humans

I think the person who lives above me is a psycho. He yells at his wife... And then starts singing super loudly. I have no idea what the heck is happening upstairs.... He seems to be some giant because of the way his feet impact the floor. If I could remove something from my life forever, it would be having people live above me. It is honestly the only thing that is unsettling about the place I live in.

attempting to sleep by 10:30

because I need to start waking up early again and I think I'm getting sick bleeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggg. (currently drinking honey, lemon and mint tea and eating an apple)

I walked to the station without my glasses. I thought i'd give my eyes a rest and see normally for once. For some reason I quite often feel like falling asleep when I walk around the world without my glasses/contacts. I tend to just close my eyes and walk (not through traffic, it's all good) just through parks and places with not many people.

For brunch, mum, SY and I went to the small Sunny Cafe in Springvale. We ordered Beef noodle soup, Fan tuan (a rice wrap sort-of-thing) and ummm Lu rou fan (braised pork mince on rice) It was all pretty good, but it still cannot compare to real Taiwanese food.

Springvale seemed so far out from the city. After brunch, we looked around at the asian shops and my  Aunt told me how delicious Vietnamese pork buns are (I've never had it... but a few friends tell me they're great)

We went to a few op shops on the way back to my house. I bought a little pan (i think it's meant for pancakes or something) and this giant egg shaped candle! - This is all for my comm class. I'm planning to melt the wax down and use it for my first project.

We had afternoon tea at this place I go to on the rare occasion I get coffee. The guy always knows what I want. So it's really nice. He even gave us a discount. 

I spoke with Sarah for a little while this afternoon. She's currently in Chicago on a stop-over on her way to meet her family in London. She was in Honduras visiting her David! I haven't spoken to her properly about what's been happening for a supppper long time. So I am looking forward to the next time I skype with her! She was texting me "Jenny is in NY! We are in the same country! Weird right?" and I replied, "Ahh, totally! She was in Sydney on a stop-over to NY and I was texting her Ahhhh we are in the SAME COUNTRYYY!" So close. I hope that us three will be able to meet in the near future. I really miss the comfortably sleepy days with them.

Recently, I have been talking to my friend, Sayaka, who I met in high school when I was in Canberra. She was one of my best friends, but had to return to Japan cus her dad's posting ended. I deactivated my FB a little while ago and before I did that I fb messaged her asking to exchange emails so that we could keep in contact. And now every so often, I receive an email from her and she tells me what's been happening in her life and everything. It's actually so nice.

Mum bought me some of my most favourite things in the wooooooooorrrldddd to eat!

mangosteen love

I found this random thing.

and its face made me happy... I don't know why.

Ahh time to read.

i should have told you

so long ago.

"I'm going to miss this."

10 minutes

I woke up Saturday morning feeling super unbalanced - as in, physically unsteady. I have no idea why either... but after some time just laying about in bed, I felt better. I booked flights to Canberra so I could make Lizbeth's 21st in a couple of weeks! I am actually so keen to see her, yay.

I took the tram to meet with the Pandas in Fitzroy - to make a bike! On the way there I went past a lot of really pretty things - flowers that had already started to bloom and a few houses that were covered in vines.

They took me to Ceres and while Ariel looked for bike parts, Andii took me around the park. It was way bigger than I expected. They sold plants and organic food and there were little swallow birds flying around. I actually don't think I have ever seen swallows so close before, they were so cute.

Pandas' ran into their friends while at the park, and they had really adorable mixed kids! It reminded me this time I was at a market with Vic and I saw this little half japanese boy who had the brightest orange hair. Ahh cute. I think it'll be pretty interesting to see what my sister's/brother's (or my) children will look like, hahaha. I cannot even imagine.

Afterwards, we walked, what Ariel said would be, "ten minutes" down the road to another place where we could start to assemble the bike! (it took us... a fair while longer than ten minutes, hahaha. but i couldn't complain cus i love walking and looking at things!)

The weather was being a little bit shitty and kept pouring down every hour or so. But we managed to put together half a bike! I learnt some of the names for things and it was fun to see where all the pieces went. I always like being surprised to see how many bits are needed for one object to work. I don't know, it is exciting to just see how things work because a lot of the time we use things and actually don't know what they're made of of how they're even made. I think it's such a great thing to pull things apart and see what it's made of - I actually just remembered that I did this so much when I was a kid. I loved taking things apart and a lot of the times I couldn't put them back together or, when i did, there would be an extra piece left or something! I think the best thing I wanted to be as a kid, was an inventor.

The bike shed was filled with lots of bikes. Some were super beautiful! We met Ariel's bike friend whose nickname was Chili and Andii asked him why that was his nickname and he replied, "I don't know." hahaha. I think Ariel said he was going back to Korea soon, and I just thought "man, I really want to learn Korean". The writing is just looks so cool.

The body of my bike is a faded pink... so more of a white. I am so happy it isn't pink, hahaha. The tires are white too, so it seems my bike will be white! While we were putting it together I was already thinking of stuff I could add to the bike. I think I want a raccoon symbol somewhere (no idea why I suddenly think raccoons are cute, I think it's because of pom poko ... because real raccoons aren't as cute as the ones from that movie)

We're going to finish the bike another day cus I had to run off to meet my mum. It was really nice to see both of them and so nice of Ariel to get the parts for me. Hopefully next time the weather wont be so rainy! I am actually so keen to have a bike yay so close.

I am excited though, cus Pandas, Sarah and I are seeing Batman on Wednesday! I honestly have tried not thinking about it because I know that I will get - too - excited. Elaine messaged me yesterday asking if I had seen it.  She knows how much I love some people in that movie... so she is keen to hear my response to it. I hope it's good... I'm sure it'll be good O_O 

OK - i'm not thinking about it. eee

That night I went to my grandparent's house because mum and the aunties went out on a fine dining experience for my Aunt's birthday. When I got to their house I had my super late 5 o'clock lunch (I wasn't feeling hungry at lunch time) I was actually so hungry I pretty much inhaled my pho. It was great. (felt so full afterwards though)

I bought two moon cakes for my grandparents and they were super pleased to have them.

I spent this morning sleeping in (which is nice cus I don't normally sleep in) and then I went to my Aunt's house because she had bought a bicycle machine. I do prefer riding outside, but it was fun to watch both my aunties sit on it and "test it out" and they were keen to see how many calories they had burned in 2 minutes. HAHAHA. Mum gave it a go and didn't last too long. I had a go too and pedaled for a half hour and that felt alright, I am surprised I wasn't tired. It was funny cus YL put on some really relaxing music and it was if we were riding through a fields or through a pretty meadow and then some scary music started playing and I felt myself riding faster. I visualised some cray people chasing after me. Hahaha.

