me again.


meant to be studying. hah. as we all know, what a joke that is! it's 5pm already. aiya. how annoying.

cam and his gf and maybe some other friends have headed off to NZ. they were rather late getting to the airport but they havent come back so im assuming everything went ok. i shall next see them in february i believe.

mmm. yesterday was a let-down. i'd been counting on getting my hair chemically straightened, permanently. oh what i dream it would be, to not have to shower, blow dry and then straighten my hair with a flat iron every god-damn morning, on top of putting on my makeup and general getting ready to do anything. and not having to worry about rain, or humidity, yes, that evil h-word!!! and especially so for travelling, the aeroplanes, the stopovers in foreign countries where i dont have electrical socket adapters for... but oh it was not to be. :(

apparently bleaching (i.e. dying hair blonde) and hair straightening cannot go together. otherwise i too should be joining leila and cathy's trend of shaving my head it seems. it's quite annoying. + the hairhouse warehouse staff where kind of rude about it. annoying people!
linda thought maybe i could try anyway, but i dont know...the risk seems a little too great. cos i know my hair is very fine, much more so than asian hair, and rather dead. then again, apparently if u over peroxide, on already bleached hair it's also meant to break. but that hasnt happened yet. then again maybe the bleached parts dont get bleached twice...im not really sure seeing as im not the one applying the stuff into my hair.

but linda straightened vicki's hair earlier in the year, and she bleaches or at least dyes it. linda also straightened her own hair about a week after she permed it, and then dyed it black the following week (not bleaching i guess, but still dying). but she used korean straightening products then for all the procedures. alas her magical store of korean straightening chemicals is all gone. :(

im assuming that the korean straightening is the same or at least related to what i've discovered is called 'japanese straightening', or sometimes 'rebonding'. meant to change the ions or something in the structure of the hair and re-make it, hence how curly hair can become straight. the japanese mainly use it for smoothing, adding shine and silkiness to their hair which is apparently quite course. everyone else int he world however does it for its straigthening properties. the unusual thing about the japanese process however is that it (if its the prope procedure, and not just a normal straightening lotion) it's meant to seemingly restore and improve the quality of ur hair, instead of killing it like every other chemical. and hence it is supposedly ok for bleached hair. though who knows.

in countries like australia the procedure whether its legit or not costs b/w $100 -$600. in asia countries it's considerably cheaper depending on where and the salon, eg. japan could be say $80, bangkok $10, singapore $50 or something similar.

after a considerable time of searching i have found the chinese translation for rebonding, so i believe i shall investigate it and chat with various hair salons in china and find out if their procedure will kill my hair or rebuild it as it's supposed to. they will of course try and convince me to cut the top layer of my hair into a mullet, while keeping long (sometimes rat-tails) underneath and crimp perm the top half so it looks like i've been electrocuted by a toaster- unless they've come up with a new equally ridiculous hair craze since last year- but i shall politely and determinedly decline.

i intend to make them test a small portion of my hair before doing any procedure, cos basically after some of my dying/ hair cutting experiences i know they have absolutely no idea how to deal with western especially fine hair. so it shall be an adventure no doubt, and hopefully not too much of a mis-adventure. luckily for me if i end up with no hair it'll be winter so i can just wear a pretty knitted beanie. moving on.


at least i kind of achieved something today. i went to the bank and finally set up internet banking which could prove handy when overseas. the silly girl who opened it for me though. god she could chatter away about nothing whatsoever! in between persuading me to do this and that with my account and open this other one and la-di-da-di-da she managed to keep me occupied for nearly 40mins talking about her housemates stealing her dog while she's at work, and her ex-bf from taiwan and her family in malasia and her sagas with melb public transport and the types of asian drama shows she likes to watch. now while im vaguely interested in some of these topics, ultimately if im in a bank trying to do a simple process and you're a total stranger, and i'd like to get on with the rest of my life, including packing for overseas and supposedly studying for exams, then i dont really care! my un-enthusiatic nods and murmurs did not seem to deter her though. she was quite the random motormouth. friendly of course but just....incessant. so yes, she wasted a fair amount of my precious time, and now ive wasted even more by talking about her and in the meantime i've forgotten what else i had to say in my post so i guess i shall be off.


ohh, actually. haha. half the reason i started this post was 'cause i was thinking of all the cool things i would be able to do again in another week or so (imaging that i wasn't going to be poor and crippled from paying rent, and trying to save up any money i happen to be lucky to earn, but we shall forget that for the time being), like manicures!



creepy as it sounds i'd love to bring some of these girls to australia. they could earn so much more for their businesses if only they could run them here! it's so cheap in china, or maybe rather so crazily expensive here.


but i reckon these girls have got some definite skills to their art. some of the designs u can choose them to paint on your nails (or the fake nails if your nails are crap) are really intricate and amazing. and some are fairly simply too, but mighty effective. ahh, the choices are great and then u can pick and match whatever colours, and add some diamantes or bubbles or whatever u wanna pay for.

