I take my dislike for Coldplay's "Shiver" back. I love it. The guitar intro is stuck in my head.

Winter is upon us, and I'm holding onto a very thin thread. It's freezing! I can't wait for our morning soccer training to end (this Friday morning is the last training session. Booyeah!). My whole body freezes up. My joints get stiff and my muscles go tight. I can barely feel my fingers, let alone my face. My nose turns red and I start to lose my ears. Times like these I need a nice and thick doona made of animal feathers (like duck!) to keep me warm at night. I hate waking up in the morning and not wanting to get out of bed for breakkie. Seeing that I'm barely coping with the freezing cold mornings in Sydney, I'll be deeper than six feet under this next weekend at Canberra with Nurie.

I'm playing the guitar for Week of Faith, which commences next Monday. I don't perform till Thursday and Friday. At first, I didn't want to join the WoF Band because I thought it was going to be all Christian-y and God-ish. The thing that got me to join was my passion for music. As cheesy as that may sound. Eversince I got Rosario, I've been playing so much music, the skin on my fingertips are seriously cracking and disintegrating. I've never played so much like this before. Really.

Tomorrow is the compulsory Whole School Photograph Day! Woooooo... Right. Imagine this!


See that stand? At the back? Well. Imagine, one thousand +++ students and staff on them. Tomorrow morning. We're talking about everyone - from Kindy, right up to Year 12. Staff. Teachers. Everyone. Imagine! I'm going to be somewhere up the top. It goes in order of highest Year, right down to Kindy. I had been imagining the whole structure falling apart, and this cool domino wave effect happening. Screaming. Shouting. OhmyGoding. Wouldn't that hit the front page of the daily newspaper. Goodbye world.

I just can't wait to go home! I have so much to do! So many people to see! So much food to eat! Ahhh! The thought of it is making me salivate on my poor keyboard!Catch.

I haven't done any work tonight. I'm supposed to be writing a 10 minute stream of consciousness for our study of Modernism in English. We read Virginia Woolf's "To The Lighthouse" in class today, and the excerpt we read was bizzare! It was the streaming of consciousness of four different people at a dinner party. Wouldn't it be fun though? I'll upload the document when I'm done with it.

Cheers.
PS. Happy Birthday tomorrow, Chen Su-Yi!!! (Wish she read my blog)

The Presbyterian Ladies College is holding a boarders dance tonight, and Nommy and Jude have gone as Dr. Chinpilas and Nurse Judy. I was given 5 minutes to make up my mind, whether to go or not. I had heard that an ex-classmate was going as well, and I wanted to catch him at the dance.

I've ended up here, in Jude's room (heehee, sorry Jude!) on her laptop blogging about, well, tonight, I suppose. Jude's room is looking like part of a result of Hurricane St Catherines gone very bad. Kathy, my little Korean friend, is lying on her stomach on the floor, just outside Jude's room. She's on her laptop, laughing in the middle of her emotional Korean songs. Pearl, another friend of mine who lives in the same dorm as Judy, is stretching. She catches as much exercise as she can whereever she is. Ourdoors. Indoors. Anywhere. I'm here, sitting amongst all the rejected clothing garments Jude had sorted through before the dance. Kathy is very into her MSN and Pearl is still stretching. Ahh, this is the way I should spend every Friday night.

I got my Biology paper back today, finally. I didn't do as well as I expected, but it doesn't hold a very big problem to me. The assessment was only worth 10% of this semester, what's the big deal? I got 65%, which isn't very bad. Although, I really thought I could have done so much better, like 70% +. I studied alot for that exam. More than English. More than Jap. 10%. It's only worth 10%.

Upon receiving my paper, I listened out to the conversations happening around the classroom. I wondered, how did she go and I wonder if she beat me. I'm a competetive person, when it comes to being in the same class/game as a nemesis. Or, nemeses. I have a few. Few people I dislike. Alot of them did alot better than me. This observation spurred a new flame in me.

I just couldn't let them go righ to the top. Just because I'm a foreigner, and they're the home-people, doesn't give them the right to be at the top of the hierarchial system. There's one anyway. The Aussies are all at the top. A person like me, from a country (that to my surprise, no one can figure out why I'm from Malaysia, when I'm Chinese and should be from China) like Malaysia, sit at the bottom.

I don't like being treated like some person who's opinion isn't accounted for. I don't like being pushed aside as an Asian outcast, because there is a strong possibility of me being far too impotent to do anything the Australians can do. Hell, I can even read better than some of them, and they still look down on me.

