Police that states that my application for a police check is unsuccessful coz I paid the wrong amount! Silly me... Idiot really. That's $34 vanishing into thin air (or at least I thought so at the time) and another two weeks of waiting time.
As we begin to search for a new apartment, we realises that the market rent had increased! From $350 per week to $380! And you even get a smaller unit... That's a whole lot of difference dude! Its $1,560 extra a year! For an unemployed graduate like myself, its like holding hell in a hand-basket.
On top of that, I've been hit with the reality that my Uni's completion letter & transcript would take at least a month to be finalised. Now.. the problem is, I can't even begin to apply for a residency without those documents. Plus, I can't apply for jobs without proof that I'm applying for residency. Its a causal effect, yes.
Other negative news were like.. my cousin have bad news that she yet to share with me, my previous office is in a hiccup and I've to attend an IELTS course to improve my writing (more expenses!!). Yeap. It's been a roller coaster ride. I suppose I'll just keep hogging my blog to improve myself and hopefully reflect those little advancements in the next IELTS test.
Oh, but it wasn't ALL bad news. This week we had a bucket of sunshine thrown to us. And I'll simply need to address that in the next post to create more suspense. Hehhe!! Ciaoz~
So my mom went back a couple of weeks ago. I admit, I did had teary eyes.. after four weeks with her that turned out to be miraculously amazing, I was reluctant to let her go. My dad would obviously think otherwise. I did write her this sweet letter on the day she left and hope it would be able to convey what I felt inside. I love my mom. Having her here made this place bearable and made me believe that everything will be fine. Don’t wanna be melodramatic and all but yes, I do have occasional home sickness.
Anyway, soon after Mom left for home, my dearest cousin Su Wei came to visit. Although I did not have a good quiet time with her to pour our heart to each other but overall, it is rather pleasant. We had lots to eat and I even brought her shopping, an act I rarely practice myself. I always wished she would stay in Melbourne. How nice would that be! We can have weekend dinner together and I can only imagine all those fun we could have! Sigh.. In fact, I had a confession to make… I actually discreetly wished she would not do well in her exams only so that she would stay longer in Auz. I know… shame on me. I am being such a selfish biatch.
Life after Su Wei left me for Adelaide was quite volatile actually.. everything seems to tumble down in New York minutes although there were glimpses of light somewhere in the middle. Zooming past those negative stuff (I promise to spill the nitty gritty once I get it all sorted) I’ll share my good, positive news. First of all, we got an all free tour to Yarra Valley from dear Billy. Hehee.. It was amazing. I personally bought a bottle of Moscato and Cabernet. I honestly wish to keep the Moscato till Mom’s visit in October. She loves that dessert wine as I do. Then, I manage to pass all my papers.. PASS.. not excel. And lastly, I got news that one of my paper will be publish!! Oh yeah!!! Really unexpected and I have all my assignment members to thank for. Though my lecturer might argues that we still need a lot of improvements but nevertheless, we got publish!! Muahahhaha! A good ending to this blog post. =)
Today was a beautiful day; with the sun up high on full blast, clear blue sky and the reduced level of turbine power. So I decided to grab my notes and Mom out for a nice walk at the park and naively thought of doing some readings. Even had Mom brought her story book along. The plan was to visit the Shrine of Remembranceand followed by a tour of the Royal Melbourne Botanical Garden. The Garden part did not work out in the end, and so was my reading. Anyhow there was a ceremony at the Shrine today and while we were sniffing around, we heard some gun shots. Here’s the funny part:
(After three gun shots.. BANG, BANG, BANG)
Mom: Hmm.. there must be sending someone off today. Three gun salute.
Ean: Yeah? Wow.. We are attending some soldier’s funeral! Cool! (thinking mom should know all these military stuff since Dad was in the Air Force last time)
(another gun shot)
Ean: eh.. Four? I thought you said three? Auz must be doing it different.
(still followed by subsequent gun shots.. By the time it reaches the seventh/eighth ones..)
Mom: Wah!! This fella must be some ‘big potato’ ya! So many gun shots for him. Usually Three only!
Ean: Wah!! So happy that we can attend big shot’s funeral.. =) May he rest in peace.
Later that evening, as we were skyping with Dad, we told him of the privilege of attending a ‘big shot’ funeral that had Twelve gun shots. He must be pretty high ranking since he has four times the usual Salute! Then dad said this:
Dad: Funeral usually only got 12 or 24 Salute la…. Don’t have three one.
………….. The end ……………
( If you squeeze your eye really small, you should be able to see Mom and I. )
