Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd

Today I was awoken very abruptly from my slumbers by my parents to go and pick up my cousin from the airport (she was in QLD for the past week or so). Normally I wouldn't have gone for a number of reasons, loving my sleep being at the top of the list, but today we were going to the new IKEA at Tempe! My dad had no idea where it was because he hadn't bothered to look up the address or anything but we found it pretty easily. When we walked into the entrance, my mum was like "I hope you bought your credit card!!" (jokingly but not jokingly? Idk) to my dad. And he started patting his pockets 'looking' for his wallet and he was like "Oh no, where's my wallet?!" and we all thought he was joking but he actually forgot his wallet. Silly dad, driving on a double demerits week without his licence!!

Oh how I love IKEA! There's just something so inviting about uber contemporary pieces of furniture with unpronounceable names. It has that "new" smell right from the get go and a warm atmosphere buzzing with first time home owners, self proclaimed "renovators" bored with their lives, tourists (oooh, a table; what a site!! They totally traveled across the world for this super enriching experience) and random families that have lived in Sydney too long and have nowhere new to go (yup, that's us). Although I hardly get anything tremendous from the place (last time I got a lantern and tealight candles which I never use and this time I got nothing because I am selfless and my sister is not!), I love it nonetheless. Who wouldn't love an overly extravagant home furnishings store with a cafeteria with overly priced pastries which also offers free wi-fi (within the vicinity of the cafeteria, of course)? I hope I've sold IKEA to anybody who still hasn't gone, although my subtle cynicism probably failed in that department.

Also, I stumbled (more like stalked around on Facebook) upon Tanya's (the professional public speaker and debater) "newly launched food blog" or whatever she said it was! I urge all foodies and baking enthusiasts to check it out because this gal knows what she's talking about!

TOT

Today I went over my aunty's house at Canley Heights for a small gathering with my mum's side and Laurence and his mumma also came. I got my Christmas pressie from Laurence and it was a mini Mini Cooper!!! and a mini wannabe Vespa. I'm not going to go into deetz but I can't believe he still remembers :') We haven't been as close lately but this present indicates that our bond is always there, even when we don't know it. I love you Laurence; my brutha from anotha mutha (not that you even read my blog anymore)!!!

Then after we ate the typical Asian bbq stuff we decided to lose our pot bellies so we went for a walk and decided to crash Renee's house. On our way, we came across a dead kitten on the side of the road and it was the saddest thing I've ever seen. It just lay there, so helpless. Nobody had bothered to do anything!! I wanted to call RSPCA or something but Laurence (being the manly man he is) just ran away so after a few long minutes of staring hopelessly at the kitten, I just left it. I feel so bad, but there was nothing I could do in that moment ): Then we got to Renee's house and she was so freaked out when we knocked on her door cuz she was home alone! hahahaha, and then we just caught up for like an hour or so. It was so nice to be with the BIFFLZ again! We haven't been together just the three of us in so long and Renee is leaving next year as well! *death stare*

Beauty and the Geek

You can't just throw on a pair of cheapo 3D glasses that you've popped the lenses out of and instantly become a geek. Glasses are not a sign of intelligence... especially glasses without lenses which then technically aren't even glasses. They are just plastic frames. Similarly, you can't just throw on a tight, body-hugging dress, heels and make up and call yourself a 'beauty'. I know I'm just picking the carcass of the 'beauty and the geek' themed parties that are trending but what I'm trying to say can be translated onto a larger scale in society which are its perceptions of intelligence and beauty. You can have the longest hair, most symmetrical face, the longest legs and   the nicest ass (if they are even the most idealistic physical features? I don't know) but at the end of the day, if you have no respect for yourself and/or others then nobody is going to think you are beautiful. Well, not people with substance and a brain themselves. But what I hate more than anything is people who are in actual fact smart and hide it by putting on a ditzy, bimbo show. Why go through such efforts to mask your intelligence? Is it so shameful to be smart? Is it a part of a transparent facade to fit in? Well let's just see how many of your "stupid" friends end up working for somebody smart. To summarise, not all intelligent people (a.k.a "geeks" or "nerds" in this screwed up society) lack a good physical demeanour which disables them from sight, makes them have to wear suspenders with their pants or deprives them of the ability to undergo rigorous physical activity. I guess I'm just offended when my friends and peers receive certificates for their academic excellence and there is a group of future wife-beaters snickering among themselves at the back. Let's just say that the Government ain't gon' be able to keep this dole going forever, eh? That's what gives me a piece of mind when I go to bed at night.

