Dripping

Oh My Goodness... dripping perspiration can!
It's so hot i kept falling asleep in the tram back just now. :S gosh. haha

Bad time to come mudder, bad time.

greetings

So I come up to Phyllis on a Sat morning market trip and since it's her birthday yesterday, i extend my arms out in an embrace and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY...

AND SHE SAYS HAPPY BIRTHDAY back to me!!! Like what the heck... Talk bout not paying attention! Haha but she realized what she did instantly and we laughed about it... It's like she's wishing me 9months in advance.. Haha

I've got such retarded friends. :)

~ Joel Tan ~
--- Sent from my E63 ---

So You Think You Can Dance 09 Auditions

So last night, Hannah's 2 friends [Rachel and Tim Walsh] went to audition for So you think u can dance. It's a really cool show [biggest and most popular dance competition show in aussie] that we were all hooked on when it was airing. This is Season 3 and we're looking forward to it coming to the tele soon...

So yeh, we managed to get into the auditions and it was very free and easy. very open concept and we just felt like we were treated to a really lucky experience... it was cool coz the dance floor was just this big flooring and there were cameras and lights everywhere.. but yet it was so simple.. no big setup or anything... jus the three judges [TV STARS!!!] behind a desk and dancers on the floor one by one... :) it was so awesome coz we were so close to the front... like there were prob a max of 40 people in that area and we were just sitting so close to the judges and all... During the break, i was sitting there facebooking with my phone and one of the judges [jason] just came up to the seat in front of me and was like talking over me to this other girl who was sitting 2 rows behind me and asked her to inform this other lady to be at the studio at this date and time... felt so... like i was part of the crew and all... being so close to people we see on tv.

i know i know, dun idolize them... i'm not..it's jus like.. wow... i'm so into the set piece and the whole audition experience that it's like i'm not watching the filming of a show, it's like i'm IN the show itself... well i was coz the camera does pan the audience quite a bit. haha and it zooms in on expressions we have and stuff. :) so it was pretty weird too... to think u were being watched... there's this camera they have on a long beam that sweeps the audience, flies in where the dancer is dancing and dances with them by twirling around them and all [it's REALLY flexible and versatile... the camera on the beam] and sumtimes it'll come to the audience and jus film us. and it's weird coz it's like the camera is literally in your face [or half an arm's length] in front of your face and what u gotta do is ignore it and jus try to watch the performance without looking into the camera... haha.. weird and nerve wrecking too.

but yeh, it was neat... watching some of the dancers.. some were really good and some of them were so-so... we went thru 20 dancers that night i think.. went on from 8.40 to 2.30am... hahaha but it was WELL worth the whole 4 hours... and tim and rachel were the last 2 dancers... tim danced lyrical and GOSH it was SO blardy good... ;) he did 3 pouriettes and it went straight into an arabesque... and it was epic awesome... so good. technique and all... he was given some advice from the judges and then matt lee [one of the judges] asked him how much he wanted the ticket to top 100 [the best kind of ticket they gave out] and he told him he wants it so much.. and that he'll work so hard coz he's already spent a whole year training and working on some stuff he was advised to change last year... and he was really cute about it all... and matt lee pulled out the top 100 ticket and we just ROARED in applause... we were SO happy for him. ahhaha... then rachel came out and danced. the judges were torn.. but it came down to sending her thru choreo first.. but that was still friggin awesome. :) so cool to actually know them and they know me... and to see them dance... so well.... :) awesome experience.

there are 3 kinds of responses... 1. Go away, u're too lousy for this 2. Go through choreo where there's no limit as to how many people get sent to choreo. they'll learn a short choreo piece and get judged again. 3. Top 100. So u advance straight to Top 100 in Australia and dance for your life to get to become Australia's next So you think you can dance winner. :)

I'm SO watching it when it comes out. i can't wait. here are some of the photos. enjoy!

The Maelstrom has passed

So, it's finally over... After months and months of rehearsals, the production is over... Bittersweet feelings of relief and loss sweep through the dressing room once the first curtain is raised... It's weird coz everyone knows it's the end and with that in mind, have vowed to dance their hardest.

