forgive me if i sound a little too proud of myself but come on! two new year resolutions by the end of january! whootwhoot~

i've been meaning to renovate my room for...awhile now (read: a few years)
and i finally, finally got around to doing it with the help of my mum and miss cherry hoho
it's been so long that the ideas surrounding my bedroom have evolved from painting clouds on the wall to a tangerine/turquoise theme to the grey/yellow theme that i finally settled on

the project took three days, beginning friday when mum and i went down to the local bunnings and spent almost $200 on paint materials
we ended up leaving with (what was essentially) 4L light grey, 2L dark grey, 1L yellow and 1L chalkboard paint. plus a bajillion brushes and rollers and 33048209 rolls of painter's masking tape (three...)

day 1 was spent moving furniture into other parts of the house, attempting and failing to sand down the existing paint splatters on my wall and painting two coats of the base colour.
i slept at 3am that night on the basement couch.

day 2 i woke up around noon, and we yumchaed with cherry at carlingford before returning to my mess
the majority of day 2 was spent taping and painting stripes as well as getting high on chalkboard paint fumes. yummy~
we were epically nerdy when we attempted to line up the stripes, making sure we had at least two data points for each strip of masking tape and when that wasn't possible, we ended up ~eyeballing our data.
cherry left around 11pm and i continued painting the trimming etc etc,
i slept at 3am last night, on the basement couch.

then today, was spent moving everything back into my bedroom and reconfiguring everything.
and now we're done.
and tonight i will sleep at 10, and it will be in my bed, enclosed in new surroundings.
so excited~








donna.

 yay, my ~comme des garcons wallet finally arrived!
if you remember, it was on my wardrobe wishlist from awhile back...
obviously it's not the plain red one i really wanted but since that one was limited edition and i couldn't find it anywhere, i ended up just purchasing this one
i'm a little sad because it's not the soft leather i thought it was going to be, but it's still pretty cute and hopefully it can last longer than my last one xD

also, i made cherry get me a bun. 
it smells like a bun. 




donna.

yay. after knowing about cherry's engagement for a month, i finally got it together and made her a wedding binder (instead of just getting one from kikki k)

basically just used leftover fabric from my fabric cupboard (yeah, i know, i have a fabric cupboard) and basketweaved it to make the cover instead of just giving her the mint green fabric binder i got from officeworks
even though the mint green is also pretty

i also included some dividers (with colour printed tags for the different sections) and plastic pockets. then i was supposed to print out templates from russell&hazel but i got lazy and gave it to her before i got around to it (lol, best bridesmaid ever!)

super fun to continue my sewing bug but suffice to say, my embroidery skills are pretty atrocious but hey! handmade written all over it

love you and congrats (again...) cherrybug.





donna.
happy chinese new year!
nothing much exciting this week aside from meeting with the good ol' supervisor, getting called joyce and emily, oh! getting my first tute (fear, excitement, denial, etc etc etci)
also met up with jin people for dinner on thursday and found out that joecheung is going back to hk 4EVAH! *sad face
i've been spending the past two days with family, sewing, cooking chinese new year food and cleaning the house in preparation for the new year.
good times.

check out the intensity of my makeup drawer (and the dust, pre-clean)...
i don't understand how i could still want more stuff -.-


also spent the morning baking a simple'n'delicious chocolate cake (recipe here)
i'm convinced the first decent cake i've ever baked, so i'm super proud of myself, even though it's probably still a bit behind in the taste department.



go dragons!




donna.
new year, new layout!
new year, new resolutions!

this was the old layout, which i've had since 30th January, 2011:


as you can probably notice, the blog's had quite a big revamp...(obviously have way too much time on my hands, not).


then there were last year's resolutions...
aside from...be nicer to family and bitch less about life - i've pretty much failed on all other accounts.
but no matter, because 2012 is a new year! this year, i tried to make my resolutions S.M.A.R.T so that i have a higher chance of reaching them;
and i'm off to a good start (with my quilt finished and all *proud grin*)


now to get away from my computer ^^
adios!




donna.
sometimes i can be truly terrible when it comes to my diy projects...
this one in particular has taken me nearly 3 years...(sigh)

i remember back in 2009, when i was just getting to know janice and i made her get me quilt materials for my 21st birthday...
and now here we are, january 2012 and all (and i'm almost 24 -.-)!

