We had dinner at Melbourne Hotel, then stayed there for cake and drinks at the bar, moved to a round table nearer the bar, forced Bryan to pass all his money except 10 bucks (2 drinks) to Sophia (new friend!), bobbed our heads for awhile to the tunes of the "concert" outside QPAC's cafe/bar, hanged around Southbank talking about who should take the tent and camp at the park, decided if we should go to Regatta, R.E. (Royal Exchange) or O'Malley's Irish Pub, took the last Citycat to Regatta, stayed at Regatta (RETRO NIGHT!) till they closed, and I walked back home.

Phew. What a night!

:-D :-D :-D

And we all did a jolly good job, the 7 of us. None of us got drunk! :-D

We had Corona, sparkling wine/champagne (I had sparkly with strawberry instead of bubbly), a bottle of wine, tonnes of beer, vodka cranberry, screwdriver, vodka and tequila shots. Before you think I'm an alcoholic, I only had 1 bottle of corona (free from Happy Hour), 2 glasses of wine and sparkly, and a mix. Not much ok. And I only paid for 1 glass of sparkly and my vodka cranberry. I stayed away from the shots. Thank goodness we didn't play pub golf. I'd definitely have lost alright! :P It was hilarious watching Sharlene down her tequila shot. I said, lick salt, down the shot, then bite the lemon slice. She licked the salt from her hand, made a funny face and only downed the shot 10 seconds later, and chewed the whole piece of lemon off! *smack head*

I guess the highlight of the night was when Tomoko and I got hit on by a cop! OMG. A cop (who wasn't even drunk)! He was so persistant though, oh my gosh, even though I told him outright I had a boyfriend. He said "It's ok. He's not here". 0_o Terrible terrible senior detective! Refusing everything else, he finally dropped his name card on the table. Geez!

We also got quite a number of random Aussie dudes come up to us at Regatta. Can see Sophia's "sweat" face every time a guy tries something. HAHA. This guy told me at Regatta "Hey, I'm a distance learning student 25 hours out from Brissy." And then wanted to dance and get me a drink. What the hell. How is that a pick up line. Another one said "I bet you two girls (Lindsey and I) are from China or some part of Asia". Emmmm....we were the only Asians there? Plenty of weird guys tried to dance with us. Esther would laugh at me so so much now. Booo.

At first, we had a great time at Regatta, cos they were playing oldies and old rock songs like Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, YMCA!, etc. Everytime they started playing something catchy, we'd go "Is that a MJ song?" Oh gosh, I think we wanted them to play MJ so so badly. Then it all went downhill from there when they started playing some emo love song about horses or something 0_o Followed by Ice Ice Baby 0_o then Rn'B stuff and Justin Timberlake. Yawn. At that point, Sophia and I left to sit outside at the terrace next to the heater.

It was freezing cold tonight with winds up to 40km/h, and min of 4C (real feel with the wind = 1C, it's in the news). 40km/h! That's the speed of a slow slow ah pek car! Not so fun when it's THAT cold!

And there I was sitting having nice conversations with Bryan, Nick and Sophia (visiting from Malaysia) in a dress and my leather jacket off. It was the funniest thing how the guys want to act macho, but were shivering away sitting right next to the heater.  HAHAHAHA. Male ego. Pfft. In the end, they deduced it was due to my vodka, Russia's best kept secret to stay warm apparently, so they went for vodka shots. Sigh. They don't know me well enough to know that I can wear almost nothing to sleep in Camerons/air con room and still not feel cold. Haha. And hence why I used to get teased so much about being a cold blooded monitor lizard, who can adapt my body temperature to my surroundings.

Okay, I seem to be blabbering about how we drank, our pub crawl and weird guys on the dance floor.

I know it seems "wild" and totally not me, but it really was a very sane outing. I mean of course we had tonnes of crazy fun, but none of us got drunk or did anything silly. I think the guys did more crazy stuff after our brewery tour. And at least all of were still ok enough to walk straight, know that 1986 is the year of the tiger, all the bus routes and numbers to go to the city and indroo, and were smart enough to crash out at Sha's place. They asked me to too, but I said, I just live up the road from Regatta! Which is true. I do live on Sylvan Road. Haha. Quite funny to have a "slumber party" at Sha's then travel back to Toowong tomorrow.

