Ski trip

I got the pictures from Tim (yay!), and here's some of them, which ought to make this blog look more lively and colourful. A long overdue post.

In the train. Reflections in the window.

We set off from Flinders St. Station at 6.24 a.m. to Pakenham Station, where we have to take a bus from there to Warragul. Uncle Roy would pick us up from Warragul Station to Yarragon at around 9-ish.

One of many beautiful views on the looong ride up to Mount Baw Baw. Can't really see from here, but that's actually a really beautiful lake in the background - it's a spectacular view.

Blue skies with wide expanses of green, green fields were a common scenery.

Just arrived! Here we are, before...

...and after all the hassle of renting our equipment, deciding to ski or go snowboarding, getting our gear and clothes...

The snowboarders: Grace, Adrian, Yon How

The skiers: Tim, me, Calvin, Zoe

Snow, snow, snow!

Here I am! Somewhere near the top.

Blue sky, white snow. And that's Calvin's scarf.

Snowball fight!!

Skiers done for the day!

The snowboarders were still at it. The boots were really killing my feet (and Zoe's as well!) at this point in time! And... I think I really ought to get contact lenses, especially for events like this. My specs almost got killed during this ski trip.

Dinner!

The delicious food prepared by Aunt Ann. It was almost impossible to finish all that food - and dessert was truffle, which is the best. Thinking about Aunt Ann's dessert makes me wish I could have it now...

L-R: Zoe, Grace, Cal, me, Yon, Adrian and Tim
One final shot before leaving.

A herd of cows/buffaloes were watching us from the farm beside us. I thought they were buffaloes at first, because they were all black - I mean, they looked like buffaloes, so when one of them moo-ed, I asked the others, "Are they cows or buffaloes?", a question which was promptly met with laughter and exclamations of, "Connie, you are so blur!" and other sentences along the lines of me being blur.

But it seemed strange to me that if they were cows, why were they segregated like that? (I mean, by colour.) It seemed a bit unfair to me. And I still don't know if they are cows or buffaloes!! What sounds do buffaloes make anyway?? Maybe I'm just being weird.

Or maybe I am blur after all.

*
Anyway, I have to go study now. No, I'm not being a nerd. I have a test tomorrow!!

Signing out!

Ski and snow!

My arms and legs are aching all over. I just came back from a ski trip over the weekend to Mount Baw Baw, which is about an hour-plus journey from Melbourne. Went with a few other people from OCF. I'll post up pictures when I get them!

It was my first time experiencing snow!

I had my first snowball fight. (Being targeted at most of the time was not part of my plan, though. Lol.)

I ski-ed for the first time. (Well, I tried my best! ...With lots of falling down.)

I wished I could have stayed longer.. We stayed with Aunt Ann and Uncle Roy, through arrangements with a brother in OCF who had connections with them. Aunt Ann is from Sabah, but she's been here for 37 years..! And guess what, she lived in Seria!

The food was amazing as well. Aunt Ann can really cook! The countryside was beautiful, and the scenery absolutely gorgeous. It always feels so depressing coming back to the city after spending time in the country. Already I miss the peace, quiet and pristine country life.

Shall post more about it next time when I actually get pictures, so you guys won't have to keep looking at lines and lines of boring white text.

It's Monday again tomorrow... Time flies, and it's already week 5 of the semester. 7 more weeks left.

Catharsis

At the edge of the cliff, she took a deep breath and yelled, releasing pent-up emotions which had been accumulating for the past few weeks. Over and over again, she shouted into the air, the faceless wind carrying away her repressed feelings and fears.

She sank to the ground, exhausted. But the heaviness, the overwhelming feeling, was gone - replaced now, by a sense of restoration and refreshment; and together with it, a glimmer of hope for the future.





Bleh.

