Quodlibet

Leiotrichous----> Having straight hair. I have explanations for this hiatus. But whatever it is, I'M NOT DEAD. Neither is this blog. MUahaah.

Well firstly, I would really apologise to those who have actually made the effort to read this page, as well as pester me for updating it... I haven't exactly started the semester off in the most spectacular fashion. In simple terms, I'm single now. Should've announced that a month ago though. I've also been discovering myself and evaluating myself constantly, what I did wrong, what I haven't done right, and it's all about living on our own and growing up I guess. Just gotta take it one step at a time. Of course my love life hasn't been the only thing bothering me from blogging. I've been training desperately hard for the IH basketball team and table tennis team(more drama there) and I've been making new friends(or at least I try) with the 2nd semester freshers, they're so funny to laugh with and laugh at you know. Part of the blame also has to go to random half-hour periods spent on Minesweeper(my record's 184 seconds now), Freecell(12 game streak), Sonic 3(finished in a day), and Pokemon Crystal(I still can't beat Ash dammit).
So long, good memories.

Right. Now that I have cleared the air and dusted the cobwebs a bit, let's start updating from mid-July, my last post. Waiting for someone isn't easy. Especially when you're waiting for an answer, a conversation even. I was introduced to a song quite a while ago "Slow dancing in a burning room" by John Mayer. The name speaks for itself really, and I was wrong to overlook the little things when you jump too soon into a relationship. I used to think that all I have to do is look for that "X-factor" in a girl, make sure she doesn't have any "don'ts", and make the effort to work around or work out the 99% difference between us. I suppose it would only work if both sides make the effort. Otherwise your relationship would really have a problem. And when the ship starts sinking, you really just wanna make it as gentle as possible, and all people can really tell you is "I know it must be hard for you" or "Just give it time" and I know real friends don't do that.

In the process of sitting, wishing and waiting, I started to re-evaluate myself as well as my friends, who would really stick up for me or pester me when I pretend that everything's alright. I found that, you really can find true friends in the most unexpected places. I find it quite irritating sometimes that some people just expect you to be okay and when something happens, they panic and start blaming other people around me for shit that happens to me. I suppose that's himan reaction really, coz they don't have anything else to estimate how well you are, or what's wrong with you. It would be nice though, to have people come up to me and just say how are you and mean it, instead of just expecting a "fine". I've been told before that it's a culture to ask "how are you" as a greeting. That's one of Australia's cultures, I have found hard to get used to. It's like everytime someone asks me "How are you?", I actually stopped for 3 seconds and think about it, and I notice that people just tune off you've come up with an answer. Pretty funny really, watching their reactions when you answer and they just stay dumbfounded.

Anyway bottom line is, I've learnt my lesson yet again; However I am the type of person that keeps my feelings in a drawer. Relationships to me are special; I like having the attraction feeling around when that person enters the room, makes life a lot easier to go along. Of course my commitments wouldn't go to that person la. It's amazing how you realise your mistakes only when you make them. That's the way life works I suppose.

On the brighter note of things, I have been really thinking about growing up. I've been asked before "If you can't grow up in terms of handling a relationship like this, how do you suppose you can grow up?" Sounds a bit harsh I know, but if you think about it, I've got a long, long way to go to grow up. I've always thought that being "grown up" enough meant that you can live on their own, do their own thing, and they always had they "mature presence" whenever they're around, like they're the ones that can handle things when things go wrong. I always wanted to be like that. However, there have been a lot of similiar "traits" that could be mistaken as mature, such as knowledgeable, independent, sensitive, or "emotional control". If only life were that simple. It was only recently that I realised that being mature isn't just all that. I've been told since young many many times that "I wasn't good enough to do this" or "You're not gonna make it", and I always took it as a challenge head on, coz for one, you learn from your mistakes when you fall anyway, so might as well make them when you're young, and you can almost always depend on your parents to help if something really goes wrong. You get that sense of "guidance" that the thing you're doing is beyond your scope, and you always feel like learning, you know. In the end, it comes down to how much you wanna learn all the time. Being mature is somewhat(at least to me it is somewhat like) like being in charge of the situation when something comes up, to have initiative and be able to handle the consequences if you fail. I don't mean like you take it up coz no one else wants to, like Liz's sister's boyfriend in Shaun of the Dead when zombies started taking over. It's almost like, you love having responsibility coz you want to do something adn be responsible. Shit I'm going in circles now, better stop there, hopefully you and I get what I mean.

You know ever since coming to Australia, I've always been aware of the "cultural difference" that existed between where I'm from and everything outside Malaysia. I've been exposed to so many different people, and hence so many different things you'll learn everyday from whoever you meet (especially when you're living in IH). For example, slurping your coffee is REALLY REALLY annoying to most people in Australia, I just figured out during studying period =P and you can actually "hook up" with someone like, randomly at the bar without having a relationship with them after that night. Wonder what's that like. I've been also reaching out myself, gone to a Sunday mass ONCE, and prayer meetings several times, just for the fun of it. I've met so many new people, who have really opened my eyes (and I can guarantee you I'm not copying this from some sample essay). So many different people to learn from, so many different people to appreciate, but quite unfortunately a lot of different people to tolerate also la haha. Some people just has such different opinions compared to yours, that you really have to watch what you are saying, otherwise people would get the wrong impression (Yes, what Russell Peters said is true). I've learnt that most Christians here aren't like most Christians in Malaysia where they don't really open up to you unless you're Christian as well, and all their parents just wanna convert you, here it's so different, it's more like they treat Christianity as a super fun club (not literally of course) and they are really devoted to their God at the same time.

"Press this button and you will see God naked" - On the pedestrian light opposite Trinity College

That's a projected movie from a computer, onto a BUILDING. It was shown from the opposite building's 3rd floor, how cool is that, everyone just lies down on the grass and watches the movie.

Speaking on getting used to stuff, mom and dad were right about Melbourne weather. You really can get 4 seasons in a day, and as a results, you get beautiful flowers as well...

Wonderful winter flowers

Speaking of learning, I am learning how to cook "well, sort of". For my self help program in IH, I helped the chef make choc log cake for 100 ppl, and then the next week I marinated potatoes for dinner that night.

So creamy, bloody hell.

My reward for the effort : Moon cake, so rare, yummmmm

I also managed to travel to a few suburbs when I was in Melbourne. For those who don't know, a suburb such as Brighton as compared to Melbourne city, is like PJ compared to KL. And I can tell you, the traffic system in Melbourne is probably heaps better than KL, but a lot more complicated coz of the existence of TRAMS on the same level of traffic on the road. It's really convenient for the public really, coz you can just hop on and hop off at the next stop and it saves you quite a lot of time, PLUS it's cheaper than a cab... Also the Melbourne city is actually a grid, where streets in the city centre look like the patterns on a waffle, unlike KL where the roads look like spaghetti...

Random lion dance at North Court, Union House, celebrating Festival of Nations, although most of the food was Malaysian =( Had some pretty good Taro cake though.

One thing you also notice in Aus is that the graffiti is BEAUTIFUL. And I'm not talking about the random signatures on walls that look like capellini, I'm referring to this:

Awesome pokemon graffiti near one of the suburbs

The graffiti stretched that long, can you imagine how long these fellas took to come up with this?

And of course, there's the food. My mom introduced Pavlova to me when I came back to Malaysia in July, and it was quite good...

Some things have to be appreciated, especially when they're made so pretty.

Right this post is getting long enough, so I'll leave you with Australia's best street name :


See you next post.