Loved

I've just had the loveliest evening.

I was picked up from my house and treated to a trip to the Eureka Tower skydeck during Earth Hour. It’s the tallest building in Melbourne and has a spectacular view of the city. We even went on The Edge, which is a glass cube 88 stories above the ground and got our photos taken. The cube is opaque when you enter it but then the walls and floor suddenly become transparent and you can see all the way down to the pavement below. It was a bit unnerving but definitely fun.

He bought me dinner at a nice restaurant in Southgate where we enjoyed bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and the most amazing Italian cheese ever. For the main course I had ravioli stuffed with scallop and crabmeat. On top of that, I was treated to a cup of crème caramel and vanilla bean gelati. He then drove me home at around elevenish before I (in his words) turned into a pumpkin.

Who is this person to me? He babysat me when I was a toddler. He taught me to rollerblade. He pampers me every once in a while and knows how to make a girl feel like a princess.

I once cried on his shoulder while telling him about an emotionally abusive ex. When you’re that hurt, sometimes you need someone to be outraged for you. His reaction was all it took to remind me that my family will always have my back.

Loved? Definitely.

Yay!!

*grin* Was just looking at the calendar and realised that I'm seeing my better half in 3 weeks! Can't wait! 

Apart from our usual hangout spots, I've been thinking about where to take him. 

I'm going to take him to Koko Black, DFO, Gippsland, that Korean restaurant that Li Zie showed me, St Paul's (if he's interested)...

And most definitely this place in the pic below! I haven't been there yet but I know how much he loves ice-cream so I thought that it would be a good place to try together. :)



Oh, and on a random note, I'm looking forward to going rock climbing with him. *grin* Its going to be fun.

Checklist!

Everybody has a personal list of things they want to do in this lifetime... even if they don't tell anyone about it. Here's mine. It's still incomplete and in no particular order. Some I've already done and most, I haven't.

Skydive

Ride a roller coaster

Bungee jump (done)

Kayak on a fjord (wasn't on my list before but since I already did it, what the heck. done)


Learn to swim

Survive Math exams (done. Thank God)

Meet soul mate (yup!)

Go snorkeling

Visit my other half

Go rock climbing (done!)

Zorb (done)

Visit the Blue Mosque (done)

Drive around NZ

Learn Mandarin

See Egypt

Get baptized

Learn ballroom dancing

Eat Thai-fried insects and/or Aboriginal grubs

Go fishing

Play soccer preferably without stepping on the ball, falling over and rolling around on the grass laughing

On Shopping

Like any other woman, I like shopping. I only really began shopping when I was probably about eighteen though. Before that, I used to feel incredibly awkward about ambling around shopping malls aimlessly looking for something to buy.

I seldom impulse buy. If I want something, I'll think about the practicality of the item and whether or not I'd use it often enough to justify the cost. Also, I'm a picky shopper. So it sometimes takes me a year or more to find for instance, a pair of jeans that I really really like.

I suppose learning Economics helps after all. Needs are limited but wants are infinite. Most of the things I want to buy are just that. Wants. They aren't really necessary.

Modern Mechanix

I stumbled across this fascinating blog while I was looking for resources for my thesis. It contains many old articles from a magazine called Modern Mechanix.

These articles are of strange, antiquated inventions that never did quite make it to year 2008 for reasons you'll understand once you have a look at them.

One of the strangest (and most guaranteed to make RSPCA scream) inventions I've seen is this one.

Its ironic that it is titled "dog rides comfortably in sack on running board".

Imagine being shoved into a sack hanging off the side of a moving car with only your head sticking out. Comfortable is not how I would describe it.

I liked this article about chimneys though.

They were designed to make smoke come out in rings! Hehee.. it made me think of hobbits and the Shire from the Lord of the Rings. How cool is that?! :D

I am such a sucker for interesting architecture.

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter, take care and God bless. :)


Photo taken at the Church of the Good Shepherd in NZ

Good Friday

This Good Friday, I went for Stations of the Cross for the first time.

For those who don't know, its a spiritual pilgrimage where Christians remember Jesus's final hours.

We walked from church to church around the city as we sang hymns and prayed.

It was a great experience. My cousin Adrian went with me and it was his first time attending the event too. :)

I'd love to go for it again next year.




















Update: Li Zie just texted me although she's currently 3 hours away from Melbourne. Apparently I ended up on tv.. :)  Thanks for the heads up, Li Zie! See you on Tuesday. 

