random is good.

The advertisement in the 20^th century is full of astonishing elements.

I was in my university’s toilet when I came across this notice..

LOL. The advertisement was even accompanied by a poem..?

And, a mixed of languages?

This hilarious fella must be an Indo guy.

The adver just makes me keep thinking of it...

wheeee

ps: i'm feeling better. thanks to all my lovely friends..

Attempt no. 1

Let’s forget about the misery

And move to..

.FOOD section!.

Attached is a photo of spaghetti which Irene prepared last weekend. Simply easy to prepare yet appetizing!

going solo?

Let me share something useful for my fellow readers, especially GIRLS.

And yes I mean you. You. YOU.

Jo Lamble - Going solo

Oct 22 11:13am

Whether you're single or your partner's unavailable, going to a wedding or party alone can be very daunting. Here's how to get through the event without feeling awkward:

■ Keep the anticipation in check

Worrying too far in advance won't help. Remember, the anticipation of something scary is usually worse than the event itself.

■ Warn the hosts beforehand

If the hosts know you'll be on your own, they can make an effort to help you feel comfortable by introducing you to the other guests.

■ Wear something that makes you feel really good

Now's not the time to test out a new style. Bring out the trusty little black dress or the outfit that always pulls the compliments.

■ Plan topics of conversation

When we're feeling nervous, small talk can be difficult. So, on your way to the party, think of a few interesting stories you could tell and a couple of good questions to ask other guests.

■ Consider your arrival time

The idea is to not draw too much attention to yourself. If it's a large gathering, arriving half an hour late should ensure the party's well under way. If it's a dinner party, don't be more than 10 minutes late or you'll certainly be noticed.

■ Limit your alcohol intake

A glass or two of champagne can help to ease your nerves, but four or five glasses can be a disaster when combined with anxiety.

■ Help the hosts

A really good way to circulate without feeling conspicuous is to take around a tray of food or offer to top up glasses. You can introduce yourself as you mingle, but you don't have to linger in any one conversation. Make a mental note of the people you found easy to chat to as you move around so you can come back to them.

■ Take some photos

At weddings or large parties, an easy way to take the pressure off meeting people is to take heaps of photos. Once again, you can strike up conversations as you go. The hosts will also be grateful when they see the results.

■ Take a breather in the bathroom

Whenever you need a break, excuse yourself and spend five minutes in the bathroom reapplying your make-up or brushing your hair. You'll exit feeling refreshed and ready to begin again.

■ Focus on the positives

If you're single, tonight might be the night you meet the man or woman of your dreams - or at least the person who might introduce you to him or her. If your partner is unavailable for the night, going alone gives you the freedom to talk to who you want, stay as long as you want and, most importantly, leave when you're ready to.

Source: http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/b/newidea/18466/jo-lamblegoing-solo

And I reckon this article is specially targeting for girls who are going to a party or wedding dinner ALONE.

This actually gets me back to the reminiscence of Cheryl’s birthday, a new friend I had in the first semester here. It wasn’t that terrible in my case as I had Elisabeth to accompany me. But, that isn’t the point. I cannot expect her to stick with me at all times. In order to take the initiative, I started on a conversation with few friends whom I was introduced to and we talked about our country of origin and the holiday spots at our homeland. The conversation went on and we kept in touch since then.

I believed starting a simple topic makes the conversation to flow easily.

And. Remember your confidence, girls.

This is a simple advice from me : Do not isolate yourself and wait for people to approach you.

I

finally realized that I can never get the same upshot to the effort that I’ve put on.

I just need to understand the yin and yang of human life,

Nothing is perfect in this world, I know,

This is a revelation to me, to grasp my weaknesses and to find the strength I have in me.

It did not come to my comprehension that this has disheartened me.

Oh? I have to look for my competitive advantage.

But where is it? I need to find it.

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-gracious | dusk-

what's for food??

Ouch.. Gracious has so many things to blog about, yet she doesn't know where to begin with. Shall I begin with… food?

Oh yes, she’s famished for midnight supper now, despite having a very Malaysian Satay for dinner.

Nop, I’m not kidding. There’s really satay here in Melbourne. And *clears throat* I meant DIY satay. Of course, having lack of the authentic proper ingredients, the outcome was just as excellent as you expect, and i'm sure it will not let you down!. It was just as great as you would ask for more!

Yeo’s is such a good company. It caters its customers’ needs and wants especially those living abroad. To add value, the taste of the satay sauce is almost as original as those you would taste at the hawker centre at Penang, except that Yeo’s satay sauce need to add more peanuts to it. I did not know the existence of the satay sauce until I received that for free at the Singapore Day. I was so lucky I grabbed that!. Hehe. Say me kiasu or what. LOL

the customized satay

I’m really looking forward to arrange a BBQ so that I can try to marinade the satay. Muahaha!!!