Seems like the audience knew it too and roared into life the moment the announcements were made. They kept the mood alive and the noise to a maximum with all the 'GO YUSUF's and 'GO BRONWYN!'s. The dancers danced hard and gave it all they got... Including Lois, Hannah and myself. When i went out for my hiphop piece, i was shocked to hear the crowd WOOO in unison when my spotlight came on. It took me by surprise but only served to motivate and push me to dance full out without holding anything back...

The ballet contem piece with hannah and lois was great too. The steps jus came thru muscle memory and the lifts were mostly great. The last night was the most awesome one. I caught hannah with confidence and turned her with ease. The fish dive was executed really well too and a small mistake was hidden by a cover up that blended seamlessly into the next step.

Finally, our windmill lift and carry lift after that was one of the best we've done and i must say adrenalin really kicked in and i lifted hannah up so high my arms were in full extension. She had such a long air time i was quite stunned when i put her down. :) seriously, it was such a great piece and i'm glad that it's all over.

Now that flare's over, i'm glad to have the time back to finish off the last week of semester, write my 3k word essay and prepare for exams in 2 weeks time. :) thank you to all who came and supported us and bought tickets and all. :) really appreciate it... So here's to (Davin, Phyllis, Kenrick, Vanessa, Michelle, Much and Robbie) for coming to specifically watch us and thanks to others who blessed us with 'good luck's and 'all the best's :) it rocks to have friends so caring and thotful. :)

Pics are in facebook but i'll choose some and post them here soon. Watch this space. :)

~ Joel Tan ~
--- Sent from my E63 ---

Maelstrom: Flare Production 2009

It's finally here. We sit on the night before the production. The precipice of the performance... It's great that we're finally here, not great that some pieces aren't perfect yet including mine... but it's just going to happen and we are going to make it work. :)

It's taken up so much time AND energy [yes loads of that] to rehearse over and over again for these 3 nights where we dance our butts off... Although it feels like another rehearsal, when the crowds come in, the adrenaline would be PUMPED up! we've sold out for Fri and Saturday and Thurs is selling fast.. thank God we managed to sell the tickets coz ticket sales were really bad this year.... till now. :)

Looking forward to getting it done with and performing. This is my FIRST production and that's kinda why it has a special place in my heart... it's quite an experience to finally be doing sumthing i never thot i would... i only took up dance like at the 2nd half of my army life so that's about 1 and a half to 2 years ago... and here i am FINALLY putting up a production. :) i guess u can say it's the culmination of months and months of anticipation. :) never thot i'd ever dance on stage... let alone 2 dances of different genres :)

I'm just glad to be able to share this moment... or moments [coz it's 3 nights] with friends... close friends who man the Lighting [matt's doing an AWESOME job] to sound techs [minglei's manning sound] to dancers [Lois and Hannah and many more i've met thru rehearsing] and audience members [Phyllis, Davin, Michelle, Vanessa, Kenrick and many more]....

Just that this production has taken so much from me... time and energy as i mentioned earlier. every night after rehearsal i come back so tired. no more strength left to shower and do work. and school work has been suffering in a way... and it doesn't help that these weeks before project submissions so everyone's working their butts off and i'm having to excuse myself for flare rehearsals... and time and energy taken away from the gf too... i feel so empty these days... it's like yeh we're on stage together and all but i dunno... like just missing sumthing.... sigh. never mind. it's only a few more days till flare's over... then we'll choing projects [although they should be done by this sunday] and spend time with the gf too... 

ok so here's where i must mandatorially pick up the mood and end on a good note... so...

yay!!! Flare Production!!! Maelstrom 2009. 22nd - 24th Oct 2009, 7.30pm, Union House Theatre. Be there!

Distant

You know how you can be next to that special someone and still miss them and feel like there's a gap in the middle? I dunno... Maybe physical presence doesn't mean you're with each other.

School work's not been great recently. I think Flare has quite a bit to do with it. Rehearsals have been getting more frequent (sometimes twice a week. Thankfully i'm only in 3 dances so that's 3-4times a week) and the intensity of each have greatly increased. More lifting, more running to our blockings and just generally stress level higher so choreographers are snapping.

Put that and place school assignments on top of that and deliverables... it's sometimes just quite a bit for one person to all take at once. And maybe it's tough but there isn't another choice. Just gotta roll with it.