We have also planned to go to Straddie, maybe a camping trip to Moreton (I love friends with tents and sleeping bags) and a barbecue at Roma St Parklands on Monday! Wheee...steaks, seafood, caramelised fruits and wine. =)

All of a sudden, it feels like I can have a lot of fun with friends I haven't seen in ages with very little money! (I spent less than $25 in total today). And we had good food too! I had roasted chicken with spinach, rocket, mushroom pancake and marsala jus dressing (whatever that is). With summer vege and chips as separate side orders. =)

And yes, I think I will forever be stuck with the "planner" job. Google has been my best friend.

It's 3 AM, and I think I''m supposed to go for Paniyiri tomorrow. Wheeeee....I was so tired at the bar, but now I'm wide awake after washing up. Uh oh.

To the person who wrote the message ending with "Guess Who?", HAHA! I recognise your writing alright. Comes from observation from 3 years sitting next to you. And who else would call me all kinds of funny names?

I'm not sure if I have ever thanked you guys formally, so here it goes. Thank you guys for being such wonderful friends, for rushing to the airport and thank you dear yee hou who reached just as I was about to board. Thank you also for remembering what a David Cook nutcase I was/am and I do listen to the Michael Buble deluxe tour edition cds every time I'm stressed out with work or studying.

Yea, nostalgic indeed.

All kinds of memorable, sometimes funny, stuff always turn up when I'm cleaning the room.

I also just realised that for the past few months, my credit card bill says 0.83 AUD. And I also found free Big Pond music download vouchers together with my Telstra bills. Woot woot! (Chanel's favourite exclamation). Not that I know what it is or how to use it.

Oddly, I still can't find the Dreamworld Big Drop photo! Sorry Esther. But at least I've scanned it already! :S I think it might have dropped out from my bag cos the last thing I remember about it was carrying the photo around to uni just in case I bumped into Esther. :S

I spent my whole night calling and e-mailing pictures to families and friends. I haven't been e-mailing recently due to the exams, but it's such a good feeling to be able to keep in touch with everyone again.

::

Another friend recently got married. I am really happy for them.

I guess I've come to that age where people start talking about property, mortgages, home deco, Ikea sales, what the best TV is, marriage, family, cars (no longer sports cars), etc.

In fact, dear Vincent has just asked me "When is Michy getting married? :P "

AHAHAHA. Not yet, not yet. Definitely not yet.

::

(Roma Street Parklands)

That happened to me today.

The bogans have left for good, I get peace and quiet, yet I slept past 4 and woke up by 10am. Thank you, body clock.

So what do I do up so early? Bored, I decided I should get a hair cut!

Did the usual. Wasn't thinking right when I cut the back part first. Like hmm...seems a bit short. It's ok, maybe I'll try a subtle version of my previous hairstyle - the "Rihanna" style which I had before it became oh-so-popular. So the perfectionist in me tried getting straight cut lines, and kept checking in the mirror to make sure it's straight.

That's the biggest flaw. It didn't occur to me that if I tilt me head to cut my hair, it'll obviously be lopsided. HAHAHA.

So, my left side is at a perfect length, but my right side is too short. And no, sadly, I didn't even achieve my straight cuts.

Panicked and for a moment wondered if I should cut my left side shorter too, but refrained myself from doing so cos I know it'll just keep getting worse. Took a long shower to calm down (and steamed the whole bathroom by the time I opened my eyes ), and thought hey, things don't look that bad.

What a day. And it's only 1pm.

I'm waiting for Renee, my hairdresser housemate, to come home and hopefully she'll be able to fix the problem. Otherwise I'll just tie my hair up for the next 2 weeks. Thank goodness for fast-growing hair. I usually cut my hair every month!

It's the hottest day this week, yet I am in. I'm too lazy to go to Chermside, I think I should take a day off getting tanned in the parks (I have a weird tan line now), and I am also a bit embarrassed to go out with weird hair! HAHA!

Lesson learnt. Better have long untidy hair for another week before your hairdresser housemate gives you a free haircut, than go bonkers with a comb and scisscors while ending up with bad hair like me.

