The Stressful Semester

A straightforward topic that says it all. This semester has been crazy for me. I've never had so many things to do in a month, and it just piles up on you until the submission date. I'm talking about design of course. I didn't like the way the second half of the semester is structured cause i had a few problems or faults in my design, but I didn't get the chance of correcting it. It only created more and more stress for me because the faults became more severe as we got more detailed into the design. to make things worst, guest critiques who were supposed to help us with our structure, starting pissing us off by poking our designs instead. Everything built up to a long season of sleepless nights, all-nighters and heart-pumping stress and panic attacks. Non-architectural ppl probably wont understand what im talking about but hey, blogs are for rants and ramblings right? (Maybe)


Source of my pain - Station Pier ferry terminal

Despite that, i managed to pull through thanks to some great support from my family and friends and most important Deedoo who was there for me to encourage me and all the other small things that help reduce my stress. The final presentation wasn't actually too bad, like i said i already knew a few faults in my design and i was ready to take the critism for it. However the critiques were very polite in their speech and they also pointed out a few good things in my design, which is always a huge plus. Overall reward still didnt equal effort, but i am relieved with the way things turned out in the end.

Now, with only 2 exams remaining, im relaxing and studying hard at the same time to make sure i dont fail and graduate and not disappoint my parents when they come over to see me next month. I might sound contradicting putting relax and studying together, but hey after experiencing design this year, studying is relatively relaxing.

New Photos

Uploaded a bunch of new and old photos onto my web albums. Here's a few teasers from recent times :


Tulip festival at Lilydale


21st birthday dinner


21st belated birthday tea

Taking a break

Ahh........... finally some refreshing freedom time to do whatever we like. Having two weeks off to clear our mind off architecture stuff and not being bound to university timetable is just what we needed. I'm doing everything i want to do : play basketball, hang out with friends, Wii-ing...........everything feels great! Till you realize that you're procrastinating and there are assignments/submittions waiting around the corner. So its not a holiday after all, just a non-teaching period (direct quote from my tutor, which probably meant we're supposed to use every minute doing our design).

Argentine 1-0 Australia

Just came back from watching a live friendly match of soccer between the Socceroos and Argentina. It's been a while since i watched any live matches and i must say i really enjoy the experience and the atmosphere. Although most of the time you cant tell who the players are except a few obvious ones like Messi and Tevez who has magnificent dribble moves, its still great fun to watch. Near misses actually feels more exciting than the goals that you see on TV. The players also look kinda huge....even Messi is not tiny at all! And to think that Argentina is a team that struggles in the world cup because of their height....

The actual match itself though, it was disappointing that it was so low scoring. Apart from Messi's solo effort that hit the post, Argentina barely looked like they were trying after they got the lead through a header from a corner (i dont even know who scored!). The socceroos tried really hard to equalize but simply did not have any quality finishers at the end of the play. Bresciano came close though, with a free kick that hit the crossbar.

The highlight of the match was when someone sitting behind us shouted:

OPEN YOUR EYES!!!

SEE THE LIGHT!!!

ITS HAPPENING!!!!

I CAN FEEL IT!!!!!




MEEEESSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOLOLOLOL


Overall, it was still a fun match to watch. I definitely hope that one day i will be able to watch a more competitive match rather than one-sided friendlies. (say, Malaysia - Brazil?) But of course, i'd trade any soccer match to watch a live game of NBA any day.

Sydney Trip Post

My long long overdue post. As most of you already know, me and Deedoo went on our "romantic getaway" to Sydney a week ago. It was a great trip, we did a few interesting tours, snapped some beautiful pictures and ate some great food over there. The horrible weather was a shame, but could be easily overlooked nonetheless. Anyways here's a quick summary of our trip, skipping all the mushy bits =)

Day 1: Arrival. Took a train from the airport to the station nearby our backpackers hotel (called Wake Up! ). This is my first time staying in one of these. It was an excellent choice, the place was very nice looking and clean, and the room provided us with minimum necessities. And to our surprise, we even had a TV!!! We stayed near Chinatown and was walking distance to the Darling Harbour. We had a good rest and then strolled to Darling Harbour to snap some quick pictures before the sunset and had a wonderful dinner at a place called the Black Bird. We ended the day with a night stroll through the Aquarium.