I managed to give my grandma another massage before I left, she didn't seem as well as last week. It might be the weather that is effecting her. She told me, "I think I'm dying" and she has said it before to me, but I feel like she is just letting me know more often so that I am not sad/ wont be shocked when she is gone. She's really happy whenever I give her massage. Grandpa was heading out the door with my mum and grandma was like, "no no you don't have to massage me anymore grandpa is waiting you've gotta go and not let him wait!" and i was like "No! They can wait I'm almost done!" and she put on a cheeky face, haha. It was really good to see her and also grandpa this weekend.

GG, mum and I headed to the city. I spent the afternoon having a walk around the city with mum and then having some afternoon tea.

The sky was really beautiful between the stormy weather.

While I was up at GGPP's house I looked out the window and there were layers and layers of clouds. It looked like they were mountains moving across the sky. It makes me so happy to look at them, I feel so free from everything.

I wrote words in my book last night. I haven't in such a long time. I haven't written poetry or even just how I am really feeling. I am not sure why I had stopped, or why there was a pause, but I want to write there again. It is quite calming and sometimes helps me sort out thoughts.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading all the way to Springvale for chinese breakfast! I am excited, i hope it is yum.... Last week I was craving asian breakfasts (no idea why) so I found this place in Springvale that is meant to be super good... so I guess I will write about it tomorrow or the day after! 

Nighty night!

burning matches

watching them go out

sometimes

i make myself feel very awkward...

but it is all forrrr the betterrrrrrrrr!

So, I have have been meaning to write about my week!

Tuesday's class was really good - I'm getting more comfortable with my group and I think that we're all really good at discussing things and there is a balance of skills between us. The afternoon class was actually so boring though. I think we listened to the workshop induction for over an hour. Everyone in the class was bored our of their minds and our break was cut short (which is ok in the long run,) My teacher seems alright, I kind of enjoy her possible craziness. (apparently she actually went crazy at the end of semester ... so i am hoping that wont happen this semester) and I am starting to enjoy group work and open discussions. It's a change from last semester, cus everyone in this class is kind of forced to give advice or their ideas. It does push me out of my comfort zone, but I think that is a good thing.

(lol, Vanni is singing italian songs while washing the dishes on skype right now, so distracting)

After class, I walked around and I saw the sun setting. It knew that it would be a beautiful sunset so I ran to try and catch it. I got halfway to my destination and knew I wouldn't make it in time, so I stopped by the taxidermy/stone place that I go to every couple of months. It was a half hour till closing time and I wanted to go in to see whether they had any new stones. I met the store man and he was really nice and even showed me out back to see even more stones! The back room was kind of cool, there was an elevator that was no longer in use, so it was doorway that lead into some dark void. I was pretty intrigued by it, I think I could have stared at it for ages. I really wanted to look inside it but there were so many things stacked around it, I couldn't make my way. I was pretty bad at speaking that afternoon. He'd show me lots of stuff and all I could say was, "oh my god, that is so cool. whoaaa". I found out he lived in China for a while, and we talked a little bit of chinese to each other. The extent of the conversation was me asking - "can you speak chinese" (in chinese) and him replying, "a little!" (in chinese) HAHAHA. There were some amazing stones.

I left the store feeling super happy. I'd met someone new that day, and he was a really nice guy. Yay for meeting new random people once again!

I went to Chi's house after that with Jimmy, too. We watched Masterchef and jimmy sung really loudly. He has an app on his phone that can make a normal conversation into a rap. It was pretty hilarious. I showed Chi my new song and asked her for some help with chord progressions. Oh wow! I forgot (because it was awkward, but kind of funny... but more awkward) We were waiting at the train station and Jimmy just randomly said, "IZZY. What if you had Chi's baby?" I was like O_O  (btw Chi and Jimmy are my two best gay friends ever, haha sometimes they pretend to be together just to weird everybody out) and Chi put her arm around me and said, "YOU'D BE A GREAT MUMMM!" . Jimmy is really funny and doesn't really care about what other people sees of him in public. Chi was telling me, while we still waited for the train, about how she and jimmy were on the tram and it was really silent and Jimmy, without really thinking about it, said loudly to Chi, "My sexual experience is purely guys!" and Chi burst into laughter cus the rest of the tram just stayed silent and Jimmy contemplated things.

On the way home, I had a really interesting conversation with Jimmy about sexuality. The conversation was cut really short though because I had to get off the train so I could get home. I really didn't want to get off the train though because Jimmy was telling me about his life and a lot of his thoughts on the topic. A month or so ago I read this blog post by this guy who was a gay mormon who was married to a woman and who had children. A lot of what he wrote I found really interesting and I had sent the link to Jimmy just cus I wanted to see his thoughts about it. The guy was sexually attracted to men, but was in a really happy and committed relationship with his best friend, wife and greatest love. I was tired and got off the train and jimmy said we'd continue the conversation another day.

Tech was also good on Wednesday. I was so happy to see Shannay! It was actually really great to see her again! I'm super happy she is in my Comm class!! Tech was intense. Ross is really good and I like that he is getting to know my ideas more. I was a bit sad though. I really wanted to create a kind of un-realistic/ more fantasy-like retreat for my project, but he told me to keep it "fantastical" and try and get it more realistic, in the sense that I have to consider where I get materials from to build the house/ how i get it to the top of a mountain, ect. I look forward to designing this. I really want to make something beautiful and practical.

After Tech, Dylan and I went to meet Ross & Louis at his office to talk about Animate Activate and the films that are going to be used for it. Dylan and I were asked to edit the student work from cinema class - to lengthen it and also reverse and trim some of it. We followed Louis down to one of the classrooms (the new Crash Course Cinema classroom for this semester) so he could show us how to do the things on After Effects. We went into the classroom and I immediately saw Krisi and she looked at me with such excitement and i looked back at her and jumped about happily, then ran to her and gave her kisses/received kisses. AND THEN. SHE TOLD ME SHE WAS SICK. SHE LET ME KISS HER FACE! I was like, "WHY. WHY DID YOU LET ME KISS YOU ???" she was like, "I WANTED KISSES AND CUDDLESSSS." ahahahah what a cute girl oh my god. But seriously I took great precautions afterwards (drunk sooo much tea) I dont want to get sick, hahaha.

Today I had my second MAKE class. I. Love. My. Teacher. I have already really warmed to her simply because she is so easy to listen to and is really helpful and chill. I think another reason I am liking the class is because things are so hands on. I am so happy to make things and explore.

some tests for our first paper project!

I AM SO DETERMINED TO FINISH THIS BEFORE 12AM!

