Hark the Arrival of Summer



Apparently, it's gonna hit 42 degrees today. *sizzles*

>>When I have time, Melbourne Post Goes HERE <<

Had the most exquisite dinner tonight with my honours supervisor and honours classmates at Steki's in Newtown.

We had grilled haloumi, greek salad, tatziki and rolls and baked mussels for entrees. The grilled haloumi was tops - chewy, salty and fragrant, as was the mussels, which were slathered with a piquant tomato sauce and served with a bed of basmati rice.

For mains we had a vegetable moussaka, prawns, grilled quail and grilled lamb. The vegetable moussaka was heaven, a moist layer of potato topped with tender grilled eggplant and spinach covered in a thick gooey bechamel sauce. Each mouthful just falls apart in your mouth and the flavours meld like a symphony on your tastebuds.

The prawns were topped with the same amazing sauce as the mussels and served with more of that basmati rice, which I could not stop eating! The quail was tender and very nicely grilled - so that it was crisp and slightly charred on the skin but still juicy. I was tempted to eat the bones as well. The lamb was also perfectly barbequed, served sliced from the bone and accompanied by greek yoghurt and lemon.

We had two bottles of white wine, Santorini I think the brand was, a 2003 bottle. A very dry wine, perfect for the food were were having. They served us complementary dessert - sweet sticky baklava and ginger-scented turkish delight, as well as a shot of port each. The dessert was a tad too sweet for my liking, but baklava always amazes me; the work that goes into each flaky sugary mouthful is commendable. The port was fantastic - plummy and caramelish - a perfect end to the meal.

Am sitting here, unable to go bed (even though I had half a glass of wine and the port, and those of you who know me know that that is quite enough to make me want to go sleepy bye-bye) given the bloatedness of my tummy right now. Afeared that I will get horrendous nightmares from sleeping on such a full stomach.

Tomorrow, Chrisanthi and I are off on our roadtrip! :) See ya's in a few days!

Afternoon Opera

I'm being treated to the rhythmic groanings of very loud sex noises from next door. What a treat. Their bedroom is right against mine, and I think they've left the window open for that surround sound effect. Either that or they are probably vying for the championship of Loudest Lovemaking Couple In The World.

Thanks guys!

Lovely Day

I had a lovely day today. Went to the Library for the last time to thank my boss and give him a present of muffins and a card. He's been a gem. I doubt I'll ever meet a nicer boss.

Also sold one of two desk lamps (yay money). Met a friend for a quick coffee to pass him back his notes on research methods and offer advice about honours.

Then I had a very nice lunch with Daniel whom I'll miss terribly when I get back to Singapore. Who will I geek over comics with now? :( I've got some nice DVDs from him too! Thank you, you! (yay more of David Brent and The Office! *beams*)

Strolled through Darling Harbour; it reminds me of my first few days in Sydney. I went there first day of orientation for lunch. I had never seen such clear blue water. And jellyfish, I remember seeing jellyfish in the water. Ah, nostalgia... don't you wish you could they never invented the concept? Nostalgia breeds discontent or the very least, skewed perspectives.


***Semi-spoiler warning to Collateral***



P.S: Watched Collateral today; it was okay. The ending pissed me off, too neat; also the plot was too seamless and coinkidinky for my liking. Also the psychology and build-up of the characters was very random and incoherent. A professional killer would never leave his bag lying around unattended for one thing. Don't they teach them anything in assassin school? Actually... forget okay, it kinda sucked. The action was pretty good though. Another thing, it pisses me off then big name actors get shot and the bullet always manages not to mess them up too much and leave most of their 'good looks'/perfect hair intact. Geez, talk about the boy with the immovable hair.

Great reviews on a movie always spoils it for me. It's never as good as you'd expect. meh.

First and Final Australian Idol Rant

YAY!!! CASEY WON!!!!!! GO CASEY YOU ROCK! //end rant

The smell of baking on a Sunday morning is the smell of happiness

I've got two chicken + veg pies baking and roughly two dozen muffins (blueberry and banana-nut) cooling in my kitchen. Can you say picnic? *beams*

It's pretty cloudy today, but I'm willing it not to rain *intense concentration*

Going to have a lunchtime picnic at Victoria Park with some friends from the various honours classes and seminars I took this year. Then after, to my lecturers' house for some end of semester drinks.

:)

It's a great weekend to soothe my nerves from the horror of Friday. Friday was my last working day at the Library as a envelope monkey mail-out coordinator. Three of us volunteered for the job to prepare mailers. All 3,250 of them. It took 8.5 hours. In total we fondled 13,000 pieces of paper. And guess who was the only one to sustain paper cuts?? Oh the things I do to earn a bit more monkey, I mean money.

