Isn't it..

Isn't it interesting how you always find something to do when you got actually more important things to be doing, but you just don't want to do it?

Just like how i am blogging now, when i have a test tmr.

Isn't it interesting how you dont like something but yet get it unknowingly?

Just like how i dont adore olives but walked into Brumby's getting a sundried tomato and olives twist.

Isn't it interesting how you cant find something you are desperately looking for, but then when you don't really need it, it miraculously reappears?

Just like my student card a few days ago, which disappeared, only to reappear again.

Isn't it interesting how some little things just make your day?

Just like how i always find money when i pack my room.. Whether its 5 cents or 10 bucks.. Maybe this shows how absent minded i can get, but its an incentive, no doubt to pack my room!

On a sadder note of things,

It isnt interesting to find out a friend you really trust is not all that truthful to you, when trust is a super important element of any relationship it may be.

And more so, dismissing this untruthfulness, only to be faced by several more untruthful occasions.

You start thinking, what kind of a friend is this?

Also, since young, I am sure you must have experienced at least one situation where by you get told a secret and the person goes, "Don't tell anybody k?" I used to think this was only common in children, but sometimes it gets tiring to keep hearing that, even now, cos you might actually accidentally let things slip out of your mouth, when you can tell A and not B, that kind of thing? More so, growing up, people start getting intelligent, and sharper, not as naive as 3 year olds. What if all along you have been untruthful to a particular friend, when that same friend knows the actual truth? But she just doesnt want to expose or target your story which differs from the truth? Back to keeping secrets, I acknowledge the fact that everyone keeps secrets. Even i do, and I am also guilty of saying things like, "Dont tell anybody k? kind of sentences. Its decreasing though. Cos I dont really like it sometimes. Like how a friend is really unhappy, tells you about it, but then says that magic sentence, and with you fuming as well, you cant do anything to help your friend for example? How about being a victim whereby you dont get told a secret? And everyone else around you knows? Who can actually define whether you are priviledged enough to know of this secret not meant to be told to anybody else? Within a group of friends, is there a ranking system whereby the higher ranks can be told? Where is the cut off point? If there really is, what is the true definition of a friend?

Ok, I know there are best, good, so-so friends and acquaintances. So it might seem accurate to say the best friends would be first to know, followed by good friends. And maybe so-so friends get left out and acquaintances? Not even in the picture. I realise a friend you treat as a good friend, might not consider you as a good friend. Its a truth difficult to accept at times, a situation difficult to handle. Different standards of friends, back stabbing of friends, good friends, bad friends or even having no friends.

To the socially active people out there, how many true friends do you actually have? A proverb once wrote, If you die having 5 close friends around you, you die a fortunate person. Friends come and go, throughout our lives. Our good friends stay, and genuine friends can be felt from the heart. Sincerity is a thing that cannot be faked or imposed. Its so genuine and pure. Dont be a hypocrite.

My sister and mother have few good friends to boast about. Although numbers are few, they are not eager in increasing this number much. What would the number mean? Nothing. THe quality of the friendship which they share with their friends is something which surpasses maybe having ten times the number of ok friends for example.

As for me, i have a few really good friends. Really thank God for them. As much as i treasure their friendship, i hope they feel the same too. Most of them, I hardly even know what they are doing this very minute and second. Yet, they are friends I can really talk to, share my problems and joys with. Friends I havent seen in a few years but still hold them closely to my heart?

Friendships are as complex as any relationship present. Human interpersonal relationships are something which need the hearts, minds and souls of 2 to maintain. Never easy to gain, maintain and develop. Never without ups and downs. Never without joys and sorrows.

Hmm, sometimes i think ignorance is bliss and Silence is golden?

Isn't it interesting how i set out to write a short blog but yet it turned out not to be so?