I'm rolling. :) just roll with me. Coz i'm not sure i can do it alone. Thanks for everything so far... :)

~ Joel Tan ~
--- Sent from my E63 ---

New House in Feb 2010

So just to update everyone who hasn't already heard the great news, 3 friends and I have finally found our accommodation for the next year. We were trying to find a 4 bedroom house or place but most of them were quite far out of the city [means traveling time] and most of them also are available NOW which means we can't take them since our current leases expires on the 31st of Jan... so we had a big dilemma and have been searching for a suitable, cheap and good locality place since Aug. :S

So after thinking through quite a lot of things, we decided that we won't totally kill the idea of us all 4 sharing a place but for sake of convenience and all, we might find better chances with 2 two bedroom apartments where the girls [Hannah and Phyllis] stay in 1 two bedroom place and the guys [Davin and i] stay in another two bedroom place... i was telling phy that day that the best arrangement would be if we both found places close by so we'd almost be like we're staying together [can have potlucks and stuff and be close to each other] without all the trouble [like sharing a bathroom or kitchen or fridge space]...

Lo and behold,

We go and inspect this student accommodation down at Elizabeth Street area and it's got 2 two bedroom apartments that we're all pleased with. The location is GREAT coz it's within walking distance from everything [Market, School, Town, Safeway which is like our cold storage] and the price is pretty good for it's location and size [though it's not big, it's not tiny either] and the company that owns it is legit, the landlady is very nice [malaysian motherly like person] and actually, it's the same owner as Lois' place so she's been dealing with them for a year already and hasn't had anything bad to say about them... so yeh, it's a great place and so here's what happened.

We inspected the place then went to have a short discussion at the subway just a few doors away [yeh, there's a subway and a boost juice outlet and CommonWealth ATM all just a few steps away from the door] and the decision was made that we're all happy with the place and we should snatch it up before we lose such a great chance. It really was the best arrangement and we were all pretty psyched up about it. :) so we went to the office, signed the bond, paid the money and secured the place. Most imptly, the rental starts on the 1st of Feb so we literally dun have double rental... and that's great coz we were all ready to pay double rent [old place and new place for Nov, Dec, Jan] but with this new place, our new rental starts when our old place expires... so that's FABULOUS..

Yep, so we're real glad for the God send and greater news, I managed to find a place to dump my stuff so i can fly back in peace and when i shift things i'll know it's at a fren [Xiao Xi's] place... :)

Amen! and I'm so looking forward to us all staying together... it'll demand change for some parts of our lives yes, but i guess it'll be sumthing we live with [literally] hahaa. :)

Calvin's 21st in the 1940s

9am Saturday sees me tramming to the gf's place to change out of my party outfit and into my grocery shopping clothes... Why? Well coz in the afternoon, she, davin and i are going to Calvin's (Meliza's bf from Bridge Church) 21st birthday bash.

The theme? 1940s. Haha.. So we're all donning fedoras, suits, suspenders, huge hats and all. :) i promise you, pictures WILL be up. Haha so excited and i think it's gonna be quite a big party... Bridge church IS quite big. :)

But for now, i've gotta settle the normal grocery shopping for the week. Amazing how queen vic market is so close to my new place so from feb 2010 onwards, i won't need to tram to market anymore! Heh. awesome.

Oh, another good news is that my dearest friend Xiaoxi from ocf has graciously, generously and so lovingly offered her place for davin and i to store our stuff when we move out of our old places. Soooo happy. Now seriously almost everything's settled.. And it's only oct. Haha. Thanks be to God for all His blessings and guidance... And answered prayers... He's really given us our hearts desires. :) amen!

Saw the floorplans of matt's new place yesterday... The pics are Nice la can't wait to see the apartment. The photos are real cool too. :)

Oki. Take care peeps. :)

---- Sent from my E63 ----

Trip To Tesselaar Tulips

Here u am, waiting at melbourne central train stop at 8.45am. My train jus came but what happened before this is surely worth blogging about.

I packed my bags and got everything ready the night before... Checked how long the train and tram rides would take and estimated which tram to take in order to meet my transport (Adelene picking me from box hill station) and set 3 alarms... coz today is daylight savings, so was worried my alarm clock would buzz me an hour late, i set a few at differing times. Anyways... i wake up, get changed and all and then to my horror, the next tram was in 40 mins.. And i'm like... What the??? Apparently the trams didn't follow the morning slotted times and the first tram was at 8.20 instead of 7.49. :s ahhh so i sms hannh and ask her to pass along the message that i'll be late and to change the timing.

