rawrrr. i don’t mean to whinge (i am, after all flying off in a few days) but going on a holiday can be quite a bitch sometimes because i always end up with SO MUCH to do in the week leading up to my departure. there’s all these rushing around at work to get some experiments done, handing over stuff, making sure mice won’t die, making sure cells get fed, making sure making sure making sure. then of course, i overslept this morning because i somehow managed to set my alarm for 6pm instead of 6am and arrived at work with diarrhea. i dragged my tired bum to training after work and couldn’t stop mumbling “omg i’m going to die, omg i’m going to die” and the only reason why i didn’t drop my weights halfway through was that i knew it would fall on my toes. broken toes not very good for holidays. or high heeled shoes. my outfit for my cousin’s wedding is complete now that i’ve got high enough shoes for my long dress. it does not pay to be short! like literally does not pay. i have to spend more on high heeled shoes.

i can’t wait for my break, can you tell? before that happens, i need to clean the house, do tons of laundry, pack, buy stuff that i need to bring with me, clean the house. REALLY clean the house.

oh and i should go look for my passport.

hang in there, sueewong!

we decided on a spontaneous trip to sydney because…

1) we wanted to just go somewhere but didn’t have much time (or money) 2) i gave sof a virginblue voucher last christmas and it’s expiring soon. we had to use it to go somewhere! 3) i’ve been dying to climb the harbour bridge for a while now 4) v’s leaving sydney for good next week so we better climb the bridge together before that happens!

it felt as if we spent 48 hours eating and shopping. let me explain…

we arrived on thursday night (our journey there was SO stressful no thanks to bad traffic in melbourne cbd which resulted in a VERY late airport bus pickup. we were late for our check-in but we were lucky they let us through). because v was out with her dental friends (celebrating!), sof and i had dinner and took advantage of late night shopping. we then went to passionflower for not one but TWO ROUNDS of ice cream. hit the spot after round two though. haha!

we then woke up bright and early on friday to conquer our mountain.

the sun was out (but not too hot!), there was a lovely breeze and because it was a nice clear day, the views from up there were MAGNIFICENT. you actually feel pretty secure up there so even acrophobics can do this, i reckon.

to undo all the good work from climbing the bridge, we had lunch at guylian cafe. yes, CHOCOLATE for lunch. chocolate should be considered a food group. i used to really love those chocolate seashells when i was young. wonder why i stopped eating them.

so we started ordering and this is the classic baked chocolate cake…

mmm.. looks good right?

…

WRONG. it was NOT good. >: ( and i was so unsatisfied because i figured that if i was going to splurge and consume a truckload of calories, it better be on something GOOD. i abandoned this cake and decided to order a second round of cakes. (are you starting to see a trend here?!)

MUCH better.

so what could make a chocolate lunch even better…? we decided to get a massage.

so luxurious…right?

WRONG. (again. somehow we just couldn’t get things right this trip) it was the weirdest massage ever – i felt like she was polishing my body for 1.5 hours. i got so bored, i almost told her to just stop and let me go shopping instead. meh.

but dinner was a win (thank goodness). we headed back to the rocks for a meal at belgian beer cafe. om nom nom.

AND! i went dancing on friday night. i can’t remember the last time i went dancing and i’ve missed it! dancing was tres fun and i can’t wait to paint the town red (and pink and purple) with the cousins next week.

i went for a run the next morning through sydney city and hyde park and then undid all my good work from dancing and running at brunch. haha. oh my. i had a plate of awesome at clipper’s cafe, glebe. after which we headed to the glebe market where i bought EIGHT TANK TOPS. hey, had to keep up with the eating and shopping theme, no?

(sorta appropriate to have a murphy’s law poster on the wall)

well, the first thing i did when i stormed through my apartment door was to jump on the scales. amazingly, i did not put on weight from all the chocolate. but that was seriously too much crap for 48 hours and i still don’t feel very good from eating so much. i think i should be good for the next week or so because i’m GOING HOME NEXT WEEK.

omg.

I’M GOING HOME NEXT WEEK!

!!!!!

more pictures can be found on my flickr

i am SO tired but because i am so blogging this

…

we survived the sydney harbour bridge climb yesterday!

