Missing You.

I'll miss the absolutely crazy weather which hails in the midst of a bright and sunny afternoon, rains all through our Great Ocean Road weekend and turns completely sunny the day after, and all its ups and downs - there's no doubt that Melbourne's is really ruled by Mother Nature, PMS and what not. Strange, but I'll miss it.

I'll miss going to Coles in Caulfield Plaza right after class to pick up a few little things for dinner, and end up looking through rows and rows of stuff and buying things the house actually doesn't need. I'll miss knowing where everything is, exactly.

I'll miss walking through Koornang Road, which is five minutes away from my house - all the little shops and cafes. I remember the first time I went there with Serena; we were so awed.

I'll miss just walking to the train station, and taking the Pakenham or Cranbourne line to the city, and getting off at Melbourne Central, and exiting to Swanston Street. Little things like that. I'll miss catching the bus to and fro work. The tram noises.

I'll miss the colourful stuff in Cotton On Body, and Nicole, one of the coolest managers I've had, along with some of the fun girls I've worked with. And obviously, my 30% discount for Cotton On.

I'll miss Krispy Kreme. Sob.

I'll miss running over to Serena's room to share new gossip, settling myself comfortably on her bed and bitching till the cows come home, and her cooking, and how she always walks around the house smelling like Body Shop and looking super comfy in her cute pyjamas, and basically just having her around nearly 24/7.

I'll miss going out in the kitchen to complain and grumble to Yao, and have her hug me, and put her arm around my shoulder and make a silly joke. I'll miss her broad repertoire of expressions that never fail to make all of us laugh.

I'll miss teasing Mel and her laughter and how her face lights up whenever I say that Heroes has completed downloading and her laughter that never ceases to stop and how she always sits in the living room with me watching whatever reality tv show that's on.

I'll miss telling Zhen Han to take out the trash every Thursday night, sometimes more than once, and having him around to kill whatever insect (or mouse) there is in the house, and having him around so that I can ask him to fix whatever computer problem I have.

I'll miss Haruka, the new housemate, even though I've only known her for about less than a month because she's so funny and nice and all of us gelled immediately.

I'll miss Adam sleeping on our couch every Saturday morning and tiptoeing through the living room as to not wake him up.

I'll miss Tricia so badly because only she could've made those crazy four hour lectures bearable, I'll miss spending every single Thursday lunch with her at Uzu without fail, with our sushi and takoyakis. And how we'd always know what the other was going to order, because we're predictable like that. And come on, who else would've came up with McPiya with me?

I'll miss Caryn and doing all sorts of spontaneous, crazy things with her on the spur of the moment. Probably only she would've went "Okay, I'll go with you" after I called her and went "Hey, uh, do you wanna go for the Snow Patrol concert tomorrow?" at 10:30 pm the night before. And nobody else would've been as crazy about footy with me either. :(

I'll miss Vaida, because she's possibly the sweetest Australian I've ever met throughout these months, and how she's always so genuinely interested in whatever I have to say.

I'll miss Jasmine's incredibly contagious laughter and the fact that the both of us can find stupid random things like "Mmm-hmmmm" to be impossibly hilarious.

I'll miss the guys and how we always end up doing the most ridiculous things ever. Like you know, season 1, 2 and all that shit. Lol. And how they can bitch and gossip with the best of us. I will not, however, miss them calling me mak cik -_-"

I'll miss the crazy Tax Law gang/Gold Coast gilas because they made long tax law Wednesdays so bearable, and Gold Coast one of the best holiday experiences in my life - Jo, Alicia and Jiayi. <3 style="color: rgb(102, 204, 204);">adrenaline rushes of hearing tens of thousands of people cheering on their footy team in the MCG, and screaming my lungs hoarse and jumping up and down when my team scores, and humming the Collingwood anthem under my breath randomly, and seeing people in the streets being so hyped up about footy.

I'll miss the daily walks to campus, the routine that's become such a big part of my life. Passing the same old empty plot of land, Evancourt Motel, the Mews, the creepy-looking building, and then the dentist.

I'll miss the courteous drivers who always give way to the pedestrians. And how I always feel so safe walking about.

I'll miss listening to the easy-going Aussie accent, and the "How're you goin'?"s and the "See ya later"s. I'll miss how people are just so freaking friendly and nice over here.

I'll miss the friendly Italian guy at the C&B who always gives me extra pasta and calls me "Luv" and compliments me on my English every single time.

I'll miss this house, and my comfortable room which I've made my own this year. It's looking so empty right now, and so unlike what I've been used to.