I've been talking to Vanni all evening about silly things. I also spoke to Paul (Sarah, from the crab family's, brother) which was really nice too cus I was just thinking of him today, so it was so surprising to have him message me!

Vanni was trying to teach me some guitar over skype and it was hilarious cus i'm really out of it right now, i think im just really tired, and i could not understand what he was saying or what he was doing.

Note to self: Vanni is scared of washing machines.

MOON CAKE IS OUT YAY. CANNOT WAIT TO EAT ONE! : ) 

I've had a really decent week, and I have been feeling way better about life and stuff so whoohoo.

I want to go to the ghibli museum so badly. I drew some funky characters from Pom Poko into my visual diary and some classmates saw it and were giggling at me thinking that i had just drawn some random fat quirky man for funsies, without knowing that he is some cool transforming raccoon from Pom Poko!

Me - "Whoa, you wake up so early! 6AM! Cray!"
Vanni - "Oh. Oh you just noticed... But it's kind of nice, with the bike ride!"
Me -"What you bike ride to work?"
Vanni - "... Yeah... It's kind of funny. I ride my mum's bike, it's like pink with a basket. But I love it, I love it so much."

TIRED.

SLEEP.

NIGHT.

I SUCCEEDED.

- end of long post -

that's cray

... I will be properly writing something tomorrowwww night or Thursday.

But I just had to write how peculiar it was for me to just hear piano playing on my itunes and then realise it was my own music. I put my itunes on shuffle and I got pretty involved in writing my "to do list" for tomorrow, so when it played I was really unaware that it was my own. I thought it was the start to a song and I was actually thinking, "This is really soothing." Then my mind clicked and thought, "Wait hold on... why are there no vocals? Oh shiz this is MINE whaat."

... I feel so weird, but good that I truly like my own music. I suppose it is nice to know that I like the stuff I create. It's interesting to me that something that I comes from me and is made from my hands can, for a moment, feel foreign to my ears.

what's on my wall?

I am in the long process of re-arranging my room. It is a new semester and I feel as though that calls for a change in my living space. I've moved my desk up to my window so that I can look out at the sky more often, hopefully this makes me want to sit at my desk more...

In each house I live in, I always blue-tac a few things to the wall - memories or positive reminders. I think it'll be interesting to see how my wall changes over the time I live here. Unfortunately, I already took down a whole bunch of things that I no longer wanted and then categorized the remaining things (to figure out how to rearrange them) I took a photo anyway!

I think it'll be interesting for me to see what things stay on the wall and what things are taken down after time.

So right now I have:

water colour and ball point pen hand

blue bear saying "rawr"

bits of coloured shell I found at the beach

leaf

water colour and ball point pen face

blue water colour circle on recycled paper

black paper triangle from what i used to hang on the ceiling of my old apartment

three polaroid photos i took in Taipei 

paper crown 

birthday card from brother (because i like what he wrote)

postcard from sass when she was Spain

postcard from mum from MONA

postcard from banana from Switzerland

letter from sarah (crab family) from Taipei

birthday letter from mag

letter from darcy

letter from sarah x 

fuerzabruta card

nkotb bsb ticket
primary school photo

Klimt postcard

small cat drawing

small fox drawing

envelope drawing

motivational words

a poem that darcy bought for me from a random man

ma jewellery

Wow... that was so much more than I thought I had. 

you are an animal

rah rah rah rah rah (good & sleepy rahs)

I went to visit Vic at Design Made Trade on Saturday to say hello and offer any helpppp. She took a break from her stall and we went outside to meet Peggy who was tied up. Peggy sat on my lap and she was so affectionate... she wanted to lick my face a couple  of times... I did not let her lick my face. Vic and I plan to go to see the jewellery exhibition happening at the NGV sometime next week. She seemed pretty exhausted from the trade fair and I hope she gets a gooooood rest tomorrow!! She was laughing at me when I decided to try and have another conversation with the guy in the store next to hers. Apparently he is looking for an intern and I am keen on applying... but am afraid of how much more awkward I can be. I don't know why ... Maybe he and I are on really different wavelengths.

I spent the afternoon and night at my grandparent's house. Mum cooked Sarawak laksa and it was really delicious. I think it's super high is sodium and has lots of coconut cream though, so I have been a complete fatty this weekend, indulging in the goodness of my mum's cooking.

It was my kind-of aunt's birthday (my unrelated aunt) and we had cake and ice cream.... : ( it was yum too.

I stayed up watching TV (I don't have a TV in my apartment, so whenever I am at my grandparent's I always seem to watch at least one thing) I was watching masterchef repeats really late at night and they were making stacked up desserts. One contestant was making this see-through candy box and she melted the sides together and it reminded me of joining metals together.

I woke up today to texts from Jenny who had just arrived in Sydney. She was on her way to NY and Sydney is her stop-over. It was actually so so sad that she was in Australia but not in Melbourne. I felt as though I could literally feel her presence. I hope she's having a good flight ~

I watched Rango with mum and a lot of things died in Rango. I hardly remember any of my children's movies having characters die... I haven't seen Bambi yet.

I gave my grandma a foot massage and talked to her about her life. She told me that she lived in the same flat till she was 12 and then moved house. She had 7 servants - one for each child in the family. The servants carried her bag to school and brought them food at break time. I think the word "servant" is probably not the best one to use, in chinese they are called "ahma" and it's more like an aunty who lives with the family, but in this case there were 7 living with her family. My grandma's first animal was a cat.

After we had lunch, my grandma called me into the room she was sitting in and was waving 30$ at me and said, "take itttt." and I was confused and said, "umm, what for?" and she pointed at her legs as she said, "for the massage!" ahhh, I found it so silly want to pay me for that. Hahah, I laughed and told her that I gave her a massage because I love her and I want to make her feel happy. After a while of waving the money at me, she refused to put it back in her wallet and gave it to my mum instead (who was happy to receive it) =   =

While was massaging her, I was just hoping to give her legs and feet some comfort and rest. It might sound silly, but a lot of the time I give massages I feel like I am absorbing the pain or tension from the person.

Anywayyyy today was nice. Mum and I had afternoon tea together at the NGV and I walked home from there.

When I got home I was so exhausted. Vanni called me on Skype and I told him I was way to tired to communicate, so he played me songs on the guitar which almost lulled me to sleep. I'm going to enjoy the few weeks with Vanni being in almost the same time zone as me.

I have noticed that have unintentionally associated a lot of my friends with animals or just have friends that associate themselves with animals. Some people just look like the animal, some of them have the animal traits.