Snowfall on a Blue Lake

Snowfall on a Blue Lake

365 Days

It's amazing how things change so greatly in just a year; how different everything was only one, measly year ago. I'm sitting here looking back at the close friendships I used to have and wondering what happened but at the same time grateful for the friendships I've been able to maintain throughout such a hectic year. Not only that but I'm also thinking about the new relationships that have formed in a year. People that used to slip through the cracks of the pavement a year ago have become the concrete that keeps me together (why did I just turn my life into a pavement? I don't even know, I would have never done that a year ago!). It's perplexing how different I am now from how I was last year. I used to be so happy, healthy and carefree. For the most part, this year has been the complete opposite. Apart from a few people that brought some kind of happiness into my life, this year has been pretty crap. This year (more so than others for certain reasons) I heard about and read (and analysed in great detail for an annoying assessment task) about how people go on journeys and how as a result of their travels, their ideologies change or they find themselves or something of the like. I thought it was all cliche crap made up for students like us to have something to write about for an AOS Assessment for English. But as I sit here in the dark, listening to the sad, woeful ballads of Coldplay and doing some reflecting on the year that was, I now see that Year 10 was a significant part of my high school journey. If a journey being only two thirds complete so far has already seen such drastic change to myself and those around me, I wonder what (or more like who) we will become by the end of Year 12. And now I've taken a post about change and reflection within a year and turned it into a weird, futuristic, semi-philosophical (or so I'd like to think) series of rambles. At least I still have a mild form of attention deficit disorder where I can't seem to stick to one topic for more than a few minutes. This post has no structure whatsoever and is just a little extract from my overly cluttered mind at the moment, MY APOLOGIES!

New Year's Resolutions

1. STRESS LESS. Stress has been the main root to all of my evils this year; migraines, tension headaches, nausea, mental and emotional breakdowns. I will do my best to care less about pointless things and therefore stress less! I will also try to not worry myself to death over things that I cannot change and invest my brain space into things that are actually within my power to change. "Grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, give me the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."


2. STUDY HARDER. I need to stop playing around and focus on studying hard for the next two years. Not just last minute cramming for a test but just a regular routine of study (I bet all of you that are reading this are like "PSH AS IF", but I will try my best to stick to my word and by blogging about it to my friends, it makes me more liable to do so, so HMPF). How else am I going to get a good enough ATAR to get into the course that I want? *sigh*


3. SMARTER SPENDING. I had a super low-paying job this year and despite the fact that I had to work uberly hard for money, I found myself spending it everywhere without any care or rationality. Most of the time when I was buying things, I even knew that I didn't need it and/or wouldn't use it that many times but I still couldn't stop my urge to spend and buy stupid things. What's worse it that all of my friends are crazy spenders as well and I'm probably the most rational when it comes to shopping.


4. BE POSITIVE. Most people that really know me will know that I'm an overly sarcastic pessimist most of the time. Personally, I enjoy being this way. I love being the rain on everybody's parade. I'm only joking most of the time (there's a bit of truth behind every joke) but sometimes I feel like I overdo it or take it too far and that is why I shall try to be less mean and pessimistic and be more joyous and happy and kind to people!

N.B: All of the above are only goals that I aspire to in 2012, there is no guarantee that any of these will be fulfilled so please do not file a law suit against me if they are not completed to your satisfaction or else you better prepare yourself for an ass wooping. Bye. 

Nguyens in Disguise

Last night was my family masquerade party and it was extra fun because my cousin who moved to London is in Sydney at the moment! I wanted her to come back with an English accent but all of my other cousins said they wouldn't talk to her if she did. Gosh dammit! Anyways. Somehow it turned into a 1920s party with everyone wearing suspenders and smoking cigars. Of course there was the weird Asian rave with super loud music and this time, my grandmama danced! She was fully into it and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen :) Then, when my cousins and I got bored of all the uncles unleashing their terrible but super hilarious old school moves, we went inside and there was a random German romcom on and it was actually very funny but the TV didn't have any info on the movie title but my cousin found it this morning and told me it was called "Rabbit With No Ears" and that there is a number 2 as well. I never watch foreign movies (except for some weird Viet ones) but I really enjoyed this one, or maybe it's just because I'm a sucker for romcoms most of the time. Anyways, below are some photos of my super rad family for you guys.

