我终于回家了。

五个月的旅行。
四个季节的变化。
三个不平凡的朋友。
两个人的独处。
一个人的寂寞。

好怀念异国的风光，那里可称得上是世外桃源吧。远离城市的喧闹，拥有自己的空间，顿时间也让我忘却了自我。本想这次的离开不会有太多的变化，但事实又何尝如我所愿。世界本来就不会因为某一个人而停止转动。我想是吧。Everyone has moved on.

我曾以为如果肯努力，总有一天会得到应有的回报。但事实又并非如此，我错了吗？

就因为失败过，所以害怕。发现我开始失去我原有的自信。也许一开始就不该让我拥有过，这样我就不会知道失去是什么感觉。

好希望自己能放开胸怀。

exams. blues. subway. yum. library. 11pm. hell's kitchen. worries. south island. new zealand. job offers. acceptance. sleep. laid back. slack. laze. halloween. 小宇. home. singapore. holidays. bubble tea. life.

random pieces of thoughts have been floating in my head. can't concentrate. too much time on hand. desperately seeking to fill my emptiness with something. can't seem to find it. i search for it. but still it seems empty. why.

Had my virgin subway today! Was totally yum. Have to admit i wasn't exactly looking forward to the first bite. But was simply too lazy to even cook dinner, decided i might as well give the super saver subway a chance. Turned out to be quite alright.

Strategic management paper tomorrow. I'm neither prepared for it, nor bothered to prepare anyway. finally got acquainted with my heck care attitude today. can't say i really like that attitude. feels weird to slack.

just feel like doing one thing now.

突然有一股冲动。

大家都说爱情让人失去理智，我坚持不相信。

可是在不知不觉中，我似乎渐渐的失去那强悍的自己。

或许是寂寞，还是人心就是如此的脆弱。

我向往幸福，我想你也是吧。

幸福的瞬间，我体会到了。

虽然短暂，它确实存在过。

谢谢。

Is change the only constant? Will things change after i return? I don't wanna think about it. Because i already know the answer.

i miss home.

i miss my friends.

i miss playing touch.

i miss local food.

i miss the hustle and buzz of the city.

i miss 37-2-700.

i miss people calling me ah bah or chen chou chou.

i miss chionging for exams.

i miss pasta mania.

i miss channel 8.

crap. the list is too long. my extended holiday is coming to an end. will i miss u...

Decided to update my blog after neglecting it for a couple of weeks. Must admit I'm not exactly da best at posting updates haha. Life after Melby seems to just breeze past. And it really feels like yesterday that i touched down at melbourne's airport. And that sticky date pudding's taste is still lingering in my mouth. Time really flies.

Well, I've wished 2 sisters happy birthday and welcomed them to joining the ranks of 21; been to a super duper yum sushi party; went island hopping with a german guy plus watched Evan Almighty today! Did i mention i got hooked onto Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. So yea, great. think i'm about to become a channel 5 fan. Amidst all these, of course there were tons and tons of rugby. Guess chun was right, it's da year of the springboks.

As usual, I'll post up da pictures from the awesome activities mentioned above later. haha. lazy to put in further details, sorry folks. And manda u're right, i'm seriously crap at blogging and updating. no more blogs after i return.





HOME-MADE SUSHI! Seriously sushi isn't that hard to make, I tried making some too! =)






OK, i know i have double chin and look fat in this photo. but please don't stare at it for too long...




Waiheke island (supposedly to be land where the rich stay...)

Finally had time to blog about my extension in Melbourne with 2 of my dearest squaddys! It's been a long time since i used that term 'squaddys' hah but i know it wouldn't ever sound foreign to me. wow. thinking back it has been 7 odd years since we known each other. not a decade but hey, nearly almost there.

Anyway i had the most enjoyable time at Melbourne with them. Although we didn't do anything spectacular like great ocean road or philip island, the very joy of being with them warms my heart. Sometimes i'll wonder if there's a necessity to do such extravagant stuff if the simple day-to-days are sufficient to be reminded of that moment. A quick recap of what we did, home-cooked meals at shan's place (which includes mee sua, steak, agio olio, baked mussels...) and of course our expensive meal at georgio's where i finally got a taste of that STICKY DATE pudding, with lygon street coming in a near second in terms of food variety and taste. I miss the 5 dollars coffee and cake. makes 1 fat but simply -YUM- oh yea, did i mention the ever so delicious PEKING duck at Old Kingdom? -YUM YUM-

Although my 5 days stay in Melbourne was short, it certainly was well spent. Besides checking out Melbourne University (which i was blown away by how nice da campus was), we explored the docklands, shopped at smith street, watched dvds, and of course: groceries shopping at queen victoria market. Basically not at all touristy but i like. for the very fact that it was so real. maybe traveling isn't all about visiting attractions but really just experiencing what's the culture and life like out there...

Yeah, the greatest take away from this whole trip was i got to meet up with my long time primary school friend which i lost contact with. Although i was a little apprehensive about meeting up with her, we managed to catch up over tea. And boy, it is seriously THAT good to be able to meet up with friends you've lost touch with.

