Back blogging?

The answer to my title heading (Back Blogging?) is, yeah, but it's definitely going to be less frequent than my daily entries. I know I've been slacking on the blog, but honestly, my schedule has just been crazy! For starters, the Olympics felt really really long even though it's been three weeks. I feel like I've been worked to the bone, hardly any sleep, plus last week, with three things due - that was pretty mad. But this week - 4 things due, and working 4 days.

Today, I had post-Olympics meetings all throughout the day, trained two people and then, it was back to operational/technical meetings. And tomorrow, I have a class test. I know it's only 10%, but I haven't learnt much at all. Kinda stressing lots. It would be really awesome if I could get a 9 out of 10 at least... For me to achieve that, it'll probably come down to real memorising and being able to absorb everything by tomorrow morning. The test is in the late afternoon at 4pm, and yes, I'm definitely hoping I can pull it off by then. Pray for moi! It's on Speech Acoustics by the way. Sounds easy enough, but try Fourier theories and calculating the Doppler effect and compressional wave fronts... Yeah... big hmmm....

After the class test tomorrow, I have two more tests on Stats which I should be able to complete on the weekend (it's good that it's online). And the other piece of assessment was due Monday, so that was done and gone... So 1 down, 3 to go.

Also, that's not the end of the busy-ness over here. Next week, I'm meeting my ex-neighbour for din. She's from Singapore and will be in Syd with her fam for a few days and then heading to Melb to see her brother. She's actually married with a kid whose 7, and she was also my ex-piano teacher. So yeah, she's much older than I am and she's babysitted me a few times as well when I was little. I think it'd be a little weird catching up especially since I haven't seen her since I was in my teens. Hmmm... And that week too, I'm catching up with one of my Canadian ex-uni friends. He's in the snow at Perisher Blue at the moment... but he'll be venturing to Syd. So will prob catch up. And in the midst of that all, I have 2 Stats tests that week too, plus operational work training I have to do with some of the trainees. One day... when I find a little window of opportunity somewhere else, I think I'll do that and rest a bit... But right now, that's pretty much my life as it is... It's bumblebee me at the mo.

I Need the Hours

No, not to work... not to study... Just need more hours of sleep and being able to study and work at the same time. I'm feeling a little bit sick today with a cold and some cold sores cause of the really dry weather recently, and perhaps stress. But too late to call in sick... It's like lunch time already, and working on the Olympics later at 5pm.

Work and uni are both really fun, but fatigue doesn't allow me to enjoy it as much... Plus I'm really worried about how to finance myself for next year. I'm definitely intending to quit work so I can focus more on studies. But work gives me the income for substantial living. Perhaps I can work in the uni... Mary will need to give me tips. Haha! Then again, having said that, I haven't even written a cover letter or resume in so long, I think I've forgotten what I've done. Or rather, for the past five years, I've just moved around in the media industry. So undertaking something totally different and mentioning that in a job application would be a little scary to do. I haven't even had the time to look really.

I have 2 Stats tests and 1 large assignment next week, I don't really know how I'm gonna pull it off... But this week, I had to do a demo test and one test and for that one test, I scored 100%. And shock horror - it was a Stats unit! Imagine that! I told my parents and my dad was like "Don't you hate Stats?" And I was like "I did!" Somehow it's starting to be more enjoyable than I thought.

Also, I was trying to swap classes so that I can do this group assignment with this African American chick I met in the lecture. We kinda hit it off when we met and we'll be looking out for each other every Stats lect. =) The unfortunate thing is that we can't seem to get classes where both of us will be in it together - all the classes were full. I wasn't really worried about who would be in my group and no-one has really formed groups yet. I don't think we even do the group assignments till week 5 of uni. But I guess some people are pretty keen like one of the guys I know from first sem. Well, he recognised me and emailed me, asking me to be in his group cause we're in the same tutes. I agreed cause I think it's good to be in a tute group with someone really smart. And I know his study mode from Sem 1, and he is really smart, so you're bound to do well in the assignments. So yeah I'm happy. Another thing I also found out was that guy and three other girls are all doing the same qualifying entry into the MA Audiology course like me. And so this sem, we're all doing the same subjects. We were thinking of having this study group during uni breaks which is awesome. So good to know people from Sem 1. And hopefully if we all do well, we'll all be studying and working together for the next two years in uni for our course. For me, I'm just worried about supporting myself, not really being able to do well at this stage. But of course, I hope to do well too. Can't really say I will from that mini Stats test I did and got full marks, but I am definitely more motivated this sem and aiming for the high grades compared to last sem.

Oympic-ing

The first day of the actual games in the O-l-y-m-p-i-c-s and it was crazy!! Insanity you could say! I worked from 5pm and still had to do the web transcript after, and I finished my shift at 5pm. Just a 5-min break really... Crazy? Very!! Even the security guard at SBS was like, "You are still here?" When I mentioned O-l-y-m-p-i-c-s, he was like "Wow, you guys work intense hours."

And in the morn, I had uni - yep, class on a weekend - it was a statistics workshop I had to attend. Guess what? It was really interesting. Never thought I'd say this - BUT Stats at the moment seems to be my favourite subject. For the other subjects by the way - there's so much to print off and for me to listen - we have iLectures - and I'm really nervous... It's only the first week of uni, but I have tests from Week 3 and every week after that, and with the O-l-y-m-p-i-c-s going on, I don't know how I can cope. Praying for strength!!