These thoughts always push me forward. It's my boost in inspiration. It's not a very positive boost, but it sure gets me going. I want to work hard enough to be at the top. Among all of them. I don't care if I can't beat the nerds of the school. I just need to be near the top.

I sound like such a freak. Hey, if it inspires me to stretch further than ever, then it's fine.

I can't wait for the Boarders Weekend, on the 9th of June to 12th of June. I'm going to Canberra to spend the long weekend with Nurie! Two weeks to go!

And on the 9th of June, the FIFA World Cup kicks off in Germany! I'm so excited!

Not forgetting Rome and Venice! I can't wait to go. Ohh, the photographic!Rae is getting very, very excited.

Cheers.
PS. Some kind of picspam too. Jude's got some good photographs on her compy!

I was suggested to be goalkeeper with Nom for this Saturday's next soccer match. After accidentally leaving little hints of goalkeeper skills in front of the coach on Wednesday morning training, he thought I should give it a go. I accepted. Hey, I wouldn't have to run around the field as much anymore!

Then I realised, there's a huge price I must pay. For not running around the place, spending all my day's energy on the field, I must carry a very heavy burden. Heavier than being a stupid sweeper, which is said to be an important position on the field (last line of defense). I am the gatekeeper. I have to ward off any trespassers. In my case, the ball. I have to protect the goals in order to save my team. In order to keep my team as far away from losing as possible.

I can't take pressure like this. Well, I think I can't. I remember the time I played doubles matches for tennis, and everytime I missed a ball or made a mistake, I'd feel quite bad about it. Goal keeping is different. It's a bigger picture. Bigger field. Bigger space to guard. It's difficult. It's got to be.

I think I'm getting sick. I have a very congested nasal passage and I think it might be a sign of a cold. Or is it flu? I don't know the difference, really. I can just tell that I might be getting sick. I can't afford to get sick! I don't want to! I have sport! I need to breathe through my nose! I want to sleep comfortably! I can't keep breathing through my mouth! My mouth will start drying up like a lake in the middle of Australia (by the way, for your information, 65% of Australia is now in drought!).

I hate getting sick. Remember the time I got chicken pox?!
I swear it wasn't even the pox. It was probably just some pimple infection. *rolls eyes*

Cheers.

I now understand why people thought the DaVinci Code movie sucked balls. It didn't, really. Ron Howard really got the basic gist of the novel and turned it into a well structured movie.

You people who thought it sucked had probably read the book before buying your movie tickets. I'm not surprised. Many people I know decided to read the book before watching the movie. That's the problem. People probably thought the movie sucked because it cut out alot of things from the novel, things didn't turn out the same way as in the novel and the novel was wayyyyy awesome than the movie because it was soooooo good.

Duh. A novel is a novel. A movie is a movie. If Ron Howard was to put the book to movie, the whole film would have ended up four or more hours long. It's a movie. You can't express every single Dan Brown description into the movie. There's a budget too, did you forget?

Crazy bastards. The movie was good. 'Nuff said.

I just realised that Rosario is a girl's name. Well, it was more like Saniya, my English and Mod History buddy, who told me. Her mum speaks Spanish. She said Rosario is a female's name. Whoops! It sounds like a guy's name anyway. I love Rosario anyway. Girl or boy.

You know, James Blunt isn't that bad after all. After watching a House/Cameron fan-made video featuring James Blunt's song Tears and Rain, James Blunt had started to grow on me. I borrowed the album off a friend and have been listening to his music all evening. I was wrong to say that James Blunt is full of emotional shit. His music is generally good. Period.

I haven't missed home so much in a long time. I haven't felt like leaving this school and boarding house forever in a long while too. It's strange, now when I think about it. It's like undusting an old shelf. I regret feeling bored and sick of doing nothing back home during the holidays. I regret feeling that way so bad. I wish I knew I loved it.


Cheers.

PS. We lost our soccer match. 2-0. Meh, it was good. The girls we played against were bloody big compared to us. We were scrawny when put next to them! Number 35 was large. Thank God she was a defender. Imagine if she was a striker! X_X

Right. I typed a major long entry about stuff that has happened in the last few days, but I accidentally pulled the plug, switching off poor ol' Catch. Aren't I a smart ass.

So instead of rewriting the whole thing, I'm going to summarise it all into dot points. Bugger.

1. I got a new guitar. His name is Rosario. Meet Rosario. He costed me more than I should spend in a whole term!
   
   
   
2. Spending the weekend out with Jude at Nom's place.
   
3. Watching The Da Vinci Code Saturday night.
   
4. Currently trying to read The Da Vinci Code before the movie. I'm only half way.
5. Kids today are so far advanced. In everything! People are having sex at 13 and are bragging about it at school!
   
