Darwin Day 1 (Merry Christmas)

ok. So you're probably thinking my posts will be full of whining and negative comments.

You're kind of right. Kind of.

It is SO humid here, when we walked outside I thought I couldn't breathe. haha, but no, really, at least it's not as polluted as HK/China/etc.

Anyway .....

To be honest, it was one of the most boring Christmas' I've ever had.

Spending most of the day in a car driving from Port Darwin to Kakadu Park was absolutely ... fantastic. I mean, my chair was fked up, and I mean it got pushed forward and won't go back and I kind of broke the handle thing on the roof. But that's Avis' problem, not mine !

Not only that, I swear I've only seen less than 30 people today, probably because it's Christmas. (And we're the only Asians here, mega uncomfortable)

Just before we were going to the pool a freaking huge thunderstorm decided to come out and crap it rained like heck. And then we got a power failure so now the air con doesn't work - yay ! And now it's raining like crazy and the TV lost signal ... :(

The pool was full of drunk men, the water smelt like alcohol (beer, which I find feral, although pot bellies are even more feral) and tasted disgusting.

Anyway Christmas dinner was rather filling, the waitress gave us 3 desserts instead of 2. Oh well ....

Hope you guys all had a lovely Christmas ! and enjoy boxing day sales hahahahaahah <3

2 days down 14 to go. >.>

i'm getting there....slowly...haha. " lauraaants no. 1" :)

it's my second post of the week!!!! and considering the fact that i went to sleep at frickin 2-3am for the past two nights i'm surprised i'm actually bothered. anyway, today i've decided to introduce something new.....i was thinking about my first week back to term 2 and the things that made annoyed me. and my friend was ranting to me so i came up with the idea of blogging/ranting and calling it "lauraaaaaaaants"
(this isn't really ranting tho...more like pointing out weird things..)

so. let's go!
1. so, for the whole of term 1, i had animal farm (novel on russian communism etc and talking pigs) nicely tucked in my english folder, even though we didn't need it. and then, term 2 comes and we start the book - oh and wth, i can't find my animal farm!!!!!!! so that resulted in my WHOLE row (paris grace bec lisa me tiff) not having any books to read along with the teacher....meaning we kind of just doodled in our diaries haha.
and then the 2nd lesson i was so tired i just slept on grace's arm. and the only thing i remembered was that the pigs milked the cow and they went and farmed and they came back later and the milk was gone. how lovely. anyway, my dear babe friend has let me borrow their book, so hopefully i won't fail the assignments due next week.....

2. what the hell was/is with the weather. seriously.

3. why are we still doing 'light rays' in science? such bloody bullshit i swear the only exciting thing we've done since we started doing it last term was when we got a pink paddlepop stick in a beaker and then it turned the water a nice pink.

4. why do all the student teachers have to be mr. rivis duplicates? seriously....tall men that are bald/nearly bald. maybe that's to make us be able to identify them easier...??!

5. my senior strings conductor (dr. le guin or w/e) has very......queer ways of rehearsing us. including each group to go to the corners of the room and play whilst facing the wall. at least we sounded better after haha

6. the fact that after orchestra/senior strings i have the pieces stuck in my head for the REST OF THE DAY and i have to hum them and probably piss the people around me off....

7. trigonometry. need i say more?

8. going last for a french oral and having the bell go halfway through meaning everybody packs up whilst you're still talking....no offence but it's rude!


9. the comps in the music room fucking up so i have to try get my ppt up on 3 diff comps >_>". and then the speakers didn't work so my background music which i bothered to download didn't work! and neither did the joke at the end of the ppt......

10. getting told off twice for wearing t-bars with winter uniform. stfu!!!!!



and that is all. hope you guys had a great first week back like i so obviously did! :)

long time no..........post.

i realised i never finished blogging about my holiday *smacks forehead*
but then again, i have 1000+ pics to bring back my memories
hahaa
anyway i've totally failed to blog......after 3 months i've given up shitless. oh wait it's april now HAHAHA
so yes.
hello.

also, my dear babe friend will huang has decidded to get a blog now! although he's being gay and doing it instead of his crest lol. and that's all. sorry going to violin now....or...msn....

don't be expecting a new post soon. formspring is busy enough :)

FOOD! in hong kong. FOOD! YES THAT'S RIGHT FOOD! ASIAN FOOD!