I'll miss all the road trips we've been on this year, because it was just all good times. No matter what we did, or where we went. Good times.

I'll miss just walking down the city streets, knowing where all the good shopping spots and restaurants are, and waiting for the little man on the pedestrian light to turn green, before crossing on over to the next street.

I'll miss the comfortable lecture theatres and how I've become so familiar with the Caulfield campus and the really good lecturers here who really talk to you, instead of talk down to you like back home.


I'll miss everything there is to miss about Australia and more, my home sweet home away from home.



But.



I miss my dad eagerly showing me his newest purchases, be it from Tesco, the market, pasar malam or his newest gadget that he probably won't know how to use, and how he always hogs the tv and falls asleep after he gets it, and how his booming laughter fills up the entire room, and how he'd sit in the garden, with his t-shirt obscenely pulled up over his tummy and just weed the afternoon away and come in all sunburnt.

I miss coming home from uni, and complaining to my mother about this and that and how she'd boil me some special bitter healthy special soup when it's that time of the month, and how she still treats me like her little girl when I'm sick, and push my hair behind my ears, which was how she discovered that I had secretly gone out and gotten so many piercings without her permission.

I miss the smell of Tai Kor's perfume, and how he comes home and just sometimes randomly talks to me about the most random stuff ever.

I miss Evelyn and how she's such a sister to me, and a young one at that, one I can talk to about almost anything. I miss how she'd always tease me, and how I'd always tease her back, and how kind and amazing she is.

I miss Yee Kor, and him coming back from work, going "Come here, Wen" and just enveloping me in one of the tightest bear hugs ever.

I miss Yee Soh and her phenomenal mother instinct and her genuine concern and care for me, and how she's like Evelyn, like another sister to me, and how we'd always find something to gossip or chat about, and how she always looks so beautiful and stylish despite being a mother of three.

I miss my darling, awesome sister who treats me like such an adult, yet at the same time pampers me like I was her daughter, and how we'd go out and have girly days together and get our hair done, and go Christmas shopping, and she'd bring me to this and that and ask my opinion on what colour drapes she should get for her new house, and how she just loves me so much.

I miss Kelvin. Strange, but true.

I miss the kids so, so, so badly. Joel, Aaron, Josh, Vanessa and Amelia. I miss them so much, how they'd hug me tightly, and plant a wet sloppy kiss on my cheek, and beg me to play Monopoly with them, and bug me to bring them to the park, and how they'd always fight over the tv with me, and how they just come home from school and tell me about all their little friends and what they did doing recess that day or something like that.

I miss my darling girlfriends and running over to any one of their houses and just talk about anything and everything under the goddamn sun. I miss their nicknames for me, and how we could spend an entire day together just lazing around, doing nothing. I miss having them just understand how I'm feeling, or what I'm going to say. I miss doing crazy things like having girly sleepovers where we discuss boys and never ever sleep, and even when we finally do, we stick Post-Its on Ching and Sukkwan's foreheads before finally forcing ourselves to go to sleep.

I miss teasing Jo Weng and having him listen to me rant about god-knows-what and singing along with him in his little Atos as we zip along the roads of PJ. I miss his vanity and cheesecakes and patience and good-nature.

I miss Nick and our Man Utd talks and might even possibly miss his lame, retarded jokes and how he likes to tease me all the time.

I miss Ming's funny deadpan expressions when he's being sarcastic and how we always threaten him whenever he teases or insults us.

I miss showering Wenxue with sarcastic remarks and teaming up with him in pool and losing remarkably by a huge difference to whoever we're playing against.

I miss the 6 Yakin gang - Sharm, Manda, Karen and Mun Fong - and all their infectious knee-slapping laughter, and nights at the mamak where we try to psycho-analyse people, and playing cards in some restaurant somewhere, and making the most noise possible, and playing Taboo with them.

I miss stupid Pang Wei Soon whom I haven't seen for a year and a half because he comes back in the middle of the year, and probably won't see him for another half year.

I miss Paul and seeing how different he looks last time and reminiscing with him about secondary school days.

I miss blur sotong Andrew and him realising that we've teased him thirty seconds after we're done.

I miss clubbing with the gang.

I miss drinking sessions where we generate enough laughter to wake the whole of friggin' SS2 up and play silly big-fish-small-fish games that can make us giggle the whole night through just because Ming said big-smish.

I miss mamaks, especially Murni's and their specials and Roti Hawaii and Maybank Mamak for their Nasi Lemak Ayam.