Everything's fine and so against logic, i tell myself maybe the trams DO follow the schedule but the tram tracker widget is wrong.. So i set out as planned and reach my tram stop at 7.45am. A tram comes at 7.50 and i smile to myself... Only to realize it passes by quickly coz it's 'NOT IN SERVICE'... Hmm never mind, i'm sure there's the 8.09am tram... So i wait... And wait... For 35mins in the freezing cold.

My tram finally comes at 8.20... Just like the tram tracker widget advised. Dammit. By this time, my brain's frozen solid and my fingers following soon after. This leads me to play a few HORRIBLE rounds of Rockband Unplugged... Guess the cold really affects your reaction time. :s

Sigh. So i learnt a lesson today (in the few waking hours so far).. Always trust the tram tracker widget... It's always correct... And never try to entertain self by playing rockband in the cold. :s

Sigh. Now i'm on the train heading towards box hill... A half an hour journey.. Going to the tulip festival... And i'm just glad for my monthly mobile internet plan.. Lets me blog on the train. :) i feel like August now. Haha.. So techy. Blogging on my E63. Heh.

Yep oki. Here's hoping the festival will be smashing and it'll be worth all this trouble. And if all fails, there's alwats delicious muffins that were baked last night. Heh. Epic success... Form still has a lot to desired. One still looked like a scone. But who cares, heh...

See ya peeps!

---- Sent from my E63 ----

Bahhhhh.

Taken from here

you know sum days something just bugs u and it spoils the rest of your day?

bah. humbug.

i'm going to sleep. dun bug me world. i'm not talking to you.

Hum Sup??

So there i was right, during Flare practice... and all thru the sem, we've been rehearsing this song.. the imaginative setting is that we're 4 guys in a club trying to pick up these 4 girls. What happens after is a partner dance that we dance with the girls and alone...

So here we are, in the present day, 3 weeks from production. Nessa comes and sits in our practice and gives her comments [coz she's the artistic director] of Flare... and we dance couple by couple for my choreographer [daryl] to spot mistakes and give advice... and then after yvonne and i dance, nessa tells me that i look like i'm some hum sup guy trying to get yvonne to sleep with me... :S that totally does NOT help yvonne dance properly.. she already can't stand being so flirted by me... :S so anyways... nessa was telling me to look higher instead of so low coz it looks like i'm just staring at her ass and stuff... but the thing is yvonne's kinda short, and i'm kinda tall... so i HAVE to look down. So daryl tells me, look at the top of her head of at her forehead area instead lor. :S

Sigh... spastik la. hahha... then i was like.. ooook. so u want me to flirt with her and look like i want her but NOT to sleep with her... OOOOkkkk. i could do that... :S spastik la... wanted to go there and SMACCCCCK her. i already dun like nessa much.. and her comments dun help. hahhaa. but yeh, it was all fun coz everyone was laughing and all... it's all good...

flare's happening soon. goodness. 3 weeks till we dance on stage proper... weird to actually be involved in a dance production. never have been but apart from the rehearsals... it's pretty cool la. :) looking forward to the jumper and the nights themselves. whee! hope people come and support and watch us dance the nights away. :)

Come on, dun make me hum sup for nothing. :)

Musings from a bored soul on Spring Break

So i've technically wasted away almost 3 of my spring break days just lazing at home, watching movies, playing games and not thinking about anything...

it kinda feels awesome at some points and really boring at others. :) i do need to get out of the house and that's why i'm also looking forward to tomolo... tml is thurs... thurs means people are coming over for pizza AND there's dance tomolo too. :S

Dance has been quite tough. We're 4 weeks away from production [yeh, it's that close] and it's not finished yet... some of the lifts, we're not getting in timing and some of the lifts we're not getting at all. i still haven't even done a successful lindyhop swing thing with i-lyn and it's kinda freaking me out how close this production is. :S

We tried on our jumpers that day for sizing and that was when it really hit me that we're THIS close to performing... like OH MY GAWSH. totally freaking out!!! hahaha. :) My other piece shouldn't be a problem. we've rehearsed that one quite a few times over... so not really worried bout that.. but the ballet contemp piece... goodness. so many lifts one after the other. it's really quite tiring and scary... :S but i'm sure everyone will be fine... or well i hope they will be. hahaa. :)

Other than that, life's been pretty good and it's been flowing very well... nothing much bugging me except a certain few looming things like exams at the end of the year, tasmania trip, flight back to spore, accommodation for next year and flight back to melb... ahhhh it's spring break... i'm not going to let it worry me till later... THEN i'll start freaking out. haha.