6. Our boarding head mistress bought the boarding house a brand spanking new television. A 50-inch wide screen plasma !!!
7. I'm feeling very motivated in music now. I'm striving to be better. Now. Thank you, Rosario.
8. Sydney is getting cold. VERY cold.
9. I'M GOING TO CANBERRA TO VISIT NURIE ON THE 9TH OF JUNE TO THE 12TH OF JUNE.
10. We've decided on where to go on our June/July break. We're going to Rome and Venice. Here we come Italy!
    

Cheers.

I watched Mission: Impossible 3 today. Literally mind blowing! Those people who said the movie sucked: I think you don't know the difference between "good" and "bad".

I like being tagged. You know, it gives me something to blog about. :)
(Was tagged by Jude

Four jobs you've had in your life
1. Shop supervisor at Moripin
2. -
3. -
4. -

4 movies you could watch over and over
1. Snatch
2. Star Wars: The Revenge Of The Jedi
3. Mission Impossible: 3
4.

4 TV shows you love(d) to watch
1. House MD
2. Lost
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Friends

4 places you've lived
1. Jalan Bruas, Bukit Damansara
2. Jalan Setia Bakti, Bukit Damansara
3. Mont Kiara Damai, Mont Kiara
4. Albion St, Waverley AUST.

4 places you've been on vacation to
1. Bali, Indonesia
2. Switzerland
3. London
4. Phuket, Thailand

4 places you would rather be
1. Home, KL.
2. In my bed back home in KL.
3. Erm... Home!
4. Watching TV series after TV series with mum and Riana all day back home.

4 of your favourite foods
1. Roti Canai + Dahl
2. Chilli Crabs!
3. ASIAN FOOD.
4. Home-cooked food...

4 websites you visit daily
1. My FriendsLJ
2. Gmail
3. Raeville
4. Kennysia

4 tagged
1. Meh.
2. No one I want to
3. tag because this survey is
4. the LAME.

When I should be snuggled in the warmth and comfort of my bed with Sam, I thought I'd quickly commemorate Raeville's 100th post. A hundred posts is like, turning 18 or 21. It's a transition in blogging life, I suppose.

Happy 100th Post, Raeville!

I have some good news. I came back from school today, and there they were, the newsletters of the week, piled up on the mistresses' table at the bottom of the Bluesteps. I quickly take a look at it, wondering if there were any soccer results.


Wow. I couldn't believe it. My name made the newsletter again, for the second (maybe third)
time. Boy, was I proud. All that sprinting here and there, intimidating my opponents with close-range tactics (running up super close to your opponent when they have the ball) - I figured I was doing the right thing!

Exams are finally over (that's another thing I could celebrate)! I did well for my Japanese Speaking Test (received the results today 24/30). I had the final exam today, English Adv. I had never felt so unprepared in my entire... well, let's stick with week for now. It was so painful, literally. The exam lasted two hours. Two very sweaty and butt-numbing hours. I have never felt so uncomfortable in an exam before. It's not a big deal though. The exam is only worth 10% in weighting for this year. What's the fuss, right?

I'm absolutely sure that all of you would've experienced thoughts like mine during an exam. I couldn't concentrate properly on the questions. My answers came out all wrong and messy. Sentences made no sense. Ok, I suppose they did, but I was aware that they were all of Year 10 standards. This worried me, so I tried harder and harder to write a reasonable Senior English response for every question. It never came. Everything was coming out as if I was simply describing and not discussing or evaluating. I could literally hear my English teacher's voice in my head. Her intimidating shotgun-like voice. She shoots her criticism like there's no tomorrow. It hurts. Alot.

I never finished the paper, in the end. I ran out of time writing the final essay, which I had to include detailed analyses of four texts (two of which were class studies, one was a chosen text from the Stimulus book, and the other was one of our own choice) and integrated synthesis blablabla. Ahhh, I'm getting a headache from just thinking about it!

The school's In-House Music Concert was on in the evening. Jude was performing, with me as her instrumental (guitar) accompaniest (sp?). We probably only practiced Love Me Tender five or six times for this night. Judging from that approximate figure, you could tell that we really didn't make the crowd go wild or anything crazy like that. Instead, we messed up. Jude fumbled, loudly on the microphone and we had to restart the song again. I forgot the guitar intro at the very beginning of the song. But you know, all in all, I had some fun. The feeling of playing music when you know there's no one in the audience expecting you to nail every single bit of performing - it's great. It felt great at the end. It made me want to keep playing the guitar. Show them what I can do - and what I can't.