Friends have associated me with llama, cat, bear and carrot. Llama is the funniest out of the animals. Viv and Sak call me the that =  = cus of high school moments in Taipei, haha. Carrot because I drink carrot juice and my friends thought it was weird.

Ok, so I've made a quick list of the animals some of my friend's are + another list of non-animal things I call certain friends that i can think of. (All these people know I associate them with this animal/thing, it's not just me being a cray)

bear
cat
crab
lamb
panda
unicorn
underwater bee

--
banana
rainbow
paper queen
potato
wifey

our shared love for PAUL bakery! Hahaha

Wow I just thought... If I found someone who I associated with the sky... I'd probably love them intensely HAHAHAHAH oh god i'm tired.

sleep sleep sleep yay

today i'm dressed in C major

TED - I listen to color

shit communication

is shit.

I feel like a huge hypocrite for what I am about to type - simply because when I was younger, or even last year, I was a huge offender for not communicating to people (or person - which is more appropriate to last year) how I felt or, in last year's case, why the friendship wasn't good between us and why I couldn't sustain it. I ended up just not being able to talk to her or be around her and she had no clue to why I just suddenly disappeared and stopped communicating.

I honestly look back and think that I should have just told her what was happening and what she did to make me not want to be around her anymore. It is something that I cannot go back and fix, but I will always make sure that I never do that again.

I am quite oblivious to things - this may because I am disconnected to many things or maybe just because of things in the past that make me want to be unaware... Or maybe it is some self esteem sort-of-thing. Nonetheless, when something happens to a friendship and I don't quite understand what exactly has gone wrong, I tend to wait it out or wait for some resolution to come about... somehow. If it is me that has an issue I will most always bring it up and sort it out when becomes words in my mind. It is so much better this way because then the issues don't grow into an uncontrollable and monstrous black hole.

If you have an issue, tell me. It hurts much less than having to wait and wonder what the is up.

---

Today was good. I went to the exhibition building in Carlton gardens and looked after the store while Vic took Peggy for a walk. I met a really nice retail lady from Sydney. She thought I wasn't in Uni yet... Yay 21 hasn't made me age suddenly. Hahaha. I also wandered to the store next to Vic's to see this video of this guy using the printing press to make cards and other brightly coloured paper things. I looked at the guy looking at me and, being really awkward, just like stared back and was like, "this is cool." and I meant it! It was really very cool to see a video on how it is all done. I wanted to ask him to teach me, because the tools looked really cool. The conversation we had was very stop and start. It was mainly me just awkwardly asking questions and him giving really short answers.

I was happy to see Vic and also to get my own badge thing with MY NAME ON IT. Like... Actually printed! It is just paper, but it was exciting!

Before class I met with Michael and Steph (3rd year) - they are the people in my first group project. I was worried about working with Steph because the first time I met her she was saying things like, "I don't want to get anything lower than an HD!" and "I don't like working with shit people" which made me worry and stress a bit. However, today was really good and really chill. We went to ACMI because I wanted to show them the Anthony McCall projection (the one I went to last semester when I was doing my final project) The exhibition was CLOSED for that day. Such bad timing I have with this exhibition!! So instead we sat together and discussed ideas for what we could create. It was really good communicating ideas our ideas with each other. We all seem to be quite on the same page, and open to things. It felt good.

I was so tired in class - gosh Friday classes are always so sleepy - It was even more sleepy than usual because we were in the computer labs in building 10 and, because we are doing projection, all the lights were turned off. My teacher was talking continuously for the whole lesson, I can't believe he wasn't tired. But he was so good at explaining things and he definitely knows his stuff. The programs were very intimidating, but I am really happy to just begin it and practise! We did a lot of simple tests and watched more awesome videos. It was definitely an intense lesson (for me) simply because I felt like I was being fed so so much information.

WATCH - TED: Capturing memories in video art

Afterwards, Frankie, Jimmy, Sarah and I went to the Gertrude street projections. On the way there we saw fireworks in the distance (the ones that are at docklands every Friday this July) The projections were pretty good. I took lots of photos. I kept looking at the sky though. The trees were silhouetted. There were layers of different coloured white clouds on a dark dark blue sky. It was really beautiful.

interactive projection (the trees wilt when you go up to them) these guys kept running up to the wall and saying "die die!" as they clawed the air like animals haha

limitless

Today was significantly better than yesterday.

I spent most of the morning in the bed trying to do a reading for my studio. I felt as if the words all repeated themselves, but some of them stood out and seemed quite magical.

I spoke to Jenny in the morning about tattoos. Eddie recently finished his massive full sleeve tattoo and it actually looks beautiful and rad. I love Eddie! I often draw things on me and imagine what i'd be like if it were permanent.

Went to Uni in the middle of the day (it's so weird having most of my classes starting at 2:30) and when I got there I was quite... shocked at my class. I am not fond of at least 5 people in it... So it is possibly the worst class of people of all my classes. I feel as though I got bad luck choosing this comm. As the class went on, I because super fond of my teacher. It seems she is down to earth and spends one-on-one time with students. It was the first comm class today, so it went by really quickly. I am hoping to learn how to work with wood and acrylics over the semester. Michael came up to me in class and I KNEW he was going to tell me all about Batman and, before he could say anything, I put my hand out and said, "Nooooooooooooo o o o oo  don't say anything!! I haven't seen it yet! Ahhhh." and he said to me, "All I will say is... It was awesome." And I cried a bit inside. So looking forward to seeing it.

Oh my. My sister just tagged me:

dying

Anyway. I really enjoyed the short MAKE class. I'm looking forward to learning more skills and finding places to salvage things.

Afterwards I met with Sarah for coffee and marcaroons. I went to this place that I have been to a couple of times. Sarah ordered our coffees and she was about to say "Two pistachio macaroons!" but then the guy looked at me and said, "You want pistachio macaroons don't you?" and sarah was like O_O "... how did you know!" and he replied, "She loooooves them!" 

Hahahahaha. I do like them... They are great. I don't even go there that often. This guy has a good memory!

We talked for what seemed to be a really long time. I think it was just around 3 hours. But I know by the time we stopped, I was starving and so exhausted. The conversation was really interesting though. I learnt a fair bit about her. We had such a deep conversations about infinity, belief and our lives. Every so often we'd be manage to sneak in "CHRONICLE POWERSSS!!" - I accidentally shifted the table with my leg and she looked at it, her face was like O_O and she said slowly, "... did... I... move that??" and i replied, "........ i moved it with my foot. Did you think you had the powers?" 

It was really good. I felt like we both got to understand each other a bit more. The conversation came really easily. It is so interesting to learn about people. On a less deep note, we also talked about giant bear dogs and obese birds. I imagined this massive owl as big as a bear and I kind of cried because I thought that it would be THE BEST PET EVER. I would actually love it. There was a good balance of talking between us.

