another first world problem: the aussie dollar is going down D=

it wasn't too bad even a month ago, but now i'm just losing precious money when i exchange. i guess it's good to go overseas this year rather than later, since after the US puts up more tax stuff etcetc, the aussie dollar will probs return to 70-80c, like prior to the GFC...

it's almost october, which means mac centre has almost finished renovating. so macquarie gets all the fashion: H&M, Zara, uniqlo, gap etc, whilst parra gets all the food: messina, bourke st bakery, Jamie's Italian etc.

watched the Family Guy and Simpsons combined episode today, it's so weird but hilarious. haven't watched those shows in so long.

trying to find a good gen ed course. actually was hard to find something i liked/were wam boosters. i think i found one for the wrong reasons: finished in 2 weeks in Jan, doesn't clash with dec/feb holiday plans, no final exam. the bad thing is it kind of has group work which i really dislike. have a group work debate due next week, and nothing has happened, and you'd think people in your own course doing compulsory subjects would be more motivated, or at least reply, hence group work in gen ed subjects is not ideal...but since there's no finals, it seems pretty good, and no 50% essays and class participation like the law subjects...don't think i can write 3000 quality words

Full licence!

yay! finally after 4 years of driving. it felt like a long time, but it was actually pretty quick. managed to pass it all without repeating (:

most worried about was having to pay another test fee if i failed since one test is over $40. heard from people at church quite a few people failed the first time so i really didn't want to pay to do it again, luckily i didn't (: getting full marks isn't hard, just read the handbook and memorise some stats. i'd say fills is probably the hardest of them (not hard, but compared to L's where it's general knowledge, green P's where you either touch or don't touch, but fuels you need to memorise random crap). tbh. memorising statistic doesn't make you a better or safer driver, so i think these tests are pointless. didn't have to wait too long there, and finished it pretty quick. now i'm stuck with my licence for another 5 years, problem is i signed my signature too small this time D= just doesn't look as big as last time...

i think they forgot to hole punch my licence, and my green p's don't expire until next year, so I guess I have a spare id to use...they also didn't check my eyesight...

went shopping at t2, and finally got a mesh ball. the person was really nice, i asked for 2 samples and she gave me 2 and 3 tsp, then an additional other samples, and i didn't even buy that much.

another 9 page document about our end of semester prac exam. it's the whole time limit thing, and this time they actually have a bell, so you have to move to the next station, and if you can't finish it in time, well bad luck, you've failed. already so scared since our "patients" are random examiners/post grads who can troll you, and you're under exam stress, and prac exams are even more nerve wracking, and might not finish in time...and if i get a supp i'm repeating D=

why does the business school charge full fees for summer courses gen ed? i wanted to do one business related, but since it's going to cost $6000+ and not commonwealth supported, guess i'll have to do something else...

Monday has gone, and already behind in my list to do D= didn't realise modern family was back, i guess it's good i haven't been following it.

i hate this weather already. trying to wear long clothing for as long as possible, since when summer hits, i have shorter clothing to wear/survive the heat. if i wear short stuff now, don't now how i can survive summer. brief reasons why i hate summer: sun is cancerous. you don't hear about cold weather being cancerous, yes people get sick, but they don't get skin cancer compared to summer. the sun also makes your skin dark, and pigmented. also UV not good for eyes. when driving, the steering wheel is hot even after parking in shade. i've mastered driving with only two fingers in this case (not that it's something to be proud of), but the hot weather leaves me no choice. also, i don't like going to the beach since i try to avoid the sun. only go beaches on road trips/overseas. hot weather makes you less motivated to do work. even if i put the aircon on, it's still a waste of electricity and money. survived the whole winter without using my electric blanket or air con.

if you haven't been following the news, well HK right now is pretty crazy. have a look at this article. i really believe HK people should have their own voice. i don't understand why the media focuses on celebrities wedding when there are real life tense situations closer to home. relatives sending me photos, and it's just hard to believe all this stuff is happening over there. some Aussies/westerners live in HK, and they just have barbecues on the streets. last week, i bet that street was brimming with buses, cars, taxis and people bustling to work.

everyday i actually think about how blessed I am to be living in Australia. our defence systems are good to protect us from random military attacks and we get to choose who to vote for. even though we all hate Abbott, at least we can choose to kick him out in the next election. a freedom to declare my faith as a Christian without persecution.

