2 Nights of Bizarre Weather

It's been storming yesterday - hailed in fact, along with lightning and thunder. The hail's ice cubes were about a quarter of a normal ice cube, you know, the one you put into your drink... I actually wore slippers and got caught in the hailstorm and yes, it was painful! My feet actually got cut by the ice cause it was just literally like an ice shower - the only thing - it wasn't fine ice at all. I had an umbrella so my head was protected, but my poor feet and my poor car had to suffer the brunt of it. Some people actually had no umbrella at all and when they were at the traffic light, I felt really sad for them cause they were like "ow, ow" but couldn't do anything. Fortunately the shopping mall is so close to uni. Anyway, I am alright... got home drenched from my jeans down to my feet (because there were ankle-deep riplets), but am safe and immediately put on some bandaids. Surprisingly it wasn't raining that badly near my place.

I am so glad I'm not working this Sunday, but only working Friday and Saturday. I just finished one assignment - a real toughy, and now I have another one which looks like quite a toughy too. Hopefully if I start on it tomorrow night after work, I should finish the readings and then on Saturday and Sunday, it'll be write-up days. Then it's an electronic hand-in on Monday. And then it's down to studying for my exam on Thurs... That's the plan and pray that I'll stick to it. Am feeling super stress really and I haven't felt like it for quite some time... so you know when I end up saying "I just wanna go travelling and leave my course behind" it's not like I'm really gonna do it, it's just trying to enlighten stress... *smiles*

But despite all this stress, I do still feel the love. Thanks to those calling me from a distance and those calling me in Sydney to find out how I am. Sometimes it can get pretty distressing, especially since the assignments are sooo long and my work is on the days that socialising happens (yeah, I don't get to meet a lot of peeps and get close to them, cause I often work Fri, Sat and Sun). Anywayz, I will make it up to my Sydneysider friends who often call me and I can't make it - sowie umpteen times! Believe me when I say I need a social life! Haha! Dun worry, it can start during the hols (but hmm... I might still need to work to pay for the rent... but I am guessing without uni and only work then, I should have more time to spare).

Man! Can't believe it's almost 6 months since I've been in Sydney. Wow! *Breaks into song: I'm a survivor, I can make it...* Haha! Oh, it's the 30th of May! Happy Blessed Bday to Dave (Mary's fiance... hee)!!

Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed...

Feeling frustrated and moody this morning... First and foremost, I slept through my alarm, but thanks to Mary's message, I could wake up (thanks Mary, I really needed to get up and do work on my assignment.)

But woke up with my left arm aching (slept on it and it hurt quite bad especially since I had a vaccination yesterday... *groan*) and feet was having pins and needles. Then I went online to check my uni emails and only now my lecturer handed me the final assessment question (cause rem how I misplaced it?) Fortunately I managed to get a copy from one of my classmates. Next, I tried to print off one of my lectures and couldn't... It was all going wrong... Then I remembered I was a bit frustrated about the sports line heights at work on the weekend so I decided to mass mail the relevant managers and the people involved with trying to argue with me over those standards when I've been there longer and know how correct they are. Grrr...

Hopefully the frustrated day will die down... I'm off to do research and hoping I'll find a journal article of essence. I am hoping to start writing my assignment by this afternoon (at least to start it) 'cause I need to finish it by Thursday, since I've got work on Fri and Sat. I'll do a bit on the assignment hopefully then I have class at about 3.30pm.

Once that assignment is completed, I'll have to start on my other report (it's actually due Monday but I'm hoping to finish it by this weekend cause I have an exam on the Thursday next week). I'm seriously stressing... Haven't studied anything... I actually did up a timetable but how strict I follow it is one thing... I think I'll have to cramp, and I can only do one revision for that subject. At least after the exam on Thurs, I have 1.5 weeks for the other two papers and then it's the holidays. Yay!

By the way - MARY, CALEB, HAPPY BLESSED BDAYS!!

And Mary - get better soon! Poor gal sick on her bday...

The Fire Is On to Push On for a Month

I thought I make the heading more determined and motivated-focus instead... my last few blog posts look soo sad... assignments bogged, studies... etc... =)

Back to the blogging scene for today only, cause I still have more study and assignment work to do. Can't believe I did two assignments in three days - the first one was done in 2 days and that was really tough, but the second one, I seemed to be on a roll and did it in a day. Speaking of assignments, you know how some people are able to write one half way and go onto the next... Wish I could do that sometimes, but yeah, I usually have to finish one assignment before the other.

Today got a call from work and I'm re-rostered to go into S-B-S insteaad of Ch 9... so I start later... which means that I could have spent more time on the assignments instead. But yes, definitely glad those two are over.

Now I've got two more assignments due - giving myself the deadline of this Friday but don't think I'll have completed both by then... We'll see.
Pray for me... Here are my assignment and exam dates:

1. S-p-e-e-c-h Disorders and Language Case Report - 25% due Friday 30 May
2. Psychoacoustics Pract Report - 25% due Monday 1 Jun
3. S-p-e-e-c-h Disorders and Language Exaam - 40% on Thursday 5 Jun
4. A-u-d-i-o-l-o-g-y Exam - 40% on Wednesday 18 Jun
5. P-s-y-c-h-o-acoustics Exam - 40% on Monday 23 Jun

Putting dashes... so people don't find my blog through G-o-o-g-l-e just in case... You never know what can be found sometimes.