Yep. as u can see, it's 2.35am and i'm still awake... why? coz i dun feel like sleeping but my body's telling me to give it a rest.. so i think i'll go sleep after i conclude this totally pointless blog entry. I should end it off with sumthing really random.. :) wherever my brain takes me at this point in the evening. so goodnight people.

Kittens have scary eyes sumtimes, it's like they're trying to mind control you into petting and "awww"ing for them... Scary eyes... yep.

Picture taken from here

Star Wars Exhibition

Photos can be found here

That day was real special. I'm really glad we did it according to plan [well mostly according to plan]... Starting the special day with breakfast was I was hoping to achieve. Yeh i know, not the greatest breakfast but i was hoping it'd fill our stomachs enuf to last us throughout the day.

Then bringing u with me to school to 'meet' my friends was pretty cool too. Sorry u ended up getting a slight headache and having to endure with all the nonsense from my friends during group meeting.

Then we took the tram down to the train station. Remember how we were stalked by aileen... sneaky woman i tell u. :) Then we had lunch at subway... We always eat subway and I purposely kept quiet to see if you knew exactly what i wanted in my sub... and u didn't disappoint... i love how I don't even need to tell u what veges and what meat i want in my sub... u already know. Small things like this remind me of how we're so comfortable around each other that it's so normal to be with each other for lunch and stuff.

Glad we got you some panadol... coz u looked like u needed one. Then we walked to the train station and waited for the train that goes to Werribee. That was the real first time in the day i REALLY felt like i was going away for a holiday with u... remember when the train came and i told u how i was excited about going away... yeh, that was when i felt like i was so lucky and so happy to be having this short one day 'trip' away from routine and familiarity of the melbourne CBD to get away and just enjoy ourselves taking photos and sharing memories. If there wasn't that rule about no photography, i'd prob have snapped a few photos there and then...

Sitting in the train watching the scenery go by was quite fun too. I had flashbacks of our Great Ocean Road trip... when we went past the fields and country side with all the cows and sheep... as the train went through suburb after suburb, i was glad that the distance from home was gettin more and more. no one wants to holiday 5 mins away from their home... so the distance away also added to the enjoyable fact that not only was i getting away from town, but also getting away from town with you. And that was a MAJOR plus point [does the salute action] It really did feel like a small holiday getaway... you know like how they always do in movies or stories... when the character just packs a day's worth of supplies and travels to the country side. :) We had muesli bars, subway cookies, water and muffins ready to face the suburbian world! haha.

So off we went into the GENERAL direction [salutes] of Werribee headed for Spotswood station along the line. When we finally reached [which wasn't that long a ride la] it was CHILLY... and no, it wasn't spicy chili, it was cold! partly due to the fact that it was slightly drizzly.. or at least it was tempting to drizzle. We got off and i HAD to snap a picture of the station coz really, this was the 3rd time in the 7 months that i've been here that i actually took a train... AND it's the first time i was in the suburbs during the day. The other 2 times were to go to the suburb of Camberwell for Sofia's [great pasta place] for dinner so checking the surroundings was pretty impossible the last 2 times. So i snapped a few shots showing that 'yes, i was in Spotswood for real' and then we found our way out to the main road. Thankfully, since there's nothing much in the suburbs, scienceworks was prob THE biggest thing this suburb had to offer so there was no lack of signages and directions to point us to where we intended to go. My girlfriend took a look at the map and headed off in the direction that clearly was opposite from that indicated on the map... thankfully, i was not going to follow her blindly... pulled her back and asked her to take a look at it one more time. After rotating her head upside down and back around, she let out an "oh!" and i reminded her that i was glad i went thru the army...