Rumination

It's been a year since Jerry and I started Opposite Corners of the World. Not that it's a big deal. Hopefully (?) more years to come (?), especially in the wake of recent blog-closings and decisions to close blogs. (It doesn't sound that bad, really.) Seeing that Jerry has gone MIA - again - this blog has literally become my blog instead of our blog. But anyway, for the sake of the interested people (if there is even anyone left who still reads this blog), we officially entered the blogsphere on the 4th of August, 2005.

It's too early for countdowns, but for lack of better subjects to post about, it is approximately less than five months before I find myself back in the hot and humid 'Land of Unexpected Treasures'. Ong Chi told me that apparently last week, The Age, one of Australia's national newspapers, featured an article on Brunei in their Saturday edition! I didn't catch it, but yeah, they were highlighting all the main attractions in Brunei, and it seems that there is another Brunei tourism promotion thing in 2008? Hm.



This is a capture from a video taken at my house, late November back in 2004. I can't remember who took the video. It was just the kittens playing with their mom's tail. (Yes, I can't believe I still have the video - I must have uploaded it to my laptop when I bought it the following year.)

Things have changed since then. The cats are gone. There's only the dog left (despite being very fierce, he's a really good guard dog - and I hope he still recognizes me when I return home (!) or I risk being attacked - seriously).

The pool is gone as well. When I left in late February this year, the workers were already chipping away at the edge of the pool. The wooden ledge thing at the side had already been taken away. I don't know how that area of my home looks like anymore; probably been a few months now, but I didn't ask my sister about it till last week, although I had been meaning to find out about it months ago. Apparently, it's just a garden now, often visited by birds. My sister used to throw barley seeds, but she stopped, and she said that the maid (a new one whom I have not even met yet) continued throwing rice for them after that. Probably lucky we don't have cats now! They used to love catching birds... I've seen a few of the unlucky victims, and it's not a pleasant sight!

There were a few reasons why my dad decided to demolish the pool, among which included the fact that it was under-used. When my family first moved into this house in 2000, my siblings, especially my sister, used to swim and play in it everyday. There were a few pool parties (usually mine, my brother's or my sister's), the most memorable being my sixteenth birthday. Where it was once a novelty, it just became part of the house after awhile.. I feel almost sad, really.

Probably may come as a surprise to most of you... I don't think I mentioned it at all before I left. There'll be no more pool parties again. My house is just like any other house now. Hahaha.

On other matters, I don't know what to expect when I return to Brunei in December.

But this is where my ruminations for the day end.

A Rabbit's Life III

It's routine, as usual.

Just sitting here at the table, in front of my laptop, typing this now, looking forward to the weekend, and hoping to get some work done over the weekend as well.

I've been idling my time away here, when the faint, familiar, and undeniably recognizable sounds coaxed gently and skilfully from strings, floated from somewhere outside my room, reaching my ears. At first, I thought, Nah, it can't be. But the almost haunting melody persisted. I could almost see the graceful bowings, the fingers stretching and nimble, pressing on the appropriate places on the fingerboard. I muted the random music playing from Winamp and went to my window and strained to listen for that almost fairy-like music, which hid itself among the other sounds of the city night and apartment life.

Someone is playing the violin, somewhere in the rooms above my floor.

For a moment, I reflected on the past gone by, when I took up the violin for about a year, before I gave up, mainly out of laziness. I admit, I didn't invest as much time as I should have. I did not put in much effort into practicing regularly. For me, it was just ... cool to take up a new instrument, and knowing the basics was good enough for me.

But for that moment, I almost wish I hadn't stopped. I kind of miss playing it sometimes. And I would love to take it up again sometime in the future.

And for a moment, I try to grasp the wisps of music coming into my room. I can almost envision myself living in 17th century Venice, experiencing Music as we move from the Renaissance to the Baroque period..

(The last sentence is kind of related to what I'm studying now in Baroque & Classical Music. Lol. Oops. Maybe a sign that I need to get my head out of the books and relax over the weekend. =P)

The Green Man/The Thing

Before I head to bed, just thought I'll do a random update.