I am really happy to be getting to know Sarah. It's actually probably the first time in forever that I have not been a psycho in getting to know somebody. Every time we hang out it is pretty spontaneous and chill. 

I went and got take away from the Japanese place I like on Chapel Street. I don't go there as much because the chef always makes conversation. He's really nice, but I see him looking at me when I sit down and I feel weird. The food is really good... so, I can't help but go back. I got miso and edamame. Was delicioussssss.

I got home planning to study but I had received a bunch of messages from Vanni on facebook. He's in Taipei at the moment which is super good because the time difference between us is only 2 hours!! I went on skype and talked to him for a couple of hours and now it is 11!! Ahh. It was really nice though. I like making people laugh and Vanni finds me funny so he laughs a lot and that makes me laugh. Actually, today he and sarah both said that I have such an emotional face. 

I know I move my eyebrows lots... I cant help it!! I think it is true though. My face does things and I don't really notice. People laugh at my face. Darcy literally just typed to me that he had a dream that I came to visit him at the shops down the road and I stood outside the bakery and did a creepy face. He said, "I can officially say, I've had a nightmare about your face."  ... This boy, really. THIS LADY IN THE ELEVATOR LAUGHED AT ME WHEN I WAS EATING MY MINTY. 

Sigh.

Anyway. Today was quite happy and free. I'm happy right now!

Goodnight.

PS. 

From now on, whenever I do a song list, I'm going to start also including links to the songs! So if anyone is keen on hearing them, they can just click click click.

walnuts are yum

Some songs I have been listening to recently:

Crave You - Flight Facilities
How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep - Bombay Bicycle Club
Silk - Giselle
We Built This City - Starship
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' - Michael Jackson
Another One Bites The Dust - Queen


---


It's the early morning. I opened up iTunes and put on a couple of the piano songs I recorded. They make me feel so calm. When I create songs on the piano, I do them on the spot. I feel as though the piano understands me and therefore I can immediately express what I feel inside through the notes.

Last night I spent all evening talking to Jenny. I'm really so glad that we met randomly. She is my first ever internet friend that I met in person. She just so happened to be studying at the same language university as me when we met on tumblr. I still have our first conversation ever saved on tumblr. Pretty sure I was going to walk past your class and wave like a psycho, hahaha. Oh man.

hahahah you will name your daughter izzzyyyyyy <3

Anyway, point being that she made me feel a lot better about what was happening around me. So thank you Jenny you are great : )

I'm going to embrace the day.

today has gone downhill

It started off really well. I woke up to a text from Vic who asked me whether I wanted to come over to help her out with setting up her stall. I met her at the shop and while she walked Peggy (her little dog) I spoke to Mark about my holidays. Afterwards, Vic and I headed to the Exhibition Building (where Design Made Trade) is held. I had to wear a bright orange vest so the security guards knew that I was working there. It was really nice that Vic wanted me to give advice about the placement of her stuff. Anyway I love helping her and seeing how those things work.

I went to Uni and met with Dylan, Michael, Viv, Sarah and others for our tech class. I'm am actually so excited for tech. The idea of making retreat is very appealing to me. I like being around Dylan because he is such a calm guy and is really positive to be around. I'm happy Ross is my tutor. He seems quite chill but also really knowledgable. I want to improve my drawing skills and computer skills while in his class. The main thing is becoming more confident in myself. That is one of my aims this semester.

Being home tonight has been a shit in the face. Jing has been excessively loud in every way and her friend and boyfriend have just taken a dive into my personal life and I just want them to get out get out get out now. I don't even want to be at home. There are so many places I would rather be right now.

I am feeling such a mixture of being super sad, feeling misunderstood and also angry. Having people that don't know me at all, tell me what I want or what I need is really horrible. I feel really gross.

I spoke to Jenny and cried a bit. It made me feel better. 

I think it's time for more guitar, a long shower, tea and then sleep.

Let the day end.


P.S

The sunset today was the best. It was the highlight of the day. There was a giant cloud of red and I walked after it for a half hour because I wanted it to stay in my mind forever. There is something so peaceful and pure about sunsets. I will always love that aspect of them. They will always rid my mind of worries and of sadness and fill it with calm. I am so thankful for the skies.

what's going on!

I've been listening to 4 Non Blondes' "what's up" lately. Jimmy played it the other night and I was instantly taken back to childhood days. I think it was on the radio when I was a kid.

So first day of semester two today. I'll write about it after I quickly write of the weekend.

Chi invited everyone around for drinks and games at hers. Frankie made some vodka gummy bears. Soooo... She basically put a whole lot of gummy bears in vodka for a couple of days until they soaked it all in. They just tasted like normal gummy bears which is good and bad. Hahaha.

We played monopoly and also this murder game. It was fun despite the insane amount of PDA happening between this girl in my year and her boyfriend. I'm pretty sure at one stage she was like balancing on his back and his head with her arms spread out like she was Rose and he was the Titanic. It was pretty horrific. All of us had no idea what was happening or why it was happening at all. Some PDA just needs to not exist, ever.

The rest of the night was good. Most everyone left and it was just me, jimmy, chi and sarah. Jimmy left after we had meegoreng. Chi and I played guitar and sarah sung along to the songs we played and we all sung together at times, too. It was actually really nice and chill. We stayed the night because it was so late.

I came home the next day and Jing said that her (new) boyfriend had asked her, "Are you sure Izzy's not got a boyfriend and that's where she stayed last night?" - Jing already told him that I don't have a boyfriend and he was like, "But she's really nice, she should have a boyfriend. Why doesn't she have one?" Boyfriend of my roomie, please understand that I'm super content with not wanting anybody right now. I'm pretty sure I don't want to reach the point where I am seeking somebody to love, because I don't want it to happen like that. I suppose I am happy thinking, "whatever happens, happens." I might end up alone with my cat (so technically - happy as ever) or I might actually find someone that's right.

Despite being OK with being single, his questions kind of made me uncomfortable as though ... I should have someone right now. They made me reflect things that have happened in my life and like... I don't know... how those things have gradually changed my thoughts on who I want to be with sort-of-thing. bleh bleh bleh.

I'm always so happy to find people that I connect easily with. I hardly ever want more than just having an rad cake friendship with that person.

I feel like I've been observing myself for the past couple of years, but I noticed that over those years I exhausted myself trying to befriend certain people that seem awesome to me. I normally have super high expectations of the person and am so open to learning about them and therefore, most always, give a lot of my being to them (time, thoughts, emotion & i forget about what i want, ect) Once I actually calm down, I realise that I'm not happy being their friend because of so many reasons (they are cray crays, they take advantage of me being nice, ect) I am left feeling pretty empty, like a part of me is gone... And I hated that so much. This hasn't happened since last year (yay for being calm about meeting new people) but mmm.

