i still love the scent of rain

spring is (almost) here

bringing with it the daffodils i so love.

(it doesnt take much to put a smile on my face.)

first–i need to vent! i left my wallet at home and i wanted to print something out at uni, ONE page to be exact. ONE page of experimental data to pass to my project groupmate coz i (also) left her email add at home. * sigh 0_o * anyway, since i didnt have my wallet with me, obviously i didnt have my student ID which! is what you use! to print stuff in the library! (you top it up with credits for printing… u know, like $1 for 10 pages…)

so. what options did i hv? i cld run hm and get my wallet (i had a 2hr break) OR just print the darn thing at home OR, better still, get her email add and juz email it to her. but what did i do? i decided to get a "Printing Card". which costs $2. TWO DOLLARS. AND IT DOESNT COME WITH $2 WORTH OF PRINTING CREDIT EITHER! HEH?!? and so i topped it up with another $2… which in all makes my 10c document cost $4.  =\  bah. i feel abused.

ok i’m done venting. on to more beautiful things now.

the (emo) song i’m currently in love with (and thus listening to on repeat) is Dengar Bisikku by The Rain, a band from Jogjakarta… being particularly talented at procrastinating/wasting-time/daydreaming/stoning, i spent a little more than two hours last night on the following things:

first, i was listening to the song on repeat (of course) and simultaneously typing out the lyrics on Wordpad.

kadang aku berfikir
dapatkah kita terus coba
mendayung perahu kita
meyatukan ingin kita?

bila gundah mu tak menghilang
hentikan dulu dayung kita
bila kau ingin lupakan aku
ku tak tahu apalah daya

aduuuuuuuuhhhhh… lagunya, suaranya…. sediiiiiiiiiiiih banget. but i love it. incidentally the vocalist sounds like Ridwan. (and i wasnt even the first or only one to notice this.) anyway the song does remind me of things he tells me… like how we have to be strong and we have to support each other… and it also reminds me of aaaaaaaaaaallllll the times i’ve just been difficult and moody and paranoid and ngambek but he’d still be soooooo patient and kind and loving and comforting… (heheheh… sorry yah, sayang…)

and then! i decided to write a response to the song  =) same tune, dif words…

(sweetheart, this one’s for you.)

selalu aku berfikir
bersama kita kan usaha
mendayung perahu kita
mencapaikan impi kita

takkan ku raguimu Sayang
maafkan gundahku, ku pinta
kau yang terindah dalam hidupku
ketahuilah ku tetap setia

(picture hikmah drew with Ratsra on Paint according to his "instructions"…. that’s "Tante" (ie. me) in the car with Rastra and "Om" (Ridwan) eating an apple outside… heh… too cute! there was one night when he slept over at our place and he took a photoframe with a pic of me and ridwan in it to keep at his side… i just melted when i found out the next morn! aaawwwwwww….)

memang lumrah hidup belajar kat luar negeri… dengan berakhirnya satu semester, someone’s bound to be going back for good… pagi tadi Mbak Donna pulang ke Jogjakarta dgn suaminya, Mas Hengki dan anaknya, Rastra. sedihlah! elia memang butuhkan "elders" seperti Mbak Donna dan Mbak Irma yg telah pun pulang tahun lepas… to remind me to be good  =P eeeeee… skarang mereka dah balik, mana elia nak pergi utk dapatkan nasihat???!!!! dahlah otak aku ni degil! sigh. daaaaan… ada anak kecil macam Rastra pun best kan? boleh ajak main2… i love kids, they make me happy!

one of the drawings we did together on Paint:

semoga Allaah memberkati hidup teman2 elia yg dekat mahupun yg jauh di mata, semoga dikukuhkan taqwa ke akhir hayat…….. AMIN.

today i go home with 320 fruit flies, equally separated into 32 vials based on gender and ecotype. i’m supposed to see their level of resistance to starvation (ie. i’ll be taking note of when they drop dead over the next week or so). it’s just one part of an eco-genetical study on fruit flies i’m doing for GEN3062 lab… i’ve already started on the DNA assays and wing measurements, will continue those next week. next week also, i’ll be measuring the flies’ triglyceride content.