had a prac exam today. idk, they're very unpredictable. last sem, i thought i didn't do great at one set of pracs, but i ended up getting an A for it. the other prac, i knew i did really bad, so i got a D for it..today i kind of faked it...and i think the examiner knew, so she checked my reading, and argh, why did she have to check mine? she didn't check the others...hopefully i don't get too marked down on accuracy. in the feedback right after in the led, she mentioned to people not to make up readings, and the pracs were on during the week...so fingers crossed i wasn't the only one who did that...it's more of the time constraint that you want to hurry up the process. again, this prac isn't worth much (5%) for a 5min prac (actually, time wise, it's worth a lot, like 60% finals in 2 hours,s till about 2min per %...), but it's more the pass mark which worries me most. the "important" pass marks/checkboxes you need in their secretive marking things...

i have such bad luck. get my cornea stained 2 times this week. screw it, still going to wear my CL tonight, need to see at work tomorrow...

haven't done an iOS personal opinion review yet, because i have yet to upgrade. yes, shock horror, i don't have the newest iOS. even though if you connect to your comp to download, i'm still a bit wary of the download space, and apparently it drains your battery more...but i will refs upgrade when Yosemite comes out for macs. i don't use dropbox, so this new feature of starting a document or anything on a mobile device and then finishing off on your laptop just sounds so time saving! like if i get an iPad, i don't have to carry around and worry about my laptop whole battery life cycle decreasing, and it'll hopefully last me for a lot more years to come.

lol at iPhone 6 plus bending. still can't hate apple because their devices are the most beautiful (:

my friend volunteered at the mercedes benz fashion festival! so lucky-helping dress the models, and be up close and personal backstage. and then she got pretty good seats for a few days just watching the shows. all the models' clothes are just divine. too bad i'm too short to wear that stuff (and i'm not willing to fork thousands just for a dress). still have yet to ask her how she got the job, since you need experience dressing models beforehand, but still pretty cool since she sometimes gets free stuff from all those designers there.

got a free boost today, even though my name isn't really lisa. if i got served by this other person, i know i wouldn't have got it, since you could feel she was strict with these things. i got wonder melon, and it smelt and tasted liked those circular red and white striped strawberry milk lollies. this drink was very bland, maybe because it was free so they put more ice in, or they just watermelons are still yet to be in season...also got free subway just from volunteering...why am i telling you this? free stuff makes me happy (: not a big fan of subway, but it's free.

as i said, my mid sem break is non-existent. so behind on everything, and even when i catch up, it doesn't mean i know anything. i do need to back though, since my almond meal is going to expire. unfortunately, i don't have the time to make amcarons from scratch, nor do i have the time to experiment with my kitchen aid hand blender-it's still sitting there waiting to be used D=

decided to stop dancing for next term, hopefully she won't get mad D=

but this means i actually have to make an afford to keep fit. did you know, i bought a pair of nikes last time i went hk, still have yet to go jogging in them...

i feel that everything that could go wrong this week has already gone wrong-and it's only a Tuesday. this sad type of feeling, not emotionally sad, but an "argh" type of sad

exam timetables came out yesterday, and it's ok spaced out, some a day after another. what luck-another exam on a saturday, but it's the day of my dance concert! and it's end of year concert, so rehearsals are compulsory, and i wouldn't feel confident without rehearsing on the big stage. one of my exams is right in the middle of the day, and i also won't be able to make it back for the opening dance. i don't know how to tell my teacher...i'm not in the important positions, but there would still be a gap...if i did my other dances and not the opening, i still would have to go classes but i'd waste half my time there since i won't be in the opening anymore. i know it's exams>dance, esp it's imperative i can't get supps this sem, but they don't see it like that. like all those yr 12's w/ their hsc still do out of school dance 4 times a week...and i really like the dances we're doing this time, the choreographer is really good...so that really sucks...

also, the official unsw exam date end on 22nd nov, but then we receive an announcement that there is a possibility that our prac exam is the 24th. so lucky i didn't book my flight that day...i guess it's good to be in the last slot for the prac exam since you have more time to study, but i was planning to finalise everything and what not for the trip...

then my printer broke last night :'( i was just printing stuff, and it said it got jammed. and then there was paper stuck inside which my bro pulled out, but it didn't pull out "cleanly" and i think a corner is stuck inside the machine. my dad tried taking it apart, but there's only a certain extent which can take it apart. i don't have any hand in assignments due (most of mine are online these days), but it has really thrown me off track and behind in work. and my mum was nice enough to go buy a new printer for me today, but they didn't have any stock until thursday ):

also had another tonometry prac today (measuring eye pressures), and i don't think i used my time as well ): still can't get a proper grip of it, sucks having small hands. too bad we don't get access to it until out prac exam. also used an old dodgy instrument today instead of the nice new ones. it's so easy to say "be stable", but doing it it's really hard. i guess i can practice by holding awkward objects near someone's eyes/face and make sure i don't shake...and it's only a 5min prac exam per person. really dislike these time limits. also, my partner kind of destroyed my cornea today, so tonight my right eye is blurry. what's worse is that since it's not the inside of my eye making my visn blurry but the outside, i can't wear my ortho-k lenses tonight, so i won't be able to see tomorrow. and i was planning to have a fully productive day tomorrow at home, but one clear and one blurry eye just throws you off...

