:)

back to being a happy me. thank God for putting me through all that has happened. i supposed i've learnt stuff and have become a stronger person?

anyways i wanted to blog about a lot of stuff after last weds but i ended up procrastinating all the way till today.

sydney trip was a short retreat for me, but well, its still a good break. bad weather but good company, so i won't complain.

and yesterday (13th june) was the day :)

:'( and :')

still trying to get over what happened. and i'm so dreading this week, esp tomorrow. Lord, please give me strength to overcome my fears.

i've been thinking way too much, feeling upset about stuff that i should have already gotten over. but u know how there's just some triggers (e.g. people around u) which remind u of unhappy stuff (but of course they don't do it intentionally) which just pulls u back down to where u started off.

anyways kind of relieved that OSCE was over yesterday. holidays have started, but not on a good note, and definitely not the way i want it to start. i keep reminding myself that God've made plans for me, and i should accept them and make the most out of what i'm going through.

so the consequence of thinking too much, is waking up at 6am on the first day of my holiday (after sleeping past 2am the night before). been sleep-deficient the previous nights. i wonder how my mind even have the energy to think about stuff. and crying the moment u wake up isn't a good start to the day. i thought tomorrow is always a better day?

didn't join the rest for post-exam dinner yesterday (didn't want people to sense that i was unhappy), but instead, had dinner with su and joseph (my favourite couple). hanging out with them kind of cheered me up a little. they are just so reassuring. like when they tell u not to think about it, u will really be kind of convinced to not think about it (though its not a lasting effect but at least it works for a while). so glad to have them around. on a side note, su showed me this korean singer that totally made my day and she sent me some pic of me and him side-by-side that she put tgt. awww she's too sweet :)

and my other awesome friends - mitch, yt, jm and parmesh, thanks for showing concern/trying to make me feel better. 

mum has been praying esp hard for me this period and i know my family gives me the utmost moral support. appreciate all that they have done :')

for now, i'll stay strong :')

love u jie :)

had an awesome time during easter hol with my sis in melb :)

now its time to get back to work and not be distracted.

full

i feel so full and i simply hate the feeling of fullness. went to east coast for dinner at 4.30 (yes, at 4.30) cause dad wanted to avoid having to wait for available parking lots. i was super unwilling and i know i showed it all on my face. felt bad cause i know i should have tried to be more understanding, and think about others and not only myself. (sigh i know i'm going to regret behaving like this once i return back to melb.) why do we do certain things even though we know we'll regret our actions later?

been slacking like crazy. i simply lie on my bed and watch my variety shows whenever i'm at home. damn lazy. i should be reading up on endo, extraction, fixed pros etc., knowing that i'm going to be stressed during the intensive period (first few weeks of the semester) if i don't pre-read stuff.

i'm going to KTP for attachment the coming week. what a way to end my holidays. hopefully i'll learn stuff, meet new dentists whom can give us valuable advice, and not feel bored. difficult to not feel bored though.

eat, eat, eat

omg i simply can't describe how much food i've been eating over the holidays since i came back to sg. i've eaten several buffets (just had one at Holiday Inn last night which was alright, nothing fantastic, but nevertheless the spread was good), a whole lot of meat over the christmas season (had all the different kinds of meat over every single meal during the past weekend), and what scares me the most, my sugar intake. but fortunately, i'm trying to go to the gym every other day. i need to exercise longer during each gym session cause i'm certain that my intake of calories far exceed my output.

i've met up with most of my close friends and they've certainly made my day <3 Thank God for every single one of them :)

there's just so many things that i need/want to do:
1) do as much spring cleaning as possible
2) organise my macbook/external hard disk - i just hate doing all the IT stuff.
3) read up/ revise dental-related stuff - simply can't bring myself to do it but i'll try; and cause we have to collect extracted teeth for our endo pre clinics the coming sem, i've to clean up lots of extracted teeth so that's sufficiently clean for me to handle them without gloves. it was so damn gross. a couple of teeth would have been alright, but i'm talking about a bottle full of close-to-rotten carious teeth. =x
4) think about my resolutions for 2012 - never really thought that i'll be doing this; i've never done it before cause maybe i thought it wouldn't matter that much since it should be pretty much the same every year or maybe i was just pure lazy.
5) exercise MORE and more importantly, eat LESS.