if you've already been to hong kong, you'll know how big food is in hk :)
the apartmenet i was staying at had two diff restaurants, both within 20m of each other ahah!
but really, that's the general case anyway
you have....on the street
clothes stall             clothes stalll            food stall              other clothing related stall          drink stalll      foood stall             bread stall               tea stall
the main food related stalls in hk are the bread ones. it's like....breadtop/carrington cake shop/asian bread one x9872489619082730918730192873!!! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!
and luckily they all sell dan tart. dan being 'egg' in canto and tart....do i have to explain that lmao
so basically dan tart, for the ones that aren't asian XD, is a small tart made of pastry - normally puff filled with a sweet creamy eggy custard. they're like a necessity in every hk bread store, in front of most there are stacks of trays filled with them ready to be eaten *stomach rumbles*
most of the time we were in hk we had them mmmmmmmmmm. and, believe it or not, the best one i tasted was for FREE!
the pastry wasn't puff, i think it was more of a shortcrust....not so flaky and grossly buttery but with a nice 'bite' to it. and no i didn't take a picture i ate it too fast eheheheh =)
then when we got back home, we got ready for the wedding reception, so lot's of dressing up and make-uping and blah blah blah. the food was reaaaaaaally nice -  had 12, that's right, TWELVE courses ahahah. viv and i decided that when we get married we'll have it done like "western" style but the food will be asian style! i mean, most of the reason people come is for the food...right....?
anyway, like most weddings do, there were canapes/little things to eat..? lmao
masterchef ones look much nicer, but nevertheless there were lots of little pieces of cakes/cheesecakes/chinese puddings to choose from and curry puffs, char siu baos and weird sausage things
picture time :)

]

left to right is this really really rich, creamy cheesecake omgggg it's worse than the crab cream soup lol, next is some pastry tart thing, that was oh-kay, next is this chocolate mouse thing not that great....and the martini kind of glass was a really really sweet juice.

hmmmmmm the curry puffs were kind of fail, one of them didn't even have a curry puff filling WTF?! but they were probably used in some other dish, that's a few pics down :)
the sandwich er....can't even remember what was in it.

and for some reason they gave the cake before the actual dinner - is that normal? o_O
meh, it wasn't that special, like the normal ones you get from asian cake shops, layers of sponge cake with diced up fruit and whipped cream.

mmmmmmmhm.

ehehehehe. i was bored so i squished it up. playing with food is fun doncha think? =D

feeling hungry? =D

the barbecued whole suckling pig came in when they turned all the lights off, and from memory when all the waiters came in (own waiter per table) big drum roll or something like that and they walked around and placed it on the table and then they sliced it - only the crispy skin and then we had it with this thing dough asian pancake thing with plum sauce i think? and yup it was nice =)

scallops and squids and vegetables was another normal asian dish - i've had that a few times in bh etc.

next one...i ceebs typing out was basically the would-be curry-puff filling....IN A SEA SHELL IT WAS SO COOL AND YUMMY!
top was crunchy and cheesy too yummmies.

next dish...braised vegetables blah blah blah blah. another normal dish i've eaten a few times in chink restaurants...
sighh since the waiter plated up our own food it wasnt like...take as much as you want. unfortunately :(
i like my bok choy and joooooshie mushyroomies!
okay what a fob.                                                           i hate blogger. do not like this random space here.

next was SHARK FIN SOUP YAAAAY! with vinegar yup yup yup.

abalone = expensive = brain food (?) = nice :)

once again there is some gay space between them two. use your imagination to fill it up :)

so this....------------>>>>

is. was.

steamed fresh garoupa.

i think it was nice. it probably was...i can't remember =D

deep fried crispy chicken...*thinks*. well it definitely wasn't a KFC style one, that's for sure. i think the bones were still on...or they were thigh/breast pieces? it was probably nice. why did i not take a picture hmmmmm..........

BUT I DID TAKE A PICTURE OF

THE NOODLES AND FRIED RICEY !

they were both kind of normal though...i think i had better noodles in canada and better fried rice in some other restaurant in hk. ahh well. it was free :)

and for dessert was yummmmmmm a nice asian pudding thing and a buttery crumbly cookie eheh and a pureed red bean soup with white glutinous rice balls with black sesame paste inside. how's your tummy going? you salivating over your keyboard already? at 3am in the morning i ceebs...
=D

once again there is some gay space here....=="










so...from that dinner i think i gained heaps but then it's hong kong and i spent the days before and after walking around 16 story shopping malls for like what 7 hours +
good exercise!
except my feet got really bad blisters :(





next day we went to....ocean terminal and had yum cha with relatives. mmmmhmmmmmmm i like choi gao now
which is.....steamed vegetable dumpling...RIGHT GRACE? RIGHT?!

fried ricey!

