a timely key

>>


it's been an almighty two and a half months since my last post. dearest blog, do not worry, i haven't abandoned you, you are still loved, sorry - time has just been running away from me a little too quick!

these have been two giant mountains of months - an exam timetable packed tighter than sardines in a tin; and then followed by moving house and work all through...so yeah i'm feeling a bit out of breath by now, but in another way, i also feel somewhat energised..like that feeling after a long run and you're huffing and puffing, but smiling at yourself - because you know just how far you've come.

life can be complicated, become like a burden, make your head swirl in circles, your eyesight go all blurry...and sometimes to see that clearer picture, instead of holding on more tightly, we need to let go, let a bit loose, and let the kite sail away in the sky...


let your grasp be a little less tighter,
your steps a little more lighter,

let your heart compass your map to sea,
give up your anchor - the uncertainty,

gift yourself the wings that set you free,
your mind the lock, let go the key.

>>

adventure #3 - rainbow pasta

>>

balance is having a bit of everything, and for a for a nice balance of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants - rainbow eating is the answer! apparently eating one fruit or vegie from each of the five colour groups (red, orange, yellow, green, purple/blue) is a simple way to ensure you get a good variety of nutrients in your diet.

so on thurs, while i took a break from staring at several confusingly similar oral pathology histo slides, i had a bit of a cooking adventure ...and i cooked up some rainbow pasta ^^...didn't have proper pasta sauce at home so i just made-do with tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, garlic, dried basil and a hint of chilli flakes :P then i cooked some corn, peas and carrots to go with the wholemeal fusilli pasta...i was just missing some beetroot or red cabbage for the purple/blue category...which probably would've turned my entire bowl of pasta a rather odd colour...

anyhoos, i ended up eating a very satisfying healthy lunch :)

>>

inspiring people

>>


i got home pretty late today, and ended up eating spagbol in front of the telly whilst watching the 7pm project. then because i was feeling kinda drained from uni and clinic and standing on the train during peak hour, i ended up staying to watch undercover boss as well...

what really struck me was the inspiring stories behind each and every employee. the passion and enthusiam they exuded was truly inspirational. and they all came from backgrounds of hardship - yet still walked a positive life - in the way they spoke, in the actions they took. there was one employee who had starting working at the theme park since he was 14, and after 6 years, is working there full time - 40 hours a week. he was warm and cheerful to every guest that came through the theme park because he truly wanted to give them a wonderful experience at the themepark, not just because it was his job. and what's more, he was working to earn money to study a course part-time at night. he's family is poor and can't support him to get schooling, yet he faces this obstacle with such a positive outlook and motivation. it was moving to see his reaction when he was offered a scholarship by the ceo - the tearful joy, bursting with gratitude.

there are just so many amazing people from all walks of life, who work so hard, who despite all these hardships still battle on and trudge forwards.

thank you, for inpiring me.

"opportunity is missed by most people

because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work" ~ thomas edison

>>

adventure # 2 - weekend collage

>>


i'm feeling a bit guilty...this adventure project was originally intended to be a ten day thing...though i think at this rate i may need to amend it to a thirty day project >< ...

my computer decided to very kindly go on a strike on wednesday and i've had to format it, so i'm still busy trying to reinstall all my programs back in which is taking a painstakingly long time! there's always a silver lining to everything, and amongst all the program cd's, i found my rather ancient adobe photoshop elements installation cd...yay :)

and here's where photoshop brought me...