I better be going to bed. My eyes are getting ultra sore from staring at this bright white light in the midst of complete darkness.

We basically have tomorrow as a "holiday". Erm... School Athletics Carnival, anyone?

Cheers.

PS. I was supposed to play tennis this evening. For the first time in 2 weeks. But no, I had a musical commitment with Jude :)
PPS. Jude, thanks for letting me beside you for Love Me Tender. It was truly a good experience, wouldn't you agree?
PPPS. Can't wait to watch Mission Impossible: III. Has anyone seen it yet?

It's been quite a while since I last blogged. I wasn't very inspired to write an entry anyway. I've been busy studying for exams, which begin tomorrow (Biology tomorrow afternoon; Japanese speaking test Tuesday morning; and English Adv exam Wednesday morning).

I'll give a rundown on what's happened in my first week back.


My flight to Sydney was... interesting. It was the first time I flew back on a rather lengthy flight on my own. Oh, did I feel independent! The flight was full of middle-eastern families, which was quite a sight. I even sat next to one! It's not a big deal. When flying alone, you learn to sit next to total strangers. Even if they had too much to drink a night before, or never brushed their teeth since last weekend's big leaving party, which makes their breath sour and reek of cigarettes and vomit. You catch my drift. Aren't middle-eastern people, especially those who wear the full gear, not supposed to drink alcohol and smoke? Ew.

Anyway, I wasn't alone. I had the company of two friends, Ray and John, who were also returning to Sydney for school.

First day back at school, and the homework starts piling in like there's no tomorrow. Give me a break, I thought. We have exams in a week and they're force feeding homework to us. We're not fucking robots, y'know.

English draft essay is returned on the second day. Or was it the first day back. Anyway, I scored myself a very satisfied D. D for Developing. I never made that up, by the way. It's the way the markers will grade our work in Year 12 for the HSC exam. So in a way, my D is pretty good. Especially for a draft. All in all, I lost my hope that day, after receiving that result. From then on, I knew I was inevitably doomed for the rest of my days in English class.

I got an A a few days later. An A with a large circle around it, and criticism (more like personal comment) that read "I love this piece. Well written, well conceived, well created personae." This was for a creative writing response exercise we did. Wow, I thought. I just jumped from D to A in a day. I guess I do have a strength in English.

After seeing that result, I felt great for the rest of that day. I had also heard about my addition to the tennis squad training, every Wednesday evening. I had some problems trying to enter because of a late request last term. I was so bummed out about it because I really can't live without playing tennis. It's a part of my life, as cheesy as that may sound.

Everything is looking good. I started soccer training last Friday, and we played our first soccer match yesterday. We lost 2-0, but for our first match, that is remarkably superb.


On that very same day, I decided to go solo on a trip to our apartment in Gladesville. And what a brave soul I was. I caught a bus (the wrong bus, in fact!) to Circular Quay, which took an hour, then caught another bus to Gladesville. What a day. I spent a few hours back at the apartment, cleaning up a bit, cooking lunch (I can cook! Noodles.) and writing my Japanese speech for Tuesday. I got back just in time to catch Kathy on the bus, and for dinner at the boarding house.

It's been a good week. If only every week was full of surprises like this.

Oh, right. I forgot to talk about my bedroom. This is the obligatory post of my new room and dorm.


Pretty large room, don't you think? Compared to all the other room's I've had. Although, I am stranded from a few of my friends. Fortunate friends. Who have their rooms upstairs, the Year 10 Free Zone. I hate the Year 10s. They make so much noise. They never stop bitching about who had sex with who and how it started. They never stop arguing over who's even had sex and who had it before who. You know. All that girl shit.


Here. This is my desk. Click on the picture for a fullview.
When I look at my desk, I am reminded of the times in Year 9 when I had a desk 5 times messier than this. There was literally no where to put a glass of anything, or a plate of whatever. It was very much full. It proves that I don't study as much as I used to before. Looks like that Dux of Year 9 was well deserved.


My bamboo of fortune and wealth has grown a fair bit in 2 weeks. My tomodachi (Japanese for friend). I'm hoping that means something. Maybe a sign for this term. My room is rather large I suppose.

I never get enough sleep the day before flying back to Sydney. Never. It's very bad. I don't like sleeping on the plane, you see. It will keep me awake when the time to go to bed comes.

I've packed. Well, I think I have packed everything I need to. I'll do the rest later this morning. For now, I shall retire.

See you back in Sydney.

Cheers.