(Week 44) Xmas in Melbourne

Quick update for the week:

Sunday

Was supposed to go cycling but ended up yumchachacha-ing with Wi and Az! Getting all them fats, but hey, the hearty food led to heartfelt conversations ❤

Monday

Kak Ra and Sy were in town and Ya drove us around Yarra Valley 🙂 It was really good to hear about the things that are happening back home…

Wednesday & Thursday

Days of sweet treats! Made honey cornflakes and went shopping for Di’s gift.

T’s secret santa gave him a really cool gift! Finally he’d have a break from his usual CK Be. And De gave us East Indian biscuits which reminds me very much of kecipot.

No, we don’t celebrate Christmas because we believe in it. We join the festivity simply in the name of fun!

Friday

The text message I sent PF came to mind as I waited at the cafe. T was with Au at that time. I didn’t ponder much on the thought. But hah, whatever was happening would definitely not be approved by 18 years-old-me, and a conversation on my relation with QH the next night confirmed that.

The things I do for love.

Saturday

I asked T to dye my hair a darker shade. “Come, be my bitch. Dye my hair.” “Pffth.” “Please……”

While he dyed my hair, he didn’t allow me to touch my phone (after taking some snaps) ’cause I needed to just sit and look at him do my hair in exchange for his time. “But you’re my hairdresser, and I surf the net when hairdressers do their thing…” Cutesy pleading didn’t work. So I annoyed the shit out of him by talking shit throughout the 15 minutes, hehe!

The things he does for love.

Sunday – Xmas Day

We ate food, we talked about food, and we exchanged food as gifts. It was a wonderful Christmas lunch 😀

And guess what? I gave myself a Christmas gift too: A damn scar from the iron. ‘Cause stupid. First time burning myself in years. “Dah Bby, I can’t be a stewardess already. Got long scar on my forearm.” T scoffed in return.

At night, our dinner plans got cancelled and so we played 11 rounds of Monopoly Deal. We made a bet: Who wins 5 rounds first can make the other a slave-bitch for the night, i.e. he/she can order the other to do anything and everything. I swear, the forfeit was purely T’s idea. It was tough competition, but hehehehe, yours truly won and it was an epic ending, largely ’cause I was sneaky!

But I was really nice afterwards. The only thing I made him do was make me drinks while we watched Narcos. I initially didn’t even want to ask, but he provoked me, and I just had to! Otherwise, I would have been even nicer, hah.

Week 42 in Melbourne

​Two days of last week had been extremely hard. Back then, I didn’t understand why I was feeling super down. I knew I miss ZMA fucking badly but haha, I didn’t get why I suddenly broke down in the afternoon, like sudden burst of tears kinda breaking down. I miss hanging out with them, I miss telling them the wtf shits I’ve done, I miss them judging me yet still love me. Now, after some reflection, I think I was homesick, home-best-girlfriends-sick. Ugh, one of the worst feelings, really. Thankfully, with ZMA’s virtual xoxos and T’s tlc, I snapped out of it and I’m okay 🙂

Apart from those days, the week had been almost perfect. Almost, because I was disappointed that two of my volunteering sessions got cancelled and I had the bad ending for The Witcher 3. Hurr. But anyway, I get to hang out with some close friends and that’s perfect!

Ad flew to Melbourne for his friend’s wedding and so we got to hang out twice. Once, he came over our apartment and we talked of the past, present, future. And a couple nights later, we had dinner with him and his friend in the city. Ad’s been one of the most important friends I’ve met in university. He was a damn awesome travel buddy to Phuket in 2011 and Koh Phangan in 2012, and his family life story shapes what kind of parent I’d like to be. It was good catching up with him! 😀 

Fa also flew to Melbourne for a wedding, his sister’s. I think the last time we met was 3 years ago, but we’ve been chatting online randomly since then. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that we used to chat online almost everyday when we were 15, 16. (Woo MSN!) He is actually someone who knows the first few guys I dated and later, the first guy who was an asshole to me. And haha, we actually argued a lot because of that asshole. And heh, we eventually became less close. Anyway, spending a couple of hours with him showed that neither of us have changed much since we were teenagers, still the same lepak kinda people. Hahaha, he kept repeating that he couldn’t believe I’m married ’cause our friendship pretty much feels the same 🙂 

De and Ga were free for dinner one night and I made them eat Korean food ’cause I was craving for it! There were quite a bit of update since we last met, and I think it’s been a longgg while since I’ve heard such drama. Haha, it was intriguing and I am looking forward to know how things unfold. Hopefully not many will get hurt over the long holiday…

Week 33, 34 in Melbourne

Quick update on the past two weeks! Okay, maybe not that quick since lotsa things have happened and there are loads of photos. Ignoring that one hiccup which happened last week, everything else had been a blast 😀

1. Visiting Moonlit Sanctuary

This was my favourite part of the weeks! I’m not a crazy animal lover but I love going to the zoo or sanctuary or friend’s house with cats ’cause you get to play and selfie with the animals with no responsibility of taking care of them, heh heh. Anyway, I’ve finally heard the kookaburra’s laugh! Mighty scary, I swear.

And we fed wallabies! Initially, we thought they were kangaroos, but after a little bit of research, we learned that we’re wrong. They’re cute nonetheless 😀 I wanna keep one in my pocket and bring it around…..