i'll start with items 1 and 2 tomorrow. hopefully i'll be getting down to doing them.

good night!

merry xmas :)

christmas this year was filled with so much love from family and friends :)

exactly one more month to my return to melb. fourth year's going to be exciting but stressful ttm. till then, it's going to be more eating, watching dramas and slacking :)

EOX

(EOX = end of exams)

2.24am.

lying on my bed, watching a (rather) new taiwan drama - in time with you. was asking su what drama is nice to watch and she said she's watching this one at the moment. i've heard of it and so i started to watch it. and... it's really good :) hehe and i've only watched like 1 episode of it, and i'm already addicted to it :)

life after exam is no doubt boring/sian. but i rather come home feeling sian than force myself to sit down and read those notes.

feeling relieved that exams ended. viva yesterday (which was monday, but i felt like i ended exams days ago, i dun know why) was alright. 15 mins of oral exam didn't seem too difficult after all. not trying to say its easy (cause nothing can be easy in dentistry), its just easier/less scary than what we expected. or it could be that we over-stressed/frightened ourselves, cause after all it's our first ever viva voce. there's more to come in 4th and 5th years. btw the 5th years have completed their exams 2 weeks ago and they are graduating officially in early dec. omg damn envious.

just talked to jie on the phone for an hour. and i really really can't wait to go home. excited :)

its 3.32am and i reckon that i should sleep already so that i can wake up before 10am tomorrow to use my off-peak internet to watch the show :) oh and i woke up at 6.05am today (tues) - on the first day after exams. just can't sleep in.

good night (morning).

cairns is awesome fun :)

need to rush my CDH assignment =/ will try to update about cairns when i have the time and mood :D

*thanks jo for your comment on the previous post :D can't wait to catch up with u girls when i'm back. x

hello spring!

just got home from work and the house just feels so empty cause mummy flew back to sg already =( missing her.

i've been so mean to her (the usual me =/) and i swear i know that i'm mean but just can't help it sometimes. i hate myself for being so selfish and grumpy and not knowing how to treasure those around me. i suck i know =(

but but, i did have a great time with mummy (uploaded some pics on fb)! we ate super a lot of good food (both outside and home-cooked). mummy's cooking just rocks ttm. AND WE SHOPPED LIKE CRAZY. hahah i must say, "like daughter, like mother!" i bought so much stuff cause its like the end-of-season sales. damn awesome shopping. i felt so guilty for spending so much money, buying stuff that i can completely live without it. but i told myself i'm earning money, so that's fine. its so bad. =x

i need to try to study some stuff cause i've neglected my work like crazy. mum's here, lots of birthday celebrations (a big one for my good friend coming up after cairns trip), work, cairns trip coming up etc etc. i really want to get onto the groove of studying hard core again. flying to cairns on thurs for a week (super long =x) and so i'm only left with tonight and weds. tmr i'm going to the dent hospital to collect my denture framework for my pt and then meet jin to get some photos of him for printing for friend's birthday. OMG DAMN BUSY =(


i don't know how to describe the situation i'm in now. busy but yet i don't feel like anything is being done. feeling so unaccomplished.
i just need a day to sit down and flip through my notes without any distractions. but its really difficult with thousand and one things going on. maybe after the spring break it'll be better (it better be)!

i hope cairns trip is going to be enjoyable and everything's going to go smoothly. =D

holidays #6 - say hello to year 3 sem 2

before i forget,
here's the bread and butter pudding that i made. first attempt at making and it was really quite a success. loll doesn't look that appetizing tho.


