DRAFT DRAFt DRAft DRaft Draft draft draft...

 

But if I had a minute for every hour that I've wasted

I'll be rich in time,

I'd be doing fine

-JJ-

Man... It amazes me, each time I think of how hard (some of) my flatmates work. Well, sometimes I think I'm crazy to be working till 3-4am. But rarely am I the only one up/out at that time! A big sigh of relieve for not being the only postgrad student in the flat. Would have been sooo hard otherwise.

*right.. I think I'll keep adding sentences to this, whenever I feel like taking my thoughts on a detour!

Feels as if I have put on weight around my thighs.. =( maybe I have been sitting for too long-and gravity is causing localisation of fats at undesired areas in the body!!..

Right.. 2 more days.. just 2 more... or less.. This is it... crunch time.. final lap.

Lets hope I survive- and stay awake!!!

So.. I really wanted to talk to someone... Dan... my family... but.. but.. Dan is busy tonight, and when I typed out a text to my family in hopes that they would ring me, the txt wouldnt go through because I had no credit left I guess some me time would be good.

So.. it's D-O-N-E. Handed in my 70-odd pages Honours report. That's it. Finished. One year's (maybe 10 months) worth of work, expressed in 18 000 words. Many long days sustained by 2 to 4 hrs of sleep and one final all day/nighter- was awake and away from home for 40 hours- it was finally done. Well.. it's as done as I could get it, given the amount of time I had. Could have made it better, but then again, it had to be stopped at some point. I'm still rather disappointed at myself for not being able to have a proper read-thru at the end because I had to keep making the changes from my supervisors- but oh well. I bet you there will be many labels of compounds that were mixed up- because I couldnt synchronise the numbers till the end. But.. Oh well... it's over right.

But if there is nothing that I gained from this year, at least I learnt about grace. Grace which my supervisors showed me. I probably fell wayyy short of what they expected, and i'm certainly not as "on to it" as the other Honours student, but they showed me grace. And they took time to help me with my  report, the painlful proofreading that they had to do, post working hours- I was impressed and inspired. Grace was also shown to me by a very very kind friend. The night before the report is due, he came by to where Cat and I were working and said, "Ok, don't worry about dinner, I'll go and get pizzas, and bring it at 8pm for you all. Are you all hungry now? I'l get some chippies for you to snack on first. Do you want coffee?" It was amazing, and he stayed up with us, working almost through the night, proofreading and even helping to rewrite on of my friend's introduction for her! And the next morning, he came by with a hot chocolate/coffees for a few of us- And gosh.. u don't know how much that means, esp when u haven't even got the time to leave your seat for a minute, let alone look for food. And coming home to a flat with food (esp bihun that tastes like ur grandma's bihun!) already cooked, simply a blessing.  Or simple nutella or peanut butter jam toast that ur flatmate makes for u, because u dont even have time to leave the seat. 

This past 10 months have been a frenzy, every part of it. From personal life to work. And sometimes, I wished I was more calm and composed.. I wished I was more "on top of things". I hated the way I'm always just on time, or a little bit late. This year started off wrong, and I just couldnt snap out of it. But given the situation, I guess this was the best I could make it to be. There will not be a second shot anyway.

The race has not ended. An assignment due on Monday which I have not started at all, and another presentation of my Honours project on Tues, which I have to tailor to the biology crowd. And then exams exams exams. Just gotta last a little more. Then end is near!

And in contrast to Pingy's rant about the weather, I will say "I'm beginning to get a taste of summer, I forgot how it felt to be able to walk out in a skirt, and jandals and still feel warm!! Flowers are blooming, the cherry blossom trees are sooo beautiful, but the Magnolias top it all!" Sorry pingy! I felt the same when you ushered in ur summer!

I'm sitting at home, in the middle of the day, 3 pm to be precise.. on a weekday... not doing work! It is not the not-working-ness that is the shocker, but I think it's more of the "sittingathomeinthemiddleofthedayonaweekday" which is the eyebrow-raiser. It has been a while since I had this liberated feeling, of not really having anything to do. I asked myself if I wanted to go into uni today, but.. what is there for me to do? Ironically, in typing that previous sentence, a few things came to my mind- clean up my fume hood, transfer my compounds to vials so others can have my round-bottom flasks, find a way of disposing the whole stack of papers I accumulated while I was writing up, so as to free up my friends desk (yikes!), note down the safety & hazards of the chemicals that I have used in the past year, albeit a little too retrospective (I hope none of my examiners will stumble upon this!), convert all the chloride to xanthate, and.. uh-oh.. Maybe I spoke too soon about not having much to do. And yes.. how could I forget about EXAMS?! I know writing is the best way of sorting out my thoughts, but maybe I shouldn't have done it this time. Nevermind.. I deserve a break!