the construction of this quilt can be broken down into two stages.
oo1; in june 2011 (2 years after receiving my lovely present), i finally got around to cutting the fabric into squares. and then promptly sewed two rows until i broke my sewing machine and gave up.
oo2; then yesterday, after much badgering from my mum and listing finish my 21st birthday quilt as numero 2 on my 2012 resolutions: I FINALLY FINISHED IT AT 2AM (with a bit of help from mum). 
AND I LOVE IT.
IT'S SOOOOOO PRETTY AND WARM.
there's little mistakes everywhere (okay, maybe not little but...whatever) and it's like oh hey! handmade!
so now that it's done, of course i had to run around taking photos with it :D


YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!














donna.
I've been a fan of this videographer since his paris video, and now there's a sydney one, love it.




EF - Live The Language - Sydney from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.




donna.
it appears that at the beginning of every year i have a very melodramatic moment of panic in which i become completely overwhelmed by what's in front of me...
le sigh.

there's just so much possibility in a new year, you know?

i was going through my to do list from 2011, and realised...i'm really crap.
like, really crap.
so much i managed to put off, postpone, etc etc etc
but at the same time, i'm super elated that i can finally cross new zealand off my list, since it's been there ever since LOTR: FOTR came out. it feels this achievement, possibly because the idea that i would get to go at the beginning of the year was so remote.

this year,
i feel like there's some really exciting opportunities ahead, but at the same time, i'm pretty scared that they'll pass me by, or i don't take full advantage of them.
placements start this year, i might tutor this year, i might overload my courses this year, i might go somewhere with my phD this year, i might try and network this year.
i might take better photos this year, i might take less photos this year, i might change the way i process photos this year. i might start experimenting with videos this year.
i might make more things this year. i might try and only give homemade gifts this year. i might sew more this year. i might sing more this year. i might stare at the sky a bit more this year. and my computer screen a little bit less.
i might sleep more this year. i might spend less on clothes and food this year. i might go to europe this year. i might not travel this year.


what is going to happen this year?




donna.
and i'm done.
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN THAT TOOK A LONG TIME.
If you've read up to the beijing entries, you'll find that i actually ended up putting the HK entries BEFORE the beijing entries so there's like...10 of those if you're bored.

anyway, the last day in guangzhou was spent shopping (1st January)
DON'T EVER SHOP ON PUBLIC HOLIDAYS.
See below:


YEAH. Those little neverending dots towards the back of the photo?
they're people!
i got so scared, i dragged mum home instead. 
so in the end, we didn't actually buy that much and we were quite a bit underweight. 
go us!
(or boo us!, depending on how you look at it)


eating sugarcane like a chinese man.




on the morn of the 2nd
we woke up at 4:30am and caught a taxi to the airport
it was so early we got there in 0.5 hour which is half the usual transit time
yay for saving taxi fare!
turns out in china, you only need to be 2 hours early so the check in counters weren't even open yet
we ended up sleeping on the seats like hobos but whatever...

we sat towards the back of the plane, where there were a few empty seats so me and isaac took up a 4-seater row and mum slept in the last row.
isaac was sleeping on me when some random man sat down at the end of our row. isaac death glared him when he woke up lol.
i watched columbiana with zoe saldana and tried for most part to sleep but failed.

---
today has been the first relatively normal day.
woke up at 11am, and went out to eat all day with miss valerie rose. i may blog about that at a later date.
then tonight anita came over and we watched NZ and USA videos.
i miss anoushka so much when i watch the USA videos. :(

---

since i've returned to sydney,
i've mostly been sleeping at an average time of 4am and waking up at 2pm.
ABSOLUTE FAIL.
must readjust my clock by monday!

and now it's 1:32am and i feel i will not be sleeping for a little while...
dangit.




donna.
On the final day,
we woke up a little bit early
had a quick brekkie
and rushed off to get bussed to the airport

as we were leaving the hotel:
Mum tripped over at the revolving door.
I was walking behind her and she was being ninja trying to get into the last crack
And it looked like she had made it
But then she fell flat on her face into the bus driver
Me and isaac cracked up and mum was all I'm disowning you children


Good times!