also, i really hate group work. why does no one respond? it's also due in 2 weeks, and it's a debate involving 12 people per group, but don't people realise that it's about a 30min debate per team? that's a lot of research, and i really doubt we can find a mutual time to meet up in the break...i mean it's already hard these days even meeting up with friends, since people have work/other commitments

my mid sem break next week is also non-existent. 2 days of uni, work, eyeball, and that's most of the week gone.

the list was longer, but i'll just suck it up, and power on tomorrow, with blurry eyes and no printer...sorry to bore you w/ trivial matters, but these have been playing around in my head all day ):

first time working saturday and sunday, and all my study time was gone ): 

mum's birthday was today and my cousin came over to help make dinner. it's always so lovely to have good homemade food (:

roast duck take 2, this time it actually has some colour

toblerone cheesecake from Zest Patisserie

original plan was me going to the city, but i had work. also didn't have time to order a cake...but then this was in the cabinets, so we chose this, and we haven't tried it before. it's not too cheesy and sweet. the base is quite nutty, which reminds me of my vegan desserts, hence my brother doesn't like it since he's not a fan of nuts. there's a tiny bit of caramel and chocolate in the base, but there's mainly almonds. those triangle things on top of the cake were interesting, they were this chewy almond/nutty thing, but not sweet nor buttery. i think the price of the cake rose...it's now $37...

didn't have time to get free connoisseur and movenpick ice cream. also didn't bother getting free krispy kreme. i actually do have time if i make time, but then i thought the ice creams isn't worth my time, and i've already had free krispy kreme this year and i'm not a big fan, so no point making a diversion going home. also told my mum about the 7/11 bring your own cup day, and she's also not a big fan of the whole sugar and "unclean" ice. surprisingly, my brother doesn't care as well-he's actually studying! then again, it is just sugar in a cup...i've actually never done any of those 7/11 things before, only one year i got a free slurpee...

i really dislike how we have a prac exam this week, but the only time we get to practice is during our scheduled prac classes, problem is with that instrument, we have to share 3 between 22 people, and everyone is very unwillingly to share...

goodbye savings...

i haven't even spent anything, but i know i will be broke by the time sem 1 starts again next year...

end of year trip is going to cost a lot. a few days at theme parks cost the equivalent of a new gadget. and whilst i'm there i wasn't to go "all out" on shopping, but now i have to reconsider...and i promised my parents i would pay for my share of the trip, and after paying parents back + shopping + other overseas expenses, that trip will be about $8k just for myself...in NZ, even though we had a very economical trip, we still spent about $500 for a few days, and we didn't do any extreme sports/eat out every single meal...america isn't that cheap once you add all the taxes, it's just servings are big so you don't have to order as much i guess. but the aussie dollar is dropping which isn't helping D=

then i do want a new camera and thinking of getting the new iPad when it comes out...i feel that my laptop isn't as fast when it's not plugged in, and taking to uni, i'm always scared something will happen to it since everything is on it...and iPads are so much lighter, and i'll be able to do readings and look at notes more easily on the bus...another $1.2k

and i really want to go to Heston's The Fat Duck (if i get drawn from the ballot). it's obviously over priced compared to the UK where it's about $400AU and in melb it's $525 just for one meal...but i don't have the money atm to fly and holiday in London. when i first heard of heston, i put on my mental bucket list that when i go to London I will also go to Bray for The Fat Duck. stuff there isn't cheap (well it's cheaper than a few years ago but still expensive). i was talking to my friend who went there for an internship, and she said a medium cap is about $7AU D= here it's about $3.50. if i do go to melb, that would cost about $1k, if i also end up eating at other places...will not shop since (hopefully) i bought enough in america. still...i can go to the top 3 restaurants with dinner degustations in sydney and melb for that Heston price, you can't help but cringe at the cost...

the number of brunches/dinners/lunches that i pass when people ask me, and the places i want to go but resist to go isn't enough for that one dinner =/

then people want to go on a road trip...at least that's "cheap". at this stage, anything under $500 is "cheap"

and that's my uni life savings gone.