I think since forever, I have had those moments where I am overwhelmed with the need to get to know somebody because of reasons that make me think that they're great. These people often pop into my life unexpectedly and I am in blown away by them. My head doesn't stop telling me to "get to know them" until I actually finally do. It is a pretty horrible cycle and quite often leads me, as i wrote before, to agony, but I suppose it has its upsides - I end up meeting a lot of people, learning new things and seeing how people think in different ways & sometimes those people aren't crays and sometimes they actually are awesome and we become really good friends. These attractions aren't at all physical.

I think I am very interested in people (not all people, I hate crowds roar roar roar!) but some people are beautiful (mind and soul) and when I initially am drawn to somebody I feel like I must confirm this, just for the simple sake of doing so. Just so I know.

Anyway, I'm typing too much.

OK so uni was pretty good for the first day. I like both my teachers so far. I don't know many people very well in my class so it is actually kind of nice! I am only disliking that there is so much group work. I would like to do just one assignment by myself.

Caroline showed us so many videos that made my mind explode. Here are a few:

Wooden Mirror

iPad + Long Exposure

2D landscape into 3D

I really am excited for this class, purely for the sake of learning the technical things.

We also went for a walk to this little exhibition in another RMIT building. There were lots of different materials that seemed to do magical things. There was a metal sheet that was as strong a steel but was 90% air, a paint that had magnetic qualities, another paint that was black that turned white when heated, concrete that you could see through and other crazy stuff.

This one girl in my class randomly came up to me (she's from Taiwan, yay Taiwan I miss you) and was like, "You are pretty!" and my face just went O_O and I responded, "... You're pretty too!" and she was like, "noooo noooooo...." and like hid her face and I was in confusion and shock and didn't know what to do - why do these things happen to me -

I saw into Andii upstairs before class and she was talking to Sean (my friday teacher) So I ran up to her and put greeted her by tapping my head on her shoulder (I actually honestly do not think about these things, it is only afterwards that I thought that maybe that would have looked weird, oh well!!) It was nice to talk to her briefly. She said that she and Ariel knew Sean through a friend.

I went downstairs to class and Caroline sent me to get some papers just outside and I ran into Sean in the corridor and we talked a bit too. He seems pretty shy but he knowwwws his stuff! I was like, "You know pandaaaaaas! They're great!" and he responded something like, "Yeah! They seem really nice. They are like one being in the way they think." and I laughed cus it reminded me of Ariel saying that he and Andii were like twins. After talking to Sean, I became more excited for Friday classes and I really hope it's good ahh.

I am happy that Viv and I have Tech classes together. If we didn't then we would totally not see each other for one and half years (if we both get into exchange / if i end up applying for exchange for second sem next year)

I made myself a new solid memory.

memory of my first best friend Silky, my black cat - will be making it in silver then oxidizing

empty lounge room in the morning, I still like the light

The weather was so windy today, but that meant that the clouds would be super beautiful and wispy. The sunset was amazing.

i said, "read"

... My teacher has already sent me 50 pages worth of reading.

I'm half crying and half laughing. I think that now is a good time for me to start loving reading.

want

THIS

just start

During the holidays I did a bit of drawing. It was really odd cus normally I draw when I'm thinking lots and just need to release energy... I don't usually think about what I'm about to create, I just do it, but while I was in Canberra I was completely relaxed. I picked up my pencil and I wanted to do some still life drawings. Before I even managed to put pencil to paper I just got super scared and thought, "... what if I cant draw that tree? ... what if what I draw doesn't look like a tree?" and then immediately afterwards another part of me sighed in response and said, "How are you going to get better and get more confident if you don't even begin?"

SO. I'm scared of starting a lot of things, but I shouldn't be. I have to start somewhere and things will always be unfamiliar at the beginning. I think I might throw myself into a few things this semester and just TRY NOT TO THINK ABOUT IT too much so I actually get to do it. We'll see where life goes.

Yesterday I had brunch with Elaine at Green's on Sydney Road (mentioned this place in an earlier post - they are the ones with the pancakes) I did not get pancakes though. I got french toast with a poached pear and it was yum but the serving was huge and next time I will need to share fo sho.

french toast with yogurt, cinnamon and poached pear

We went to Vic Markets and I found....

MANGOSTEEEEEEEN yum yum yum (best fruit ever)

I took Elaine to meet Vic. I haven't been interning at Vic's for almost a month cus I have been holidaying in Canberra. I felt so bad for not being there to help out... But she was happy to hear about my holidays & birthday party awkwardness. It was really nice to see her again. I think seeing/talking with Vic every week is something that I have missed. 

i bought collected poems! now I have all the Plath i will ever need

I had coffee with Elaine at this really italian place. I ordered a "Latte" and after the waitress walked off, Elaine pointed out this sign on the wall that said "It's not "Latte" - Latte is milk. You order "Caffe Latte"! - Coffee with milk! " and I was so worried I was just going to get milk... (I got coffee. It's all good.)

We said our goodbyes and I ran off to this university collab meeting. I had no idea what it was really really about... But one of the teachers mentioned something about it before the balloting speeches and I wrote down the address and the time and thought "I should just go to see what it was about". Dylan was going to come with me but he had work and when I got there... I surrounded by graduates and fourth years and I couldn't help but ask, "... I'm in second year... Is it ok that i'm here??" it was open to whoever so that was really good.

We met up with these people from a furniture company in Melbourne who are planning to have a open day & night club over a couple of days to promote their business. We were basically discussing what would be shown on a large LED screen and also on a number of large plasma screens around the interior. A mixture of texture projection/ images and also their own furniture. It was super interesting.

I got to know this girl from fourth year called Emma from this town just out of Beijing. She did Crash Course Cinema with Louis a couple of years ago and her one was awesome -these giant fish balloon things floating around the GPO. It was really atmospheric. We talked a fair bit about lots of things and she seemed to know her stuff on computers and Ross (one of the interior design teachers) said her thesis was on air or something! We added each other on fb and i when I checked facebook today she had written on my wall saying, "Mmm...Lovely 小玲 同学, very interesting you are : )" ( 小玲 同学 - the first two characters mean  "little Ling" - Ling is the second part of my chinese name and the second two characters means classmate, for those who don't know chinese)

I don't know how to respond when people write things like this. She's really nice though, so i'm looking forward to working with her!

