Chai Boys.

Just came to a realisation that my nephews had very little (actually, close to none) airtime on my blog this year around. Some overdue photos...fuck, they've grown. Especially the little one. A reminder of my fleeting existence. Sigh...life indeed.

Yup...we were trying to be funny. Or as some *koff* people might put it:
Auntie Melanie Being A Bad Influence On Children.

OMG we're so KIUT!




The littlest one has grown to be very VERY head strong. So head strong and stubborn that it scares me sometimes...just because of the tantrums he throws and I find myself not knowing what to do. I mean, should I spank him? Should I walk away? Should I plead and cajole and beg him to stop OMG-he's-making-my-head-hurt-someone-stop-him-from-crying-PLEASE!?!

sheesh man...no one's ever put me into a spot like that.

he refuses to be carried and wants to walk by himself. a sign of independance, very good indeed. however, he walks sososo SLOW that by the time we catch up with everyone, it's already tomorrow. and i may look like i'm carrying him in that last pic above, but it's only through my well-honed arts of bribery/dangling-a-carrot (so to say, in this case, it was my Canon Digital IXUS 800IS) that i managed to actually pick him up without having my eyeballs scratched out.

head-strong child. it's freaky how that trait runs in the family...*koffkoff*.


The family.



Yup...and so last week was Josh's 7th birthday. ZOMG that little brat is already 7!!! I still remember when he was only a few months old...wiggling his bum to music and spewing regurgitated milk all down my shoulder!

He's practically 10 and I'm......getting old. Sigh.

His birthday cake was really yummy though. Thankfully we didn't have to bake a special one-of-a-kind cake for him this year. Or rather, my cousin didn't have to.

Crap. They're all grown up now.

Falling back into routine

Highly erratic behaviour.
Increasing bouts of mood swings.
Agitated because all I can see now are three
...compared to the billions before.

Frustrated.

Upon hindsight, I should have taken you up on your offer.

Oh you and your fucking I'm-too-cool attitude.
From now on, do what you will.
And stop pretending.

How strange.

Now that uni has started, i feel as though i have more time on my hands now than i did during the winter break.

Melbourne was all rush-rush out of the door..drive, sightsee, eat, laugh, cram every single moment into every single second

Heron pulak was a rigid routine:
Wake up at 7:00.
Breakfast at 7:15.
Lab/Field work at 8:00-10:59.
Lecture at 11:00.
Lunch at 12:00.
Lecture at 1:00.
Lab/Field work at 2:30-5:30.
Dinner at 6:00.
Lecture at 7:30.
Sleep at 12:00...(sleeping time of own consent..by 11:00 i'm normally passed out).

yup. 10 days of that.

now that i'm back home..i find myself loitering about...completely unmotivated from the sheer lack of work.

oh ya. plus i forgot to mention my current timetable.

this semester i'm enrolled in 4 subjects, one of them being the Coral Reef Ecosystems course that i've been gushing non-stop about for the past 2 posts...therefore i have, technically, only 3 subjects in uni this semester. they are:

1. Genetics and Animal Behaviour (woo..genetics...fancy).
2. Geographic Information System (GIS) in Coastal Management.
3. Ecology.

and my timetable? 3 days of uni ONLY, baybeh! Mondays-Wednesdays and then my weekend begins! WOOT! about time...geez. yup..and they're 11:00, 10:00 and 10:00 starts respectively. life is sweet. indeed.

yea..ok. i just wanted to gloat la, that's all. i've done my gloating. i think i shall sleep now. i still haven't thought of a proposal yet, btw. what can be so ecologically significant about starfish? any ideas out there?

Grumblebums.

it's the second day of semester 2, meaning that this semester will officially be my last semester. and already i'm swamping myself with questions: should i just graduate? should i take up the Honours offer? who do i want as my supervisor? i wonder if Maria's back from her sabbatical so that i can show her my proposal? what the hell is my proposal? what projects can i think of that will relate to echinoderms (starfish) so that Maria will pick me up? should i just graduate? why don't i do my postgrad up in JCU, Townsville instead? or maybe i could do it in UQ, Brisbane? when should i start applying for an extension for my student visa?

why can't it all just simplify itself through differentiation?!

man...i've been feeling so crummy and grumpy and all things not-cool since coming home from Heron Island. yea...i've got a badbad case of Heron-Island-Withdrawal-Symptoms. everything started on a wrong foot this morning.

i just hate:
1. waking up to a cloudy and un-sunny Sydney-esque sky.
2. not having to scramble to turn off my alarm just so that Sally won't start screaming 'Turn that fucking thing off!'
3. not having to fight for the bathroom just so i can brush my teeth.
4. having to make my own breakfast...Maggie the Cook on Heron always has hot breakkie and a wide selection of cereals and tinned fruits waiting for us.
5. walking to uni with a cold wind blowing!
6. dodging cars and other miscellanous traffic just to get to the other side of the road.

wah...so much vitriol!

sigh. i miss everyone so much! grr. it's tough when you've spent your last 10 days seeing the same faces and building strong bonds and friendships with each other..laughing over the same jokes and antics, mulling over the same photosynthetic problems, freezing till kingdom comes over the same snorkelling projects. it's tough when you've got all that and then have to say goodbye. and the worst is because this field trip was a collaborative effort between USYD, U. of Queensland and James Cook University...most of the people you meet there you will not see again in uni! and the people with whom i've bonded extremely well (and that has surprised me quite a bit as well, seeing as i'm the surly anti-social type) are from UQ and JCU and it's really giving me the shits because i don't think i'll be seeing them again!

WAA-AAAH!

hopefully a week is all i need to recover from this state of madness.

sigh.

and you thought i didn't see you looking.

Winter2007.

apologies for the lack of updates. his winter break has been, by far, the most hectic one out of the three that i've had. it has also been the most fun so i guess that's a fair trade-off. by now you should have been well acquainted with my photos from melbourne considering that they've been up for nearly 2 weeks now. if not, shame on you.

anyway, melbourne was SUPER fun. apart from the occasionally pissy weather, everything was just great. the very thought of not having to spend the winter alone while everyone else was partying it up back in kl was very comforting indeed. and this time, the partying was mostly done at dan's place. thanks again heaps for letting us crash over, dan! also i've discovered i've got quite a knack for poker, winning a $30 pot in a room full of macho guys. sorry la, newbie luck.

3 days after getting home from melbourne, i was off again, this time to Heron Island off the coast of Queensland. the best 10 days of my life. ok...maybe the best 10 days of my life this year (melbourne was my best 7 days, it's different). it's a completely different experience to be reading the lectures at one moment and then associating with them on the field the very next. it's just surreal.

and you know what else is surreal? snorkelling with loggerhead turtles. yup. you'll never know awesome until you accidentally stumble upon a >1m long loggerhead suspended in the water column off the reef crests. it's head was bigger than a football. much bigger.

i love Heron. i miss smelling the salt in the air. i miss staring up into a sky of endless stars. i miss the sound of sand crunching beneath my slippers. i miss the outrageous jokes and stories told in true aussie-fashion by my cabin-mates. i miss the laughs.

argh! it's only been a day!!

okok...picture time.

Lovelovelove
Especially those stolen moments under the stars
and the constellation Scorpio.

Lose Yourself in Melbourne: Pt. 2.

Lose Yourself In Melbourne.