the majority of my afternoon ended up in martin place
context was that our daily account had run out of money and we needed to do payroll
so the only way we could get money in before the business day ended was to withdraw cash from one of our CBA accounts and deposit it into our ANZ account
the sum of money required was 100% more than the local branch was authorised to give us
so we ended up at martin place withdrawing...a lot of money

many troubles ensued
$30/hr parking
and lots of waiting later
we had our bag of money

and arrived back at the office 2 minutes before closing time
YAY for everyone being paid on time
too exciting a day for me to handle
(more exciting than i'm making it sound right now, to be honest xD)

on a more dull note, i made a ~variation of cobb salad for dinner today
YUMMY~

donna.

wow i just spent...alot of hours renovating this space.
going to blog quickly so i can sleep :P (lazy pig)
so this week was the first week of my parent's being gone and it's pretty alright so far
not big dramas
having a meal plan definitely heaps.
hopefully when isaac goes back to school next week, things will keep being awesome.

work has been fun. so weird to have a little cousin working with me.
we've been busy little bees.
bob's taken to pranking me because i'm leaving.
everytime he brings it up, i want to cry. stupid bob.
we went out to chatswood for pepper lunch on friday and spent some quality asian time.

then when we returned to lane cove, bob was awesome and landed in between the two chaplin drives JUST as everyone from cochlear was swapping shifts. good going bob!
he ended up driving into the lane, with the cars going in another direction, so he could u-turn but he was too slow and the cars started driving towards him so he parked on the opposite side of the road.
lol. ~shakes head.
ahhh, the things i'll miss.

isaac went out to dinner friday night so i made myself wraps while i skyped with mum and mum's family.
i watched them hotpot and play mahjong and grandma kept telling me to find a boyfriend.
apparently, she would rather i not study cos boys don't like smart girls.
nice~

also talked with twin and cherry.
was so retarded skyping with cherry when she had no mic.
-.-
miss those two quite a bit :(

 

original plan for today was to do all my chores and they go down to the mall to get a haircut

i couldn't be stuffed

so i ended up cutting my own hair in the bathroom

(by cut, i mean trim)

it was fun

i think i'm going to need to invest in an even pro-er pair of scissors though

 

before hair cut

 

after

and i just dyed my hair red.
so sick of orange.
bleh.

donna.

last night, i skyped with my parents and their connection was DODGE.

today i marathoned my new lord of the rings extended version box set
(the films AND the documentaries)
gchatted with cherry ho and valerie rose
(both of whom i miss a ridiculous amount T.T)
and i finally finished processing all the USA photos
(YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! ACCOMPLISHMENT!)
nyc will go up soon and that will be the end of that
(:D:D:D horhorhor)
also spent a lot of time with mocdog in the living room since it was so hot outside
and ate a lot of food
enjoying my own company today :P

 

some of my favourite films

 

breakfast burrito!

 

mocdog getting into Part II

 

the most awesomest salad: tomato, lettuce, chicken, GOOD avacado, cheese, caesar dressing and honey mustard. <3<3<3

 

my other little bro <3

donna.

work has been so ridic lately that i've been OT-ing everyday
i kind of feel like a traitor resigning at this time but i have to keep in mind that studies come first
hmmm...

new dresser (from parent's room) in my room, now that i have so much makeup

today was tab's wedding
i PBed it to paddington by myself and realised the genius of iphone GPS lol
wedding started late and was pretty standard aside from a couple of false starts

me and janice waiting for the wedding to start

bumped into vincy, the second photographer at wange's wedding
lol lol RANDOM. and she remembered me!
stayed long enough to eat some free food and chatted a bit to kevin and vincent since janice ditched me
vincent's such a lolsy person, would have been fun to have him at unsw for the next couple of years as well
i kind of imagine that's how other people see me, except without the religiousity
shrug