i hope this sem’s gonna be interesting  =) i’m generally intrigued by what i’ve been doing at uni but sometimes, things really are extra cool! elia’s a geek and damn proud of it. i loved the 2 GEN subjects i took last sem… pity i was such a pain-in-the-ass slacker, cld hv gotten so much more out of my subjects. i played way too much last sem compared to any of the ones before. got mostly distinctions, missing HD’s by 2-3 marks… uurrggghh… but who’s to blame but me kaannnnn? so. i shd bloody well get over it and focus on this sem  =P

on the subject of interesting subjects, we had our 1st lecture from a series on neuroimaging techniques. the lecturer’s from the physics department… you know, one of those academics who are genuinely interested in calculus and treat X-ray tubes like babies. heh. (to be honest, i found his enthusiasm and passion endearing. who cares if it’s diodes and microchips that make u tick eh? as long as u enjoy and are good at what u do…)

so. he was explaining to us that the stronger the EM radiation emitted from the X-ray machine (manipulated by varying current, voltage, etc.), the more it is able to go through tissue. therefore, a radiographer should use the least amount of radiation possible for a given anatomical structure (eg. less for an X-ray of the hand than for the thigh). but when he put it in its scientific terms, it just sounded soooo wroooong:

"…. the penetrability is dependant on the energy level. Therefore, the more energy put in, the more penetration is achieved. So, a thick, turgid organ would require more energy for higher penetrability….."

hahahahahahahahaahha! oooohh my gaawwdd… we were all just snorting and sniggering in the lecture theatre trying to stiffle our laughter and there he was going on and on… totally oblivious to the innuendoes. i swear, he had the most innocent look on his face.

it didnt help that his name, incidentally, is Mr. R. Horney.

and since we’re on that topic: this morning i was watching TV over brekky and there was an advertisement for the Russian Ballet Company. the voice-over was singing praises of the Company… bla.. bla… bla… and of how their performance here was gonna include bits from Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake… and there were clips of the dances on screen… and i was thinking, "wow… that’s nice and cultured and classy…" and then! the last thing he said before the ad ended (with the words in bold and italics on screen!) was:

"with special sensual (or was it sensuous?) nude scenes, not to be missed!"

?^$#%^#%^@!??? bizarre. don’t you think?

btw, i was in the bus yesterday. the radio was on, a quiz was on air, the DJ asked the lady playing for the capital of Singapore. the traffic was too loud for me to hear her answer… but i know she got it wrong! dayymn, i wish i heard what she said.

i was thinking of home and my MSN chat with my 15-yr-old sis came to mind. some of you’s wld already hv heard this one before but i feel like immortalizing it in my blog. so. there.

anyway, she told me that one evening, during dinner, our little princess of a 4-yr-old sister asked when it was that they were gonna go to Chinese Airport again?

chinese airport? CHINESE AIRPORT?!!? what the hell is that?

everyone was perplexed for abt 10 seconds and then realized that she meant Changi Airport  0_o

i was already laughing and slapping my forehead when she told me this. naturally, my next qtn was why on earth wld a 4-yr-old ask that anyway?

to which my sister replied that they had gone there the weekend before.

and i’m like… hmmnn… ok… so what, pray tell, was our family doing at Changi Airport on a Saturday night?

and my sister went, "so Nenek (our granma) can exercise."

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!

i’m not laughing at my granma, ‘kay… just the fact that my family AND my grandparents AND my grandma’s sister had trouped all the way to the other end of Singapore for it.

ah. sigh. such is my family.

actually, to be honest, it is a little painful to miss out on stuff going on back home… even if it’s just little quirks like this.

can’t believe the semester has begun. i’m not dreading the work and assignments and readings and labs (at least that’s what i tell myself) per se, it’s just that my holidays were so good! what with Tassie and The Sekels (featuring Aisah) and Mbak Donna, Dinna and Restra and, of course, anak2 YIMSA yg "keren" banget  ;)  and a slack weekend at my Aunt’s (yummy food!) and the Azadi kids and spending enormous amounts time with Ridwan of course. plus Hikmah, always there and always comforting… but alas! it’s time to get back to uni mode.

i had a lecture at noon just now on the philosophical and bioethical perspective of consciousness. ANYWAY, the lecturer’s a Canadian guy and he bobs his head when he talks. oh my goodness… you would only understand how funny this is if you’ve watched Russell Peters doing his impression of Canadian blokes. if you hvnt and u dig stand up comedy download him! he makes fun of everyone… in good humour of course. good stuff.