what it looks like inside:



had a crazy last day of holiday today. long story and i'm simply too lazy to get into the details. but yea, just a lot of rushing from places to places after church with some crazy friends. loll.

jasmine arrived in melb today and i got my stuff (including the loupes that i ordered) from her. big thanks to her for helping me to bring over some stuff from sg).




yes this thing called loupes is freaking expensive (S$1,700) but it is also because i got the 'branded' one and with the Oakley frame. HAI. but my rationale is that i'm going to use it throughout my course+career (hopefully) so i guess its worth it to get the more expensive one.
i'm going to try to start using the loupes on my patients within these few weeks and see how it goes.

i've been trying to read up on rem pros notes since last monday and its really a TORTURE. studying during holidays never work out (at least, for me).
tomorrow i'll just be taking history + oral exam + impression for my rem pros patient so i won't need that much of new technical knowledge. haven't met this patient before but he sounds okay (rather friendly) on the phone. mr xx, pleaseee be nice to me.

timetable this sem is really slack (but the subjects are definitely not easy). loll i actually have my thurs off officially. BUT, i kind of have to assist parmesh in her clinical session though its definitely not a must. sighh, how awesome it is to get a day off but oh wells, i'll just take it as an opportunity to learn from my peers.

haven't got back all our results and i'm getting very scared. but yea, i always believe that God has a plan for us and i'll accept whatever He gives to me :)

holidays #5 - one more week of hols

omg just one more week to uni reopening. SIGH.

felt like i haven't slacked enough. i've got lots of things - big/small; important/unimportant; urgent/not urgent - to do and i'm trying to do them diligently one step at a time.

i've been watching city hunter (already caught up with what's showing in korea now and waiting for this week's episodes to be uploaded). loll i've been really desperate for internet cause i've been using too much that its running low and so i had to use my iphone to watch and head over to friends' houses to watch. this is really bad i know.

there's more dramas that i want to watch but i highly doubt that there's time and internet allowance for me to do so :( kind of abandoned my taiwanese variety shows for kdramas this holiday. kdramas are really really addictive.

besides watching dramas diligently, i've been cleaning my apt and doing laundry almost every day. don't ask me why, but housework and laundry seems never-ending or maybe cause i feel like i've got time, so i decided to maintain the cleanliness of my apt which is not exactly that necessary. just see how i survived through the past sem with once-every-two weeks of thorough housework and the place still seemed reasonably clean.

i should really get down to doing some more serious/important/meaningful stuff. like, revising prosthodontics (in exactly a week's time, i'll have to start my pros treatment for my pt), calling all my patients to arrange for appts/reviews etc, check out the books that i'll need for the coming sem (which i might have to go to lib at uni - it just sucks to go back to uni during holidays =/ ), EXERCISING, meeting up with friends that i'm supposed to meet up during the hols, looking for a part-time job (getting so lazy to do so) ETC ETC.

lazy ttm.

holidays #4 - food is love

i made baked eggs this morning for brunch :) really easy to make and its yum!
:) i added tomatoes and cheese below the eggs.


this was the baked oreo cheesecake that we made at maria's place yesterday. i somewhat prefer the non-baked one.


some random dish that i created. stir-fried beef (with prawns and broccoli) in wonton skin


next up will be bread and butter pudding this weekend (hopefully i really get down to doing it).

holidays #3 - secret garden :)

i've finished watching secret garden yesterday! awwww, hyun bin is sweet ttm. i liked him in other shows but he is just so cute in this show! :) hahaha.
started watching city hunter (another k drama) and i'm not yet addicted to it, probably cause the cast is not that attractive (loll), except maybe lee min ho.
have to start pacing myself or else i'll have no more internet left when uni starts. =/

i feel so lazy and comfortable lying on my bed, staring at my laptop, finding websites to surf and watching dramas. i kind of like this kind of lifestyle (staying at home and not going out). holidays ftw! :)

tomorrow i'll be hanging out at maria's house where we'll be baking :) i should really be disciplined and stop indulging in food (finished a whole tray of white choco tim tams in an hour yesterday. ohgosh.) but its uncontrollable and i swear i really feel hungry sometimes.

