Most excellent

The past two days (this one not inclusive) have been some of the best that I've had these holidays.

Well, it was more Thursday that was the great day. Went up Mount Dandenong with some homedogs that are close to my heart (awwwww). Once we got settled down for brunch and started, I laughed harder than I had for a long, long time. No, I'm not crazy. I didn't start laughing spontaneously. It was mainly to do with Rui being a clown.

So after eating, and laughing at Rui eating his scone like a sandwich (amongst other things) and roaming around the mountain like Asian tourists, we went to Cold Rock for dessert. I promptly got lost trying to get Kanji home. It eventually all worked out. The day had already seemed massively awesome up until that point.

Good times. It was like a week's worth of goodness, gloriously crammed into one day, spent with some of my favourite people.

And there will be more to come. Because yesterday, I sorted out the venue for my 21st. And I am so relieved just to be able to get that out of the way.

Hopefully I'll be able to organise some more fun times for next week.

Oh, also, Sarah's coming back from her massive holiday in France. All in all, good stuff.

I'll leave you with this song that I deliberately chanced on today. It fills me with a strong feeling of vengeance and bitterness. But it's such a good little song.

Tell everybody that you know
That I don't love you no more

Currently listening to: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2
Word of the Day: roaming

G-Star Shmee Star

I have no idea why I'm still awake at this time, but I am. I'm being kept awake by this weird unsettling feeling unease I get every now and again. I think it's to do with the fear of results this time around.

Anyway. I should be tired, due to lack of sleep, but I'm not. Well, not at the moment anyway. I was a few hours ago.

So I might as well talk about today while I'm here.

Today was the induction into the Leader's Program. We finally found out what we signed up for, and it doesn't seem half-bad. Kind of looking forward to it actually.

So yeah. I kind of got to know a friend that I didn't know so well before a little bit better, which is excellent. I love it when that happens.

Afterwards, Victor, Kanji and I went shopping at Chaddy. Looked at some overpriced G-Star stuff, bought some stuff, and stuff like that. Stuff.

Alright. I think that'll be it for now. Probably should go to bed. Maroon 5 tickets to buy and all tomorrow morning.

Word of the Day: Stuff

She wasn't black

The one thing that I gained from Ben's 21st last night:

In case you don't get it right away, I liked the bartender.

She was somewhat sultry, and looked like she had a bit of an attitude. I think she was half-Asian. Kind of ruined it though, what with the lip ring and all. I hate it when that happens. Someone looks awesome, then they go ruin it by doing something stupid like that. Or smoking. Either one is quite bad.

Newaiz. Double 21st yesterday. Kanji's in the arvo, took a carload of people with me, went home to get changed, and went out to play pool with him at some Korean pool place. I think it's a mark of how Korean it was that there were no markings on the tables. Quite confusing for a Westerner such as myself.

To be frank, I was quite disappointed. Many people who I was hoping to catch up with didn't appear, except perhaps for Meng and Vincent.

So after that, Banh and I moseyed on down to Ben's (where the bartender was, incidentally) Interestingly, I got on fairly well with Visa's girlfriend. Friendly type of lass. Good catchup session with some of the lads. Some awkward situations, but they're unavoidable if you're me.

I came home, and watch the Arsenal game. Boy, was that massively depressing. Seriously, games like that make me consider defecting to another team. It's very depressing watching players not even trying, and getting shredded by West Brom, of all teams. If I were Fabregas, I'd want to leave too. They played like utter rubbish.

Now to today. I watched West Side story with my sisters. Wasn't too bad, but I think a tad overrated. Les Miserables was a lot better.

And that's just about that for now. Not particularly interesting or invigorating, but that's life sometimes.

Word of the Day: Sultry

Syooopersonic

This video is so indescribably cool. It's just that. It's actually indescribable how cool it is.

Anyway, I am feeling quite close to supersonic. Yes, I know it won't last for very long, mostly owing to this backlog of work that I have, and something unforeseen will come and disrupt it. However, at this point in time, it's all pretty good.