had baptisms today at church. it's always so lovely seeing people i grew up with publicly declaring their faith (:

i didn't realise until now our church didn't record sermons from guest speakers. this morning pastor Jay from the indian orphanage i talked about before told his testimony, and baptisms were in the arvo service with our english pastor, so i missed out on his testimony ): reading it on the website is different to hearing it irl. also really love hearing people's testimonies. as for me, well, there wasn't one event which completely changed my life, it was more of a gradual change, but that's hard to put on paper...

sunday public transport is so bad

my ex-dance teacher (well, actually, every teacher i've had for the past 3 years have only taught me 1 year and then leave. i guess the principal teacher just hires dancers who are all pro's) left about a week ago to live in america and got signed onto a dance company to dance. wow, american choreography and their dancers are so amazing

Holy Basil and N2 Take 3

night out to 'relax' after midsems. still have more mid sems a bit later, and a whole lot of uni work to catch up on.

green curry w/ chicken, beef massaman, pad see ew w/ lamb, pineapple fried rice w/ pork

green mango salad w/ soft wheel crab. cost the same as a plate of soft shell crab, but we wanted some salad.

also ordered a tiger beef salad and 2 sticky rices. first time have thai style sticky rice

fried ice cream-take 3

feels like every time i have it, it gets worse. first time at canley vale it was superb, 2nd time at shark hotel and it was alright. this time it was pretty bad. melted before it even got to our table (can see at the back). the corners are usually the best, but the spoon just cut through the pastry to melted ice cream which poured through. usually it's cold, hard ice cream. melted sooo quickly, and the coconut was plated below the ice cream, making it awkward to eat ):

all that melted ice cream

for 8 people, dinner was around $15 and we were all super full, so it was decently priced.

gingerbread cheesecake-$6

not worth the 20min+ friday night wait. normally it's very quite during the day time. shared this with 2 other people. i wanted to get the poison apple. but then it was a sorbet not actual gelato. then again, this gelato incorporated cheesecake in it, so made it not smooth, and kind of was like ice cream. it did have a lot of gingery flavour, but i was rather have a smooth gelato texture.

Cow and Moon Gelato

i have been thinking about gelato the whole week ever since i heard that a local place in Sydney won the best gelato in the world! i mean sydney, compared to the world, it's not really near the top for anything...

was really nice day to have ice cream. the night after they announced it, apparently the lines had over 100 people. when Dandelion and I went, it was around a 15min wait. i shouldn't have told the person in front of me what the award winning flavour is since she got the last scoop ))): it's called Mandorla Affogato which is basically vanilla, coffee and almond flavour. i didn't know Single Origin Roasters use their gelato in their affogatos and they use their coffee, but if you really want Cow and Moon gelato, well you can go to single origin roasters. 

flavours (:

there's not as many flavours as messina, and their flavours aren't as creative as messina. i still managed to get a decent taster of the winning flavour since the person used the paddle pop to scoop out the remaining bits on the side.

medium (3 flavours): turmeric, cardamon, pistachio + lemon and ginger + strawberry and balsamic vinegar-$6.50

i always love going with the different ones, love trying new stuff (: the spices weren't too strong to over power the pistachio. the lemon and ginger was actually sweet, would have liked more acidity and gingeriness. i don't like ginger, but if it's in gelato i don't mind a stronger hit. the vinegar was an after taste imo, but luckily it wasn't too stron since it would be weird. the strawberry wasn't too sweet. we were surprised we were allowed 3 flavours, since you get the impression that with small, medium and large, it's just 1,2,3 scoops...

texture wise, it is harder than normal gelato, it's more in between ice cream and gelato. so it really is personal preference. i prefer a softer gelato.

passionfruit sorbet, black and blue sorbet (i think it's black and blueberry), Quella

passion fruit is nice and the berries had enough acidity. Quella (upon googling) is a type of cream used for gelato with a hazelnut and cocoa flavour. tbh, it tasted like tiramisu but with more alcohol which was actually really nice!

they also ran out of their apple flavour, so i want to go back there again to try the flavours which ran out...

i think i'm still a messina fan. 