(pardon the unattractive first picture because i was all gross and sweaty from the climb!)

i haven’t had much sleep, flew into melbourne to make it just in time for my boss’ christmas party at his place and am feeling like i am going to crash any minute now. will be back with more glorious pictures (new camera!) but i better go get some sleep if i want to run, go to church, have brunch AND go shopping (for a new formal dress because my mum accidentally spoiled mine!) all in one sunday.

toodles!

i feel like i can see every. single. pore. on my face with this camera. and yes, that’s doll. doll was the first thing i took on my new camera. haha.

i’ve been toying (haha, i’m so funny) with the idea of getting a new camera for a long time. while my redhot sony t100 has served me well in the past couple of years (and a little more), i thought it was time to move on to something that would take slimmer shots of me nicer pictures.

i’ve held off buying one because i could NOT decide what i wanted. i REAAALLY wanted a digital SLR but i had some issues with getting one because 1) i’d then have to invest in lens and all the little accessories which would ADD UP financially 2) i could not even be sure that i would not just neglect it after 2 weeks. you know…get sick of it or something. which gave me the idea of buying a semi-pro “transition” camera. and 3) it won’t fit into my handbag! (hey, a girl’s got to think about such things). i also really wanted a new compact point-and-shoot camera. but i could not have both (well, i guess i could but i’d be pretty broke) so i did not get one until…

now!

i bought myself a canon powershot s90 at lunch time today (haha, i should have just spent money on sushi or something). which i’ve been told is the closest thing to a DSLR i can get… in the size of a compact point-and-shoot! it can take pictures in RAW format and has all the manual functions so that i can fiddle. not that i know how to but i’ll figure that out soon… right? (can someone give me a crash course? i’m too lazy to read the manual.)

yum, yum, YUM! the battery is charging now and i can’t wait to play with it. i’ll be heading up to sydney (spontaneous trip!) on thursday to climb the harbour bridge. i hope i can get some nice pictures! then i’ll be truly ready for my holiday which is fast approaching. (2 weeks, 2 weeks!) it’s really bad but i’m already in a holiday mood.

on a slightly unrelated note: i was quite prepared to get the camera from michael’s camera store because i was served by a really nice, patient and helpful man over the weekend. but he told me to go back on a weekday to speak to a lady so that i could get a better deal and that was what i did. the only problem? i ended up getting served by a rude man who made me feel as if he was doing me a favor. so i left and decided to give my business to another shop even if it might cost me a little more. SERVICE is SO important! especially when it’s really competitive! 

…catches no worm. it’s all a lie. whoever told you that probably was sore about being sleep deprived.

i was having one of those really strange days.

today is santa fun run day.

but… santa fun run did not happen.  SO DISAPPOINTING. there’s a women’s run in 2 weeks and i think i might just sign up for that. grr.

it all started… last night. it rained. and it did not stop this morning. i also dreamed that we did not do the run because melvin cut his foot and was hobbling away on crutches. maybe i’m slightly telepathic since we really did not run… but don’t worry, last i checked, melvin’s foot is safe.

by the time i found out it was cancelled, i was already up and ready to go – in full running gear. i even made myself a decent breakfast. soo i thought i’d visit the market bright and early and get all my groceries out of the way. but when i went down to the market… IT WAS NOT OPEN YET. have you ever heard of anyone who goes to a market TOO EARLY??? seriously??

so i decided to change out of my running gear and put on some decent clothes so that i could attend the earlier church service for once. but since i haven’t gotten my work out for the day, i brought my gear with me so that i could visit the gym after my service. but when i went to the gym… IT WAS NOT OPEN YET. again?! i was 10 minutes too early. argh!

by the time i was done with body pump, i thought i deserved a nice brunch or something to bring cheer to a gloomy rainy day. i walked down to  brother baba budan which i’ve been dying to try for the longest time just to find that…

yes wait for it…

you know it’s coming…

it is closed on sundays.

…

…

…..

i ended my day with new moon which i absolutely could not sit through properly. ask me if you want to know, i can’t be bothered to think more about it right now. i should just go to bed.

amazingly, i’m in a better mood than i thought i would be. haha.

…and so I fiddle with my phone. I’ve tried everything for the past 3.5 hours but I am still up.

I don’t usually have trouble getting to bed AT ALL because I would be pooped after going to the gym and lying in bed would be the best feeling ever.

But!

I have a brand new 50g bag of French Earl grey loose leaves expiring in December and I brought it to work in an attempt to finish it up before then. I’ve been drinking out of a tumbler ALL day and that must be the stupidest thing to do considering I don’t handle caffeine well. Someone once asked me how I can do a PhD without coffee.. Haha. Oh and it was probably unwise to have that chai after dinner too..

Doh.

It does NOT help that ALL I can think about right now is that apple crumble from the uni’s food co op (I seriously love that stuff and I have to totally avoid the uni altogether because I have zero willpower around that thing) because I’m starvinggggggggg.

I can’t wait for breakfast.