ok. my timetable this sem (not that anyone asked):

Monday :      BNS2052 12-2pm

Tuesday:      BNS3062 10-12pm/ GEN3062 10-11am (clash!); GEN3042 1-4pm

Wednesday: GEN3042 9-10am; BNS3052 11-1pm

Thursday:     GEN3062 9-10am; GEN3042 12-1pm; BNS3052 1-3pm; BNS3062 3-5pm

Friday:         GEN3062 10-1pm; BNS3062 1-3pm

i composed a post.

it was rather long.

it had 3 pictures.

i like it.

but it failed to upload.

0_o damn you friendsterblogs.

because i know that for most of us, our attention span goes just about as quick as a taxi meter in a traffic jam and also since i wont naively kid myself into believing that i’m writing "for me" but honestly, consciously for an audience, i’m (hopefully) presenting the proceedings of my past few days in quickly digestable bite-sized pieces… (plus click-to-enlarge pictures!)

the food of life

at the expense of my bank credit, i hvnt had the chance to stay homem to snuggle up and read as i had planned. on Tuesday, i found myself (again) at Fitzroy, having brunch/lunch at Ici with Hikmah. i had a roasted veg fritatta with an extremely generous serving of rocket drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the side. being the incurable klutz that i am, it wasnt long before there was a splattering of the salad dressing on my otherwise-pristine cream-coloured scarf. ah well. hikmah had a huge-as bowl of lentil and vegetable soup with sourdough bread and butter on the side. wholesome food–i like! i also had a cup of chilli hot chocolate. good stuff!

(un)pricey purchases

of course we walked and ogled at window displays and tried on clothes… but being the destitute uni students we are, bought nothing but three pairs of earrings and one necklace between us. none of our purchases exceeded $3 so i guess we got pretty good bargains eh?  =)  there were however numerous items of desire that we had to peel ourselves away from. i, for one, am absolutely dying to own one (or both–i wont complain if good fortune comes along) of these shoes from Adidas:

on the subject of items of desire, there is of course The Dress, designed and created, i am convinced, to cause ache and longing in my heart… the first time i set eyes on it almost a month ago, my heart just leaped and i actually uttered "i’m getting married in that" (in my head i had already begun designing an overcoat of sorts… and i was imagining a veil to cover my hair to go with it). twas love at first sight at it’s best. on my date with Ridwan yesterday, i mustered enough courage, for the first time, to go into Rokoko (previously known as Dreams) and try it on…

like adding salt to a wound, this Josephine Dress, as it is so named, is the only one of its kind ever made by the designer aaaaaaaand made in MY SIZE bbbuuuttt costs a whopping $1995. urgh. the anguish. i’m still considering having a discussion with my mum about buying it but. (being the spoilt brat that i am.) in any case, to be absolutely honest, it is inconceivably pricey, is it not? even if sweet, sweet Hikmah has offered to chip in 10%. (hmmn… maybe i cld get a Josephine Dress fund going on and prey on the kindness and sympathy of family and friends… heh. NOT.)

at the box office

i watched Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants with Hikmah. it surpassed my expectations. i mean, c’mon, how can i take something with a title like that seriously? the fact that it is based on one third of a bestselling trilogy of novels, notwithstanding. but what i had thought was going to be a forgetable chick/teen flick turned out to be a worthwhile watch after all. anyone who knows the value of true friendship, who has gone through the sweet experience of young love, who holds tight to family, who has craved the understanding of a parent, who has had to face the inevitability of death, who has mistakenly thought that physical relations could fill up an emotional void… would relate to the protagonists of the story. alas i cried wept sobbed almost throughout the show and had no choice but to blow my nose into my already balsamic vinegarized, olive oiled scarf.

and (because Ridwan paid for my ticket. heh.) last night i watched another movie: Nobody Knows, at Nova, one of Melbourne’s arthouse cinemas. based on a true story, it is set in Tokyo and basically chronicles how four children from one mum and four different dads survive when their scoundrel of a mother falls in love yet again… and up-and-left to live with her new lover. what the children had to go thru to fend for themselves was simply heart-wrenching. and the ending? unimaginably heart-breaking. truly, no child in the world should go through that neglect. i was so disgusted and angry by the mother.