"My friends are few but the number is just a number.
10 or 100 is just a number, like pipes to a plumber.
Always consider the quality, not the quantity.
No matter what, treat your friends well and true,
Support them when in need,
Stay by their sides when they bleed."

happy me

May 28th, exactly a week since I last wrote in my blog. I have been checking it regularly actually, although I havent added an entry in it. Today is a really interesting day actually, I started my volunteering at St John of God hospital! Coincidentally, they placed me into the gynaecology ward and I was really excited to start my day there! When i finally reached the ward, I was introduced to the nurse manager and she showed me around, a really quick introduction to the ward and then told me to just go around! The nurses were all really busy, but they were really friendly people. Most of them, at least.

I realised I didn't really like closed doors actually. YOu really never know what to expect behind that closed door! Like how i knocked and opened the door a few times to see that the patient was busy with few other people in the room, or imagine what went through my mind, when i knocked and saw a male patient. I had an impression that all patients were female in this particular ward. Or, how about knocking and then walking in when the patient is breast feeding her baby. Amongst the surprises I encountered, I think I watered about 10 or more bouquets of flowers today! The nurse manager was right, many patients needed help with them, and its these small details which I though wouldnt matter, but they did.

What else did i do today? Helped in the patient transfers from 4th to 5th floor, carried their bags and pushed trolleys, gave out lunch trays and collected them, made beds! Even making a bed had its own procedure. A nurse asked me, do you know how to make hospital fold? I was like... No? I walked around the small ward hundreds of times, other than that, cos I forgot which rooms I knocked on already. Most doors were closed! This other guy thought I was korean too. Met a few nurses and they were nice and helpful!

Glad that I managed to be of some help!

Another interesting thing happened today, my cousin fetched me after volunteering and we went for lunch! You must be thinking that that's nothing interesting? To me, it really is, cos I am not close to this cousin since young, and this is just the 2nd time I am meeting him since he came Perth beginning of the year! Lunch was really good, we talked quite a bit, and most importantly, there was no signs of foreign-ness, or quiet moments. Is that why they say blood is thicker than water? Not sure! But I certainly enjoyed lunch at Saigon!

He is cooking dinner for me tomorrow, going to his place at 6pm! Forsee a sumptuous meal tomorrow! Before that, pizza for dinner tonight!

Jamie says that I always sound like I am having fun! To many of us, this sem has just basically flown by, too quick for me actually! And its true, really many fun mooments!

Time to shift a gear up and study!!!!!!!!!

Nonya Kueh Cheryl brought! 

Cheryl and I, in my room! I really miss the MG days! 

My Foundation Friends! Clockwise: Starting from the bday girl Jillian, Justina, Kaiting, Me! Keith, Desmond and Fuiwen.  

Some pictures to share!

Let me tell you all more about the photos below!

The plate of nonya Kueh -

Cheryl contributed the plate of kueh for jason's party! The plate of kueh is half-eaten. Could barely eat anymore. The whole day was super fun and filled with eating! It was jillian's 19th birthday and we celebrated it early for her, actual date being on thursday. Had dim sum in the morning, my first in Perth this year! I think we ordered about 2 serves of most stuff we liked and then when we reached the cake and bubble tea, i think many of us were exploding! Jillian managed to finish a quarter of her cake, well done! Did a little walking after that in Chinatown and rushed off to Uni for a mahjong competition. Hahaa. I wasnt playing, just observing!

Cheryl joined us in Jason's chocolate party today! She came over at my place around 7pm and we (Jasmine, Jason, Luhui, Tun, Michael, Cheryl and I) headed of to Nando's for dinner. Its interesting how Singapore doesn't have Nando's but Malaysia has. The night was made more interesting when Cheryl guessed that Michael was from River Valley and Luhui was from SJI, RiverValley or Chinese High. When in fact, both of them are from ACS, typical Acs boys. 4 of us shared 2 mixed platters (1 extra hot, 1 mild) and large peri peri chips. The night was really still young actually, as Jason's chocolate party was scheduled for 1030pm. I had a girly talk with Cheryl in my room after, which felt so close to heart, considering we havent spoken like that in ages. And yet, i was still able to tell her so much, filling in the gaps of our lives where we didnt speak/contact each other much. This friendship of ours, is just simply amazing in this way. Had a game of badminton and then watched the FA cup final where my team Man United lost in penalties!!! Jason made great Magarita and Kahlua, really nice.