[p.s. it's a collage of my weekend :

L to R : (1) colour the world; (2) rainy day saturday; (3) best ever nando's ad from the sunday age; (4) costume designing for my lil bro's book character parade; (5) stamps, stamps and more stamps; (6) green tea; (7) note-it post-it; (8) an apple a day; (9) textbooks which sadly i only managed to read 0.01% of during what was supposed to be a productive sunday]

>>

adventure # 1 - once upon a time

>>


maybe monday wasn't exactly the best day to start an adventure, considering i left the house before the sun rose properly, and came back home after the sun set...nevertheless, i did manage to squeeze in twenty or so minutes for a little adventure...

books are one of those amazing things that despite being only made from paper and ink, can take you to places without you having to move at all.

imagination is beautiful.

and just to add to the experimentalness of this project, i decided to read something i wouldn't normally read...and what's better than entering the wonderful world of fairytales. that's right, thinking cinderella, rapunzel, snow white, rumpelstiltskin...and who can forget the frog prince? but reading those classic fairytales would just contradict the whole point of trying something new...thankfully there were tales like fred & kate, the little peasant and doctor know-all from grimm's fairytales to kindly shed a new light on once-upon-a-time stories for me. simple tales, simple humour and simply clever storytelling...

...a bedtime story was the perfect end to a long and exhausting day *yawns*...


>>

ten day adventure project

>>


a quarter of the semester has rushed by, and rather surreptitiously in fact - so much so that i'm looking in my diary a bit taken aback by how much i've already forgotten about what has happened in the past three weeks. is it that when we keep doing, and hearing, the same things again and again that things become a bit blurred together - like the monotone lecturer hyponotising you to sleep before you're even halfway through the lecture slides?

maybe it's just this uni-work-weekend cycle that keeps rolling by endlessly...or perhaps the laziness seeping into me quite deeply, too deeply...i guess it's still the midst of winter...so, brain in hibernation mode? possibly.

no matter how, what or why...like a lightbulb flashing, something somewhere in the back of my mind is jumping up and down and shouting out, 'time for an adventure!' indeed, it may be.

i think adventure often has some sort of large-scale epic-journey-in-a-foreign-place notion to it, like trekking through the amazon jungle or sailing across the atlantic ocean...but i'd like to take 'adventure' from a different perspective today...

adventure is discovery, it's taking that step beyond the usual boundaries, trying something new - exhilaration brewed with joy, and a few leaves of mint for freshness.

i'm going to embark on a ten day adventure, startin from tomorrow. yups, that's right, tomorrow. but nope, i'm not hopping on plane, nor jumping into a boat and neither will i be going on a roadtrip...i'm heading to unfamiliar avenue, discovery city, somewhere amongst the hustle bustle of this universe...

a ten day - ten new things project. dedicating a slice of my day to something different, and out of the ordinary from my usual.

this will be a one of a kind adventure, just wait and see :)


>>

speechless

>>

funny, how we're all the same yet different.
odd, how things change so much yet they don't.
strange, how unreasonable reason can be.

it's like a train without brakes, a sky with a hole, a house without a door, a book with shredded pages, an umbrella upside down...

....

please excuse, this lack of expressibility


>>

five ways to brighten up another swotvac day

>>


1. dig out those long forgotten coloured pencils and sketchbook, and let imagination run wild


2. bring the kettle to the boil and brew a cup of soothing-super healthy-antioxidant packed green tea


3. jump up and down counting to 100, release some serotonin and endorphins for an energy boost, no kidding - it really works :P


4. music, music, music.....


5. forget about dental decay for twenty minutes, and relish a luscious strawberries and cream chupa chup ^^

>>

the edge

:


on the edge
. a state of imbalance
chaos stretching tension to its limits

on the outside
faltering
- like a broken seabreeze

and through the window

on the inside
a smouldering flame,
sparks igniting
the multitude of uncontained fires

a vicious cycle
still unfolding

on the edge
only a meagre watering can
droplets in an inferno

wavering on the edge
like a joke
what we needed was a firetruck


~

venture and you shall discover

>>


another friday, and here comes the end of sem one, it's been one long, yet suprisingly short semester...feeling mentally bloated from the information overload, sleep deprived from the countless 8am starts, and probably a bit vitamin d deficient cos i haven't been seeing enough of the sun...but on the other hand, this semester's also been one colossal adventure in itself: in uni, around uni, outside of uni....funny how it's kinda all revolving around uni....

...bits and pieces of my explorations and discoveries...