friday night i'll be watching fireworks at docklands (some winter event that only takes place during july) with su and tricia. i'm trying to curb my urge to go out and shop cause i think i've shopped enough and its really time to save money =/

i'm quite happy with my life now :)

sydney

holidays #2

went to sydney from 30jun - 4jul. we flew by tiger and omg, received the news when we were in sydney that tiger got grounded by the aviation dept. so stupid. yea and we spent half a day in sydney searching for options to go back to melb. i had to go back on time (that is 4 july, if not the latest 5th) cause i was flying to tassie on the 6 jul (and thank God this time i was taking jetstar). flights were expensive so we decided to go by rail (bus was the cheapest but we reckon train would be safer). 11 hours overnight train ride wasn't that bad after all. had to unpack my sydney stuff and pack my stuff for tassie on the 7th. spent half a day watching secret garden. only started watching then and i'm so addicted to the drama. i love hyun bin!! hahaa. yea i was so glued to my laptop that i didn't feel like going to tassie anymore.

sydney trip was okay (more fun than i expected). surprised at myself for remembering how to get around. my sense of direction is really not bad (or i guess getting around sydney is not that difficult). haha
mostly went to places that i've been before but i really don't mind cause they are really nice places that are worth going more than once. went to some places for the first time - manly beach, chat thai (oh man i love the food there) and whale watching. and i shopped quite a bit =/ need to start saving money now!

tassie is a lovely place, but the cold weather kind of made the whole trip less enjoyable. i brought sufficient warm clothings but i still shivered like crazy. the weather was bad. rained everyday =/ and we actually trekked at cradle mountain in the heavy rain in the thick snow for an hour or so. amazed at how i managed to do that. but the scenary was just breathtaking. everything was just covered with snow (kind of reminded me of one of the scene in the kdrama snow queen).

quite relieved to be back in melb after 10 days of travelling. went to maria's friend, jason's house to cook mee siam for them and we had a lazy sunday afternoon tgt, playing wii and just sitting around. jason's apt is really nice (facing crown) but his rent is just so ex. wish i was staying in such a beautiful apt though.

i get so irritated and easily pissed these few days. i don't know why, but i just cannot stand people who say lame things and think they are funny when it is not funny at all. somebody irritated me in person (multiple times) a few days ago and i really feel like asking him to shut up (but obviously i didn't). and another person sent me a text that pissed me off so much that i replied in a very unfriendly tone, and he sensed it so he replied saying that he was 'just joking'. whatever, seriously. and another person pissed me off on fb and i really feel like scolding him on fb but then again, i didn't cause things will become quite awkward i reckon. sigh i know they are doing it unintentionally but still, i'm just uncomfortable with it =/

i must learn to calm down and not get offended so easily.

going to cook something special for dinner - having a mini pot luck with su and tricia. hopefully it'll turn out nice :)

holidays

been so busy, running here and there to do lots of random stuff. yea, but it feels good that u are busy over things over than academic-related stuff. we are doing a video for our friend's birthday cause we can't be there in msia to celebrate her birthday. getting the guys to contribute a recording of their personal messages is really quite difficult. yea but gerard and justin did a really funny job. loll. i ROFL-ed every time i watch it.
someone actually said that he didn't want to do it cause it was embarrassing and i was super pissed with him. haha but in the end he sent the video over in the evening. and that made me feel touched. loll. guys ah guys.

yayy i'm going tassie after sydney with mitch and his friend and hopefully my friend can come along too. haven't been to tassie so i'm kind of looking forward. i'm not sure if i should go to gold coast the week before uni starts =/ i'm not the amusement park kind of person and i'm already going to spend quite a bit on the two trips + shopping in melb. but its also provided that there's friends to join me for the goldie trip.