So we took a short stroll to the junction and one thing hit me at that point in time [and no, it wasn't a car thankfully]... that the traffic in the suburbs REALLY is minimal to say the least. It was like a long road all the way and i saw maybe one car or two? so crossing the road was a breeze [in a breeze too]. But before that, we stopped to take a picture with the railroad crossing... i think it's pretty cool seeing railroad crossings coz it's sumthing we RARELY ever see in Melbourne... let alone Singapore...

[just realized how lengthy this blog is and she's already scolding me for being naggy so i'm gonna cut to the chase]

so we had a nice stroll to the place and checked out the surroundings while walking thru the suburbs.. we both agreed that it'll prob be quite scary to be walking through this place at night, with the low light visibility and the lack of human traffic... quite scary... and then it started to drizzle so we made a break for it and ran to Science Works... but aiyah it was fine and fun la.. nothing too bad.

Upon entering, it was quite cool coz it's like u enter from the outside world bringing with you your outside world self and u enter into the universe of starwars. It's like after u pay the entrance fee and walk through those turnstiles, it's like you're teleported into a whole diff world, a whole different universe. People are walking around dressed as jedi.. even the ticket punching lady looked a bit like Princess Leia... although i dun think that was her intention. lolz. But yeh, the first thing u see glaring at you is the AWESOME AWESOME AWE*wait for it* SOME X-Wing fighter.... i know i may sound geeky but it's THE best plane/ship/jet fighter EVER. :) so that was a sure plus point... :)

Through the whole exhibition, we saw many props, costumes, science behind starwars and even interacted with a few stations and guides. It was really fun being able to get hands on with some stuff like building your own hover craft and using magnetism to propel it forward... and backward too if ur magnets were placed in the wrong polarity... like mine were when i first made my hovercraft.. darnit..

Then there was this really cool exhibit that had a turnable table and discs that u could place anywhere around the table. the webcam in front recorded all your movements and fed it to the computer system that made sense of your movement, placement of discs and turn of the table... it created a 3D rendering of a typical starwars desert setting and you were tasked with placing some stuff around at proper logical places to harness water and supplies for your Jawa camp in the center. It was AWESOME coz all you're doing is holding and placing discs and on the screen in real time, a 3D world was being setup and interacting with u... i'll post up a youtube clip of it... it's pretty amazing. :)

Then we viewed some other exhibitions and cracked some lame jokes like PADME amidala and Holy Smoke... :) oh that was super funny la... Holy smoke... smoke!! holey!!! [sorry guys, u had to be there to get the joke] and posed with some stupid dumb computer rendered image of a face... basically, u could adjust how the facial expression was... and adjust it to make the person seem more angry, sad, happy or sneering or whatever la... and control all the different facial parts like the eyes, mouth, eyebrows... :) then we created this really dumb looking facial expression and hannah and i posed with them... ahaha life imitating art [if u can call it that].

Oh and another key highlight was robotic legs... they had a pair of legs that was controllable via 4 switches [levers] and u basically controlled it such that u had to make the legs walk from one point to the other... easy sounding but it was quite hard in real life... when we first tried it [we took one leg each] we were basically jus running in the air coz we extended the leg but didn't extend it downwards to touch the floor.. aiyah hard to explain but that really gave me a respect for the robotic animators that work on films like starwars... damn pro to make it look so life like and stuff. :) hats off to u.

Yep, we ended with a tour through the gift shop and got on our way back to the city...

All in all, it was such a wonderful day. Special for so many reasons listed above and some not listed at all.. but we both know that it was an experience that we were glad to share with each other and it was a chance to just escape from the melbourne CBD and school life and everything... for that one afternoon, all we needed to think about was how to enjoy ourselves there.. and i'm glad to say for the both of us, it was really really fun... so guys, if u're in melb, go for it.. it's like $8... super cheap for starwars... and yeh, makes us BOTH feel like watching the show.

Thanks hannah for always never failing to make my day special. I'm so glad we could go to a geeky thing like starwars and BOTH enjoy it so much. heh... as u already know, i'm thrilled to share my life and time with u... to many more fun memories and joyous times... HOLY SMOKE. :)

May the Force Be With You all... :)

!@#$%^

!@#$%^& my internal spirit wars with my external flesh

times like this i just have to get to bed to shut up... sigh.

Jellygish, u know all i have to say.

For the first time...