Unforgettables
  • Every tour we go on, we also get super close to a group. So sad that we never keep in contact. This time is was Tony and David and Catherine. Thanks for making the tour such a ~trip!
  • Stealing soft drinks everywhere and never drinking them
  • Disdain at brekkie every morning
  • Tony's constipation and our mini groups ongoing concern at his progress
  • Isaac sleeping everywhere, even if just for 5 minutes
  • Tony being older than David
  • The two aunties that are super agro and keep feeling up the Boys
  • The constant dirty jokes
  • "Everyday I'm shuffling"




donna.
Late start
Brekkie breakthrough on the second-last day: finally realized the burnt toast looking thing was actually banana bread and it was good!



First stop was another summer palace
With the longest corridor or whatever (i think at this point, it's obvious i don't really care cos the places of interest are starting to look the same) (post-hoc wiki: the corridor is actually called Long Corridor)
Went around walking walking - had a really really strong sense of deva ju when we spotted the empress' marble boat; remembering when i first saw it when i was 8...weird.






We were the last group to return to the main tour group again because the boys just HAD to choose that moment to go find a bathroom, big sigh.
Had to power walk back and tony showed us how it was done - i.e. very very effeminately
Then we all started randomly singing 90s music - sclub7 style while they played traditional kicking with the feather thing (post hoc wiki: called a shuttlecock, how could you not know that donna!)



Isaac bought a really dirty panda hat

Then it was Olympic park with the Bird Nest and the water thingy (lol, i'm really trying here, aren't i?)
Bought a kite for RMB5 and it got stuck in a tree
Then the Boys bought 3 gold medals for RMB10
Lols then they wore them all day and pretended they were Olympians from Australia while singing the national anthem. Tony was full bragging that he knew the second verse; and we all argued that you never need it...





Then it was lunch

Then it was the Pearl selling place
Lolsiest thing ever
First it was the girl - who everyone wanted to marry off to Joe
His parents and everyone were there (there were like 11 people from his family on the tour); so it was pretty much meet the parents already.
She didn't even get around to explaining anything cos of everyones questioning - are you married? are you single? how old are you? wanna go to australia?
Then it was the "owner's son" who I really believed but mum told me they did a similar thing in shanghai so maybe it's some random dude dressed in a leather jacket pretending to be the owner's son...
All the old ladies tried to get him cos he has his own diamond mine and stuff. Lol. He was full blushing.
And the funniest thing was the boys were sitting at the front and they had no idea why the whole room was laughing cos the exchange was in mando. They ended up falling asleep...
People bought pearls and jade and the boys pretended to roll everyone with an iPhone gun app



Then it was another arcade mall where mum, isaac and i didn't really buy anything
Got $40 juice then walked down and it was $18

After that, everyone decided to decline the set tour dinner and got the bus to drop us all off at Ghost St (街); reknowned for its dining options
Our tour group split into two groups; ours was 11 people and the other was 42-11=31 people
Ended up in the same place anyway, even thought the 31 people group had already been the place we were going before...
Had really really good Peking Duck and duck liver


 
our awesome awesome aussie + catherine (from US) group. note: the middle lady in the red looks like the evil grandma in spirited away


Then we taxied back to hotel with catherine before saying good night
So tired cos had no naptime in the car today

Showered and went to bed with wet hair
Then heard doorbell and people mumbling at the door
Was tony and david getting our Guangzhou digits
Mum was like I don't know what it is so I popped up like a zombie from my cot and stuggled to find my phone
Then they came in for a little while and isaac was sleeping with his blankets half way up his ass and he was wearing my leggings
Looooool




donna.

Woke at 6:25. Earlier wake up call so that we could leave the hotel at 7:15
Ate brekkie in 10 min. Which frankly, was plenty of time...
Going to ChengDe (承德) today. 3.5 hour drive with proposed toilet break supposedly in a safe bush area where the men stand on one side and the women on another and the women get umbrellas.
Hmmmm...

Can I go for 3.5 hours with bathroom?
we'll find out...
---
Turns out we got a mid way rest stop in the middle of nowhere, but with proper toilets!
YES!
Major Sleep sleep sleep time to catch up on the lack of sleep from the previous days

Got to ChengDe and picked up a new tour guide in the middle of nowhere
First stop was the emperors summer house/mountain resort (避暑山庄). And it was poo cold. Like hide yo face cold.