black rose

i felt like including this: Ridwan gave me a bouquet of pink roses… i, the smart ass, lit up a candle and a tea light and placed them near the vase last night before going to bed.. unfortunately, the heat form the latter was sufficient to cause one of the roses to burn. tragic but i kinda like the effect. i should have known better. earlier this year, my Notre Dame VCD was burnt due to the heat from tea lights.

i just returned the Whale Rider DVD and could. not. resist. borrowing a stack of books from the Medley Library. i picked up six, merrily went to the counter and was told i was only allowed four. woopsie dokes! a little reality check there.

i am envisioning myself all curled up in my snuggly couch/bed, reading with a mug of hot frothy something (Milo, tea or simply honeyed milk, most likely) within reach while the cold winter days pass by on the other side of my windows… that sounds like a plan eh?

this is the first time i’m still hanging around in Melbourne post-exams and it feels so… strange! no assignments, no classes, no annoying timetables to stick to. i expected to feel the exhilaration of freeeeeedooooom but instead, i’m experiencing the dread of boredom creeping in plus! i am sooo homesick! NOW i wanna fly back to Singapore! been calling home almost everyday. even called my grandparents’ place this afternoon. incidentally my mum was there too!   =(   i want my family……   =(

but really, i shd snap out of it lah uh. it’s not that bad. i had a month’s worth of hols and half of it has already flown swiftly (and very nicely!) by. semester 2’s starting in two weeks. and when it starts i just KNOW i would wish the holidays had been longer.

spent the day yesterday with Ridwan and his housemate, Dwi. we walked up and down the streets of Fitzroy, with its many many charming cafes and bistros, quirky speciality shops and cheap warehouse outlets! the place is a boggling mix of bohemian and commercial–it all depends on which street you’re at. i’ve been to the area before but never had the luxury of time to just stroll and chill. so yesterday was gooood. btw, a piece of trivia: (because i Google every darn thing) i recently found out that Fitzroy is Melbourne’s oldest suburb. ah. charming. actually, i’d love to rent a place in the area for a bit… maybe while i’m doing my Honours or something *insya Allaah*

we went into a shop that sells paraphernalia that had anything to do with sex, drugs and rock and roll. i must say, it had a pretty impressive collection of books. i like! but there was also a section dedicated to porn. bummer. and there was another shop filled with second-hand CD’s, cassettes, vinyls… u name it. but my favourite was T2 <– click on link!

tea. i love tea. they’ve even got herbal and organic varieties.

i bought a shirt for my dad from the Kathmandu warehouse store one month ahead of his birthday. heh. sale. there was a SALE. i was looking for nice tennis dresses a la Maria Sharapova at the Nike store but couldn’t find any. not that i would actually buy it, i don’t think. i just wanted to… see. since i’m so besotted with Sharapova. yes, i admit my shallowness–it’s all in her pretty hair and pretty earrings and pretty dress and nice shoes and niceathletictallslim body. i am so glad she’s a good player. can you imagine the moral dilemma i wld be in if i had decided to like a tennis player who turned out to have no skill??!!! heh. pity she lost to Venus. but then Venus turned out to be the champ. so. conclusion? my heart goes out to my Maria.

back to Fitzroy: before we left we snacked at ICI. something i’ve been craving for the longest time. i had oat porridge with raisins, apple, cinnamon and fresh apple juice with frothy warm milk on the side. plus Ridwan’s hot chocolate. wholesome or what? next time i go, i want omelettes.

we stopped by Melbourne Uni so the guys cld do their Asr’ and Maghrib prayers. i was waiting for them outside the building. sigh. and a guy made a move on me. he’s from Zanzibar. oh well, i’ve never talked to anyone from Zanzibar. so, if it’s any consolation, at least i got to know more about the country.  i remember his opening line as we walked towards me, "it’s cold huh? are you waiting for someone?" and his closing one was, "cld i give you a lift? or maybe we could meet up for coffee sometime?" i must admit. he’s quite smooth. too smooth actually, and thus creepy in that sense.

and then we had dinner at Tante Indah’s place. four-your-old Yasmin and two-year-old Zara are shooo cute!

first, a couple of pictures i’ve been dying to post:

this is my favourite shot of the Evermore gig from eons ago. i’ve got much clearer ones. but i really like the whole effect the lighting creates on this one.