There are times that things happen and you never wanna forget it. For
reasons such as it's special or it's something that doesn't happen
often... For whatever reason, it's why i blog. To never forget what
the event was or how it made me feel.

I thank God for times like yesterday. They remind me how much God
blesses me and reminds me that He's saved a great gift for me for this
time period and i'm jus thankful that He allows me to have the special
experience with someone dear and special to me.

It's like such a simple thing yet i guess i'm glad that we shared it. :)

and on other news, get better soon hannah. It's not good to be sick
during your one week break... And muffins are waiting to be made.
faster. :) i'm super excited bout the new muffin tray i bought. Heh

--
~:+: Joel :+:~

Free Juice

There's this franchise in Aussie called Boost Juice and it basically is a real cool, but not cheap, way of drinking fresh. They're scattered all over melbourne and they offer freshly blended smoothies, fruit juices and soups on the fly. So u go there, order what u want [u can even choose which fruits u want and make your own combi] and take it away and drink as u go.

Recently, i haven't been too keen on BOOSTing up coz the weather is quite cold and putting sumthing soothing but cold in your body does NOT help with the chill factor that runs through your veins... but recently, Boost has been having this promo. it's called the Name Game whereby they pick one male and one female name randomly every day and those 2 people get to claim free boost juices from outlets just for that one day.

On wed, it was MATTHEW. so matt went to get like 3 juices from diff outlets [it's in the Ts&Cs that it's perfectly ok as long as it's one free redemption from one store each] awesome right? Anyways, he grabbed me a boost and so i got a free juice on wed... it was awesome coz i wanted to try some of the flavours out but it's not cheap so normally never paid for it... it's about like $6 - $8 per boost depending on the size of your drink... ANYWAYS... 

yesterday, turns out, the boost name game NAME OF THE DAY was HANNAH... :) so guess wad... hahahha... yeh, i ended up getting free boost too! but becoz when she met me in the evening before cell, boost was already closed... so i ended up having 1/4 of her boost that she already redeemed... so no, didn't get free boost per se.. but i got her left overs... which is still free so.. YAYZ. hahhaa. :) was hoping today might be JOEL.. then that would be SO neat... but nah. it was sumthing like SHANE and ELLA... lame.. who names their kid shane?!??! hahaha okok sorry to all shanes out there... JOEL day will come one day i hope. but the website says the promo ends at the end of sept. NOOO. hahaha :) will keep checking back.

Anyway, reason why i wanted to blog this is coz i'm really happy for friends around me. the boost thing just made me think about how much i feel loved coz the friends around me offer so willingly to get free juice for me.. esp matthew [sorry hannah, u already know how much i love u... and everybody goes AWWWWW. yeh yeh get over it people... goodness... -_-] coz he literally came out of the house to meet me to get free boost. then we did some grocery shopping but yeh, it's not like he needed to come out to help me get free boost.. so yay! thanks bro. i know u're not going to read this but yeh, thanks. :) and also to my darling girlfriend, thanks for the intention of getting me free boost. i blame the closed boost outlet, not you. :) PLUSSSS i DID get to drink some boost yesterday. hahaha.

booooooost! 1 more week till mid sem break!

Mid Term Break Coming Up

In 2 weeks time, i'll be having my mid-sem break. It's quite good that we can all have a break from school and the break's coming at just the right time. I think that having a break in the middle of the semester is so clever and very integral for a student's life. I dun think we, as students, should be studying for like 13 weeks straight. we'd prob go crazy and die.

Some people are flying back to Spore during this 2 week break but i think it's quite crazy and expensive to do sumthing like that. You fly back and spend like what? a week and a half and then u're back here again. There's no point. It'll be much better to jus tahan and then fly back at the end of the year and spend a solid 3 months with friends and family.

Alas, this december will be a shorter one for me. I end sch on the 27th of nov if i'm not wrong. Then 8 friends and i will be going to have a short getaway in Tasmania... driving and having road trips and all. you know, the things u read of in friends blogs [grinz] but never really get a chance to do yourself? yeh... that's why i'm doing this and it's going to be FUN FUN FUN. :) can't wait.