We walked around and learnt about concubines and abortion tea.
(So pretty much the story is that the king got to have sex with a different concubine everynight. And then if after he was done and he was okay with the concubine having his child, then he would nod his head. If not, then he would shake his head and if the concubine was later found to have conceived, they were given abortion tea to drink. Wow...)

Sooooo cold. Like -5degrees with WIND COLD.
Everyone froze.

Then after we walked around the main chambers a bit, everyone got a people mover to go around the gardens
Isaac and tony kept dancing on any ice they could find
Then mum saw this huge ass frozen lake, and she danced on the ice.
Then of course, later on when the Boys were dancing on the ice and aunty could yell at them but mum couldn't cos she would be a hypocrite -_______________-





Then there were these ice toboggans on the lake and the guide said no, not allowed cos not covered by insurance  but Joe managed to sneak out on the icea anyway so guide finally gave in.
And Isaac ran off to join Joe.
Then Tony finally convined aunty to let him, but JUST as he got on, the people mover came back so Tony did this MASSIVE sprint to make sure he got a turn too...loooooooool...


Me and isaac sat backwards backwards on the people mover, and our driver was so epic and started drifting and stuff - almost fell out
Also, apparently, ChengDe is most famous for it's almond tea (杏仁露) so we all stopped by a random vendor to purchase some - but not to drink, we all used it as warmer instead cos the cans were heated in boiling water lol.

Essentially, we went around the resort and froze our arses off.

Then it was lunch time in the basement of this pretty nice restaurant
So hungry our group of 11 ordered two more dishes on the side (possibly from fighting the cold)

Then we went to the star place (post-hoc wiki: KuiXingLou; 魁星樓) where you pray for your children's academic prowess
Cold cold cold
Tony was busting and couldn't hold it and so he sacrilegiously just peed at the temple
Then we said goodbye to the new tour guide, she just jumped out in the middle of the road

Then it was long drive back to Beijing
Stopped at a 6-star public toilet with no smell and had heaters etc
we also had epicly beautiful sunset to watch as we drove back, due in part to the smoke/mist that was present in the landscape





Next stop was Beijing Olympic village for foot massage for the whole tour group
Our family brought the lols
Taught the masseuses English/Engrish - callouses, can I, etc
Isaac, tony and david couldn't understand what they were saying lol
Isaac and mum thought the herbal medicine for the footbath (which was in a teabag like thing) was a heat pack and chucked it out, then had to chuck it back in once they realised it was herbal medicine
Then we played the age game with the masseuses and they actually pondered whether isaac was older or younger than me looooool. but they also messed up tony and david so lol INACCURATE!
poor tony and his vanity issues~

And then cos this has never happened to me, i must brag about this in minute detail
--> When the masseuses came in, they wouldn't stop whispering and isaac was like hey yo I think they're talking about you
Then one of the girls to mum was like your daughter is really 美 (google translate: beautiful, pretty, america)
And asked if we knew this local celebrity that i looked like, which we didn't but still - IT FELT GOOD.
And mum loled for days
Then as we were leaving, david was like the masseuse told me the girl in front (that is, me....yes! me!) is really pretty , how do you know her...etc
So yes, moving to Beijing to catch my big fish!

Then it was to restaurant for dinner
With mons beer (the story behind this is, i saw the beer and i was like hey! is mons beer good? and then one of the Boys was like...it's SNOW BEER, you retard) and really good corn soup for dinner

After dinner, everyone went out to Ghost St (街) for Peking duck but we stayed in.
Instead the Boys were all about calling KFC for delivery etc
And as we were parting ways to go to our separate rooms, the Boys mum was like:

Nei dei giu ng giu gei ga? (Are you guys calling for chicken or not?) 
And of course, the chinese phrase for calling chicken (雞) is synonymous for calling up a prostitute so lots of prostitute jokes followed. Then alot of aunties chimed in with calling ducks (鴨) which course is equivalent to gigolos...Then the Boys were like, no you're not allowed to 叫鴨!
SIGH. MY TOUR GROUP.
Love them.









donna.