But it's over and in three days, I'll be off on a ROADTRIP down the coast. Destination Melbourne. I'm a bit worried about just two of us travelling, but Chrisanthi's a taekwondo black belt national champion so I'm hoping she'll whip some good ole' whoop ass on anyone who tries anything funny.

Rumour has it it take 8 hours by the inland route and 13 hours by the coastal route. I have been told it's a LIE. It takes almost 13 hours by the inland route. So good luck to us, as we've opted for the coastal route for the scenic oppurtunity.

A Life in Little Boxes

Moving is so stressful! There are so many things to settle. I've been living with the telephone glued to my ear on those helplines. Yesterday I waited 30 minutes to get through to AGL only to be cut off after, "Hi this is Nathan how may I help you? (me)Hi, I'd like to - Tooooooooot". Frig Friggin FRICK.

Today a precious hour was spent making love to the touch-pad telephone and waiting in musak hell to organise telephone, gas and electricity disconnections.

Time's mighty short -have to move out all the furniture, organise an inspection and obtain my bond money all on the same day. The day I have dubbed HELL DAY: 3 Dec. The timing of each has to be sychronised such that the movers come in at the crack 'o dawn so that the inspection and key return can be completed by 2pm afterwhich scurry scurry to the bond office to GIT ME MY MONEY BACK. If it goes to plan, I ought to get back my bond by 7 Dec in the morning, close my bank account and head home to Singapore.

I refuse to leave any money in Australia! *shakes fists indignantly*

Will be homeless from 3 Dec - 7 Dec, oh woe!

heehee. OMG I AM SO STRESSED! (admittedly am quite possibly secretly enjoying in my secret heart of nerd hearts - oh the glorious organising and not to mention the number of lists on post-its I get to make It's a terrible sickness I tell you.)

it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over
it's over it's over
it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over
it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over
it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over it's over

BYE BYE THESIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kabalarian Name Analysis

FREAKY!

This is the end, the final showdown

Printed and bound my thesis today; four sets for a grand total of $72.40. Eeep! But it is done. Over. Finito. End.

I'm not going to look over it for as we all know, I will suddenly be endowed with super sharp editing skillz and spot minute mistakes and lapses in syntax/grammar etc.

It's done and I'm hella relieved. What an ride.

I cut my hair again

Yes indeed. I've had it cut ultra short with highlights. I had to wear an amber-coloured rubber hat and have my scalp pinched and pricked something awful to get the highlights strategically placed. Ended up looking like a Hellraiser Condom for a while.

And if you want to know, it does look like lesbian hair. Teeheehee. yes it is that short

I've taken to stalking pigeons again. And talking to myself. And singing tunelessly to no one in particular.

It's not stress, just the opposite. I'm totally over the thesis. I've just finished Capote's In Cold Blood and have started on Ayn Rand's We The Living.

Thesis Draft 5 is done and I think I am ready to reconcile myself with having to part with it in 12 days. I get separation anxiety you see. With my essays etc. I feel a great sense of loss when I hand it in, also joy. But I can deal with joy. It's the loss and paranoia that worries me.

At the moment I am mulling over Thurs' presentation at the grad seminar. I haven't any idea how to condense a 20,000 word thing into a 30 minute summary. It's my own fault, I should not have said yes. But being the itchy backside that I am... I couldn't help myself.

I shall now move on to the non-thesis related part of my life.


Lets see....


Oh yes... no.


Hmmmm.


Ok I got something. Have started packing my life into boxes. So far, the contents of my Sydney Adventjahs weigh about 50kg. I still have a fair lot to go. Having to pack up possessions and streamline my life reveals borderline OCD tendencies.
My old friends will know of the hoardes of notes I keep from poly days (some 3-4 years ago now, omg). Well you will be proud to know I have finally thrown them away. Granted I kept them in the garbage bag for a couple of days in the house to ride out the aforementioned separation anxiety.
Also I threw out the lot of pipecleaners (those wire ties that hold cables together) that I managed to amass. I even went through my pencil bag (not case, bag) and culled the collection of dead pens (but not without thanking them for their dedicated service). I threw away the bits o' scrap paper that I squirrelled away in case I ever needed them (evidently not), which included every cardboard backing of every pad of writing paper I have ever used these three years (a lot). I have a box of paper clips, alligator clips and ring binders that I am prepared to.... give away. But I cannot bear to part with my stack of post-its.

I threw away three year's worth of receipts, phone, gas and electricity bills and monthly expenditure reports. Also the box files full of sorry-looking large brown envelopes I always plan to recycle because those brown envelopes are so useful (not).

After the 15th I will throw away my thesis notes. I have four ring files filled with notes plus stacks more that wouldn't fit. All that paper, all that reading material gone bye-bye. Oh it breaks my little nerd heart.