Miss Hui submitted her PhD thesis - unbowlievable!
Actually, I don't think anyone ever doubted that she would be first haha.
What an amazing and well deserved feat - I've never known a more solid worker. Actually, I've never known a more solid human being.

It's a bit sad(?)/scary(?) that life as we know it is slowly going to change.
At the same time, it's so exciting and kind of a relief to know that there's some light at the end of this tunnel. BRING IT!!!!

&

It sort of snuck up on me - but not really - that my scholarship is close to ending (life of a phD student :().
On top of that, I've realised that I need to save a little bit extra for my epic post-thesis trip, so that I can still have a little bit of money leftover in my "future fund".
So instead of thinking about all that money I should have saved, I'm going to take the approach of what can I do going forward to maximise my funds and the answer is of course to start budgeting and expense tracking.

Now these are both things I've dabbled with in the past, but as more of a fun side project than a ZOMG IF I DON'T BUDGET I'M GOING TO BE BROKE kind of thing.
So I took a couple of hours to think about what kind of cash I'd likely have coming in and going out and did it all up in a good ol' excel spreadsheet.
I found IHeart Organising printables pretty helpful in setting it all up (see link)

And I'm currently using the Wally iPhone app to track expenses. So far so good :)

I did my budget for the next 6 months on a month by month basis - simply because my income is going to change on a month by month basis (sadface).

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Incoming

• Calculating this was pretty easy since I'm pretty certain I'll be getting the rest of my scholarship until the end of February, and I know I'll be taking at least one two-hour tutorial.
• I've been a bit more conservative here and didn't add in any money for marking (just in case I don't get any :P) 
• There's also the possibility of red pocket money and end-of-phD money, but i'm going to pretend they're bonuses

Outgoing 

So my major expense categories include:

• Fixed expenses 
• Utilities: mobile phone bills, and the household bills I currently pay for (because it would be mean to stop paying them) 
• Transportation: fuel and bus tickets (this isn't really fixed for me, but I calculated it as such; thankfully car rego and insurance isn't in this half year)
• Savings: I thought it better to set aside a predetermined savings goal to make sure I could have a more flexible trip budget 
• Occupation-related: university fees, registration fees (this is really what's killing me)

• Variable expenses 
• Food: Groceries and going out - I've allocated myself around $20 per week for groceries, and $25 per week for going out (we'll see how this goes :P)
• Household items: Haven't really budgeted for this...I probably should 
• Gifts: A few birthdays coming up so I've budgeted for those, just in case 
• Entertainment: see note for household items 
• Medical/health: most of these have been taken care of pre-budget, fingers crossed nothing major comes up ;P

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So with the current budget, as it stands I still have a little flexibility for those items I didn't account for. 

It starts 29th January and I'm kind of excited to see if I can actually stick to it.
I hope posting this will keep me in check :P

&

since my last entry...

• spring arrived

• went to night noodle markets with wynnie and we left after a quick stroll around cos we're soft. i can't believe how many people line up for food they can get at existing restaurants. weird. we ended up at takeru, and it was the most random thing cos wyn had just called me to be like, what you doing? love spontaneous dinners. 
• received my credit card bills and cried. seriously need to cut down spending...next year xD
• went to orto trading company and had an amazeballs dinner with my loves. too lazy to recount but the food was good. and then after that, we went to galaxy world and me and cherry owned ddr. by owned, i mean...didn't fail. after that, we went to azuma's for sugarhit and it was just okay...

• the next night, we had dinner at takeru before sugarhit at glass brassiere. this one was GOOD.
• started training for new zealand. get fit hey!
• had an exam and finally had the epiphany that exams don't matter. for real, bro...
• after the exam, me and jenny frolicked over to pitt st mall to get names on coke cans. i got lizhiheng lol. and then we walked all the way to the rocks for a super super early dinner at pancakes. (but not before we procured some macarons from la renaissence)

• yesterday, we went to uni. and studied. before dinner at ayam goreng. we've been eating so much. ended up leaving at like...11:30pm? oh yeah, and we finally booked all NZ accommodation. never left travelling bookings until so late but living on the wild side this year~
• today, i dated myself. went shopping and bought the striped top from espirit i've been lusting after. then went and got a creme brulee from gloria jeans (which is no eggin' $5.90 or something ridic). then froliced over to the cinemas to take advantage of my cinebuzz points and watched midnight in paris. and mygosh, have been fantasising about returning to paris ever since. i think it's the first time i've watched a movie that has made me smile without realising. what a weird but wonderful experience. such a pretty movie, and has now made me want to go read me some great gatsby and ernest hemingway. bookdepository, here i come!

• finally, just dyed my hair. cut it earlier in the week. the below pictures are before the cut and dye...fingers crossed it'll all come out one shade, but you never know with hairstyling (home edition). will take pictures...sometime xD

so long medusa hair~

 hectic roots, prior to dying...

donna.