I think it might just be Tuesdays. I always have a certain day that's really good every week. I think it's Tuesday this semester.

First lecture, it's a bludge. There's about 20 people there. So that's all good.

Next lecture, French culture. Hang with Irene and Zara (ha, I've stopped calling her Taylor Swift. Caught you by surprise, didn't I?). I usually walk to my next lecture with Irene after that, so we chat on the way.

In that lecture, I usually hang with the Kanji. Today, I hung with Eugene, who was making a guest appearance, and his girlfriend. That was also all good.

The tute after that is slightly meh. If I'm not being bombarded with the off-topic opinions of Left-Wing Dave, I'm stuck in a group where everybody's as clueless as me, and talk less than me. But yeah, it's manageable.

French culture tute after that tute. Again, hang with Zara and Irene. Then after that, I walk to my car with Zara.

Turns out she's actually quite conversational and funny. We ran into Kanji (not literally) and she asked me whether it was true that he was an alcoholic. I told her the story about how he and Rui thought they were dolphins after drinking one too many on the roadtrip. She laughed, showed me the dolphin ring she was wearing, and told me it was the funniest thing she'd heard all day. That made my day.

Also, my phone was going nuts yesterday. First, I get a call from Grant Thornton, which I missed because my phone was on vibrate. I called them back, left my number, and got them to call me back. About 15 minutes after that, I got a call telling me that my iPhone had finally come in. Later, at the worst possible time (while I'm applying my screen protector to my iPhone), GT calls me back to tell me to send my academic transcript to them again because it's too small. I'll be positive like Meng is, and pretend that it's because I'm in the interview pile that they want my transcript.

And, to cap it all off, Arsenal are on the verge of signing a defender. A completely un-Arsenal signing. He's tall, he's old-ish, and he's experienced. Cool name as well. Squillaci.

Mad fer it.

Word of the Day: Supersonic

On the improve

Hard to believe, but this day was even better than yesterday.

It was particularly hard to believe this morning. The rain was pouring down, and I'd had a good day yesterday.

However, it turned out to be fully maddogz.

So the first lecture was boring enough. During French culture, talked to Monique a bit. Next lecture, sat next to my homedawg, Kanji, who I haven't seen in quite some time. Boring lecture, but at least Kanji was there. Then, during my European studies tute, I won an EU keyring for what effectively amounted to being awesome.

See, my other group members were harping on about something crazy that I had no idea about, so I just assumed that they were operating on a higher plane than me. So they'd all thought they'd found the thing which the tutor was after, and I just kept it quietly to myself, because I thought I was wrong. Turns out I was right, and I won my first something for a very long time. Yes, it's a silly little keyring, but I like silly little things. Also, one of my group members asked my name while I was leaving, which made me feel pretty close to spectacular. That hasn't happened to me in a long, long, long time.

If that all seems a bit confusing, it's because it is.

Then, in French culture (again), I managed to talk properly to Taylor Swift. Finally. Much less awkward than I had anticipated, owing to the fact that she wanted to talk to me, and that she was quite a nice person. Oh, and Irene of course. I like to think it was mostly me. Jaykay. It probably wasn't.

Or was it?!

And just to top it all off, the sun came out at the end of it. And my iPod played only happy songs on the way home.

Word of the Day: Improve

A beach of a promise

Not even a day after my resolution not to do stupid things that could jeopardise my safety, and there I was, a couple of hours ago, jeopardising my safety with not a care in the world.

We (being Chen, Kylie, Rui, Kanji, Simon, and Hayley + extras) went to Frankston beach around midday today. Which wasn't safety-endangering in and of itself. It was actually quite nice.

It was the part where Hayley + extras bailed, and after us leftovers had eaten dinner, where I felt that hanging around Frankston at night was maybe not such a good idea.

