Post-exam activities

Exams oficially ended one week ago, though it feels a lot longer than that. What have i done since then??

Monday
Stepped out of REB for my last exam of this semester, and realised that it was drizzling outside.. However, within a few minutes of standing outside in the cold waiting for friends, a beautiful rainbow appeared right over REB, spanning the entire sky. It was so clear and vibrant that you could literally almost see the mythical pot of gold at then end of the rainbow. But that wasn't the end, as shortly after, another rainbow appeared above the first rainbow, forming a double rainbow. It was really one of the nicest and fully formed double rainbow i've ever witnessed. Quickly took out my camera phone to capture the spectacle, but alas, a combination of my phone's poor quality and my bad photography skills didn't allow me to properly capture this fleeting moment.

I then proceeded to walk around the city with Sheanee and Joanna to find lunch, as we're the only ppl crazy enough not to eat/sleep before exams. Walked to Lygon St, only to discover that Ying Thai and another Thai restaurant opposite the street was closed. So we walked in a circle around the city and ended up deciding to go to this Korean restaurant along Victoria St, Han Guk Guan, but upon arrival realised that they too were closed on Mondays. We then tried Seoul House but they said that they weren't taking orders for another 20 mins, so as we were famished by then, we ended up eating in Stalactites. Came back and had a short nap, then later at night i had to go over to Kai's place to pass him something as he was leaving for Malaysia the next day.

Tuesday
Went to watch Ocean's Thirteen with CS, Omega, Ralph, and Chong Chyn (more commonly known as Ahma, so called due to her penchant for knitting!). In my opinion this third installment of the series proved to be quite a good movie, though a bit fake in terms of how every plan fell into place and how they had a contingency plan for every conceivable setback. Much better compared to Ocean's Twelve though. Ahma and I then went to Omega's place to cook dinner, and i have to admit Ahma's signature dish tasted quite good. She really can be a typical housewife next time and cook and bake and knit and even put up puppet shows for her children..! =P

Wednesday
I had lunch with Ahma and Omega courtesy of Chong Shen's (CS) wonderful cooking. Stayed and played poker and Wii for a while, before i had to leave for Bimbo's to have dinner with Jeannie, CC, Ken, Aaron, and Rahul, to celebrate Jeannie's last day of exams. For those who haven't discovered Bimbo's it an awesome pub in Brunswick St. which serves $4 (half priced) pizzas after 7pm. And they serve chocolate pizzas as well! We then went to San Churros for drinks and desert. yummm. =)

We then went to CC and Ken's apartment to play Bang! which is a pretty nice card game, save for the fact that it is sadistic. Coz i died, and later given false hope when i got revived, only to be instantly killed again. Came back at bout midnight, when Ahma msged me to say that they were playing games at her place. So off i went galavanting again.

Thursday
Went shopping in Smith St with Jeannie and CC. Didn't buy anything. But the clothes in Essential Men were generally quite nice (as pointed out by Jeannie). I might just go back there to do some shopping. As we had a dinner appointment with Veron to celebrate her end of exams as well, and we had some time to kill, we went to Chocolate Lounge in Spencer Street Station, which has pretty similar offerings to Max Brenner. We then went to Forefront Restaurant for dinner, and adjourned to my apartment to play card games for a while, before going to Barcode in Melb Central for a while to join in the IH end-of-exams party. It's pretty sad to realise that I feel so lost in an IH environement now whereas i used to feel so at home. There's too many freshers and new faces. =(

Friday
I was awoken at 12pm (relatively early for my standards =P) by Adelyn who invited me to go for Yum Cha at Shark Fin House. Went to Melb Central after that to buy 2 boxes of Krispy Kremes just to make use of the 'buy one dozen get another dozen free' voucher, thanx to Sheanee who pointed this out.

Steph came over in the afternoon bake, just so that she could make use of her Donna Hay recipe book. She made some delicious chocoloate chip biscuits. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to actually bake something myself as i've always wanted to bake, just that i've always been too lazy. I actually bought the ingredients to make chocolate brownie during summer, but it was left sitting in the cupboard for 4 months. Finally put to good use the recipe 24 gave me, which makes awesome brownies. However, after baking it for some time the bottom still had not solidified, and i had to go out for dinner to Meshiya with Steph, Dada, Claire, and Maybelle. So i decided to leave the brownie to bake (on low heat), whilst i went out for dinner. Proved to be a mistake though as it turned the brownie rock hard. It tasted nice though, except for the horrible texture. Lesson learned!

Later in the night, as Cliffe's been thinking of organising a poker night i invited him and other ppl over. Played poker, mahjong, and other card games. Until at about 3am when almost everyone had gone home except for Erwin, Steph, and Cliffe, i decided to teach all of them how to play bridge. Big mistake, as Erwin was so hooked on the game that he didn't want to leave until 6am in the morning.

Saturday
Woke up late again as usual, and went to Melb Central with Steph and Claire to shop for birthday presents for Hui Li, and belated presents for Dada and Li Shan. Ended up in this very pink looking store called Peter Alexander and bought a desert cook book for Hui Li and pajamas for the other two.

Came back home and rested for a while before having to go to Hui Li's birthday party, which was held in the Uropa function room. It was good to see her after such a long time, and i've forgotten how funny she can be. Not to mention loud, talkative, and hyper as usual. It was a very fun party, not the typical birthday party but one where a lot of effort went into the planning. There were fun games throughout the night, and touching speeches given by her close friends which unfortunately i had to leave midway, as i had to go home to let AIESECers in as i promised Veron they could use my apartment for a Sing Star session.

It was a fun and noisy affair, with was notable for Raymond hogging the microphone and singing like he belongs on stage. Hopefully, we didn't disturb any of my neighbours, especially when everyone stood up and started singing and dancing to the song YMCA.

Proceeded to Damien's apartment after that for poker, which again meant me coming home at 5am in the morning.

Sunday

I went rock climbing with Ahma, Omega, CS, and Hwa Loong at Hardrock Climbing in Nunawading. A 30 min train ride followed by a short walk brought us to this cavernous place with 30 feet high rock walls on either side, with at least 20 climbing routes (much better than the rock climbing place in One Utama). Though the day was dampened by the onset of gastric after one physically exhausting climb, prob due to the fact that i only had a snack for lunch. =(

Not the most flattering picture

Came back home then went to Damien's place for pot luck. Stayed again until 5am talking and playing various card / board games thanx to Aaron who owns almost every nice board game there is to play. Bang! Munchkins, Guillotine, Taboo!, Mille Bornes, Pictionary, etc. Though, in my opinion Taboo! is still the nicest and most fun game.

Okays, that was one very, very long post, which sums up the past one week of my life. Pretty pointless i think, but as it's already written it shall be posted up. As Kai said, i write 'essays', which i realise takes too much effort. haha.. I shall try to write shorter posts next time.