Procedure for 10am meeting

1. 6am - alarm
2. 6:15am - alarm
3. 6:34am - alarm
4. 6:40am - alarm
5. 6:45am - roll out of bed very very reluctantly...
6. in transit
7. 9am - do preparation for meeting that should have been done over the last 7 days
8. 10am - go to the bathroom
9. 10:02am - wait for elevator
10. 10:04am - arrive on level 4; swagger walk down the corridor
11. 10:05am - arrive at supervisor's door, see that he's meeting with someone
• Typical exchange:
• Me: "Hey! Did you want me to come back later?"
• Supervisor: "Yes, please...that would be very helpful."
• Me: "Actually...I don't have that much to ask you. I just wanted to ask {insert 1 question I prepared at 9:55am}"
• Supervisor: {insert answer to 1 question}
• Me: "Cool! Thanks. So did you want me to come back later or..."
• Supervisor: "Actually, it would be really helpful to me if you didn't..."
• Me: "Okay then! Thanks!"
12. 10:10am - swagger walk back down the way I came

special lols provided by today
my special question of the day was to ask when he wanted my Annual Progress Report in by. due 31st October, he's supposed to confirm it before it's handed in. So first he jokes today. And then he jokes that 30th is good enough. And then he's like...nah! just a couple of days before will be good. And then he's like come to think of it, why don't you write it: Donna is doing marvellously! She'll be done by the end of the year! And then i'm like, sure! and i'll write the same for you! {supervisor} is doing marvellously!

note this is going in with random stranger sitting in the room. looking like O_O

donna.

so unless you've been living under a rock, and thus, not privy to my continuous complaining about my proposal
you know i've been busy with my proposal (lol)
now that that's finally submitted (and hopefully accepted), i've got a little breathing space before the next deadline
had so much trouble going home today, realising i could actually have the weekend off!
my brain couldn't compute it, at all.
guess that's a pretty good indication i've finally stepped into my phD shoes, right?

anyway, changed the look of the blog the tiniest little bit, for no reason at all...
i just felt like it, i guess.

my relationship with albus has pretty much been put on the backburner for a while
so i'm hoping to take him out for a run tomorrow and get re-acquainted
haven't really taken any photos that i've been happy with for a little too long (sadface)
same with moc-dog, poor thing hasn't been washed since the ice age
i'm going to try my hardest to balance work/life during this time and hopefully, set myself up for when life gets hectic again.

starting now...sleeping early!

wish my luck :)

 

donna.

i was going to be lazy and not blog
but then i remembered how awful backward blogging is so...i'm just going to blog
meh.

~finished testing for my pilot study
hip hip hooray
and got ethics clearance for another 50 participants, but i don't want to test anymore :(
because scoring is killing my soul!

yesterday...what happened yesterday?
oh! had another un-awkward bump in at bebetalio with my lecturer
we discussed our mutual bad memory for names and my birthday and the fact that people are born in the nineties and even the noughties! (incomprehensible!)

also met up with twin for dinner yesterday
and under miss jenny lam's awesome guidance, we went to menya mappen because i was craving tempura udon
it was pretty good and pretty cheap and kind of fun as well
basically, you order a base (udon, rice, soba, etc) and then you get to pick what tempura and what topping, etc you want on top

i'm on a diet, so i only got...

• large udon base - $4.90
• prawn tempura - $2.80
• 2 x sweet potato tempura - $1.60
• mushroom tempura - $0.80
• seaweed topping - $0.40
• 0.5 x vegetable tempura - twin's shout

worked out to be $10.40 or something like that
and i was sooooooooooooo full afterwards. (all because i'm greedy and didn't listen to miss jenny lam's warnings xD)
will definitely go again, even though there aren't many seats
the decor is super cute and reminds me of the ramen musuem in japan (that i've never been to xD)

been a couple of months since we'd talked one-on-one so it was nice to catch up
a lot of talk about growing up, and everyone leaving me and whether i'd cry, etc etc etc
(i said i wouldn't :P)
when we were done, i called mum and she had just driven past anzac bridge.
fail.

what happened today?

• i missed out michelle's fat arms
• almost fell asleep (re)learning intellectual property during the postgrad seminar
• got shouted a free sushi because joe wouldn't take my one dollah -.-
• had to jump bus because the bus i was on had faulty brakes
• had to walk home hk-speed because i overtook this dude walking up the hill, and it was awkward for about 5 seconds when we were both walking at the same speed (the dude actually looked behind him to see if i was stalking him as i revved up my feet!)
• and oh yeah! got a mousepad from janice!

 

next blog entry: our epic graph representations of everyone's productivity

donna.

wow, has it really been half a month since my last proper entry?
things have been quite hectic since uni started up again.
suffering from a bit of inertia getting into phD mode.
been constantly on edge. a horrible horrible feeling.
need to find a way to curb it.

and you know what's worse?
i'm so insignificant relative to the world's problems.
this year's natural disasters have just been insane. one after another.
you would think that they would put life into a bit more perspective.
especially since this year's events have hit a bit closer to home than past years.
i don't even know what i'm supposed to feel.

thankfully, not all things are bad.
i realise small things still bring my joy. like hand-sewing the bow i removed from my coat jacket and making it into a hair accessory.
hopefully, i'll be able to channel my angst into some creativity.
something that's been relatively lacking in my life recently.
i've also been really getting into interior design blogs as of late.
makes me want to renovate my room entirely.

donna.