Oh, owls, especially the barn owls, are another set of birds which are scary. They have a haunting look, and looking at them eat the white mice gave us the shudders…

Can’t wait for the next trip to another wild park with my nieces in November!

2. Hanging out with friends

I’ve been thinking of renting the Melbourne bike for a while and finally got to cycle on it on a random Saturday afternoon with this group of friends 😀 Weather was superb and company was super lepak. Best way to exercise! And oh, bike rental cost only $3 a day. That’s way cheaper than renting a bike for two hours at East Coast Park 😛

T and I celebrated three October babies’ birthday with another group of friends by playing lawn bowling! God knows who came up with the sport but it sure was harder to play than it looks. We were sembarang all the way hahaha, and I think my team won..? I don’t know. But it was fun and we had a delicious black forest birthday cake after the game 🙂

We also headed to Tarneit for a gathering with T’s friends. Again and again, when I meet new people, they never fail to inspire me on why they move here to build a different life for their families. And they’ve also recommended new places for me and T to visit in Melbourne… The best thing, apart from chatting with the people, was devouring the mee siam! I’ve been craving for authentic homemade mee siam since two weeks before, and the two bowls I had was shiok to the max, hehe!

3. Being artsy fartsy

My girlfriends in Singapore gifted me a voucher to go for an arts class and I went for experimental dyeing of fabric. The class was conducted by Roz at Work-Shop. It was a happy and therapeutic experience! Super love my girls for getting me such an interesting birthday present 😀

I’ve also attempted to sew tops. One was a fail (left) while the other was pretty successful (right) 😀 Sewing has taught me a hell lot about patience. I’ve set some goals for myself with various projects in mind, and I had gotten annoyed when things didn’t go my way, i.e. when I stupidly sew wrongly, but I’ve taught myself how to breathe and chill and unstitch and continue sewing.

4. Eating non-stop

Of course we’ve ate a lot more in two weeks, but these are my favourites ❤ Really grateful to share these meals with T ❤

5. Watching Inferno at a drive-in

I think we’ve done lotsa random things these two weeks. I must have repeated the word ‘random’ too many times in this post. But hey, watching a movie at Lunar Drive-In was a totally random decision too.

And haha, the main reason for all the randomness was because of our spontaneous act of renting a car, hah!

Lol, one of the random places we drove to was Chadstone Shopping Centre. My goodness, H&M was mega huge! Didn’t get to look at everything that they sell but managed to grab some tops which were on sale 🙂

6. Volunteering

One of the things I’ve signed up for is to set up and take down exhibitions to raise awareness on the support the organisation provides for the disabled. This meant that I’d have to travel to the country with Al, a 80+ year old man, who volunteered to do the same thing. Our trips range between an hour or two to the location, and another hour or two back to the city. Al has taught me a great deal on the history of Melbourne and life to fill up the travelling time, and the golden lesson/reminder from him thus far is to be humble.

These are some of the boys I’m teaching basic coding to. I think on the day that this photo was taken, my cool level has dropped, because I dabbed in a very uncool way. I should never attempt to dab. Never. Heh heh.

7. Feeling content

DID: 5795

This week, I spent less time with T due to work. Since my unit hit our peak period a week ago, I’ve been overwhelmed with tight deadlines and pressure to ensure that operations on the ground goes smooth. The challenge is real, and it will only get crazier once I start covering my colleagues when they go on leave. I lovelovelove this fast-paced insanity, and it’s absolutely satisfying when things go as planned! The only sucky thing is I spend less time with T. But I’m working on it – I may take some time off to catch up with my man 🙂

The heavy workload will continue till mid-January 2016. That will probably be the time when I present the letter to my manager. When I told my team about the plan, a mix of disappointment, fear, sadness and slight happiness was expressed. I was humbled by the whole experience, and it made me think about my early days in this organization. I was in a different department, and the job development and the work culture were not suitable for me, and hence I decided to quit three months into the job. My then boss accepted my resignation, but the management decided to offer me two other positions. I gave one a try and now, going back to the humbling experience, I am glad I made the choice to stay and work with this team. I’ve developed so much under the wings of my supervisors, fellow officers and assistants, and I’m just very grateful for it. 

I’m even more thankful to be recognised yesterday during the staff dinner for being the best individual employee and the best team-player employee for Q3. The latter marks the third recognition award I have received within the span of two years, something which I never thought could occur. Sure, I had set an expectation for myself to attain the top award (because I like to set high expectations for myself and I’m competitive like that), and had worked myself toward it, but after some reflection, I think it’s alright to not be awarded that. Knowing that I’ve done worthy work for the community is enough. 

That being said, I’m not sure what exactly I will feel when the plan finally materialises. On one hand, I know I will be excited for the future. On the other, I may not be ready to leave my career behind, something which is going on well for me thus far. I’ve got a couple of months to sort my thoughts out, and to mentally prepare myself for changes. I hope I will end up doing the right things, for my own sake and for my happiness with T. 

10

Forgetting to take photos on nights to remember.

So here’s something to remind me of what happened yesterday night: There will always be a group of boys in white. And one will be lucky, damn right. But sigh, last night’s did not beat Fai.