some of the designs are so cute! like the 2008 olympic mascots! i hope i can find a girl who can do these!

and they dont use any stencils or special tools to paint either. they simply use the normal nail polish brush! or depending if they need to blend something maybe they use a sewing pin too. it's really very cool to watch them work.



i often got flowery designs last year, similar to the above and below photos. usually in pinks and whites and blacks.


and how pretty are these! i really like this design, i believe i shall try it. it's pretty simple but looks hot!




these black and white ones are quite sweet too. actually the top design works really well usually, all the random lines crossing over, i think i tried it once in some contrasting prupley colours, but i do quite like the black and white, and the crisscross pattern and bows on the bottom design are super cute! would look good with a black and white tweed mini skirt and long socks. haha.


i must take some photos of the underground plaza next time i am there. it's kind of like an underground greensy, but much cooler, with sections devoted to beauty, nails, hair, and tattoos; or sticker photos; bags, shoes, clothes, softtoys whatever. i love it!


ooh, this is a cool design. not very beautiful. but definitely cool!


haha, perhaps i should get all my nails done with the chinese flag before i go to get my visa re-newed haha... might just help to speed the process up, lol!

an update.


wow. it seems like it's been a log time since i blogged... but hmmmm, what has actually happened since then??

well, i finished classes, i know that much, and i got together with the korean girls and we made a funny poster for cathy saying 'we love cathy', and then embarrassed her by waving it at her recital which was an amazing event and if u didnt come (with the exception of anyone who was physically in an exam at that time) then u're an idiot.

i actually cant really think what else i've been up to. i enrolled to do a postal vote seeing as if all goes well and i dont happen to miss any flights along the way then i will be arriving in china on the day of everyones voting, so u can think of me as u're filling out ur ballot papers. haha

i have been battling the stupid uni's computer system several times and changed my subject choices even more times! just when i think its ok i notice something else wrong, or that some of my changes haven't gone thru. ah well, we will get there.

my internet has been screwed for a while too. too much downloading leads to being capped every month which means our net speed is reduced to nothing and no pages or anything will load. it's just been reset so everything should be a-ok now...but yet the damn net keeps dropping out. problems will never cease!



i made a white-chocolate mud cake just recently too. well i made two. and then stuck them together with some i dont know... some french word but ive forgotten it haha, basically i sort of a cream fudge that goes between the two..


the cake itself's alright, but unfortunately that cream in the middle tastes just like sweetened condensed milk...which is ok, but just yeh, too sweet.

never the less, i am hoeing into the cake regardless.



it's hot this evening...dont know why - it wasnt that hot today. warm, yes, but i keep a 3/4 length cardigan on for most of the day so.....


had the first exam today..linguistics. .studying for it was not very stressing and in fact the study itself was fairly minimal. not that surprisingly, it is lazy fairly easy going me of course. the exam is not really all that worth mentioning, it was meh, examish and boring. although one passage we had to analyse was from the harry potter book. it reminded me that i havent actually read it yet. ooops. actually i saw something about harry potter the other day actually. something about a day to commemorate his death or something and it made me think 'ohh, does he die in the last book then?' i kind of hope not because then it was a spoiler, and it was in a newspaper or sth. they should be more responsible. though i suppose they assume everyone has already read it by now. i guess eventually i will have to read it and find out then.

as i left the exam the day got increasingly annoying. i noticed i had some missed calls and a voicemail message on my almost-creditless phone, so i used up the last of my credit to listen to the voicemail message and it was someone from an office in the uni babbling about something to do with my enrolment and how i had to 'urgently' call them back. i hurried along to kyla's house (conveniently very close to the exhibition building' to borrow her phone and called the woman back on the number she gave...only about half an hour after she originally clled but she didnt answer and then it got put through to an annoying answering machine. so i left my name, purpose and number and waited for her call but alas she never called me back. finally i got so worried about this stupid 'urgent' thing and fearing the worst (though i couldn't define 'the worst') i headed up to the uni in person.

i couldnt work out why it was the asia institute calling me though, cos they said it was about enrolment and any admin/ enrollment stuff should be done by the arts facuty. but yes, nevertheless i was worried. u see my secret fear is that the uni will somehow work out a reason to terminate my enrolment usually through some connection with my deferring to travel and ending up studying at another 'tertiary' institution, even though what i studied was not a tertiary course and i am not the first who has done it. haha, the likelihood of being 'discovered' in doing this is kind of heightened by the fact tat i am in the process of claiming credit for said study. hahahaha. but yes, seriously i doubt they really care, either way. but yeh, when the uni calls me about my enrolment instead of just sending an email it does kind of get u a little bit worried.