Memories of my stay...

At a railway station



At Docklands...



5 dollars coffee and cake




Amy and me =)



Last night at shan's apartment...

HOHOHO. I'm in MELBOURNE! down-under (not sure if that's the way i should be using it, but HECK) Met up with my family and did a road trip around Melbourne for the past 6 days. Short and sharp, the feeling was just so good to be with them again. I thought i wouldn't miss them, but the truth is - man i really missed them. If anyone asked me how was the trip? My answer would be great, but really I think it didn't matter where we went or what we saw. It's the company that matters to me. And a big THANK YOU! to all for your birthday wishes. I GOT THEM! -RECEIVED- even in Melbourne. Esp to people back home, Lyd, xy, manda, toi, cheng, hong ying, adrian, lian, woo, yt, shan, april, ivy and the list goes on... apologies if i missed any =) Though this isn't really the 21st birthday party i imagined it to be, but still it's all good. Really appreciate my family for flying all the way here from home and i wanna tell them i love them =)

About the trip, haha. I'll just put in a few pictures which will more or less explain it all.



My family and I celebrating my 21st



Check out the koalas at Philip Island!




Kangaroos at a golf course!




And of course, the mighty 12 APOSTLES!

Whatipu beach is really a beautiful beach. When you said that it's nicer than Piha beach, honestly I didn't really believe. But having seen it with my own eyes, it's really one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen.

Luckily the weather was holding up fine when we set out to the beach. I think a picture speaks a thousand words. Guess I shall stop describing but post a few pictures here. Warning: What you see may look fake, but it's REAL!!! haha...

That's me! (looks like a postcard though)






Check out the sand colour. IT'S BLACK!!!



Natural mussels growing on a rock. FREE MUSSELS!

Well, what happened after da wonderful beach outing wasn't as smooth-sailing. Had a tyre puncture, luckily we met 2 kind-hearted Samaritans who helped us to fix up the wheels. And after that we went for authentic Malaysian food. It was BAGUS! I had wan tat hor... tastes like the one at ah fang... man i miss ah fang and 179 and ext food. Craving for sambal stingray and curry fish head...

I'm back. Did a road trip to Rotorua which is a town just south of Auckland city. It took us a good 3.5 hour drive in order to get to the little town which is famous for its geothermal parks and hot springs. Not forgetting to mention Rotorua's rich Maori culture.

On the trip with me were 3 other Singaporeans. haha, Dave and Pauline are the cutest couple whom I've met. Reminds me a little of Qixun and Meizhen. Okie nvm, yea and Jack drove. After checking in the backpackers, we went for a sumptuous THAI DINNER. oh the name of the restaurant's pretty corny. it's called "The Thai Restaurant" literally. oh well, does seem to lack a little creativity. We ordered hmm, green curry veggie, chili fried fish, sambal sotong and of cos, tom yam soup. didn't manage to take any pictures cos' we really gobbled up the food. guess we must have really been super duper hungry. HAHA. funny thing is that my friends requested for the extreme thai hotness (the restaurant allowed customers to choose from a range of hotness to cater to different people) and I couldn't even taste any chili. yea, guess u guys would probably know how 'hot' the dishes were. oh wells. we're in kiwi-land. cannot complain.

Well, and that's really the best part of the trip. what happened the next day was totally crap. We were trying to decide which hot spring to go to cos' there were really a few to choose from in Rotorua. In the end Dave suggested going to a few hot spring which was on an offbeat road further south. Will it's kinda free cos' it's a nature bush walk and all of us thought it should be pretty cool to go to a real natural spa. The place was beautiful too. Close to nature, quiet and everything. Well, we did spend probably an hour in the hot spring. And just when we decided to leave the place, a person who was there told us our car had been broken into. And yea, that's probably the biggest spoiler of the whole trip.

The only word to describe the incident - suay.

I actually went to yum cha and eat 麻辣火锅 last weekend. HAHA. ok, kinda spent a bomb, but who cares. To satisfy my craving, anything is worth it. Hmm one regret though, forgot to take a picture of the food. *MUST have been too hungry*

And before that I went to 1 3 hill. Okie wrong, should be one tree hill. There used to be a tree on the hill top, but somehow the nz government sorta chopped off the tree for reasons due to (I'm not really sure though). Managed to take a couple of pictures. The view was panoramic. Oh and again I saw sheep! and cows. Toi u're right, haha 牛西兰的乳牛跟新加坡的人口一样多！ They were roaming freely on the fields. But too bad we had to leave early cos' of the steamboat date.




Yeap, my weekend was completed with trips to the beaches at north shore. Went to Brown Bay, and Long Bay. Really liked Long Bay. Will definitely go back there another day. Didn't take photos because the weather didn't hold up. But that's a nice place to relax and reflect. I'm starting to think if I were to settle down here what would I be doing. Sounds kinda mad, because I don't think I'll settle here though.

Hi peeps at home! How are you guys doing? Hope everyone's getting on fine. I'm missing everyone back home already. Feels kinda weird not being at late night talk cock sessions, suppers, gossips, squad gatherings, movie sessions with my fav sistas!