met mum and isaac for sushi lunch
then we moved towards meetfresh and i intro-ed mum to the 201 favourite :P
then i had to run to cinemas to meet janice to watch the king's speech since we had nothing to do between then and meeting the girls for dinner
(will review king's speech after recounting the day)

then met wynnie and anna and mandy for dinner at spanish restaurant on kent st
can't really remember the food (lol)
had quite a bit of fun and it was nice catching up with people
wynnie was darling and made us a DIY calendar for christmas
(lol, even my mum was semi-touched)

now at home and watching parents pack for their flight tomorrow
they'll be gone for 5 weeks and i'll be in charge of isaac and bills
both hefty hefty responsibilities on top of juggling workwork and phDwork
i hope i can do okay :)

 hmm...not quite sure what mum is trying to achieve there xD

king's speech
sigh~ colin firth. <3 and geoffrey rush <3
such good, good actors.
they made what would have otherwise been a boring movie, into something quite splendid
loved their relationship, made me and janice awwww~ a couple of times
i didn't expect it to be so pretty
i imagine if my photographs were made into a movie, it'd (hopefully) be quite similar in composition, in terms of the subject being put to the side-third, rather than the middle
i just love how it was shot
and the music was quite brilliantly placed so YAY!
loved the little bit of humour in it as well
such a mindsquiggle to see dumbledore and elizabeth bennett in the movie
especially since colin firth was non-darcy.
sigh~ i love pleasant surprises when i watch a movie that i don't really know what to expect
:D

donna.

lol.
i'm pretty sure i'm already procrastinating with uni related stuff.
today, jessli started work and it was pretty fun
she said she laughed until her jaw hurt, so that's a pretty good sign
i really want her to do well and have the relationship i had with the company

<3

in other words, i gave my unofficial notice of leave
will probably work until the end of next month and see how we go
tears in my eyes already T.T

after work i drove jessli to pick up anita
what was meant to be a 10 minute drive, once again ended up being about 40 minutes.
didn't get to their house until around 6:40
ate dinner and picked up souvenirs from anita's trip to india
then left around 8~
i have so much fun with my two cousins

i think mum was sad i didn't eat dinner with her, since her and dad are leaving in a few days
lol we joke that they won't make the whole trip without killing each other
they're so cute sometimes :P

(case of mum applying good makeup and looking really good <3)

donna.

today i caught up with:
mr. horne
richard
trevor
gavan
mum and dad
aunty and uncle
myself
kevin
janice
tabitha


fun times.

got up at 7am and caught the 8am bus to get to uni
got myself an apricot cookie and small capp while i waited for 10am
went up to level 9, and didn't get recognised. LOL.
so much for being impressive.

after that meeting, i met with supervisor and it was awesome fun.
threw some ideas around.
i think i'm pretty set on the project. seems relevant, and possibly fun.
then went to enrol.
then spoke to gavan and he introduced me to combined, and i helpfully zoned out.
then went down to grs to hand in enrolment forms.
then met family at maccas.
then drove to zilver for yumcha.
then bummed around and drank expensive lemon ice tea in qvb.
(love the us, for their cheap cheap sweet tea)
then met up with kevin on the way to chat thai
then talked about travelling with janice (who didn't notice our arrival)
then got to know tab a bit better (and that was kind of wonderful)

then i caught the bus back
and walked home.


now it's 10:28am and i'm going to sleep
because tomorrow, my little cousin is starting work at my little office
and i feel i should be awake xD

donna.

work work work
hopefully tomorrow's a bit more exciting
today was flat out
tomorrow would've been as well if i wasn't skipping out to meet people
hmm...at least thursday should fly by with the amount of work i have left on my desk -.-


it was the golden globes today:
check out the eyebrows...

donna.