Firstly, yes, I know I look very different now; probably a bit different, even if you compare pre-Brunei (when I left Brunei back in February) and now. Yep, for some reason, my hair is "curlier". But Ern (that's one mention!) and I both agree that I should lay off straightened hair in the future. Lol. And yeah, keep the fringe, too. But how about the new specs?

Second, Ern is now (that's 2!) officially The Green Man a.k.a. The Alien. You may call him The Thing, if you want to, as well. I shall explain another time. (The "tribute" post will probably come later, Ern - and that's 3 times =P).

Thirdly, I have an early class tomorrow, so I can't spend too long here now.

Fourthly, Ern (4 times!! =D), I was just joking when I was *choking/chortling/laughing* just now. Honestly, you don't look THAT bad. You look... normal, actually. I don't know what reaction you were hoping to get out of me, actually. Hahaha.

I am so very tempted to put up that picture along with this post...


In other news, I went to the OCF Ball on Saturday night. It was basically a fund-raising event for OCF Convention at the end of the year in December. It was a great night... and I will try to put up some pictures of the whole glitz and glamour once I snitch those pictures off the other people (I seriously need a camera!!).

Workload is heavier, as I have mentioned before, this semester. I've been putting a lot more effort into longer practice hours as well, and I'm quite happy about that - but not enough. Need time management, planning, etc. etc.

I don't want to do this, I promised myself I wouldn't, but I have to: Jerry Wong!!! I don't think I need to say more, do I??

By the way, Ern, hope these are enough mentions for you. =P And there ARE more to come.

Heh.

9-teen

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.

Gosh.

Esther, a fellow sister in my CG (cell group), told me that this is my final year in the "10's"; I'll be joining the "2's" next year. It's almost scary - I can't believe I'm - we - are approaching our twenties soon. It seems too fast suddenly. To think that when I was younger, I couldn't wait to grow up - and now that I've hit this - this number called nineteen, I wish I can remain young forever. Come to think of it, why was it that we wanted to "grow up" back when we were still young 'uns, carefree and innocent? Lol.

My CG gave me a not-so-surprise dinner party on Monday night. (It's quite obvious when your CG leader decides to organize a CG dinner on the night before your actual birthday!) Originally, we were supposed to go to this Korean restaurant, but apparently most restaurants are closed on Mondays (beginning of week = not much business), and we went to this Japanese restaurant called Yamato instead. It's pretty pricey, but the food's quite good.

Let's see... there were pictures (you can see a few posted up by my CG leader at our CG blog here), a blackforest chocolate cake from Brunetti, and a gift - my very first perfume. Lol. (There's a picture of me posing with it at the CG blog.)

Amidst it all, thanks for all the SMSes and emails. I really, really appreciate it... And I know that you guys probably think I'm silly for saying this, but seriously, it's nice to be remembered, though I'm miles away, across the oceans and continents.

On the actual day itself, I went KTV-ing with some people from OCF, together with Mei Sun, who shared the same birthday, except that she's a year older. It was pretty good, and we all sang our hearts out - we sang mostly Chinese songs. (Yay! Lol.)

Despite it all, I still miss celebrating my birthday at home. Home with family, and with friends... But I still thank God, for all His blessings. I don't feel as homesick as I did last year, and I think I'm actually a bit more comfortable here in Melbourne. (Perth is still great, though!) Maybe I've kind of adapted to living by myself.


Anyway, Jerry, you will be 19 soon enough, so don't start calling me old!! 20 September is coming... =P


Second semester's a busier time. The number of contact hours I have per week isn't all that different from first semester, but my workload is a bit heavier - with a Music History subject, I have to do a lot of reading and listening to music by all these Baroque and Classical composers. I'm putting more effort into spending longer practice hours as well. But I don't think you want to hear - I mean, read - about the monotonous school life I am leading. Lol.

Anyway, Jerry, those are nice pictures! What was the occasion? You didn't explain in your post... I think. Or maybe I didn't read it properly. Haha.

Till the next time I update - take care, people, and to you guys back home, all the best for your exams. =)


love,
con.