Oddly, I find what happened quite hilarious. I've been laughing about it, after the momentary panic. I guess I've had worse hair before. Like the time they needed clay to style/spike my hair up. Oh my gosh.

::

Added stuff:

So, I gathered up enough courage to snip a bit more here and there. And with the help of the trusty Revlon hair straightener, I managed to "fix" things a bit.

Not entirely that bad after all, if you choose to not look carefully and ignore the back :P

It's damn hot outside today, but with strong wind. Too bad I'm too lazy to move from my bed.

It's past 2 AM. When I finally get some peace and quiet, I can't sleep. Just great.

But well, I think I've grown so much since I came here. Just 6 months ago, I'd say without doubt that I would not want to be eating alone or doing anything alone. While I still wouldn't watch a movie alone (I'm dependent on others like that, sadly), I've had a few lunches alone (usually with the laptop or a good book by the lakes in uni) and I've done a lot more things alone. I've realised that although I love my friends (in Brissy, in Malaysia, and everywhere else), having some time to myself can be really relaxing too! It's not all that bad.

Today, I spent a few hours at Anzac Park in Toowong (my suburb). It's a rather huge park, with Brissy's longest flying fox (for kids) and just today, I found a cycle and pedestrian overpass connecting Anzac Park to the Mount Coot-Tha Botanical Gardens and Planetarium. I thought hey, walking there's not that difficult after all! Hiking up to the peak of the hill is a totally different story though. Hehe.

I read my book, did a few Sudoku puzzles (downgraded to level 3 difficulty again after months of not doing any), stalked a few birds for photos, and people-watched.

Awesome colours huh? =)

"Sunday Monday morning, up with the lark;
I think I'll take a walk in the park;
Hey, hey, hey, it's a beautiful day".

I sat on a little "hill", under a huge pine tree.

To my right, was this tiny lake with some water birds, which I think were ducks? I can't be quite sure though, like how the black birds in the UQ lakes look like ducks but aren't ducks. Confooosing indeed.

Looking up, I saw pine tree branches. And there was this noisy kookaburra which sat above me for a brief period. I was quite afraid that I'd get pooped on though. =p

Front view, blue sky and the day-time moon! =)

I love cloudless days.

I started getting bored after reading 3 chapters, so I fiddled around with my camera.

I felt like I haven't been using my S5 much in recent times.

I almost got hit by this falling pine nut. It's huge. :S Thankfully it fell onto my shoulder instead.

Fortunately, I remembered to pack my hoodie though. Cos it got so windy after that!

Geez, they sure are noisy! And they swoop down at the first sight of food!

My raisins weren't laku though. Phew.

I thought this fella here, the furball, was simply adorable! So chubby and furry!

Knowing how Trinity loves girly pink stuff and rock music, I gave her a set of Hello Kitty stickers with some other stuff for her birthday. And look what happened to my room window when I got back this afternoon. 0_o

It's a cute thing to do, but now I have more than half a dozen cats in pink staring back at me if I lift up my blinds, instead of the view of the balcony and our cute male neighbours. HAHA.

::

Two down (South Bank Parklands yesterday and Anzac Park today), the list of parks left to go to (some for the first time, some not) : Roma Street Parklands, Brisbane Botanical Gardens next to QUT, New Farm Park, Mount Coot-Tha Botanical Gardens with the biosphere and planetarium.

If the good weather continues, I might head to Roma tomorrow. =) If I get too lazy, I'll stay in. Haha. Money spent today: probably less than $5. I had mac n' cheese for brunch, raisins and a yoghurt bar in the park, orange juice and toast when I got back, and leftover butter chicken with rice for dinner. And oh, a kiwi. Not using the ATM at all since last Monday when I had to pay rent is a good sign that I'm within my budget. Whee.

John Grogan, from Marley and Me

::

I cried during the sad scenes, and I don't usually cry during movies. =(

::

I had a very chilled out day.