Back to the girly talk, while waiting for her cousin to pick her up, I started talking to Cheryl again in my room, till about 4am i think. Pretty tired and drained by then. I spoke so much my throat felt dry. But yet, time just flew by.

Oh yes. I havent experienced such an adrenalin rush before in my life i think. This morning when I awoke at 0924 hr, my heart raced and I jumped out of bed. I was due at the volunteering place at 0930 hr. It was too late to say I am not going and I was going to be really late. I dashed out of my house literally and half jogged cum walk there. I was 15 mins late then. A few people were sitting down waiting for tea by then. Felt really bad making them wait.

Had a meeting with the landlord toO! Finally got down to the nitty gritty of things, settled most of them! Dome is really good too. Had iced mocha and a danish as well! Shin's affogatto and Lash's flat white would undoubtedly keep them up tonight! Finally back to the comfortable surroundings of my room, a quiet Sunday, a lazy one too. Nothing in particular to rush for today, besides getting back on track with my hay-wired studying. Back to reality, where 1 week of fun has just passed and the countdown timer to exams is still ticking away.

As people always say, no one knows what tomorrow will bring, enjoy each day to its fullest and life will be fulfilling as such. What will tomorrow be like? One filled with surprises or not? One thing's for sure, tomorrow will be right here, whether you like it or not!

The Lone Soul.

All of a sudden feeling pretty out of sorts. It can't be a lack of sleep, trust me, I think I have adequate, compared to the people around me, who are at most not sleeping. Or as 1 person might say, sleep does not exist in his dictionary. I slept from 7pm - 5am this morning. The feeling of waking up, without the setting of an alarm clock, where you sleep till you can't sleep anymore was fabulous. However, at this moment in time, guilt accompanies the sensational feeling by just looking at the pile of work I left behind, before I decided to creep under the blanket for a short snuggle. Blame it on the weather.

The weather has been absolutely PRo- sleeping this week. Rainy days, cool winds,thunderstorms. You don't want to leave home and its cold so you want to go under the blanket. I honestly hope my holiday wont be totally in this kind of weather. Cant see much stuff this way, how about skiing??

Back to being out of sorts, feeling rather lost and aimless now. I will figure all this out soon. I might even be back up to being perky after typing this entry. I just returned from my GP actually. I was filled with enthusiasm for today's session, eager to learn and make mistakes, knowing that it does not really matter. Seeing my patient tomorrow, not very prepared for it though. Supposed to know the milestones of a baby's development by 3pm when I decide the developmental phase of my patient. He is just 3 months old! Really cute baby boy.

Not sure whats wrong with me. Feel like heading back to bed, dreaming and being oblivious to everything around me. That sounds absolutely great.

Just also wanted to mention 2 people I have come to know about only this week. Really old news by now. But, ignorant me just found it out.
Terri Vo, the little 10 yr old Perth boy who lost 2 hands and 1 leg when he slam dunked in his garage and his whole bball ring and bricks came crashing down onto him on Easter friday. 18 medical workers managed to reattach his hands and foot actually, but his foot muscles died, so they amputated his leg and he has a prosthetic foot now. His courage, calmness and cheerfulness are extraordinary for a 10 yr old boy. I admire his character, to not fall down in times of need, to be just so brave, not even crying when he saw that his hands and foot were gone. He can walk now!! This is even more remarkable, considering that he can't use crutches because of his hands, and the prosthetic leg was just fitted!