But first I got to sleep. Ohhh.. I’m going to be SO grumpy in the morning. TGIF.

i have blisters on my feet because i spent the whole day walking. i REALLY wanted to go shopping so i headed to harbourtown in docklands and it’s very embarrassing but i have to admit it was my… first time. after spending an afternoon there, i wondered why i haven’t spent MORE time there. well, guess who’s heading back to harbourtown soon.

i really like shopping alone (or with the mother because she buys me stuff lol) and i am very curious to know how people who shop alone decide whether they want to get an item or not. i mean, there are some things that are dead easy – you come out of the fitting room, you look amazing/skinny/insertanothervainadjectivehere and you’ve GOT TO HAVE IT. but what about those that you are just not too sure about…you look at yourself in the fitting room’s mirror, the bigger mirror outside the fitting room, you tip toe (to imagine how it’d look with heels), you go closer to the mirror, walk further away from the mirror, you tilt your head in an angle (i never noticed this but my mum says i ALWAYS do this when i come out of the fitting room)….

what do you do when you’ve got no one to ask does my bum look big in this?!

what i usually do is snap a picture of myself on my phone and then decide whether i like it in the photo or not. there’s no science behind it, it’s just how i do it. another rule i go by is to NEVER buy clothes above size ‘x’ …i’m not hung up about size because clothes size vary from shop to shop but trust me, this rule has saved me A LOT of money because i’d give myself a mini pep talk that goes something like… “this looks great but you’d feel shit because it’s 2 sizes above size ‘x’ and you’d keep thinking and obsessing about it and…..” kaching! $80 bucks saved! haha.

if you look through my iphone, you would find tons of photos that look like….

so how do you do it??

p/s: i bought it.

]]> http://oracle.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/shopping-alone/feed/ 0 oracle photo (1) http://oracle.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/what-drives-you/ http://oracle.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/what-drives-you/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:34:30 +0000 *su http://oracle.wordpress.com/?p=3133 ]]>

alright, this is veryy exciting news.

well, it’s quite evident that i’ve been into the whole health and fitness thing for a while now. recently, i’ve also started training with a personal trainer about 3x a week. it’s great because i feel like i work super hard when i’m training with him but it also got me thinking how good it would be if i could just train myself. after all, i have pretty good knowledge from doing all those research in my own time and i have a solid science background which is a bonus when it comes to physiology and anatomy. i started to think about how much money i would save!

i’ve also been thinking a lot about passion and my heart’s desire because i can’t just keep whinging about how much i do not like research work in the lab…and yet not do anything positive/constructive about my situation. to cut a long story short, i started coming up with tons of ideas and figured that perhaps, if i can find something that i can spend A LOT of time and effort without considering it as ‘work’, i’m probably on the right track.

i started seriously considering taking up a nutrition and/or personal trainer course part time to feed myself (because i felt like my intense dislike for my phd was sucking the life out of me) and thankfully, i have extremely supportive parents (emotionally AND financially!) and friends that did NOT laugh at me when i told them about my crazy idea…they have all encouraged me instead! ♥

of course, i also felt like i had to spend more time thinking about it because i didn’t want to take up something and then quit half way (i have a slight ADD problem i think haha!) – that would be soo bad for my head, i think. i would feel like such a failure! not to mention the amount of money i’d waste….i had to question myself – how committed can i be? will i lose interest in this halfway? will i have time? etc.

last week, i went ahead to make an appointment with a consultant from the australian institute of fitness which…i felt was quite unnecessary because i was more or less ready to just. do. it. anyway, i was sold by the end of our little meeting and i paid a deposit. (!!!) i haven’t really said much to anyone till today because i paid in full today and i guess there’s no turning back now! set in stone, baby!

soo.. i’ll be taking a web-based/part time course and i’m allowed up to a year to complete it but apparently, it usually takes only 3-4 months if i am willing to spend about 10 hours a week studying.  by the end of it, i’d have a cert III and cert IV in fitness, be a institute certified master trainer (they claim it makes me better than the rest, but i suspect it’s just a marketing thing haha) and the great thing is i’d also be internationally qualified which means i can potentially train in singapore.

the scary thing is that they want to dump you in the deep water right from the beginning. there’s an ‘industry fair’ at the beginning of next month and i can meet people from the different gyms and get employed as a student PT. (why would anyone trust me? lol) i’m slightly apprehensive with the whole meeting-new-people thing because i think i’m a bit of a social idiot but bun made a good point – think about all the beefcakes i’d get to meet. HAHA.

i’m just waiting for the coach to call me sometime soon to get me all ‘enrolled’ and started….i still can’t believe i’m reaalllyyy doing this!

be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals. – james naismith

i’ve had a countdown timer on my igoogle homepage for the longest time. the latest countdown is, obviously, the number of days till i go on holiday. today i saw a little button below the countdown that says “fun facts” and i’m not sure why i haven’t noticed it before.

amongst many, these are some of my favourite fun facts:

(yes, ‘Home!’ was what i entered into the timer)

27 days until Home!

your fingernails will grow 2.64mm before Home!

your body will produce 4547026 blood cells before Home!

79 meals until Home!

so fun! haha.