some time back, hiks and i cleared the frost that was building up in our *vintage* freezer. and then we made a little snow baby with all the frost we collected. and then we left it to melt to its death on the window sill. twas a sunny day.

anyway. it’s been a while! life’s been good fun and just chill… for what must be the 2985th time today, i’m thinking of how empty it (meaning, i think, the house) feels now that our guests have gone. ah, my dear friends from sunny singapore… i miss you all already. adib, shaiful, aisah, hasan and khalil arrived at our humble abode at 9pm on Sunday, 19th June. hikmah and i literally screamed when we heard them knocking at our door. we hvnt started cooking dinner yet! we were still sitting at the dining table making samosas… and! our kitchen was in a mess! not quite the perfect start, but well. i reckon they had a good stay on the whole. hikmah and i certainly had a great time   =)

i’m not gonna bother with day-to-day details, memorable as they are. seriously, who’s gonna bother reading everything, eh?   ;)   and i hvnt yet decided if i’ll be posting all the pretty pictures up on (my now derelict) buzznet.com photopage. for now, however, a couple of shots to share:

that’s the clearest on i’ve got of ALL of us, though, i must admit, even in this one aisah and khalil are fuzzy. urgh. this was taken after we had dinner at Blok M followed by coffee and dessert at Chapelli’s. somehow we managed to squeeze 8 people into the Camry for our journey back home–shaiful in front, khalil driving and six of us at the back. before we settled for that arrangement, we had to convince hasan to get out of the boot. he actually jumped in, lay down and adamantly insisted that adib get in there with him. i swear the rest of us were speechless for at least a solid 10 seconds. the image of hasan stubbornly sitting in there while the rest of us were standing around persuading, cajoling, ordering and pleading with him to get out–in between uncontrollably laughing our heads off at the incredulity–would forever be imbibed in my brain.

i call this our quintessential road-trip-with-friends shot. we five flew to Tasmania last week and spent 3 days there. it’s really beautiful. all rolling hills and flowing streams and misty fields… with sheep/cows/horses (i leave it to your preference) a-frolicking. in this photo taken on our last day there, we were on or way to the gorgeous Cradle Mountains in our rented Mitsubishi Lancer. the shot below was taken with Dove Lake and THE Cradle Mountain in the background.

[<-- random grp picture, click to enlarge] oh! actually the first place we visited the morning we arrived at Hobart was the Cadbury Chocolate Factory! no, it was nothing nearly as magical as a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory experience–it was far more sobering than that. BUT we did get lots of free samples! yumm. and we bought heaps more at the shop in there too. but too much of a good thing can be downright bad eh? i felt so sick and stuffed up to my ears with chocolate after that. as a matter of fact, i puked it all out during our subsequent drive to the caves at Hastings. (i do believe insist that khalil’s driving actually exacerbated the situation.)

[<-- another random grp picture, also click to enlarge] i was genuinely afraid that the experience would turn me off chocolate for life. the horror! see, last year, i had a dish with lots of mushrooms at some restaurant and heaven-knows-why i ended up throwing it all up. (even thinking of it is making me queasy right now.) i distinctly remember running to the bathroom several times while watching Ocean’s 12 at the cinema to stare down the porcelain bowl of my vomit. since then, although i LOVED mushrooms, i can never eat much of it anymore without feeling sick. anyway, my choco-phobia fears were unfounded coz as the days passed, i continue to stuff myself with the free chocs we got from the factory. i officially ran out of my supply yesterday.   =(   

we came back to Melbourne on Saturday night. so far the week’s been spent shopping, good eating and seeing more of Victoria. yesterday morning hiks, ridwan and i sent khalil off to the airport–he was the last one to go back to S’pore. it seemed as though they’ve been here forever. at the same time, it also feels way too short!

after that i just spent the day at home chilling with ridwan–we rented Whale Rider. finally! i get watch it. i really like it. and… being the sap that i am, i cried almost throughout the movie. but really… it’s a worthwhile watch, i can see what all the fuss is about. keisha castle-hughes is a beautiful little girl… she brings such tenderness and yet such strength to the show.

ok. think i’ll stop here for today. gotta call home. hvnt called hm for a while. hmmm… i hope my allowance is in already… i’m so broke.

[i just had to include these tengah feeling pictures.]