Next, Ian Rosenberger. Survivor Palau 3rd last person voted off. He is actually strong competition to the winner, who was his greatest allie, together with Kathy who got 2nd. However, Ian chose to jump off a little buoy where they had to balance on barefooted in the ocean after 12 hrs in the immunity challenge, to win back the respect and friendship of Kathy and Tom who he almost betrayed during the game. He said, friendship means more to him than 1 Million dollars. Kathy had already given up after 5 hrs in the challenge. He told Tom, "I have a solution to this. If you will bring Kathy to the final 2 with you, I will jump off now. This is a deal." And he did. Some people say he is silly and doesn't know how to play survivor and all. To me, however, it just shows what kind of a person he really is. A really loyal friend and I respect what he did.

Another piece of random information, Roland Garros is starting soon! Its the French Open - Tennis Grand Slam. It starts from May 23rd - June 5th! Really excited about it, cos Justine Henin Hardenne, my favourite tennis player is playing really great ever since she returned! She is also a hot favourite to lift the trophy! Oh yes, her name is pronounced: zhoo-STEEN-EN-ah ar-DEN.

Oh no. I think I hear the rain again. Back to bed?

The Photo Below!

Well, meant to post this a long time ago, but i just received it last night! Think we all look so uniform, its great! Just that.. what is that reflection at my head! =(
This was the theme red we had!!!

Theme Red! 

Different order, different reality.

I know i just posted an entry minutes ago, but I just read Shin's blog and she had this japanese name generator entry. Tried it out, and was unsure of whether I should put my first name or last name first.. So i tried both out.

Ever since I came to Perth, I have been accustomed to write my name as Su-yen Tan because of first name first then last name. So I put my name as Tan Su-yen and my japanese name turned out to be 秋本 Akimoto (autumn book) 恵津子 Etsuko (given child).
See, that doesnt sound too bad, you can even call it nice. Hee =)
However, the other way turned out to be 猿渡 Saruwatari (monkey on a crossing bridge) 三千代 Michiyo (three thousand generations). Hmm.

I think i still suit Tan Su-yen better.

Then there are other random name generators I have yet to try.

Thoughts

How often do you feel a warm hearted feeling, doing something that meant little to you?
How often do you get a stranger telling you that she prayed to God, and then you arrived?
How often do you stretch out your hand and the lady holds it saying, "This is such a nice, firm hand?"
How often do you serve a cup of tea to a lady, and she smiles saying, "This is the nicest cup of tea I have ever had?"
How often do you hear a lady you see for the first time, say ,"I love my daughter so so much, and I love you too?"
How often do you hear one say, "You bring joy to the elderly, just by talking to them and make them feel less lonely."

I feel so blessed to receive these compliments from the very kind ladies down at the senior citizens village. These keeps me going, there is just so little I can do, and so much more I can try to do, and hope to do. Although I only manage to see a couple of ladies a week, it is great to know I relieve them of their loneliness for that short amount of time I spend with them. This experience is simply satisfying.

ALL THE FOOD WE COOKED SO FAR! YUMMY?? 

Food, o glorious food.

Just stepped home from a day of eating!! Sigh. Friday the 13th today was excellent. Cheryl, my secondary school friend came to visit me today! REally happy. She came to my house at 840 am, thinking i had a lecture at 9am, which i was supposed to, just that it got cancelled and i only found out the night before, and didnt tell her. So, she came really early, and Shin came over to make pancakes for brekkie! We made our own pancakes, and had chocolate sauce or jam on it, i think it tasted pretty good! So, that was my first meal of the day right.. Oh yar, the only bad thing that happened today, was that I dropped an egg onto the floor, despite me telling Shin to dont let the egg drop.. haha.. She might whack me if she reads this, cos the egg was rolling to disaster as i said it, and went to attend to the door, and in actual fact she was not free to stop the egg from rolling away.. And she helped clean the mess up.. OH well, but I did tell her to watch it heehee.. so for now, aiyah SHin, why did u waste my egg!!

