Can the winds melt my misery?

Meet the new addition to the friendship circle!

Sincere apologies for the sudden disappearance. It's just that the second semester emotionally and mentally drained me (hence the flights out to KL and Brisbane).

It's disheartening for me that I almost flunked a course that I had the most experience in. I'm not angry, just disappointed in myself. I was still awake at 6.30am on a Monday morning, struggling to complete the remainder of the take-home paper. I was like, ugh, I'm not forcing myself to sleep after submitting the refined answer. Everything already looks incoherent (even to my exhausted brain).

At this stage, I was losing a battle with my emotions. Not only was I upset with myself, I was at the verge of bawling my eyes out while crawling past the exam questions.

It didn't help that my performance on the Public Law exam paper was affected by the pre-exam nerves that I felt (for the first time!). Who knows I might have even attained a bare credit if I remained cool as a cucumber?

*sighs*

Maybe it's best that I freeze all forms of communication whenever I have a take-home exam to prevent an explosion of emotions.

It is the reasons above that I decided at the eleventh hour to return home and visit Brisbane. The desire of momentarily leaving Adelaide grew stronger by the day and I knew it spanned from the academic stress. Talk about not being in the right zone!

You see, I was against the idea of paying the penalty fees (and maybe even the fare difference) to adjust the schedule for both flights just for the replacement exams. But hey, at least I've sailed through and can now focus on prepping myself for another round of intense studies. I seriously hope that the mistakes and lessons learnt will nudge me to become a better planner and time manager (read: studying alone in the library, away from the buzz).


Chocolate Mud Cake and Flat White in Coffee Club Brisbane Square, QLD.


Pumpkin and Ricotta Pie with Caffe Latte in Zarraffa's Coffee, Myer Centre, Brisbane, QLD.


Christmas Carols Spectacular by Hillsong Brisbane in Mount Gravatt, QLD.




Night Quarter Market in Helensvale, QLD.


Raw Treasures, in Surfers Paradise and Helensvale Night Markets.

Although I'm aware that there's such a market in Adelaide, I admit that I've been too lazy to visit Flinders Street Market. I've no idea why, but I have a tendency to visit tourist spots that are furthest from me.


Supper while flying to KLIA

It's mostly food that I ran after during this trip home (as I craved the authentic flavor), not shopping or catching up with friends. I didn't have the luggage space to accommodate the shopping spree and with the limited time that I had, I'd rather reserve it for myself or the people close to me and errands.

What probably made it more special was the surprise that awaited me, though. The payer did not know it was my birthday when we went out together for seafood. I was such a smart mouth (sarcasm intended) to let it slip out, argh.

I don't think I want to recollect the events of that night, but let's just say that we did have fun amidst the travel hiccups.

Look who came to greet me while I was on campus earlier!



Am I looking at a duck? O.o
- After researching the details for Eurasian Coots, the image above is indeed a duck! It's known as Australian Wood Duck.