I miss the Proton Wira I used to drive, which now my dad says is all mine because he got a new car and doesn't need to hog mine all the time because he "needed it for the market" when we all knew it was his way of just not letting me drive -_-

I miss lugging out my mom's mixer from the cabinet and sifting flour, and measuring ingredients and baking for the family, and having the whole house smell like cookies or cakes and the kids constantly getting into my hair by wanting to help me.

I miss just going to the pasar malam, and taking in all the sights and lights and different smells and stalls.

I miss the Sahara field and basketball nights with the basketball gang.


I miss home.


I have missed everything there is to miss and more about Malaysia, home sweet home.



Either way, I'm going to miss so much.

Life is difficult, no?

December 6th Babies.

Happy 23rd birthday to you, Mr. ex-council-president Lee Ming Hao and honorary chi-mui-in-law! (I think it's 23rd, but oh well, even if I accidentally added a year, nvrm-lah, right? Working men have to be more mature anyway. And it's not a bad thing that I don't know exactly how old you are; it means that I treat you as one of us, as young as we are. :P Okay, enough rubbing it in. Lol.) It was either this picture, or the one of you in a Santa's hat last Christmas, so I was nice and picked this one. Hope you had an amazing day, and an even better year, and promotion after promotion after promotion after promotion so you can give your future wife a good life and her group of best friends amazing Christmas presents every year! Haha. See you very soon, MU matches at mamak, okay?



And happy 20th birthday, Ms. Jasmine Gong, friend who gossiped for two hours with me that other day even though we're in total different continents and who laughed for so so so so long (and I bet loudly -___-") when you found out what my Chinese name was and made for a very interesting and eventful night when you had the encounter with the huge and freaky you-know-what. Lol! Have an amazing day, and a super-fun party! Dont get up to heaps of trouble again. :P I'm going to miss you next year! :(



And on a side note, I'm STILL PACKING. Omg. Yes, ladies and gents, that is exactly how hard it is to pack up 11 months of your life into a ratty old bag that is a generation old, especially when almost half of it is full of presents for my huge family and many friends. *cough*

And She's Alive and Picking Cherries.

Look, I know I promised to be better at the whole blogging thing, but I just seem to have lost the drive to blog. Words don't come as easy as they used to, and they don't string together as easily as they did before either. It was the one thing that I used to do with ease, and the one that felt truly therapeutic besides the sound of music (Shut up, I know you guys are probably saying, "Liar! Shopping is her therapy!". Heh.). Maybe it's the result of sitting in front of my laptop day in and out, using MSN speak. How detrimental to the writer's soul. The lols and omgs come naturally. I don't even read a tenth of what I read at home. Such a shame.

I used to write fictional pieces; little ficlets and long pieces. Poems, plays. Feature articles, interviews, event coverages. I haven't done most of that in a long, long time. I should join the mag team when I get back if Monash Malaysia has one.

The blog was supposed to be my way of connecting with the people back home. To convey that I am indeed, well and alive. Talk about mission: failed. Eep.

Come on blogging bug, give me a bite!

That aside, yes, results came out three days ago, and I am so, so relieved. I expected what I was going to get for some units, and surpassed expectations for the remaining ones, so...go, me. I have successfully conquered Taxation Law (with a lot of sweat and stress and muscles from lugging those bricks they call books to and fro every Wednesday and Thursday) and will never ever EVER have to endure deductibility of expenses, and fringe benefits tax, and franking credits and, oh god, let's not go through the whole list again, shall we? Just one more law unit to go in my degree, and it really can't be over quick enough.

In case you haven't already noticed, law and I? Not good friends.

Jia Yi said, in her blog, that we're now officially third year students. And omg, yes, we are officially third year students. Is that insane or what? I remember sitting for SPM as clear as yesterday. Wait, maybe even clearer than yesterday. All the twelve hour group studies with my best study bud, Chris; sitting on the terrace in between papers with the girlfriends, all the frantic good-lucks and all-the-bests before I begin the long walk down the aisle to my seat which was right in front of the stage.


We actually found time to cam-whore in between SPM papers. Imagine that. Lol.


Taken immediately after our last paper. Smell of freedom, and the beginning to the rest of our lives. And yes, I have heard from others that my eyes are extremely small in this picture. I do not need to hear it again from you and you and you.

Isn't it strange how time zips you by? I'm apparently bordering the end of my teen years, no matter how vehemently I want to deny that fact, more than half way through my degree and yes, that much closer to having to be a full-fledged adult.

Idon'twanttogrowup! *throws tantrum*

Meh, this post was not intended to be a nostalgic-looking-back-at-yester-year post. -____-" I'm still young and immature and childish, dammit. Hah.