*burp*

Eastern USA Tour - Day 3. Mainly Washington DC part 1

 sorry for the really really late post, i seriously wasn't bothered to blog as soon as i got home, had all the trouble with suitcase explosion *cough* and the north shore sighh. the first half was actually typed the night i got back from america, hopefully it's re-jogged my memory. if not i'll just have to rely on the pictures. and luckily i have over a 1000 woooooooo
ALSO, to make up for my lack of um....persistence?consistence that's it i've decided to take the trouble and fk up my net usage even more by posting some pictures nyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. this is kind of long btw =D


 *rewinds to 20 something dec 2009!*

SOOOOOO..woke up feeling exceptionally sleep deprived, on average i've been getting 4-6 hours of sleep on an actuall bed.
the rest i make up for it on the lovely bus
hopped onto the bus, realised i didn't have my scarf, ran back to the room, stripped all the bed covers, didn't find it, ran back to the bus, gave up on my scarf, hopped onto my seat, fell asleep.
woke up in....maryland. where we had breakfast in a small building that had pizza hut, kfc, burger king, starbucks, etc etc off the side of the freeway for hungry people eg. us :)

i went straight to starbucks. and oh man i ordered the most retarded thing.
i was scanning the menu, la la la, and i saw "pumpkin spice frappucino"
and i thought. YUMM they don't hvae that in australia!!! actually ihaven't seen a starbucks in australia in a long time anyway
so i ordered it! and didn't realise that it was a COLD drink *face palm*
so i froze during my breakfast. and then when my dad got a flat white i was like AARGGGH HOT DRINK GIMMEEEEEEE
i only got the last gulpfuls =(
anyway....ddni't finish the drink...oh and couldn't have anyway because for some reason after we came back from our first stop it was somehow on the floor all split. ehehehehe................i'll just blame vivian it was on her side of the bus...*cough*

then back on the bus and we drove off to philadelphia. first stop that we went to was to the Liberty Bell. i was still kind of drowsy and slightly cranky that i had been woken up....i think a few people know i am NOT the best morning person :)
i cbs talking about it cos frankly it isn't very exciting. yes took a few pics with the bell and of the boards that have information on it etcetra etcetera
then we walked outside and saw quite a few interesting things. philadelphia is famous for their...cheese steaks? cream cheese steaks? SOMETHING RELATED TO CHEESE! perhaps that's where "philadelphia cheese" comes from. oh speaking of cheese today i opened the fringe and was mingling about and i saw a packet of cream cheese and was like oh i wonder what this tastes like and then i opened it and there were squiggly column lines of MOULD! situation went like this....
*pokes around in the fridge*
"cream cheese! how interesting!"
*opens packet and sees the mould/mold/i don't know*
*screams and flings the packet onto the bench, picks it up from the other side of the packet and chucks it in the bin. runs awaay.*
that is my daily life.
no, i'm joking, okay, i'm getting sidetracked. BACK TO PHILADELPHIA AND STALLS SELLING CHEESE-THINGS.

"A tastier Target"

they're gonna be selling fruits and vegs and other foodies in target WOOOOW no sarcasm.
i wonder how many years it'll be until austraila has that. or we won't even have that :(

 PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS AND PRETZELS
yes because i just had to put it in caps.


"god bless america"

i love that saying!

and here we have the dude selling them! he kept giving me shifty glances, thinking i was some fob tourist.
"OF COURSE I AM LAH -" okay fobby accents don't work  online = = "

then back onto the warm warm bus. oh, we were watching this chinese game show, really hilarious :)
next stop was lunch. wow.....eating seems to be a huge part of this trip lol. ANOTHER thing philadelphia is famous for is this crab cream soup - we ordered it with some other stuff, dont' remember the price but it was SUCH a rip off pffsh.
the crab cream soup, fkk it was so so so creamy just one spoon and i felt sick, as if i was drinking cream with pieces of crab and now i refuse to talk about it anymore because i feel a little queasy :S :S :S :S
but it was really nice =). except the price.

then back outside where viv and i had a little game of snow ball fighting, and man there was heaps of snow came to about our shins? i stepped in the snow and was like "holy shit it's so deep!!!!!"

ahhhhh, so pretty. except for that messy on the left corner. i wonder who was loserish enough to ruin the would-be-perfect-winter-snow-picture. :)

then we headed off to washing dc!!!! yeaaah!!!!