I sat on the deck of the CityCat to South Bank, then sat on the grass near some buskers who didn't exactly do the best rendition of Jason Mraz's songs (at least they got the beat right), soaking up the sun in my summer dress, reading my book. :-D It was the PERFECT day to be out in the park. I didn't bother looking for a place on the beach, waaay too many tourists around. Hello Melbourne and Sydney people! Oh yes, you can tell if you're observant enough. :P

Was quite engrossed with my book, when a collie walked in front of me and stopped. :-D And then a husky came by. Haha. I love good days at the park! I'm thinking of going to a park again tomorrow if the weather's just as awesome. The Salwa and Ishlah came with churros with chocolate and cream. Yum stuff.

I saw this picture on ourbrisbane.com, taken at one of the parks in Brissy. I love the colours, and the dog's simply adorable.

We couldn't get a ticket for Hangover at the South Bank cinemas, so we had quite an adventure going around (but not within) the city before we reached Myer Centre cinema. Hangover was great! A seriously funny movie for the times you just want to laugh and not use your brain. Remember the weird doctor from Knocked Up? That Chinese guy is super funny in this show. Laughed like mad, and you know it's a good show when the whole cinema laughs and says eww together.

Then we headed to La Dolce Vita for early dinner. I wasn't hungry, so we shared a plate of grilled baby octopus, prawns and calamari with (eww) bitter rocket leaves and roma tomatoes, plus a plate of the most awesomed trout I've had thus far. It had to be good stuff by the price Ishlah paid. :P And oh, my favourite hot chocolate with marshmallows! It's so frothy that the marshmallows stay afloat, and even when pushed down, it floats up again! =) We were trying really hard to lick as much chocolate as possible left at the bottom of the glass. Haha. 3.50 AUD. Worth every buck. Our aim's to try the Italian hot choc the next time. In total I paid about 11 bucks for dinner. Not bad at all. I saved by having brunch at home, my housemates cooked bacon and eggs, plus I had soup and 3 slices of toast. :-D

I was gonna say Greetings from Paris, but that is just plain lame. Haha!

::

Well, tomorrow's a Monday already. Wow. Almost a week gone just like that. And it's getting colder again. The day was just beautiful, but oh, once the sun set at 5-ish, it got cold and windy. I'm really glad that the wool tights my parents got me are so warm that I didn't feel the chill at all, wearing just a summer dress and my leather jacket. Good stuff indeed, considering they cost something like RM5.

I have a couple of books to read, and I'm gonna borrow Coraline from the library this week. Plus more series and movies. I don't know what happened to my travel plan. I guess they've all been put on a hold because being on holiday really isn't cheap! We're really hoping plan Straddie for next weekend works out.

Uber unhealthy. And pathetic, considering I've got a month's break to explore and travel.

::

I don't even know how I've been spending my time! I only sleep 8-9 hours a day, I've only gone out twice, I haven't replied Gervin's mail with pictures, I have hardly read my books, I've yet to catch up on Master Chef, I haven't been watching Mind Your Language, and I've only watched one movie.

So really, I have no inkling as to where my time disappeared to. Haha.

After a week of warmth, the cold snap is back starting this weekend. Bye bye 20's°C. Just when we thought of going to Straddie this weekend.

Funnily enough, I'm thinking of heading to the South Bank park to do some reading and people watching till the afternoon movie session of "Hangover". How I'm always out, even in the cold, was probably how I caught a cold in the first place! But I think a big reason is having people with runny nose living with me! Thankfully, my runny nose is as good as gone (except for the occassional sniffles early morning when I wake up). So, that means I don't have to take that drowsy meds anymore! Hooray!

And then in the evening, Sal, Ishlah and I (Ahhh....two thirds Bruneian - looks like I've joined the Bruneian gang haha) have been in the mood for some live music. So, we'll probably go to Plough Inn Tavern at South Bank or somewhere around with a band playing.

On Thursday, we've tentatively planned to go for the MJ Tribute at the Globe Theatre at the Valley. 6 bucks entry fees will be going to the Heart Foundation. I think it's great that some good is coming from this.

::

Still no news from my job hunt. Le sigh. Doesn't Maccas even want to hire me? =( Is my CV that horrible. I guess I should've worked last summer break so that I least have so work experience to put on my CV. It's a demoralising feeling, but I'm trying not to think about it. Worse comes to worst, nah, I shan't think about that.

::

And because I've been living such a mundane life recently, I have no pictures to put up.