Dang! Now I forgot what I wanted to blog about. I think it had something to do with wanting to move blogs- which has been on my mind for a while. I'm bored of Tabulas. The lay out is boring. Not artistic enough. Not that I'm a very artistic person- but a splash of creative expression is nice once in a while. But I know what the opportunity cost would be that I won't be as connected to my dear friends, the Blex mainly, because all the other blogs I visit regularly are not on Tabulas anyway. We'll see about that. Might fiddle around with a new blog while I study for exams. One full year paper and one 3-module paper to study for in 2.5 weeks. Maybe I shouldn't be feeling so liberated afterall!

A few of us decided to take a walk to the botanical gardens after our dinner last night, which proved to have revived the child within us! The cilindrical Christmas tree hosted a climbing haven within itself! It was my first time at climbing trees! A glance downwards was certainly enough to make my legs go numb, but the view from the top was priceless! We saw the (semi)sunset, over the Wellington harbour! Then there was also the flying fox, and the rocktopus which brought much squeels of laughter, and a spinning headache after! Have I highlighted how much I like doing things spontaneously? Though, sometimes, I contradict myself, and fall into the "planning mode".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And here are some goofy pictures of some of my flatmates and I- Josiah, Elaine and Peter Jackson. Dont u reckon Peter Jackson looks like Frodo Baggins- the black hair and the blue eyes! He recently dyed his blonde hair black- Asianisation I call it, as a result of almost dating my dearest Indonesian Leesh!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't you amazed at how a simple blog entry can express so much about a person?

I dived into another person's, or rather two persons' world via their shared blog.

Very light-hearted, lots of pictures!

But ohcrap! I need to study now!!!

But before I get dragged away unwillingly by Conscience, I want to express my utter surprise that New Zealand does in fact celebrate Labour Day! Coming from Malaysia, where public holidays come almost as often as weekends (oh how I miss them!), spending the 1st of May at Uni/in class felt weird. Fine, I'm not a labourer as such, but still, if I have to sit in a lecture, it meant somebody had to lecture, and hence, my lecturer was working! And if my lecturer is a labourer, on the 1st of May, it just doesn't sit well with me! Ok, fine, I just wanted to reap the most out of it, and get more ~5 days of public holiday in a year!

So, coming back to the point: New Zealand's Labour Day is on 27 October! And I suspect the same applies for her bigbrother, Australia. Funny that NZ's just gotta be special, and celebrate it on a different day from the rest of the world.

*edit: I checked trusty-ol-Wiki. In fact, crazy Australians celebrate Labour Day on different days/months depending on which Territory/State you're in. And no reasons were given, as to why Kiwis celebrate it on a day that in no way associates with 1st of May. "In NZ, Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday of October."

Father's Day is different here compared to the rest of the world too! And despite having been here for four years now, I still have the slight panic of ohnoIforgottosendmydadacard every year, only to be relieved when I remember that I have sent something a few months back. (Actually, I can't remember if I did this year- I'm sure Dad who reads this, will remind me) Anyways, it's normally the 1st Sunday of September here, in contrast to the 3rd Sunday of June.

But my point is, I have exams... Monday week, so I can't take tomorrow off. This labourer will be deprived of her much needed break. On the contrary- 1.5 weeks to the end of this crazy year is definitely something to look forward to! It's Guy Fawkes on 5 Nov as well, so I'll celebrate the end of Honours with a bang, lots of them actually!

After reading that blog, I miss my boy oh-so-dearly The distance does change things.. and I suspect, not for the better, sometimes. The phrase "out of sight, out of mind" does occassionally apply. The phone just rang, James answered from downstairs, then ran up the stairs. My heart was hopeful for a moment, only to be dashed when the knock was on Melody's door, not mine.

It's ok, I should study!

edit: Dan did ring a lil later! I'm grateful!

Whoopeedoo!! For once I'm glad that I procrastinated on buying any tickets for our travels in the

South Island when Mum comes. Managed to get cheap as flight from Wellington to Nelson for only $49!! How awesome is that. Initially we were going to take the ferry, which will cost $53 and will take 3 hrs, and might risk mum having motion sickness. But now, the flight's 35 mins, and it's cheap and no air sickness! Hopefully the Queenstown-Christchurch flight comes on AirNZ's Grabaseat promotions too!

There were flights to Sydney for only $199 too. That's pretty cheap and I was sooo tempted to buy a flight and run away to Gold Coast! Tempted being the word, and resist temptation was the successive phrase that chimed in my brain.

It feels as if my whole brain/body is paralysed. It just doesn't want to study. I can almost hear my body fighting the urge to study. I can almost hear it cry out in resistance! But why? Why is it this hard? Why am I not willing, body soul and mind to study, to push harder, and work harder after all, the finishing line is less than a week away. I am sick of resisting work. I'm frustrated with fighting with myself- creating a war zone within my own mind. I want to break out of this. I want to get in gear, get into momentum. I dont want to sit there, freaking out because I don't know anything, yet not being able to feed my brain with the necessary. I need to do well in these exams.