been looking at some of my friends' grad trip / exchange photos on fb. ahh damn pretty. now i'm considering to get a DSLR.

i springcleaned my house yesterday before my friends came over to film the video. so satisfied with myself :)

waiting for pam to call me (she's back from cairns) before we'll go out for a meal tgt (:

after exams

YES EXAMS ARE OVERRRR. THANK GOD for bringing me through this whole period of stress/uncertainty/homesickness etc etc.

like what i expected, i don't feel excited about being done with exams. just have the finally-i-don't-have-to-study feeling.

went out with parmesh and su for shopping before we met the rest for dinner at this greek restaurant called Aspro Ble. service was awesome, with the owner explaining to us what the dishes on the menu meant and serving us complimentary salad and wine. he's so nice and warm so we ended up giving quite a bit of tips. and the food was good too. but the menu was pretty limited in choices though.
we then went to sit down at TenRen (this chinese tea place) to talk for a bit. was super tired and really tempted to go home but thought that it would be nice to stay and chat for a bit since yc, justin and jin were flying off the next day. so we stayed till super late and it was scary (since its a friday night) walking on the streets when we headed home. some drivers were simply crazy.

sigh i feel so emo now that exams are over. why, i also don't know.
maybe i miss home and should have gone home. pam is in cairns now and i'm already missing her. i don't look forward to going sydney next thurs too. (somehow i'm hoping that the volcanic ash thing will be back and our flight will be cancelled. very very bad of me to be having that thought.)

plans for the weekend. do housework (very urgent! haha) and shopping tomorrow with parmesh before she flies back. and i'm going gym at su's place on sunday. i'm going to start watching secret garden (korean drama) and probably finish it before going to sydney. i hope this sounds exciting enough.

3.16am. time to sleep and wake up to the mess that's in my apt.

goodnight world. tomorrow will be a better day!

back from grampians

the grampians trip was really enjoyable! it was my first time driving out of melbourne and for such a long time (it was a 3-4 hours drive to grampians). the drive to there was managable, but returning back to melb wasn't a very pleasant experience. but thank God that we are all safe (:

i simply love the company we had! haha, a lot of funny things happened during the trip, especially in the car, but i guess now we know each other better =D

the pple in our car (:


i can't bring myself to do any work now that i'm back in melb. sian to the max :( i just stare at my notes for hours without absorbing anything. i need rest (slept very little during the trip, and i'm having muscle aches after trekking). i just feel like slacking the rest of my easter away (which is just one more day, that's tomorrow) and then chiong when sch reopens. afterall, studying just that little bit more, wouldn't make a big difference right.
oh man, and i'm stuck at my presentations =// especially perio. i just have that bit more to go, but i don't know how to go about it. sighh.

dreading that first week of uni but kind of look forward to it as well. going to be my busiest week ever (i've got everything - all preclinics, clinics, seminars, re-scheduled sessions etc etc). but i guess i need uni to re-open so i won't feel guilty for slacking during holidays. it will be 4 more weeks to end of semester and then exams. ouch, this is so scary.

oh before i forget, i've got an AWESOME NEWS EVER. Cedar Handbell Ensemble got our first GWH for SYF this year =D thanks jia hui for this fab news! and we are the only sch that achieved GWH. this is just amazing, isn't it? feeling very proud as an alumni =D

EASTER HOLIDAYS (:

i've been wanting to do a post at the start of easter holidays, but then i just couldn't complete one full post on thurs and yesterday cause there are simply too much stuff going on.
if i want to prepare for my presentations, do some revision (i doubt this'll ever be achieved), prepare for grampians trip, go and eat the food that i've been craving for, cook and bake good stuff for myself and friends, meet up with friends that i haven't met since i came back, do housework regularly, watch my shows regularly, exercise (not very possible too) -- all these during my ONE WEEK of easter break!? haha no way.
there's just too little time to do everything.

how come i feel more busy than last easter when i spent almost the whole of the easter break in sydney. now i'm only going to spend 3 days in grampians and i have more days to accomplish other stuff.