Ok, maybe I was exaggerating a bit. I mean, it's not like Frankston is New York in the 60s or anything. Or like Footscray at midnight. Or like the toilets at Melbourne Central. And on the upside, we had Cold Rock. First time for me. A tad overpriced, I thought, but worth it for novelty value.

So yeah, Simmo, Kanji and I trained it back to our respective homes, with me imparting my limited, albeit first-hand experience of Guangzhou upon Simmo, prepping him up for his trip there. Talk about safety-endangering.

Word of the Day: Safety

Ray's 19th...but not really

Ok, so this was ultra-confusing. But awesomely so.

The 'Ambassadors' had dinner tonight, minus a few non-essentials *cough*Meng*cough*. The occasion was the ambiguous part. Was it for Ray's birthday? Was it a random gathering of Ambassadors? Was it a chance to ditch Meng and talk behind his back? Was it a GMC meeting over drinks?

In truth, I think it was a combination of all of the above.

It was great. I think the only blight upon the night (ha, rhymes) was James being late. God, I hate waiting for that guy. It was raining too. Now everybody knows the truth, James. That's what you get for lying to everybody.

So we met up with Stef with an F at MC, Moonwalked our way towards Ray and into the restaurant on Lonsdale (I think).

Dinner happened, craziness, hilarity and laughter ensued. The waiters were hilarious. Hayley asked for the cake and sparklers to go with it. He thought we wanted speakers. We said no.

So then he brought the cake out. Turns out to be the wrong one. And he'd lit the candle and everything. Poor cake.

Ray cut up the cake into elephant-sized pieces, presumably because he could eat that much in one go. Elephant-sized, as in each piece was the size of an elephant, not as in elephant bite-sized.

Needless to say, my assumption was wrong, Ray couldn't finish his five pieces of cake, so I asked for a box. The girl gave me a box with an over-sized lid. So the logical thing to do, instead of giving us a lid that went over the box, was, of course, to Glad-Wrap it. Duh.

The train ride home was good fun. The car trip back home was dangerous and slightly illegal, yet oddly thrilling. I think I'm hooked on speeding now. Thanks a lot Anna. Oh, and thanks for the lift.

I think I'll try and organise a poker night next. Problem is, my dog is a bit wacko. I'll try and get something sorted out. In the meantime, Elena and James can organise the road trip. Should do this again sometime.

Oh, and Happy 19th Birthday Ray. Again.

Word of the Day: Late

Orientation Day 09 - Ambassadors ftw

Today, I, along with the other BusEco Ambassadors, showed students around during orientation.

Fairly unexciting stuff, bordering on boring you may think, but there was a twist.

See, I was doing this on my gimp leg. Which hurt like hell in the morning, but strangely got better progressively during the day.

We had a ball of a time. However, I do wish that I could mingle with everyone in the group. That would make it a lot more fun. Not that it isn't now.

'Mingle' was also an overused word today. 'Mingle' this and 'mingle' that. So sick of it. I blame Kanji.

Read on if you are prepared for a story of epic proportions.

Anyway, after this extravaganza, me and my crew, minus a few key people (who probably know who they are), headed to Chadstone for "shopping," which would eventually culminate in dinner at Clayton.

Shopping didn't even happen, because James was off buying his bento box (don't ask, because I wouldn't be able to explain), while Ray was trying out prescription glasses (why he had to wait until then, I don't know), and Terry and his mates were deciding on which movie to see.

After this, me and James found out that through an ambiguous SMS sent by the organiser of said dinner, we had actually been stooged, because dinner had been cancelled. So after some swift punching of walls and people, James and I got our act together and organised it.

So it was that our gang of NQT workers gathered in Box Hill (Davy being fashionably late, of course), and dined.

And then headed over to my house to play poker. Pleasantly surprised how well my parents took it, seeing as I randomly unleashed a group of hormonally-charged teenagers into their house. Just for the record, Davy won.

So even though the second half of the day seemed a total shambles, it still turned out good, which is better than nothing I guess.

Word of the day: Mingle