first thing we visited was the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. Some of you might know it if you've watched night at the museum 2 and saw the huge statue which was abraham lincoln stomping around....is that right? i can't remember much of the film lol except that i watched it with grace lol

i nearly died when i saw the pathway to it. first we had to cross the road, i've learnt to love jaywalking now lmao and then onto the worst footpath ever. about 10cm layer of thick, bumpy, slippery, smooth ice with half melted squidgy sloppy muddy snow randomly strewed on it. BUT!!!!!!

me, being the ever awesome potato didn't fall YAAAY! of course i did a few slips but =D ahaha i had to kind of....grab onto vivian's arm though...

okay so pathway pathway and then cross over to some big hill and we had to also go up that *sigh* and there it was just really really slippery ice adskfl;ajwpoietghal;dskjf. and really really bright, the snow was reflecting the sun etc etc bad eyesight.

 

 our ever awesome fobby tour guide, leo! as you latin people, you'll know his name means "lion" but he's nothing like one. or is he.....

well he doesn't know his name means lion he just refered to it as "...a very short name so it's easy to remember!" yeah.

at least he's wearing yellow and SERIOUSLY standing out from the crowd?

since we're on the topic of mr. leo, i forgot to write some stuff he said when we were in new york. he was telling us that if he ever tells us an address it's on a "street", not "avenue" because holy crap they have SO many avenues go past 100 i think? so yes very easy to get lost. anyway he said
"okay now if you don't get lost, don't cry, be brave, just ring my number!"
i mean, combined with a fob accent the words "don't cry, be brave" were just so....LOL WTHECK? i reckon they're his signature words. he said it more than 10 times in new york and heaps in washington dc.

dad aka walking orange, blinding snow and entrance to amazing memorial.

as you can see, there were heaps and heaps of steps - good exercise! but anyway, the statue is really impressive as is the rest of the architectural structures ie. the roman like pillars and the high ceilings. on both sides of the walls are hand ingraved words, i think, laws or something?

above the statue of abraham are the words " IN THIS TEMPLE AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER"

man, don't you reckon those words are so inspiring? and that to be an american would be so cool, i mean you have so much history behind you, all these great presidents and shit ones *coughgeorgebushcough* - my dad said that nine eleven twin tower disaster was for him lol

americans are so proud to be americans! and we australians kind of suck.......

looking incredibly happy chappy here....who wouldn't be? oh yeah, if you really like history, washington dc is the place to go. this usa trip was goood i discovered that i quite like american history and i'd be happy to write up some big assignment on it - so interesting! and now i shall stop sounding like a nerd.

         






AHAHA and this pic, well, we saw a couple getting married or having some engagement thing...marriage related oh i don't know ==", but, seriously, who the heck would get married HERE?! and okay this is mean but we were like "why would a guy like him marry such a bitch-faced fat chick like her"

honestly, she kept whining about the weather and blah blah blah, she had a TERRIBLE wedding dress on, gosh, she could've gotten a beautiful snowy white dress with some small crystals and she'd look like some ice princess there and it could've covered her legs and the shoes she was weraing just fked it up even worse, her make-up was lame, probably doesn't even know what concealer is *rolls eyes epicly* and her hair is so god damn boring, i mean, if they were there to just take pictures for the wedding album or something they could have at least done something nice? but we saw other dressed-up people holding champagne glasses sliding over the ice *snicker*anyway, i was like "omg omg take a pic take a pic viv GIVE ME THE CAMERA!" so i took it and LOL the dude is pointing in our direction....although he isn't really looking at us? what do you think? do you think he's pointing at the camera/me like i'm some fob stalker or he's just randomly pointing and saying something.........

i'd like to keep my identity as low profile as possible, you know? ^^

okay so that pointy thing above my head....ummmmmm i THINK it's another memorial for some other famous person? not very sure. who cares, abraham lincoln statue is the best okay. :)

and yes i think i went slightly bonkers in paint with the wonderful colourful lines. I LIKE IT!

okay after that we went beneath the memorial to more stuff and information about lincoln, his famous speeches as well as other famous democratic americans. like there were extracts from martin luther king jr "i have a dream" speech, very inspiring yes yes yes, lots and LOTS of quotes from abraham lincoln - they make you think a lot too. unfortuatnely we didn't get much time to look and i dind't get to finish reading the stuff :(

and i took ages in the toilet cos the seats were all dirty so we ended up going late to the bus eheheheh.

YES INDEEDY!