FOOD. yea this is something that i've been indulging myself so much into that i've gained terribly lots of weight (i didn't weigh myself, but i can sense it somehow). :( will be trekking in grampians, so i reckon that's some form of exercise?

i love my cooking! haha i've been spending more time cooking and i think my cooking skills have improved. hehe. spend most of my time looking at recipes when i'm online and i'm just so so tempted to try out so many of them. FOOD IS REALLY LOVE (:


aglio olio (which i cooked for a potluck early this semester).


carrot cake! love it.


aww i've got more photos of food to upload but blogger is being just uncooperative.

making something like belachan chicken for michelle's housewarming tonight and chocolate easter eggs for sophie's birthday tomorrow. so many potlucks this sem and i'm running out of ideas already =S

happy easter everyone!

(shall continue with my ortho and perio presentations. what a mood spoiler =/ )

HAPPY CNY!

HAPPY CNY EVERYBODY! may all of us have an awesome year ahead!

i have so many things to update on this blog.. after all, my two months summer hols is ending real soon (flying back earlier than planned) and i'm glad to say that my hols have been very fufilling because i managed to accomplish everything i wanted/planned to do. cheers :)

my hols started on a good note with a temp job that i (was pretty lucky) found online. working in a hotel was definitely a pleasant experience. nice colleagues and bosses, meals provided, lots of freedom, managable work. and the best thing was that they were comfortable with me working for 1 month, which meant that i could just spend my other month doing things that i want to do.

and so, my second month was about attachment with NUS dentistry (it was rewarding!), hong kong trip, more meet-up sessions with friends, spring cleaning, bringing Jin (korean friend) around Sg etccc.

hong kong trip was AWESOME to the max! love the fact that i was travelling with my sis and everything was well-planned. =D yes, we just ate, shopped, ate, shopped ... ...

meet-up sessions were kind of difficult to plan, cause everyone's so busy with uni/internships/preparation for exchange.. thanks friends for accomodating my schedule! at least we managed to catch up on quite a bit of stuff!

Jin was in Singapore for the past 5 days and bringing him around was such a torture. hahaa no la, not because of him, but rather, the super bad weather (!!!) and the lack of places to bring him around. but at least now there's RWS/USS and MBS in Sg. But Jin's just amazing. he eats everything and anything, tries to fit into the sg culture, agrees with any plans that we have for him, and does not complain about anything. =D yes, a super guai tourist (except for the fact that he keeps imitating me)!

CNY was pretty normal this year. haha the same questions, as usual, "which year are u in uni?",
"how many more years before you grad?", "when are u going back to Melb?", "How's uni?" blah blah blah.
having a bad cough now so i can't really indulge in all the cny goodies. booo, i want my bak kwa and pineapple tarts. had to see a doc just now to get stronger antibiotics. 24-hour doctors are suckers - $75 for consultation and medication.

good news and bad news.
good news first, THANK GOD that i'm managed to change my flight back to melb to the 5th of feb! so i won't be missing my 9am preclinics on the first day of sch. PHEW.

bad news, i'm not prepared (emotionally and physically) to go back earlier. just started to sink into the CNY mood and i haven't started packing. i have loads of stuff to bring back.
I need to arrange a new appt for the collection of keys for my new apartment and the connection of my utitilies. and i'm in the process of getting all these done. pray that everything will go smoothly.

this sem's timetable is simply crazy.
8am-5pm. starting clinics this sem. pray for nice and good patients. (:

bye singapore again - not sure when i'm flying back the next time, most probably end of the year? whatever it is, see u guys then! =D

love,
leona