After the meeting I went to uni to check which classes I was in. I met Jimmy there and he had these really nice shoes... They were these two material ones that i've liked for ages. I tried them on and almost ran away with them. But they were way too big for me : ( 

I got my first preferences for both Comm and Studio classes. I don't know how they'll be but I'm sure to write about them in the future. My Comm class is Make which means I have a 4 day Uni week. I don't really mind that though. For Studio I got this one called "Expanded Screen" I don't even know how to explain it but it seems quite a lot about projection and stage work. The girl teacher said there would be lots of reading and I am not keen on that aspect already. Hoping I get my first preference to Tech. Not sure when those classes come out though!

Michael and I are in two classes together which should be really good. I haven't been in any studio classes with him before, but we're both pretty interested in stage work, so it'll be nice to get to know him more! I texted him, "Dude we're in the same classes!!" and he replied "Yay! So excited!"
Shannay, Michael and I are in the same Comm class again. I'm so looking forward to stressful days with them. It's just quite funny.

---

I couldn't really sleep last night. I think I was hungry because I forgot to eat after the coffee. I woke up early and decided that I need to start doing things so I began making something new.

making myself a black cat

I also wanted to just play around with paint. It's actually be like a whole year since I've properly touched paint so I'm slowly going to get into it again.

back

I dreaded the plane flight back to Melbourne... not so much because of the destination, but because I have somehow managed to develop a fear of being in planes. I love being in the sky and seeing massive clouds and thunderstorms and everything from up above... I just don't like not being connected to the ground. I feel like nature can do away with me with a simple push... But I suppose it really can - whenever and where ever I am.

Today I had to go to Uni to do balloting. The day before Krisi texted me with such happiness about seeing me and I was super happy to see her lovely face again. I felt really good about going back, but when the day came I was filled with anxiety and I just really did not want to be there.

I had lunch at Sarah's before heading to Uni. She made some soup with bread and cheese and that was yum. We talked about holidays and random things that made us laugh. We were both not keen on going to Uni. She told me she didn't like superhero movies and I almost de-friended her on the spot. SUPERHEROES ARE COOL. She told me how she liked the powers that the guys in "Chronicle" had. She told me she felt jealous when watching the movie cus, "she wanted the powers". & I laughed a lot at the image of her leaving the cinema feeling super displeased and jealous of the fictional characters. She said if she walked past a cave she might just go in there to try and obtain, "Chronicle POWERS!!" and I replied, "... The headlines of news the next day will be: "Girl found dead in cave: Last words heard, "GIVE ME CHRONICLE POWERRRSSS.""

We got to Uni and checked the posters to see what classes were being offered. I really dislike crowds of people. There are just so many voices and feelings. Especially in relation to Uni. Some classmates came up to me and said, "THEY USED YOUR IMAGE!" and I was in total confusion. I found out they used my image for the Crash Course Cinema communications class. I didn't really know how to react!

The presentations were mainly good. There were only three Studio classes I wanted to do and one of them was pretty risky cus my friend had that teacher and said she wasn't that good. She didn't actually seem like she knew what she was talking about, however the guy she was working with seemed super knowledgable.

I suppose  no matter what I get, I just need to make the most of it.

I've been feeling pretty distant from a few friends from last semester. I didn't feel comfortable around them or enjoy their company. I feel like I am too often just "OK" with things and maybe do not take into consideration how being around certain people makes me feel or how they affect me on a subconscious kind of level. I realise these people openly assume things about me. They tell me how I am and how I feel and I normally just don't say anything because I'm either confused or I can't be bothered to "correct" them. I notice that I feel uncomfortable when people make random statements about me - as if they know me to the core of my being ...  When I'm not even there yet. I'm still learning so much about myself all the time.

It was nice to see some people though - Krisi is like sunshine with her lovely smiles and positive air. Dylan was good to see too, he's just such a good guy! It was nice to see Ariel too, it's been a really long time since i've spoken to him properly and i have missed our talks.

I had to meet Elaine right after balloting so I was in a rush. When I was filling in my forms, one of my classmates that I kind of don't talk to all that much, but who I've wanted to get to know forever but haven't been in any classes with came up to me and told me she saw my Crash Course Cinema image during the presentation (the lady announced to everyone that I did it and I went so red arrghh) and she said, "Of course it'd be yours! It was really lovely!" and I was like... You are great and make me feel really happy inside ahh thank you. It's never happened that someone has come up to me and said that. I suppose my work hasn't ever really been shown. It was nice. I'm really happy especially after all the work that went into it.

I finished putting in forms for Shannay, Sarah and myself and went to the pidgeon hole to pick up my feedback for history. I already knew what I got for the class because marks came out a while ago, but when I looked at the feedback I was sitting with Chi and Jimmy in a small cafe and I could not help but be filled with sadness because I saw what I got for each criteria section. I got HD, HD, HD, P, C and I thought to myself... that equaled a 69. It was worse because she marked things wrong, she gave me 50% on one section and said that that was a D. THAT'S A P. I suppose D and P look pretty similar.

Chi had to calm me. The day was just too much. I don't know if I want to keep doing this course. It's been a year and half and I still feel like I have not found my peace here. It hurts.

I met with Elaine afterwards. We went to Red Spice Road for an early dinner. It was so filling I insisted that we walked all over the city before returning back to our homes. Over dinner we talked about a lot of things. She told me that I was studying what she wanted to do. I told her she needs to just do things and not say she wants to do them, because saying that you want to do does nothing. She was worried about not liking studying something new and I said that she will never know unless she tries. There are so many short courses out there and it's just good to do one so you get a taste and from that you can get such a better idea of whether that thing is for you or not.

I did the glass class (photos in an earlier post) and it was literally like 20 minutes with this teacher and I loved it. I loved it so much. He did a lot of the work for me, all I did was forming and pulling the glass... but it made me really happy and now I feel like I want to know more. I think later in the year I am going to be doing a weekend glass blowing class.

There are many things that I wish to try before I die. I always thought I would die young, so I suppose I really have to start NOW. I'm so happy with the things that I have picked up - Metal work, Guitar, mandarin and film. I will always try and get better at those.

Elaine asked me, "what would make or break you liking somebody??" and my head was just like, "TAAAAALENNNNNTT." I have realised that since forever I have seriously admired and adored people who have talent. I think this has made me want to get better at things. There are just so many things to learn and to feel and to try and understand.

We walked all over the city. Elaine was quite often telling me to walk slower... It was hilarious. We were trying to find a place to just sit and talk so Elaine could, "just stare at my face". We found one place and she was taking forever to decide whether she wanted to go in or not. Like a good 5 minutes and I was standing there super fidgety and waiting and I was like, "Arrrghhhh you are sooooo slowww why!!!" and she told me, "I'm giving you pain for giving me painnn!!" *points to legs*
We went to this bookshop after deciding not to go sit and I was so keen on buying Plath ... "Collected Poems" (anxiety calls for Plath) but they didn't have it!! Need to buy.