Then I'll be back to spore till maybe mid feb? not sure yet but i DO want to stay for CNY... but we'll see what happens... coz accommodation and employment in melbourne isn't easy to find. :)

Yep, sorry i've been out and inactive for a few days. It's been quite a crazy 2 weeks. been setting up my Windows 7 and studying for tests and assignments and all. Currently now, i'm going to blog then go do my essay again. sigh. that's why i think this break is important. :)

But yeh, everything here's going good thank God. :) wanna keep living a carefree student life but i know i'll have to make big decisions at this time next year. Whether to go back to spore or stay in melbourne. :) Where God leads. :)

Take care people!

Windows 7

Hey check it out... this is my new computer's OS... i got no energy to blog about it coz i've been installing this and that over the whole day [tml still need to bring my laptop to sch and use the internet to get some drivers downloaded and all... but here's how it looks like now. :)

I love my desktop... hhaha

Drifting along committments

It's not that bad this sem... the workload has been very very manageable... Projects haven't been due but i can see the wave coming from a distance. It's like we stay here on the shore seeing a tidal wave coming at us and we try our best to get our homes ready, we stock up on supplies and save money knowing that when it hits, we'll prob be stuck without the normal amenities like having everyone at pizza nights and the time needed to cook steak saturdays.

But the wave is coming and we better get ready for it. Grab your surf board and ride it coz if you don't, you'll just be swept away. And my style is to list everything i have to do before due dates so that when i do look at them, i can focus on one item at a time rather than having the whole list somewhere unlisted in the back of my mind to worry about. So here goes.

1. TV & Pop culture take home exam this friday
2. Informatics Mid-stem test next week
3. SAD Weekly deliverables starting from next week onwards
4. Informatics Assignment 2 [to finish before mid sem break]
5. Booking flight back to melbourne from singapore
6. Booking tasmania hotels/car rentals/itinery/flights [thanks Davin]
7. Juggle Bible Study prep
8. Juggle OCF worship commitments [once a month in the middle of the month]
9. OCF MCing for Evangelism Week [2 fridays starting from next friday]
10. TV & Pop culture tutorial presentation due in 2 weeks time
11. The ever present Girlfriend. [Not that it's a chore, but it's still something i set aside time for]

Woo! and the list goes on. This is just off the top of my head. i hope i'm not missing out on anything. :(

Anyhoo, life's pretty good. Thank God la. He's been blessing me with loads of things and sustaining me throughout. I'm glad that things are sailing smoothly now... maybe it's really what they say, it's always calmest before a storm... but I know who holds tomorrow, and I know, He can calm the storm. :)

Mid Review 2

So last night, Flare had it's 2nd mid review for our production in Oct. I recall the first mid review. it was kinda nerve wrecking coz i've never performed dance before... all my previous dance experience was in a small room with people who couldn't dance anyway... so to be presenting an item... no, 2 items in front of a whole room full of people who are dancers was quite scary...

but it went well and we managed to pull it off. Last night, we had our 2nd mid review and it was cool seeing how much people people improved and changed their styles. It also was quite amazing to see how MANY people were there... Flare really had a whole bunch of people who really didn't have much dancing background but were willing to give it a shot and it was fun getting to know people too and seeing them dance their butts off. :)

It still does give me a lot of joy to know that I can dance with like minded people and not be afraid of how they'll judge me or think of me when i dance and it is SO much cooler to also dance with my friends and gf. It's a different kind of experience when you're dancing for yourself and when you have someone or something to dance for. And that's kinda what Nessa [the creative director of flare] said, and i agree.

Other than that, school has been good. Workload this semester is vastly different from that of last sem. It's more tutorial presentations rather than homework and doing tutorials. So that's quite cool. the subjects are also a bit different. The coding that i had to do last sem is easier this sem coz it's stuff i've done before in poly. Also for the arts subject, until i actually get an assignment, it's pretty ok. :) haha... yeh.. so school's doing good.

The biggest worries i have nowadays are finding accommodation for next year [to save money] and juggling church commitments with school commitments and of course, the ever present gf commitments. But it's a good balance of everything and I shall stop talking about it now before i start sounding like ... Buddhist or sumthing.. you know with balance and all.. full circle of life and all that jazz.

Yep, so i hope that everything back home is doing well. it is a joy seeing things in the church weekly [the e-version] and blogs and emails.. :) so yeh... that's all for now i guess. :)

As the aussies say,
Cheers Mate!