The Edge of Gravity

Yesterday was Gino's party and it was very fun indeed! Needless to say, there was a fair amount of sweating, back-bending, face-flattening and even farting (ewww). I can't be bothered to recount the whole party even though I kind of just wrote half of it and deleted it. The highlights were probably the jumping castles and our karaoke contest which went on for like 2 hours and caused me to lose my voice which magically came back to me this morning! Anyway. When I was in bed last night, I felt like I was still on a jumping castle. It was so freaky!!

It was so nice to get out of the house to see all of my beloved friends after a whole week of being "off the radar", it made me regain a sense of normalcy again. After a horrible week, everything was mended last night. An old friendship rekindled and a patchy patch completely patched up with a mere phone call. I is happeh. Now I'm just bumming around listening to The Script and doing nothing until ma family masquerade tonight! Later skaters.

A blog is just graffiti with punctuation

I woke up really early this morning to make my sister pancakes for breakfast before she went to school. Not because I'm nice (because I am not... especially not to her), but because the batter can only be refrigerated for 3 days and today was the third day. After that was done, I had nothing to do so I watched Contagion. I first heard of this movie when I went to watch another movie in the cinemas and this was just small segment of the endless advertisements that you're forced to sit through before the movie that you paid $20 to see actually begins. ANYWAYS! I really liked the trailer and really wanted to watch the movie but the reviews told me to just wait for the torrent to come out. Lucky I didn't waste my precious dosh on this movie because it was CRAP! CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP! Especially the ending. Like, what the foeiruweoiruwjeijyucisd? Contagion is such a stupid, melodrama of a movie. However, I do feel cautious of the surfaces that I come into contact with now... Especially this keyboard... ARGHHHHHH! Not only was the movie crap but it has triggered a mild case of OCD. However, there was one funny line in the movie and that was "A blog is just graffiti with punctuation!" Hahahaa, I don't know why it was funny. Maybe because it's true? Or not? I don't know. It was just funny.

Year 10, 2011

Just because you aren't returning to school next year because you managed to get some shitty apprenticeship that will not get you very far in life, doesn't mean you can ruin the rest of the grade's graduation ceremony. It is just a select group that always has to ruin everything for the grade and they manage to piss the fuck out of everybody, every single fucking time.

On to a more important note, today, we as a cohort that started out as "baby Year 7s" (as Mr Connor put it), graduated from Year 10 with the 2nd best School Cert results of MFHS ever! Congratulations everybody! Although it was a seemingly happy day; graduating; being given the key to escape the prison for 7 weeks, you could still smell the inner, forlorn disparity that everybody was trying to mask. It was one of those bittersweet moments. I had graduated from junior school with the people I have grown to love but then I remembered that half of these people will not be journeying into senior school with me. But that's okay. You guys have been trying to get into these schools ever since Year 7 so it seems only fair that you get to complete your high schooling at these top notch schools. Just don't ever forget the crazy friends you have at Mac Fields and that the door is always open to you (it sounds like I'm a parent talking to a runaway teenager). We will never forget you guys, no matter how nice, smart, pretty or hot (which is highly unlikely) your replacements are! This day of parting came into the equation as soon as the results came in, but who knew that it would be the end so soon right?

I guess it was a "rite of passage" for everybody in some ways. Today allowed for the people that are leaving to confront their fellow peers and close friends, allowing them to express their true feelings once and for all. It also allowed for the fellow peers and close friends of those that are leaving to fully realise and process the reality of the situation, no matter how much they had put it off prior to this day. I guess I had already mentally and emotionally prepared myself for today from crying days on end in my room which would explain why I didn't shed a tear today. I can't say the same for everybody else though (*ahem*) but that's okay! It made me feel kind of bad that I didn't cry. It's not that I wasn't upset. I just couldn't cry at the risk of revoking all of the wild emotions that I feel when it comes to this issue.

This year has flown by so fast (as has every other year) and it makes me want to savour as much of my senior schooling as possible. Photos, a journal, something. I could not have asked for a better year group to go through Years 11 and 12 with. Everybody is just so kind and accepting of others, willing to help out and everybody has their own unique personality which will undoubtedly rub off on each and every one of us when we leave school in Year 12. Happy holidays everybody and be prepared for the hardest but most rewarding two years of your lives starting from next year! Toooooodles!

Live Music

Those of you that know me would know that I have a flaming passion for good, awesome live music. None of that auto-tuned, lip-syncing, back track crap; aw hell no sister! I've got some videos that I really want to share with you guys because they are really brilliant musicians. So PLEASE watch and/or listen to them because they will be music to your ears (hehehe)!

Linking Park performing 'Rolling In the Deep' live at one of their concerts

OneRepublic performing 'Apologize' at some AOL live session thingy

Adele performing 'Set Fire To The Rain' - IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL. I am truly in awe. 