Fortunately I got back home safe cause I didn't have any dinner (couldn't!) and was really, really hungry, plus really drained. Fatigue was really setting in, so thank God I drove back safe and sound. Came home and just ate a mooncake... how sad right? But I was sooo tired, I just wanted the pillow on my bed. My housemate didn't head home that night - she was over at some friends, so at least I wasn't disturbing her with coming through the door with a set of jingling keys.

First Day Back at Uni

The first day back at uni and I got lost trying to find my lecture. Dun laugh. The venue actually changed. The good thing was that by the time I found my class, the lecture just started, so I didn't miss anything. The theatre was huge and crowded. In fact, I think there are about 400-500 people doing the subject. It was massive. This is a Stats class by the way and a core subject for the course I'm doing... I actually did Stats before, but that was a while ago during my second year undergrad, and I am guessing because I haven't done it in a few years, I have to do it again. The statistical content is slowly coming back to me I think... Surprisingly though, this is the first time, my lecturer is really interesting. Stats was always dry and horrible from what I could recall at Melb U, but this lecturer has made it really intriguing. So yes - never thought I'd say this - I am enjoying my first Stats lect - how bizarre (especially from someone who hates stats)!

TY's Week in Syd

TY was here in Sydney for about a week. And yeah, dun wanna be too mushy, but I miss him already. He was up on Mon night and just left (Sun night). It was really good having him up here, exploring Syd with me. And his visit seemed short (even though it was a week) but it was really worthwhile. Well, Tues and Wed, we both worked, met up with a few people and ate at various places such as French and Jap (pics on Facebk). Thur, we had a quiet one. Then Fri and Sat, we planned a few impromptu road trips. We kinda wanted to explore Kangaroo Valley (about 2 hours drive from Syd) but when we got there, we couldn't really find the blue "I" for information, so we ended up going to another nearby town called Nowra. The town in Kangaroo Valley was also really small - it was like two traffic light junctions - yep, that tiny. You could walk from one end to the next and we kinda gave up trying to find the "I"... I felt a little silly going up and down that town in our car. But in Nowra, there was actually so much to do. But we left my house late in the morn (kinda my fault needing more sleep - it does get really cold in my room and snuggles in the morn is what I luv... haha). Anywayz, when we got to Nowra, we didn't have a lot of time to explore, so we just ate at a nearby cafe. The weather wasn't that great either - two words to describe it - one or two showers here and there - and wet and muddy... The next two days (the weekend) was going to be really nice, but cold, and it was a toss between the snow and Hunter Valley. We actually didn't go with any of those choices... On Sat, we went to the Blue Mountains instead, and explored a bit. The scenery was sooo spectacular. The only thing bad - it was really cold and windy that everyone there, including the locals, were rugged up. Some of the locals looked like they were going skiing - with knee-high tracking boots and puffy jackets. On Sun, TY and I did another quiet one. He was really sweet to show me how to check the water levels and oil level in my car, and how to use the manual tyre pressure pump - cause I wasn't very familiar with my car's maintainence... and with the manual tyre pressure pump, I've always been using the auto one and didn't really know how to operate the manual type... Then after the car stuff, TY showed me how to view the movies/shows dubbed to DVD from my VCR... It is gd to have a guy who's into cars and gadgets. Hee! Unfortunately TY was only here for about a week, and there are so many more eatery places I want to take him. Next time he heads down... Speaking of eatery places, when TY was here, we googled this Chinese seafood restaurant in Crows Nest and their buk choy is amazing! TY and I seriously cleaned the plate. Never have we ever tasted such amazing buk choy. But not only the buk choy, the food and service is really awesome. We even went back today for yum cha and it was good! Very satisfying. You know how sometimes you come out of a restaurant and you feel really full? We had lots to eat, but the food was just right, and the owner of the place was the one who suggested how much we should have (he said why don't we have a bit of this and a bit of that and he'll specially do a smaller serving of a particular dish...it was so accurate how he could just pinpoint what would be right for your stomach. And the food was just unreal). If you guys ever come over to Syd and you want to satisfy your tummies, it's a place to go - the restaurant is called Ying's Seafood.

TY and I also managed to catch Dark Knight and Wanted. TY had Gold Class tix (a reward incentive from his boss for all the hard work he's been putting in) - and we ended up watching Dark Knight with those tix. It was really awesome!! We also had food vouchers and spent it all on the food menu at the Gold Class cinema - the food was really good even though we couldn't really see it cause it was sooo dark. So yes, my first food-tasting in Gold Class and my overall impressions - brilliant.

In Dark Knight, I would have liked to see Heath Ledger get acknowledged at the end since it was his last big one... But on the whole, it's a must-watch. With Wanted - I have to say I'm not a big fan of Angelina Jolie. But the film itself was actually quite good, both in content and acting. Some really cool action-packed scenes. So yeah, it's a good one to go see too. And of course, TY burned me lots of downloaded TV shows and movies, and right now, just watching So You Think U Can Dance America Season 4... I think I'm hooked! The dancing is insane - a good 'insane' of course!!