The good thing with the exams is that I'm not working for about three weeks starting 1 Jun... only working one day in those weeks - Queen's Bday.

Oh, I have an interview as a S-p-e-e-c-h C-a-p-t-i-o-n-i-n-g Trainer in my company in two weeks. It's a full-time position and they actually recommended I just go for the interview. I kinda told them that I can only work at max 4 days per week and they said they'll probably be able to work around it. This means I get to train people and will probably be doing more admin and less s-p-e-e-c-h c-a-p-t-i-o-n-i-n-g itself. This is a good thing... because it's not irregular shifts unless I do the actual s-p-e-e-c-h c-a-p-t-i-o-n-i-n-g shift. But if most of the time, I am training, it'd be at the main office, from 9-5pm. Pay will probably be better and I will get an hour's break everyday which is awesome. But I guess I'll have to see what happens with uni too. Dun wanna have too much on my plate, and I believe next semester is definitely going to be busy.

Assignments bogged

As you guys know from my previous post, I finally watched Iron Man! This was two weeks ago though... The movie was really awesome! Hint: For those who haven't seen it, you must stay behind after the credits. You won't be disappointed even though I felt that they could pick someone better looking than Robert Downey Jr... but in fact, he acted it really well, so all in all, it was pretty fantastic!

Yesterday I met up with one of my old church friends from Singapore. I don't really know her that well, but she's a friend of a friend and we decided to meet up for dinner. In fact, it was all in good planning because she works in the city and I happened to take up an extra shift which was in the city on that day... The shift ended at 6pm which is really rare, but it was great timing for dinner. Met up with her near my workplace (cause I don't really know the city very well) and she brought me to this amazing Jap restaurant in Chinatown... The strange thing about this restaurant is that in order to get in, you had to go up this dodgy lift - it kinda felt like attending a secret society of some sort... but upstairs was really nice - and crowded. We spoke quite a lot and after dinner went to have supper near her place, then I sent her back. By then, it was almost 11pm and I realised I hadn't started on my case study handout and Powerpoint presentation the next day. Returned home about 11:20 and then went straight into it and actually finished the handout at about 1am... It was 2 A4 pages and in size 10 font so I was pretty impressed I finished it that quickly. Then in the morn, woke at about 9am and started on the Powerpoint presentation and finished it in a few hours. It's one of the worst midnight oils I've burnt I think... Not gonna try and do it again... but I am expecting a few more no-sleeps.

Spoke to my sis by the way and she's moving in with her boy cause he asked her to. Big step! And right now, not sure what she wants to do with the apartment my dad got for her... Hmm...

Next week and it's gonna be crazy! Two major assignments due end of the week! I have to start cracking...

Need to Get Cracking with Assignments

Felt like a new fresh colour look for my blog... just so I can feel motivated to study... haha... You know what psychologists say about colours affecting mood?

Today I took my car for servicing early in the morn - about 7:30am - and the service people found a puncture in my left tyre. They found the nail and it was pretty big... strange that I didn't find it... I knew there was something wrong with that tyre and had been looking for a nail when I pumped it up but didn't find anything. But that's probably why the service people are pros at what they do.

After the servicing, I manged to put my mind into reading all my research (which is good) but right at this moment, I haven't started writing up anything and this literature review is due this Friday! I am certainly hoping to get something done by tomorrow! My classmate gave me an incentive - that if I finish this literature review by Thursday 4pm, I get to watch Iron Man with her, or else she'll go watch it with her friend. Pretty good incentive...

And tonight, I could have spent 4 hours doing my literature review, but ended up spending some time with the boys over here, meeting up to watch Street Kings (which was a good movie with lots of famous pple). I think I needed that... to clear my head from the study, get out and get my social life back. I think working in the media for the past few years has really deprived me of socialising... and I kinda miss that. So yeah, the socialising and movie was good.

Now it's back to isolation mode to do all the assignments. I was thinking to get all my assignments out of the way and then study... hopefully it's not a bad plan at all... otherwise, there's no way to fully study or let alone concentrate on the study and I really need this to pass with flying colours! A credit would be great, but a distinction would be awesomeness! Pray for me!!

Study Struggles

I know time flies, but didn't realise how quickly! It's almost a month to exams and then semester 1 is all over. Uni life has been good so far, but there's sooo much to learn. And I think Macquarie Uni is a little bit mad! Assignments all due leading up to exams! How insane!! For starters, I have one 30% one due next week (Friday) and then the week after, I have 1 presentation and case study assignment (20%) due... then the week after that, it's a Practicum (20%) and Essay (20%) due. It's this week that my vaccination is due too. Then the week after that, it's another case report and practicum, and then the week after that, it's my first exam on 5 Jun!! My final exam - 23 Jun...

I need a miracle to squeeze in study and get good grades. I can't imagine how my classmates are still gonna work leading up to the exams.