Update on my room for 2010

As promised, here are the pictures of my room for the remaining of 2010.

Panorama view of my room.

No longer a beggar...

It took me a month just to find a place to settle down for the next 9 months. It is not that I am lazy to go look for a place. It is just that the housing market is Melbourne is too competitive. ZQ, YY and I have been diligently going for numerous inspections of properties and sending in stacks of application forms to get a place. None of our applications was successful. It was until YY asked an agent about how to increase our chances for application, then we knew the trick to it. Yasmin told me that she had to quote a higher rent than what was published in order to out-bid the rest of the applicants. The agent told us that we could include a cover letter and also offer to pay an upfront if 3 months' rent.

So we did that and VOILA~ We got a place! 5/3 Mary Street, North Melbourne 3051. And the place look like this!

These are the pictures taken from the website. I will take some pictures myself once I have finished unpacking and tidying everything up. The third picture above is my room, without a toilet since the en suite room has been given to Saskia for her privacy. Saskia is a Dutch PhD student in my laboratory and she was looking for a place as well. She doesn't mind staying with 3 guys, so here we are, in this luxurious looking apartment! 3 levels, 2 bedrooms on the 2nd level, 2 toilets, 1 living room, 1 kitchen, 1 study room on the ground floor and a garage!

Never in my life had I imagined that I can stay in such a luxurious apartment. This is totally like a dream to me! It was definitely worth the wait. Wish me luck for the rest of my 9 months of stay in Melbourne! Can't wait to go back home!

Send me to the Olympics!

I want one of this! Send me to the Olympics!

One Week Down...

Time seems to pass by fast when you are busy. The first week of Honours life was pretty contradicting. Either I am reading scientific papers in the office all day, or I am in the laboratory doing tons of stuff. Had a talk with Danny (my Honours project supervisor) this morning. Still very vague about what I am doing for my project, as he wanted me to find out for myself from Maya's project (previous Honours student with Danny). So I am back to square one. Hope to be able to digest Maya's thesis and absorb the essence of it. I really need a lot of concentration and focus to dig out the important information.

On a lighter note, there are 253 more days to the end of my Honours life! I will be giving my oral examination for my project on 9/10 November 2010! Graduation should occur somewhere around mid-December. So I have about one month to pack up and await my loved ones to come over to attend my graduation. Can't wait to be back for good!

Final Stretch, Final Nightmare...

Back to Melbourne on a cold Tuesday morning. 12˚ Celsius. What is even more difficult to bear is to leave my family and darling back home. I'm not someone who is easily homesick. But the life in Melbourne is not my kind of life. And having to leave my mum alone back home, makes me worried. My dad works on a shift basis. My younger sister is constantly working overtime. My youngest sister is constantly flying to Malaysia for work. My mum is all alone at home, having to care for Reanne and also to maintain the house. It must be tough on her. Hope I can spend more time with my mum when I'm back.

Another worry is my darling. I know it's not easy for her to accept this relationship. Having to be without her boyfriend for 2 years is definitely tough on her. Moreover, we started our relationship about 2 months before I depart for Melbourne in 2009, so I really appreciate her for everything she's done for me. When I am finally done with my studies and back in Singapore for good, I will definitely make it up to her! So my darling, wait for me!

Right now, I'm bunking in at Nicholas' place since he is back in Singapore until late March. So ZQ, Yiu Yiu and I are sharing his room for the period. Hopefully we can secure the available unit at Villiers Street, which is just a few units away from Nicholas. This way, we can move our things more easily. Still suffering from a lack of sleep. This morning, hitched a ride from Zi Xin's boyfriend to Bio21 to take the key from Yiu Yiu. I went back to leave my luggage at Nicholas' place before heading back to Bio21 to meet up with Dr Danny Hatters. And so, I began a day of being in a lab and also settling my enrollment application at Unimelb. Long day... Hopefully tomorrow will be better...

Reality has come to a halt. Nightmare resumes...

Time really does fly when you are enjoying yourself. Contrary to people waking up from a nightmare, I am walking into a nightmare. Back on 8 December 2009. Now going back to the dreadful place on 22 February 2010. Two and a half months passed by in a flash. Hope that my 10 months in Melbourne will pass by equally fast.

Came back and celebrated our 1st anniversary together. Since both of us are camera-loving people, it is natural I got my darling a Diana F+ (Moma) Edition camera. Nothing fanciful, just meet up, give my darling her present and off to Marché for diner. Simple and yet lovely day!

Celebrated 2009 Christmas with best friends over at my place for steamboat and gift exchange. Really hope we can continue our friendship. In the future, when we are all married, I hope we can visit one another's home for such gatherings. Also went for a gift exchange with Melissa and Baoling at Vivocity for diner.

Went for new year countdown with my darling and her buddies (Lishan and Yushan) as well as my buddies (CCL and his girlfriend and Bai Wei). The countdown party wasn't very impressive, but I guess this can't be helped since we did not pay for anything. Hahaha~

Went for crabs and also KTV with the Melbourne gang. Also celebrated Lisa's birthday at The Pump Room. Sorry that I didn't have much time with all of them due to many gatherings on my side as well as preparation for Chinese New Year. But I guess we will have our fun in Melbourne again!

Chinese New Year was a busy period, visiting relatives and eating goodies! Had fun with my cousins playing mahjong. I guess I have been going on a winning streak because Swee Yee is with me this time round. On the day when she wasn't with me, I lost $25. So I guess she's really my lucky star!

Again, nothing fanciful about our belated Valentine's Day. Just flowers and diner. Made a photo book for my darling and I hope she likes it. No doubt the present is inexpensive, but I think the hours spent and the love injected into the gift make it priceless.