Contentment

It's nice to be so sure that I'm meant to be with my better half.

I'm in awe whenever I think about the circumstances under which we met. We never imagined that we'd fall in love with one another... or that everything would fit together so comfortably.

There's no mind games, no ulterior motives, no wanting to change each other. It's incredible how we understand each other so perfectly. We share the same values and sense of humour and never run out of things to talk about ... I love how we always have the most random conversations.

Above all, it astounds me that someone so perfect feels for me the way I do about him.

We're in this for the long-term.

And I'm glad we have our whole lives ahead to revel in each other's company. :)

Cognitive dissonance

In the first semester of my postgrad, I was simultaneously working on two very different assignments. One was in support of smokers' right to not be stigmatized by the rest of society. The other was an idea for a magazine for cancer patients, as something that would enable survivors to feel that they aren't alone.

Both were topics of my choice.

I've witnessed cancer's effects first hand. I know the suffering it brings to patients and to the ones who love them. That's why I'm passionate about the fight against cancer.  

However, I also feel that smokers should not be faulted for their choice to smoke. Society practices double standards. Why do we come down so heavily on smokers? We don't treat binge drinkers in the same manner. And these are the people that are most likely to drink and drive.

I confuse myself sometimes. I see life more in shades of gray than in black and white.

And I'm not sure whether that is a good or bad thing.  

Strange stuff

I just wrote in to a PR company telling them that my dream PR client would be a tobacco company.


It was part of a writing assessment and I could choose a client anywhere in the world from any industry. All I had to do was write up a Communications strategy to help them overcome an issue they are facing. I wrote about counterfeit cigarettes.

Do I really want to represent a tobacco company? Well for starters, it would present a unique challenge given the societal and legislative restrictions of today's society.

Ironically, I do not smoke, never have and never will.

I don't even particularly like cigarette smoke.

So why am I so interested in the tobacco industry?

I like it because it is in a sense, the underdog. Its surviving despite all the efforts by governments and anti-tobacco lobbies to stamp it out. I find its will to survive and its tenacity in the face of increasing adversity fascinating.

In fact, my thesis was about the huge shift in attitudes towards smoking over history.

I compared a 1946 Camel advertising campaign to one in 2007 to illustrate it.

The slogan of the 1946 campaign was "More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette". Cool, huh? We would never find anything like it in today's politically correct world.

I'll leave you with a couple of the ads to look at.















Compare these... to the ones from 2007 below. Immense difference, no? The ones in 2007 do not depict cigarettes or smokers and rely on the meanings brought to the ad by the visual images. These are products of the gradual legislative restrictions imposed on the tobacco industry. 

Weirdness

What the hell?

Facebook applications are getting weirder and weirder. Not only is there the When Will You Get Married application.. Now someone just sent me an invite for the What Is The Perfect Wife application. 

What kind of idiots come up with these things? 

Have they nothing better to do?

And why would anyone want to add such mindless nonsense?

*GRIN*

I got my first call for an interview!!!


And right now I look like this.. hehee..

Hm.

Was looking at a rather promising job ad. At least, it was promising until I checked out the location.

Its somewhere in a vineyard-growing valley that looks like this.



Do I really want to take a one and a half hour drive to work every day?

That's like more than halfway to Gippsland... on a daily basis. O.o

No, thank you. Not for a part-time position, anyway.

Moving on.

Exuberance!

The votes have been counted... and it resulted in...

An opposition win even bigger than the one in 1969!!! The opposition won 5 states! This is definitely one for the history books.

More importantly, it demonstrates that Malaysia's democracy works! Its a proud day for Malaysians all over the world. And for once, I'm going to say "Malaysia Boleh!" without the usual cynicism. I'm absolutely ecstatic! Well done, Malaysia! Well done!

BN can no longer re-write our Constitution as and when it strikes their fancy. Not without a two-third majority win, they can't.

This is going to take the wind out of BN's sails for a while.

Change?

Malaysia has voted. And now,we wait anxiously for the verdict. This could be the turning point in Malaysia's history... or it could be a mere sign of the changes to come.

Either way, Malaysians have sent the ruling coalition a clear message.

Randomness

Its funny... I was chatting over MSN a while back with this guy I really liked. We were talking about random things and then came to the topic of soulmates. At the end of that conversation, I told him "I hope we both find happiness". And I meant it with all my heart.

Well, we found happiness.




I just didn't know at the time that it would be with each other.



God has a great sense of humour, doesn't He?