Day 2: Spent the day at Circulay Quays. The weather was wonderful, sunny and not too cold. We had a full English breakfast to fuel us for the day and quickly worked our way up the steps of the oh so famous Sydney Opera House. Then , we took a long walk to this park where we had a great view of the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge behind it. In the evening we went to Bondi Beach and treated ourselves to some awesome bbq pork ribs at The Hurricanes! Those of you who've been to Sydney would probably have been there and those of you who havent, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TO DO SO!!!



Day 3: Long bus trip up to the Blue Mountains. Walking through the trails was pretty fun for the first hour or so was pretty fun, but it started to get tiring and the light rain didn't help either (it made the steps slippery). Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience and we had a good breath of fresh air. We also managed to catch a glimpse of the Three Sisters....



Day 4: Next up was Port Stephens for dolphins watching. Things looked gloomy at first as in it was pouring cats and dogs when we left. (Un)fortunately it take 2-3 hours to get there so by the time we reached there during lunch time, the storm was over. Going out to the sea and looking at the dolphins were probably the highlight of the trip, and we caught a good video of them jumping around too! Also included with the trip was a short detour to the sand dunes. They were pretty huge, and we were allowed to sandboard down the dunes. It was really fun going down, but climbing up in the sand isnt as fun.



Day 5: Nothing much here. Visited my aunt in the morning and we chatted and yamcha-ed till lunch time. It was pouring once again so we had to stay in. We did, however managed to go to Lowenbrau Keller for dinner. They are famous for German beers and pork knuckles (and of course, sausages). The beer was pretty good but the pork knuckle was so-so (disappointing since i was most looking forward to it)



Day 6: Check out time. Met up with Sue Ann and her friends for yamcha and to catch up a bit on old times. I think she is starting to develop some slang, cause she sounded 100% malaysian 2 years ago. After that we went to indulge ourselves at the Lindt cafe. Anyone familiar with chocolate will know what im talking about. Absolutely sinful, yummy chocolate. Anyways that kinda rounds up the trip. This is the first time I've travelled without anything planned beforehand (and without parents) and i must say its quite an experience and i think we managed to cover quite a lot of places in a short amount of time.

I've got a brand new toy!

Guess what it is??? A freaking, spanking, brand new iphone baby!!! Go ahead! Get jealous!


Ooo Yeeeah!













Just kidding. Just a well crafted paper model, mate.


Three monkeys

Photo albums re-done!

After scouting around a few photo sharing sites i decided to go with Bubbleshare. Kiddy name aside, the reason i chose it was because of unlimited uploads and a simple interface that any kid or grandparent can use with ease. The downside of it is that they only provide low resolution pictures, which is enough for sharing cause i wouldnt want to see every tiny detail when looking at someone else's albums. Loading times is quick and effortless. Added a section on the right of the blog with links to the albums. Will fill up very soon!

Mouse Caught!

Well we discovered a hole in the corner of my room where the mouse usually comes out, so i installed a new trap (from wikipedia!) using a coin and an upside down glass with PB a.k.a. peanut butter on the bottom of the glass, kinda looks something like this :



And the results after a few days :



Mission success!!! Feeling accomplished right now =)

Photo albums up!

At http://23hq.com/frenccw

Havent got much on in yet (includes my recent Sydney Trip, which i am going to blog about pretty soon) but ill be updating it soon. I've been trying to find an alternative to Flickr and i think this is the best so far. Yahoo photos is alright but the interface is a bit too bland/ugly for me. I'm not so bothered about the upload limit for Flickr but what really annoys me is that they only allow for a maximum of THREE albums! So 23 looks pretty good to me, it has better upload limit and no limits for albums. Perfect.

I've Been a Bad Bad Boi

I did something that i shouldn't have....putting the tele and my Wii in MY ROOM!!!! Omg!!!! And i did it before exams too! What a bad move..... Oh well at least it was fun studying this time :P

Now that the holidays are starting i can finally sleep well, go to gym regularly and not to mention tons of Wii gaming. Looking forward to going to Sydney on Friday and then when i get back i'll be expecting Keth Lyn and Joo Yee! Better clean up my room before then lol must not leave a bad impression (although it has to be even cleaner when my parents come over end of the yr).

On a side note, it's freaking FREEZING here in Melbourne! Ironically when I'm back in Malaysia i couldn't stand a minute without air-conditioning........ now i got my wish. That brings me to my latest poll, which do you prefer: a freezing winter or a scorching summer?