Three Willams Cafe

i have been craving brunch food for so long. the last time was after finals last sem so it has been a while since i didn't go during the break/1st half of sem. also been wanting to go to three williams cafe since they opened last year...

menu because i couldn't find the recent menu online. they also have a menu change for spring

homemade raspberry and lemon lime soda-$5, raspberry and coconut smoothie-$7

it was quite warm today so i decided to go for a soda. i never get any soft drinks at cafe/restaurants (unless it's free), but they said they mix it with a sort of home made sprite with their fresh raspberries. it was really refreshing and not as carbonated as normal drinks. if they added normal sprite to it, i wouldn't have got it. yay for paper straws! my friend said the smoothie was really sour, so i tasted it and i though my drink was my sour, even though it wasn't. 

crunchy brioche french toast w/ berries-$16

first time having french toast at a non-Asian restaurant. they actually mixed up our order and gave us the newer chocolate version...it's pretty expensive for "a slice of bread" but it was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. it wasn't drowned in maple syrup which is good since you still wanted to have the slight acidness from the berries and yoghurt. the yoghurt was really nice as well

beer battered chips-$7, duck narnie-$16

the duck nannie looked small, but when you opened it up, it was filled with delicious duck! it was surprisingly filling. the duck was tender and full of flavour and the naan flat bread was very soft, kind of reminded me of the ippudo buns. haven't had beer battered chips for so long, and these were very crunchy. obvious to make it lighter there's less potato inside, but it was a pretty big serving. ended up taking some back home. the aioli was nice, but The Grounds is still one of my favs.

so much has happened. where should i start?

mum went to HK for about 2 weeks and we survived! the main problem is that i end uni late and get home around 8, my dad gets home even later sometimes, and my brother is "studying" at mac uni or somewhere else and he also gets home late. and even though i need to study for my mid sems, still need to cook stuff since dad's work is more tiring than me going to uni and trekking it back home.  had stuff in the freezer, but i feel like guys don't understand the concept of defrosting. constant washing and cleaning, especially my brother who uses every single utensil and bowl possible. he's very inconsiderate. i just use 1 bowl and chopsticks to save up washing/water etc, and he grabs everything. i shouldn't complain since i was pretty spoilt during my hsc and didn't do much housework, but still, at least think about others.

at least my mum had fun, and did quite a bit of shopping. the wedding and birthday dinner photos looked so good! ahh, wish i was there. one of my cousin skipped a whole week of uni to go HK, but he does easy stuff like 2 days uni, so i guess he could.

foood! 

i've been waiting for almost 2 years to be reunited with Blueberry Ice cream Oreos <3 

my mum hand carried 7kg of food, then in her luggage was 30kg of stuff. that's pretty impressive, and  she's shorter than me as well, so pretty impressive how she managed to lug it back home. she also went on the Qantas A380, and apparently they have a self serve bar of snack food! qantas has branded cookies, so she obviously took more than her share haha.

she also bought some clothes. i didn't request any, but uniqlo clothes with technology are pretty amazing. every time i go to HK i never buy anything from there, but next time i'll have a closer look...

overly stressed for my exam. i was actually late to it since the whole m2 was just cray and didn't move. i left 45min earlier than normal. a normal trip to the city takes 40min, ended up being half an hour. luckily it was physiology and you weren't stressed for time. like people left 10min after it started-how can you physically write that fast? some people came in half an hour into the test, but still managed to finish. so i wasn't the only late comer...

if i was late t optom i would actually cry. i've never finished an optom exam, and last week was so tight for time, didn't even bother reading the short answer one. one who page of stuff to deduce. and people talking about the test after, and i got everything wrong that they said. i suck at MC. it's not worth a lot, but finals is going to be a lot harder, and if i can't even do the mid sem half correctly, well actually 65% correctly since that's the pass mark, then how will i move onto 3rd year. i did study, but just need to study even harder...must not get supps. and now to start on the assignments/catch on up lectures i've missed...at least 5 hours behind...

will talk about iPhone 6 when i have some time...not sure when...

went to Plus today, and we had a guest speaker, Pastor Jay who founded an Indian orphanage which now has about 2000 children. it's just so confronting to here what the real India is like. one of the poorest countries in the world, and even worse than China has there are no laws enforced. there are the super rich, and super poor. 4 billionaires in the world are Indian, but the country is in poverty. you can kill people and the police don't care. everyone commits suicide, and killing baby girls is very common. people with debt just poor kerosine of themselves and die, whilst other men lock their womens up or beat them with hot rods. if the police are bothered to find out about it, you just bribe them and they even help burn or bury the corspe. other stuff they do i won't go into...just so confronting to hear what the real poor India is like, and that Pastor was an orphan himself with many of his siblings dead at a young age. the amount of love he has for other orphans and his willingness to share the Gospel even though he was put in prison for some time is amazing. giving free food and clothes and a home for 2000 orphan kids takes A LOT of love. his wife is a doctor who can make heaps of money overseas, but here she helps out the kids. there's a mission team going to the orphanage again this year, but i'll be overseas, maybe next year....

we truly are blessed in Australia.