So Cheryl came, we had pancakes for breakfast, then I brought her to lectures and then a walk around UWA, and we took photos around Uni together! Then I brought her to an AGM before heading off to Subiaco for lunch! We had kebabs for lunch, told her we should share it so she could try different food, so we shared an Alto's Special Kebab, followed by Gelare waffle with 1 scoop of tiramisu ice cream, by which I felt rather full.. And I didn't know NIke factory outlet shifted, so she didnt manage to buy any Nike stuff today.. So after 2 markets, we took a train to Perth, and guess what! She felt like eating sausage and chips, so we shared.. and had a drink as well.. Really full. PLus, she passed me a Jesters Pie to take home, which I actually just ate. Sigh. Happy and full!

Her cousin fetched me home, and there was a major traffic jam back cos the freeway was flooded, a main pipe burst i think. The normal 10 mins drive back took us an hour i think! Seeing Cheryl today was just great. The last time I saw her was 2 years ago! Really wish I can see her again before she leaves on the 27th. haha..

Oh yes! I forgot to mention what an excellent day it was yesterday! It was first my mum's bday, I had an excellent GP visit, lunch with luhui then i found my new housemate and i think i sold my bed (which would have given me one more headache trying to sell it)!!! Only con was, played 5 mins of tennis before it started raining! Guess you gain something and lose something! The plan of moving out is just proceeding too smoothly, it sort of feels spooky. LIke finding a housemate 1.5 hrs after putting up the poster? What good luck is that! Finding out in the same morning that the guy who is moving into my room can shift in a week earlier? Even better news! hahaa.. I am so happy today and overjoyed from yesterday. So full now, a good sleep would just round up friday the 13th.

Been a while..

Been 9 days since i last blog i think.. Just had another cooking session, the 10th this year. It has been really great that everyone has been different, filled with anticipation about how the food will turn out, thinking of different variety to serve and a different atmosphere and crowd. More importantly, they have been pretty fun till now! Although grocery shopping has become like a routine, like how we go to the same places in the same order and buy the same things most of the time, this same order has been different on the different occasions, i guess. Shin mentioned it might be getting too routine, but i feel that like life, somethings are better done in order, being routine. Hmm. I think i have difficulty expressing myself now, maybe one of you will understand what I mean, maybe not.

So what did Shin and I dish up today? The menu included Yong Tau Foo, Chwee Kueh, Egg tarts, Teriyaki chicken kebabs and the unforgettable birthday cake we baked for amanda. Amanda turned 19 on thursday actually, but we decided to celebrate it today, cos we had a mid sem on tuesday, and we simply would not be able to manage the cooking for a dinner. Why unforgettable? Baking the cake took place last night actually. Shin and I attempted to create a Mint ice cream brownie cake. Surprisngly, we found a recipe for it, which requested for a brownie mix as an ingredient. We decided to start from scratch for the brownie as well. The result? A brownie so sticky and chewy, and on freezing, 3 words best describe it - Hard Like Rock. Even the birthday girl could not cut it! (Cos we had to freeze the brownie after putting mint ice cream on top - we made the mint ice cream from vanilla ice cream!)

It was funny how 4-5 guys tried to cut the rock we baked, which was actually NOT THAT BAD! =) The egg tarts were not too bad, considering I like to eat egg tarts! It feels really great being able to cook something you used to buy outside cos you think you never can make them? Kudos to Shin, my cooking kaki for the egg tart dough and being such a great partner in the kitchen!

I was pleasantly surprised by how everyone generally responded to my spontaneous idea regarding Amanda's birthday present! We were mostly in the city yesterday shopping for it! Cos i only told them about it on thursday night.. You guys were great! =)

So, as you can see, each cooking session is different, different in many good ways, and enables to learn from each one. The different dishes, good atmosphere, different settings, and most importantly, the same cooking kaki involved - this combination has been simply superb thus far.