Lady Antebellum performing 'Need You Now' at the AOL thing again

A good sport

Today was our last sport day for 2011 (unless you are going to school next week which Dolstra seemed firm about...) and it was very fun indeed. First we had maths and Renee, Richard, Queen and Maria were doing the quadratic handout but they were so confused and it was so freaking funny when Richard asked me if the quadratic formula was blah blah blah and Queen thought he was making up bullshit. ANYWAYS. Geo was normal and then in English we had a PIZZA PARTY! At first we were just eating lollies in the classroom and playing "ENERGISERS" from Peer Support (I guess we gained something from those useless 12 hours of "training" after all) and then we went to the oval to play a class "Knots" while we waited for our pizzas to arrive. Pizzas arrived, we ate them and Kimberly was fully dying from the Jalapenos, weakling! Then, we had a crazy lunch doing weird voodoo stuff and then we had tennis! I was just walking when I felt someone spraying me with water and that's when all hell unleashed! We had a water fight at tennis and I got Renee good enough for her to remember while she plays tennis with the cows next year! Alex was drowning in his sorrows as we walked to station because his racquet is broken and his finals are this week... I think. Anyways, I was just on Facebook and one of my bogan friends uploaded this photo and I think it is AMAZEBALLS.

ahuhuhuhuh

35 Celebrity College Majors

Interesting... 35 Celebrity College Majors

'Tis the season to be jolly!

Since I have hit my adolescent years, I have found myself to be quite the Christmas stooge but for some reason this year, I am so excited for Christmas. I can't wait for the lights and decorations around the city and in the suburbs to go up (actually, they already have... in like mid-November) but oh my gosh, it's almost CHRISTMAS! Too bad we live in Australia and we all probably grew up in an extremely Americanised world, so naturally, most of us associate Christmas with snow, ice-skating, sled rides and hot cocoa (well, I do anyways). I've always dreamed of a white, winter wonderland for Christmas but to my dismay, Christmas for me is always a family barbie in the stinking hot heat.

CHRISTMAS MOVIES. CHRISTMAS CAROLS. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. CHRISTMAS GIFTS. FATHER CHRISTMAS AND OH MY GOD GINGERBREAD! Although I hate everything ginger, I love love love gingerbread. It is delicious... or maybe it's just the bright and colourful icing decorations? I remember in year 4, my teacher made gingerbread cookies in the shapes of stars with everybody's name on each one and she decorated them and stuff. I loved mine too much to eat it so I tried to save it up for a "worthy" enough occasion to eat it, as if Christmas wasn't already good enough right? Yeah... It spoiled and I never got to taste the delicious homeliness of my teacher's baking. But then again, she was very mean to me and I was leaving the school for a new school the following year... Perhaps I made the right decision not to eat it. Hahahahaha JOKES.

Now, Christmas stooges and enthusiasts, please enjoy the wide array of Christmas pictures I have collected from a Christmas Tumblr in the span of 10 minutes.

 See what I mean by deliciously coloured gingerbread? 

 Again with the gingerbread...! AHGSJHWGHEW

Christmas is the only time it is acceptable for people other than Paris Hilton to dress their animals in outfits and for it to be deemed cute rather than a form of animal cruelty. Jus' sayin' 

Fambamz

Today, I woke up to my baby god brother's cry which is very weird because out of my whole extended family, we are the only ones that live in this area. They all live around the Canterbury area so we never get visits from them. So I woke up and found that more aunts and uncles were on their way down here so that we could all go to The Party Warehouse in Campbelltown to buy masks and that of the like for an upcoming masquerade themed party we are having. Once everybody arrived, we all headed off at 11am and I rode with my newlywed aunty and uncle and it turns out I'm really bad at giving directions because we were in the left lane and the Party Warehouse is on the right hand side and by the time I realised, it was too late. Ha ha ha, not living up to my womanly stereotype at all. My family is very loud (as with any Asian family) but it seemed louder because we weren't in Cabramatta where all da Asians at, we were in Campbelltown; where all da white people at. It was slightly embarrassing, but hey, that's why I love them. We're always kidding around, regardless of the weird looks we get from passing strangers. Yeah, so we got all of our masks and called up all the other cousins and stuff to see if they needed masks... That was quite fun. Shopping is such a good form of family bonding! Then we went back home and discussed costumes and shizzeh and then they went home a while ago. So we are having a masquerade party on the 17th and a Christmas party the week after. PARTY LIFE BITCHES.