Anyway, in between rounds of never-ending gossiping and trying to squeeze the products of my shopping into boxes and bags, we've been trying to complete all the things we said we'd do throughout the year in Melbourne but never got off our lazy laurels to do. The next week is going to be jam-packed with food and sights and must-dos.

Stalactites - which is apparently this fantastic Greek place which has awesome souvlakis on the corner of... erh, was it Lonsdale St and Russell St? I said that I've never heard of it, and Caryn, and later Ian stared at me like I was nuts. So yes, must-try.

Smith St - sporting wear factory outlets, Roxy, Nike, Adidas, the deal.

Chapel St again- window-shopping because I sure as hell can't afford the shops there, and I really want to try that cute American-style diner with booth seats and jukeboxes. Very 60's feeling.

DFO again - whaaaaaaaat? *looks innocent*

Lygon St for the gazillionth time - I refuse to leave Melbourne without a scoop of Roche at Freddo's. :'(

Brunswick - for the chocolate-dipped churros and the most amazing salmon pizza in the world.

St Kilda - the beach, the quaint shops, and apparently a latin festival.

Vic Market - which holds a summer night market on Monday and Wed nights.

Chadstone Shopping Centre - where I've spent so much of my time working and shopping. Sigh. I must go back there one last time.

Grandma Kimchi in Carnegie - I'm going to miss the Korean food here so badly and am going to hunt for a good Korean joint when I get back. The best steamboat, bibimbab and bulgolgi ever. Sigh.

Uzu in Caulfield - Best sushi in Melbourne and where I spent all my Thursday lunches with Joachim in the first sem and with dear Tricia throughout the entire year. Memories and good food.

Christmas in the Park at Malvern Road - Apparently there's this Christmas celebration nearby in Stonnington where they perform Christmas songs in the evening and there's like a carnival, with food and drinks and crafts for sale.

Eep. Have I left anything out? Imagine that, eight (techinically nine, but I'm sure the last day will be frantically spent trying to squeeze in more things into my poor old bag passed down from generations ago) more days and so many things to do! And so many things to eat. :-S


I've actually been doing quite well so far in terms of making the best of my exchange. I've been to places I wanted to go, done things I've never thought I would ever do, experienced a bit of Aussie culture. It's been great. And I'm going to miss this place.

Marked off yet another thing we've been looking forward to doing since the beginning of the year on Saturday - cherry picking!

Mel and I went along with her friend, who was her senior at work during her internship at EY last year. Him, and a humongous bunch of his friends, and a few of Mel's cell group members who came along. The cherry farm, Chappies, is in Dandenong, which is about over an hour's drive from Melbourne.


The cherry orchard flanked by tall pine trees behind.


Ladies and gentlemen, that is what a cherry tree looks like.


Mel, Stephanie and Wei Wen before we left to pick.


The cherry farm.


Yum. We were so excited to see the cherry trees, and almost attacked them. Seriously, picking a cherry fresh off the tree and popping it into your mouth - very fun. And, they were so sweet and juicy.


As you can see, we were very excited to spend a day with the cherries.


Super-cherry-picke-and-lover Mel in action.


Cheery. Cherry.


A branch of cherries. They look a tad like grapes.


That looks...kinda obscene. Heh.


The reddest ones we found, which later we found out the hard way that the redder, the less ripe they actually are.


Oh my family is going to be so, so jealous.


For some reason, this picture makes me feel like I'm in Malaysia. Strange.


Mel and Wei Wen.


:)


Cherries make Wen a happy girl.


A pair of cherries. It reminds me of what you feed your fluff pets with in Facebook. Heh.


Row after row of cherry trees. Heaven.


Don't they look so pretty and juicy?


On the way back from the orchard to the cherry farm reception. Yes, we are very proud of our cherry picking skills.


All cherried out.


The cherries for sale at the reception. Did you guys know that not all cherries are red? There are those yellow ones too. Interesting, eh?


Rows of raspberries. I never knew there were so many types.


Raspberry trees, or rather, bushes.


Raspberries up close. Ehh, give me cherries any day. Raspberries are kinda sour-ish and... hairy.


The famous Pie in the Sky!


The Pie Floater, which is a specialty, and apparently a "Gold Medal Winner". Heh. It's actually a steak pie in pea and bacon soup, topped with mashed potatoes, and was really good. Mmm.


The quaint little shops there.


Cupcakes, but not your yummy butter and frosting cupcakes, but made out of...soap.


Us lazing around on a lazy Saturday evening. Boy, am I gonna miss this.


I still couldn't stop taking pictures after we got home. Our dear cherries. Heh.



See you all very very soon. Loveeee, Wen. :)