so as luck would have it the office had closed just 10 mins before, and i loitered around and then consulted the directory and worked out the woman who'd called me and went directly to her office. she wasnt in alas. already gone home it would seem. slackers! so then i went to a library, stole a catalogue computer and checked my email. sure enough the woman had sent me an email and this silly 'ugent' matter was about as urgent as a queue for a soft-drink vending machine when you're busting to go to the toilet.

haha! i quite like that visual actually! must remember that for another time in the future! ^-^ so yes, my point being it really wasnt as urgent as it all seemed. seems they wanted to switch a subject i enrolled in for 2nd semester into a 1st semester subject and seeing as i was enrolled in that they had to notify me and offer me an alternative. they gave me 2 choices, one being to drop a subject already in my selection for 1st semester so i could continue doing that, or the 2nd option was they'd let me study a different chinese subject, which u needed the one i was enrolled in as a pre-req, and then i could do the pre-req in 1st semester in 2009 if i still wanted to. i've heard from several sources that the one i was enrolled in was actually quite dry and boring (i.e. reading economic documents in chinese). so naturally i've picked option 2 and probably intend to bypass that boring subject completely and just do the more advanced one which i wanted to do all along. so it seems the university has made things easier for me this time without even realising it. thanks! ^-^

so yes, its a relief to know my degree isnt being terminated yet, however undoubtedly there will be many a nightmare to crop up in it thanks to the melb model which im sure everyone hates for some reason or another.

and now seeing as i cant really think of anything else i need to comment on i shall move onto my last little story which is about last night. i went with some of the korean girls to see kyla in a small fashion show that was being held at this bar opposite rmit uni. i have a feeling it was sth. to do with the uni but im not too sure.



im really not supposed to show any photos for kyla's sake (as she wants to erase the terrible makeup from her memory forever), however i just know that louise especially will appreciate these pvc pants, so i had to put it up!! bring back memories, haha ? hmmm, i seemed to take all my photos at the wrong moment, always as someone turned around or was trying to walk down the stairs, like in this one.

anyways during the show i got a huge shock when i realised that one of the male models strutting his stuff down the catwalk was chris munroe. haha! i was like 'hey i know him!! that is so weird!!'


he did an alright job. i had a brief chat to him after and it was funny cos he was saying how he deliberately hadnt told anyone about the show (incl. his parents) cos he didnt want anyone to see! mwahaha, i saw, and i took photos (and maybe some movie clips?) too. mwahaha. i dont really know if he's done modelling stuff before but he said that he knew one of the people who did some of the designing so they'd asked him to be in it.


luckily for him though the guys didnt seem to have that much makeup or any that i can recall, then again maybe they did and i just wasnt taking notice...we were of course spending most of the night waiting to see kyla come out. but my god! the makeup artist for the girls needed to be shot and buried! kyla is correct when she named the show the zombie show, cos thats what they were zombies. it was horrible! they removed their eyebrows! did something with glue and painted over them in white so that u seriously couldnt see their eyebrows. and u have no idea what having no eyebrows actually does to one's face, particularly forehead! lets just say proportions look bizarre!

i've always readily admitted that i dont like eyebrows, and that i like to keep my fringe long enough to obscure mine completely. inf act i have clear memories of my dad warning and lecturing me many times when i was young they i should never try to shave off my eyebrows (he seemed to fear me doing that, i guess, so he must have been aware of my anti-eyebrow views haha) cos apparently my auntie did just that once. and im informed they grew back in patches and were not quite normal for quite some time. haha. poor girl!

but anyway, after seeing some eyebrowless zombies on the catwalk last night wearing some rather boring for the most-part outfits i have decided that perhaps eyebrows are not so bad afterall, and yes, evidently they have a purpose in being on our foreheads. the 1st thing kyla did after the show was rush out to see us and then tell us to wait while she went to wash her makeup off and find her eyebrows again. haha

we'll see how the movie turned out.. though the rate im going our internet will get capped again this month...must limit downloading/ uploading!

not bad, but yes, very much a zombie show!


not nearly as glamorous as her pre-cup day show. observe.

much nicer!



despite it still being light out it was already 8pm.


i needed to take the bus home so we said goodbye and i hurried home, just in time to say a quick hi to Andy who'd just come home from the US and korea where they did a band tour. didnt actually get to speak to him about anything but i saw him so i guess it counts.


and off to bed i went, ready for my exam...and not stressed about anything at all. alas sleep still did not come easily. 2 hours later when leo sent me a message asking me to call him i still was not asleep. so i got up called him, chatted for a while and then said goodnight and eventually went back to bed and slept..well, kind of anyway. perhaps its the odd-weather which is making my sleeping even worse. i dont know.


but yes. that's the end of this post. i feel rather...tired, and oddly angry, though i dont know why or about what. i think its just cos im tired. but i must say strangely enough its a nice change cos usually i would feel sad when im tired so yes, angry and annoyed it is! haha come and pick a fight with me! i dare u!