-random-

"The sexiest thing about a girl is confidence"
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and gracious truly agree with the quote.

birthday pictures | choGao

Table of friends.

A black and white look of the friends.

Cheryl, Elisabeth and I

Gracie looking happily taking photos for the couple.

Ah. Then it was the time that I made my wish.. What's my wish? I have a long list of wish actually, but if I were to read all, I'm gonna be beaten by everyone. :P

gracious birthday dinner

Many of my friends were asking me to blog about my 21st birthday dinner. There it goes, For you guys! (:

From 8 people that I invited, excluding myself and my sis, the number increases to 13 people that I invited. Hence, from Cookie bar, I moved the venue to ChoGao, which seems to be more spacious for everyone.

The few nights before, I was nervous. Duhh. "How am I suppose to do this?" I asked myself.

My sister aka my manager suggested of doing a 'thank you' mini bag for my friends. 2 days before the big day, I went to shops and buy the stuffs. Failing to look for the mini card that we wanted, I've to handmade the card by my own. Cutting each of the cards, photo shop the front cover and typing the message, glueing each of the messages to the card. I even put 2 of Ferrero Rocher to each of the bag.

Now.. the big day comes.

My sister and I arrived there 10 minutes before the stated time. Then, YinYing called me saying she saw no one. :O ?

I arrived at the destination and I was wished.

Though my friends arrived a tad late, I was glad and happy that everyone came.

Cheryl and Elisabeth came with a bouquet of flowers. Wheee. That was sooo sweet.. It was like so RAREEEEE that I received flowers.

WHO DOESN'T LIKE FLOWERS????????

Soon, MeeYing, Arvy,Hans,JunHao, Jaci, Jeannie,Jin,Lynn and BF, Dani arrived.

I don't need to elaborate more of what happened, do I ?


Oh. I love every pressie that everyone gave me.

Thanks everyone who wished me, hugged me, kissed me ? Haha.

I'll just let the pictures do the talking.. alright?

ps: Also, I would like to apologize to my friends for hardly serving you guys..:) You know how bad the chairs were arranged.

The Winner Takes It All

After years of not getting myself interested into English musics, I was astounded by the voice of a Vietnamese guy who joined the Australian Idol 09: Thanh Bui.

Not knowing this guy? He was one of the member in the Melbourne based band:North.

I bet not many of us heard North, until I listened to one of their music which I don't know what the title is, but for sure, that's the song I liked when I was small.

Last few weeks, he sang his paramount song aka 'jackpot' song: The Winner Takes It All buy ABBA.

Gosh, I'm so in love with the moment he played the piano while singing the song. Isn't the song seem tad rock in its original? Thanh sang it sadly, and it was sooo nice that I can't find a word to say.

Anyway, really hope that he's the winner of this so that I can buy his album... (:

Why is the Australian dollar so low if our economy is so strong?

This month marked the worst financial crisis for Australia, isn't it? With the decrease of interest rate and the depreciation of currency, Australia is certainly at a risk. With currency at 3.1 when I first came here in Melbourne in February, dad and mum had to turn a blind eye to buy the Aussie dollar to pay school fees. Even every parents did the same thing. When my elder sister came to Australia 8 years ago, it was 2.5. Now, it's 3.1. It makes a huge different when a big sum of money is dealt.

October, the month when I was born, seem to be a bad one for Australia. The big companies, especially, lived in fear. Governments and the PM had sleepless night to stabilize the country's economic growth. And..

the big news is here. The Aud currency has devalued. From 3.1 to 2.25. Australians were frustrated and sad, whilst, parents of many international students were jumping for joy for saving hundreds, or maybe thousands, for paying the uni fees.

Besides blaming this to the US financial crisis last month, why is the Australian dollar so low if the economy is so strong? Let Kochie (2008) explains this to you :

Why is the Australian dollar so low if our economy is so strong?
This is the case for two reasons. Firstly overseas investors see Australia as a big quarry, and as a result they link our currency to commodity prices. Because commodities have gone down, the Aussie dollar has also been marked down.

The second reason is overseas investors are pulling their money out. This is because of the drop in interest rates, which means investor money is getting a lower rate of return sitting in Australia. It's also because they're probably facing a bit of financial pressure at home, so they're moving their money home to help prop themselves up.

http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/b/sunrise/16709/kochies-finance-faqs/

ebay Shopping..!

Whee..! I made my First ebay shopping after days of attempts to get what I want.

I bought a Flower Hood 55mm for my baby lenses.

Seven days later I made the payment, I received the parcel. Though the Hood wasnt really what I expected to look like, I was ecstatic of the experience that I had.

The flower hood with white paper as the background. Was adjusting the flashlight to get the best shot and reducing the shadow it has.

Few days later again, I bought another accessories which is the softbox flash diffuser. It's . On the way.... :)

Cons of internet shopping: You don't know the exact material of the stuffs you shopped for. Pros: Some same stuffs but at a CHEAPER price. I guess the quality says all.