YAY finally a blog entry with photos to match!
it's 11:28pm and my internet has been very conveniently dropping in and out all week
anyway, i'm going to zoom past with this entry so i can go sleep before midnight

it's kind of the same old same old, while at the same time, being a whole different year
ever since i've returned from the US, i've just basically been working
we've got a few changes in the company going on, with the recent downsizing leading to more work for everyone, the managers getting promoted since the GM's going to india, some new employees, etc etc
doesn't sound like much, but for a company with less than 15 people, it's some major change
gonna get some getting used to, and then...i'm thinking i'm going to have to leave to focus on my studies
i don't even want to think about how much i'll miss these guys at the moment

over the weekend we went camping, as a part of our yearly team bonding activities
and by camping, i mean camping! true blue aussie style with snags and the billy boiling some water for coffee. lol.
left the office after lunch and me and charity caught a ride with bob
we got lost 2 minutes into the trip.
nice one!
ended up getting to glenworth valley around 3:30pm

we set up the tents with beers in our hands and just kind of lounged around afterwards
one of the guys brought their guitars, and we sung random songs
then biggest mind squiggle ever when my manager started playing some jazz
i didn't know he was musical, but i shouldn't be surprised since he knows everything
but anyway, so unfair! he was really really good.

blueberry cruiser was delish~

we played some cricket, drank some more, barbequed aussie and hk-style
played the name game, drank some more, watched two of the girls freak out over a snake when they went up for a bathroom (simultaneously lolsy and scary)
we must have retouched the aeroguard about once per hour
good good times

sundried tomatoes with brie cheese was GOLD.

went to sleep a bit before 12 in the asian woman's tent (lol)
got stuck between charity and elayne
some of the others didn't sleep until 3, and i woke up to some of their laughing over some snoring
woke up the next day at around 8, feeling slightly tired, but more or less unscathed
we had brekkie and it was hilarious watching the sales manager crawling out of his tent with the biggest hangover of the century. hilarious.
we didn't really do much on that second day.
just poker and blowing bubbles. it rained a little bit, and once again the american poncho came into use. such a darling thing <3
got out on the second round for the first game; but did a bit better in the second with a bit of luck. the others got out pretty quickly and ended up playing against one of the new girls for what seemed like hours until we just called it a tie

their was a Fabio on the grounds, shirtless and riding a white horse bareback. it was glorious~

me and kina decided to make s'mores and bob tried to copy. but he failed. he thought the biscuit got toasted as well -.-

camping in the rain~

everyone left after a late dinner
me and kina ended up driving the new girl back to bondi beach and we had san churros for supper
got to know katy-ann a bit better
i think we scared her with our major singing in the car
got lost
sang sang sang
all the way home to castle hill

a good weekend.

parents are leaving soon
i'm kind of scared but at the same time, i know i can handle it
so we'll see how we go
still so many photos to process
less computer time shall come after all US stuff has been settled and finalised

donna.

so much work - postgrad work, post-usa work, work work.
so much stuff to do - important stuff, unimportant stuff, moderately important stuff.
kind of overwhelmed by the little things.
and then there are the big things to worry about.
worry worry worry swish swish swish. 
i need to find some time somewhere.
and usually, i think i've died if i don't see other people for a long time.
but right now, i'm quite enjoying the solitude.
perhaps i'm preparing myself for a lifetime filled with it.



shrug. 


ETA: the picture-less-ness of this blog is killing me. must rectify ASAP.

donna.

i wonder how long it's going to take, for my life to get back together.

hmm...

donna.

HORHORHORHORHOR

i'm such a lazy boo :P
since NOLA, we've been to 6 themeparks in four days in Orlando, ate the best clam chowder in Boston, survived an epic snowstorm that cancelled our trip to Washington DC and shopped until we hurt in New York City.

I've decided I'm just going to blog (electronically) about these adventures once I get home. That way I can have pictures to accompany the words. I've been keeping a diary so hopefully I'll remember the small details well enough.

The length of this trip appears to be pretty optimal.
I miss my family, but I'm not in any real hurry to get home.
The fact that our dinghy studio apartment on the upper west side feels like a temporary home might have helped with that.


Home time in five days. <3

Donna.