I am glad Elaine is here from Canberra. She won this prize to go to this band's studio. It's nice to have an old friend here.


HAHAHAHAH I just dyed Jing's hair red (just the tips of them, cus the colour had faded) and she just washed it out and it looks really goooood yayyy!! She's super happy. Hahaha yelling, "whoooohooo SUCCEESSSSS!!" from her room and then running to my room and showing me again and saying, "sooooo COOOOOOOOOOOL!!" Hahahaha good stuff.

I'll end this post with: WATCH THIS!

P.S
I'm totally buying this from amazon.

why is there no sun!!

Ugh Melbourne!

hi melbourne

I don't think I missed you at all.

But I already miss the perfect winter & the peaceful bike rides.

friend, piano, bicycle and cat love

I took a visit to my old Primary school. It was pretty crazy to see how the large window I saw as a child now seemed quite small. I visited a classroom with my mum (the teacher there is one of our friends) and the little children were all so well mannered and super cute. I walked down the long corridor and saw all the photos of the whole student body. The photo above is one of me and my friends in Kindergarten.

While I have been in Canberra, I have spent time with a lot of friends, shown my Melbourne roomie around my home town and re visited things from the past.

"There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake" is one of my all time favourite kids books. The cake that the hippopotamus ate looked DELICIOUS to me as a kid.

I have also spent a good deal of time staring at my adorable cat, Taicheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eee ee e!

As I wrote previously, I have been riding my bike a lot and really enjoying it. The other day, Darcy and I met up and went for a bike ride to Western Park. I used to visit this place as a kid. My dad used to chase me through the wooden playground. It isn't there anymore. Some cautious parents got it removed because it was "too dangerous" and they were worried their kids would fall over and hurt themselves. (... Kids do that all the time?)

Anyway, I remember the place being a fortress. My dad would walk on the outside of it and make scary noises while my friends and I would run away and scream. He'd sneak up on us and catch us.

Despite the wooden playground not being there, things were still familiar. Darcy and I walked through what used to be the old tree maze. A lot of it has disappeared now... In its place I found many interesting and pretty things. 

We climbed up the big double spiderweb and I watched this young girl climbing up. She looked too young to climb and I moved away from her because I didn't want her to be scared of me. Her parents were watching her from five meters away and suddenly she fell (not too far) and her parents rushed over and told her "good job! you climbed really high!" and this little girl said in such concern for herself, "... I hope I didn't break any of my bones!" and she looked at her arms and her legs. She didn't cry at all. She was like three years old. SHE WAS ADORABLE. 

Afterwards, Darcy wanted to skip stones and so we walked to the lake and he skipped them really far. The majority of mine didn't go far, but one did! Yay improvement!

Just before we left the lake, Darcy said, "I wonder how far I can throw this rock!" and ran and threw the rock really far into the lake. & I said, "Let me try..." so I grabbed a rock and did a little run, and I ACTUALLY TRIED TO THROW IT. I REALLY DID. It hit the very edge of the lake. Literally like 1 meter from my foot. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I AM SO RETARDED. I was laughing so much at myself and Darcy was laughing at me. It was horrific but hilarious. I obviously curved my hand WAY TOO SOON. It was embarrassing.

at the park

In the evening (Sunday) Elaine and Harry came over for a GAMES NIGHT! We played Cranium for most of the time. Eating skittles, blueberry muffins and listening to 90s music. Laughing at each other and with each other.

I had such a good night. Cranium is such a fun game. It's a mixture of trivia question, pictionary, making things and singing/acting things. GOOD STUFF.

The childhood music was great. It wasn't just the 90s actually.... I just listened to them in the 90s. The macarina came on and all of us couldn't help it but just STOP what we were doing and DO the macarina. Amazing. I love these people.

After Cranium we played Truth or Dare jenga. So the jenga blocks have dares on them or questions on them that you have to answer. I thought the Dares were super tame ("say the alphabet backwards" or "swap a piece of clothing with somebody") until I picked up...

beautiful. thanks jenga.

Elaine and Harry cracked up laughing and told me I could smell anybody's feet in the HOUSE. So we snuck upstairs to where my parents were. My mum was sitting on the sofa with my dad. Her legs were stretched out onto the table with my cat sitting on them. Without saying anything, I sat down by her legs and slowly moved my head towards her foot until my nose rested on it. I breathed in. Patted the cat and ran away.

All mum said was, "make sure you don't disturb the cat!"

Harry and Elaine laughed so much at me afterwards, hahhahaha. 

I had such an awesome night!! rahhh!!

Sarah X sent me the cutest card! It was unexpected and really really lovely to get this in the mail. I'm really happy that my friendship with her is slowly growing. I think she's the person that I've kept in contact with the most from Melbourne. I really do appreciate the effort she made to just send me a birthday message : )

--

While Jing was here visiting (only for three days) we went ice skating with Shannon! I LOVE ICE SKATING. IT IS GREAT. Shannon and I raced around the rink a couple times when we first got on the ice while Jing clung to the wall. Jing forgot how to ice skate because she hadn't done it in a really long time. For most of the night we held her hands (one of us on either side of her) and helped her skate around the rink. We all had a really fun time. I love ice and I love the cold air. I should do it more often.

--

During the week I have been talking lots with my lovely Jenny (of the crab family)!! HI Jennnyyyyy thanks for being patient with my blog updates HAHAHAH <3

She's in NZ at the moment and I have been meaning to visit her! She updates her tumblr blog + instagram with such beautiful photos of NZ skies and nature and I want to be there with her and be in awe! Rah!

Lizbeth came for a visit today. She had been in Sydney all week so I wasn't able to catch up with her sooner and i was NOT going to leave Canberra without seeing her. We always talk for many hours. Today we sat up in the upstairs lounge room in the sun. Liz was so comfortable in this new sofa my mum bought. I could see her sinking into the seat and gradually laying down on it. HAHAHA. I sat on the floor so I was not influenced by the sofa's comfortableness!!

I feel very happy when I'm with Liz. I'm happy that even though we've been separated by continents for years, that our friendship has still stayed strong. We are always happy to hear how each other has grown and about new experiences and ideas.

In the evening we played piano and guitar together and sung songs. She is such a talented girl! : ) I love singing with her. I feel like our voices sound nice together! 

I've been having a really good time here. This holiday has been what I've needed. I almost don't want it to end, but I know I should just be thankful for the time I have had here... and I definitely am.