091008

Happy Birthday to myself..

chocolate chip cookies

Back in Penang, I have always afraid to eat chocolate in a continuous days. There are reasons to it. First, zits. Second, sorethroat. Third, body heaty which lead to fever and cough. Fourth, fatty.

However, since I came to Melbourne, everything changed. Just like how the exchange rate of Australia fluctuates over the past few days.

Ever since I came here for the past 8 months, chocolate and cheese have been my number 1 priority. Open the fridge, and you see cheese and choco. If I were in Penang, you don't see cheese in my fridge as the moment I eat them, I'll put on weight the very next day.

During the first semester I studied here, I was kinda depressed due to the annoyed people that I met and that I really hate, her. As the saying goes, God will open the door for me, yes I met 2 great friends. That's when my choco journey started.

*Feeling hungry when doing assignment halfway? Thinking what information that you've left out? Worry?* Think no more than to eat a piece of chocolate chips, as this was heavily influenced by Elisabeth, presenting me with chocolate chips bought by her sis when we were halfway doing assignment last sem.

It was until the past 2 weeks that I passed by Aldi and I bought 2 choco chips. I eat that almost everyday. That applies the same to my sis too. Then, I recalled, the thing I love most is chocolate chips from Aldi.

presenting....

my chocolate chip cookies!!!!! and its friends.

Singapore Day Melbourne

*warning: this entry contains bit of broken english. If you can't stand proper english, please don't read*

Never had I imagined that Singaporean government is so generous that they spent almost 3million dollar in the set-up and almost everything to make Singapore Day in Melbourne a success. On 4th of October, the Singapore Day was held at the Sidney Myer Bowl. I thought it wouldn't be a big event until I really saw with my own eyes.

It has also been a Singaporean culture that

1. They tend to 'love' queuing. For those who have seen a show on Singaporean lifestyle, sometimes they don't even know what they are queuing for. What they said was " I also don't know Q what. I see got free gift-ah. So i queue lo". On this Singapore Day, I Q with them. And I mean a long Q. For your info, there were 15,000 who attended the event. Actually it's 15,000 who registered. Plus those who were lazy to register but appear on that day, it should be around 16,000! Gosh, how many came for Merdeka Day at Federation Square? Singapore government so good-neh..My aunt told me, Singaporean always queue-wan.

2. Got-what-take-what. This is because hor, it is a fact. That's why-loh. they prepared so many free gifts to everyone. Oi. each goodie bag has many free stuffs and a packet of the yeo's drink-wor. 15,000 goodie bag will be around $16,000. Yeo's so good, you see. Then almost each stall has free gifts lo. Everyone also don't care. Got what they take what. Got kaya jem and nasi goreng paste somemore. And it's not restrited how many you can take. Gosh.! If I were a typical Asian, I would bring my trolley to sapu the freegifts. I remember that I see a girl so happy that there is a kaya inside her 2nd goodie bag. Like.."Wah!1 got kaya lehh"

3. Still OK to queue.
There were 4 stalls I think. Each stall consist of 4 to 5 lines, different dish. That means, it should be around 20 stalls. They are so OK to queue for 30 to 60 minutes to get the food. Wah-lau... How ahh? So gai, man! Anyway, my sis also Q for 45 minutes to get chicken rice and chicken wing. While I, were sitting to watch PCK private limited and his family to rock melboUrne!!!!!!

what else culture singaporean have? do update me :)

I was really impressed with the event. Salute to the event organizer. PCK and family, tay pinghui and lots more artiste were exported to melbourne to perform. Wheee.e

I'm not suan-siao ing them, but it's fun to be a Singaporean for One day! If you think this is a bad idea of writing it, let me know. My apology to you. :)

I told my sis that, when I was in Penang, when i see long queue, I just go back and come another day.

I'll update the blog with heaps of pictures.!

birthday wish lists

Wheee!!!!!!!!

Birthday is around the corner.

it has been a culture that everyone writes their wish lists on their blog prior to their birthday. I wasn't able to blog about this few days ago as I was busy and lazy. Busy and lazy. Sounds consistent huh? *winks*

Honestly, I'm feeling tad sad of not celebrating with my family and my college friends, especially the JIG! However,I was really ecstatic too, as I received my first birthday card from Irene a week before the real day.So sweet. *hugs jie*

I'm still thinking what my wish lists would be.


*10 minutes later with deeep thinking..*

I want my 8 megapixel cameraphone

Macro lens 1:1

A free 1 week ticket to Singapore/Thai/HongKong/Bali

Be humble bit:

Leading a successful and happy life

Hoping to ease the financial crisis. I need a job, OK!?

Making everyone around me to be h a p p y!!

:)

And I'm sure only 80% of my wish lists will come true. :O