Throwback: Celebrating Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

Christmas Eve

There was nothing grandeur. It was just a trip to Central Market, where we went a little insane with the grocery shopping (partly due to their four-day closure). As if that wasn't enough, we grabbed a couple of last-minute items (read: sparkling grape and pomegranate juice) from the nearby grocery store.

In addition to that, I treated myself to a little Christmas gift from Lovisa.



The only catch is that I already bought the following presents for myself during the road trip to Helensvale and Gold Coast.





Contrary to what you think, we ended up spending Christmas Eve with the ducks.



Meet the new friend!

Christmas Day

The morning began with the Day Mass. For unknown reasons, I ended up in a formal outfit with heels and boarding the public transport to Church. Gosh, I was more than ready to tear the dress and heels off me. Not only was I drenched in sweat when I arrived home, I was limping with blisters on the toe.

Why does my favorite pair of heels from Vincci always give me this problem to deal with?

For the first time in a long while, there were no celebrations. No grand meals or Christmas Carols with family or friends either. Just a simple meal... unless you consider stewed pork with tofu and shitake mushroom as befitting the special day. It's a far fetch from what we did last year, but it's alright.

The emphasis was more on the religious obligations anyway and who knows Christmas will be much more interesting next year? *grins*

The Seasons of Giving

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

I'll see you in 2016, so until then, stay safe and have an awesome celebration with your family!

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.

Oscar's Music

One down, two to go

Seeing that it ate 20 hours for me to complete the torts exam, I thought that I could stay awake for 24 hours to complete the first exam, which coincidentally (and thankfully) was a take home exam as well. However, as circumstances illustrated, I began to crumble at the 17th hour when my emotions went on a rollercoaster ride - from feeling confident to answering it in one piece to being mad at everything around me. In addition, I was beginning to lose control over my sense of speech although my brain was still coherent.

It didn’t help that I misspelled ‘skunk’ as ‘skunt’.

Let’s just say that I was still sleep-deprived when I was asked that. I know staying up until the wee hours of the morning (or even pulling an all-nighter) is dangerous for the bodily functions, but it has to depend on the situation. As property law is one of the toughest courses to absorb this semester, I’d rather slave over the exam online than in Wayville. I’m not game on the idea of taking the public transport to Wayville thrice either, especially if it is an afternoon exam.

It’s too taxing for the brain to aim for any score higher than a pass, and I always believe that ‘the greater the hope, the deeper the disappointment’. It is better to keep an open heart about the desired grades than to be weeping over the setback.

One exam down, two to go.

Well, technically, only one more (in the form of Public Law) on Tuesday morning. It was only this afternoon that I sat for the International Law exam, so yeah, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that. I do feel the pressure because I’d like to make the lecturers (both in the university and Mr. Layng) proud with the achievements, but if God decides that I should have a pass instead, it’s fine with me as well.

I should be back with a proper post anytime after this Tuesday. And with that, see you until my next post! =)

Tim McGraw - It's Your Love (Official Music Video)

One of the beautiful songs I've heard today.

The 2 am thoughts

Few more weeks and I’ll be wishing that I’m visiting an unfamiliar horizon instead of burning myself with the melting sun. I’m aware that most of my friends are only returning when it is nearer to the new academic year, but I’d rather remain in town. There is only so much that I can endure in KL without longing to jump on the next flight back to Adelaide.

Exams are just around the corner and I feel that I’m far from prepared to score a respectable grade for especially Property Law, which is bad. The exam is on Sunday, and this leaves me with around 3 days to sail through the revisions and note condensation before throwing caution to the wind. I’ll definitely go broke with the amount of caffeine that I am about to ingest to remain awake and fresh. I know that I should be contented with a mere pass as a freshman, especially for this course, but a part of me wants to aim higher and attempt to bring home a credit. It will be tough, considering that I messed up on the assignment, and my confidence in attaining a credit is dwindling as the time approaches.

What worries me the most is that the assignments and exam are not redeemable in Property Law; it’s similar to the course structure of the subjects I learned in CPU except that the weightage is different. I’ve learnt where I screwed up on the assignment and hope that the lessons learned will slowly guide me on the all-nighter for the exam.

Yet, I am bushed and thinking of reaching out for the bottle of strawberry wine resting in the fridge to relax the nerves. I know that I can’t; not only will I blow the actus rea and mens rea, the countless hours and late nights thrown into the revision will be thrown into the basket instantly.

And I’ll make things worse than they already are, sigh.

At the time of this posting (2 am Adelaide time), I know I should be fast asleep after the intense revision, but I’m instead wide awake and feeling high - not because I was listening to upbeat songs, but through the Week 12 Public Law lecture.

It’s odd that listening to that particular lecture as a refreshment is soothing for the tired soul and before I become exceptionally hyper to the point where I think I can stay awake for 24 hours, it’d be better if I stray away from academic matters at this moment. Inasmuch as my eyes are exhausted from looking at the computer screen, my brain is more alert than ever.

On the bright side, it always takes listening to the gospel songs on Spotify to ensure that I don’t freak out over the course materials. Although it may not be able to inspire me with the confidence and required knowledge needed to tackle all three papers, at least it ensures that I remain cool as a cucumber (or so, I hope).