[un \ 1'] seeing REAL patients at the dent hospital; getting hands on experience, despite not knowing much but still being able to make a change and contribute to improving someone's quality of life, and completing the course of care for my first patient, seeing her smile, her appreciation - and the 8am lectures, the millions of lecture notes to store in my brain, all the hard work and long hours...were worthwhile, more than worthwhile

[deux \ 2''] joining a 10 day membership at the gym for $10, haha one hell of a bargain even though i only went 4 times or something, the fitness classes were the best, weights, step ups, yoga...and most memorable of all - the body jam class - an eclectic mix of hip hop, funk and latin taught by an eccentricly entertaining instructor...lol it still makes me laugh thinking of those crazy dance moves...

[trois \ 3'"] getting introduced to the common room sandwich press by two of my lovely fellow dent friends. i had always known the existence of the sandwich press but was always too lazy, and could never be bothered going through all the trouble...however... after the first time toasting my sandwich, i think i got a bit addicted :P the toasty bread taste, the warmth, the smell of my freshly sandwich-pressed lunch, and the melted cheese especially ---yummmm!!

and ..quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix....the list just goes on and on and on and on...maybe i'll save them for another time ^^


written with love, with heart, and with many smiles :]
from me xoxo

storytime

>>

once upon a time ...

...there lived an elderly couple in an apartment on the 80th floor. one day, they went hiking in the mountains and came back by sunset, with heavy backpacks on their shoulders and a nice cosy dinner at home on their mind. as they walked to the elevator, they saw a notice over the doors telling them news they certainly did not want to hear - the lift had broken down, and would be fixed by the next day.

so what could they do? take the stairs. they trudged up the many flights of stairs, with their heavy backpacks, to the 20th floor and by that time the poor elderly couple were quite puffed as you'd imagine. the husband then said, 'oh why were we so stupid, we can just leave our backpacks here and come back down to get them tomorrow morning when the lift is fixed' 'ah you're so smart, why didn't we think of that earlier' replied the wife. so they left their backpacks on the 20th floor and continued walking up the stairs with lighter shoulders though still a bit tired...

by the time they reached the 40th floor they were pretty exhausted, and getting a bit irritated. the old couple started to push the blame on each other, squabbling, and getting on one another's nerves...and when they got to the 60th floor they were quite out of breath, they then realised it would be wiser to just keep quiet, conserve energy, and just finish climbing the next 20 flight of stairs...

...eventually they got to their doorstep...then the husband turned to the wife and said 'where's the keys?'...they looked at each other...and you guessed it, the keys were in their backpacks left on the 20th floor...

this is a little story my dad told me on the weekend, and it really made me think...


>>

little adventure

>>


finished uni at 5 today, fell asleep on the train, trudged up the concrete stairs of my platform towards the bus stop...only to find the smartbus realtime display telling me that the next bus would be coming in 41mins....i double checked, triple-checked...=_=" umm??

it was shiveringly cold and the bus stop area was becoming quickly deserted....then i saw the other bus at another bus stop around the corner...and some kinda lightbulb inside my semi-frozen brain spontaneously lit up. it was an entirely different new bus route that kinda went somewhere around where i live, but not near enough to be within decent walking distance. an uncertain 41mins wait, or an uncertain bus which i had never even caught before? as i scurried towards the bus i did time estimations in my mind whilst praying that the indicator lights of the bus wouldn't change. i managed to hop on just in time :)

when i got off the bus, the odd unfamiliarity with the surroundings along with the dark cloaked sky made me feel somewhat adventurous - little me, on a chilly autumn night, trekking through some mysterious part of my neighbourhood that i'd only ever driven past a couple of times.

it was refreshing, walking that extra 15 or 20 minutes, on a different route, but heading towards the same destination as usual. and it reminded me, once again, of the significance of cherishing the journey itself, and that there isn't always one set way to do things, obstacles are only challenges waiting to give you an opportunity...

life is an adventure


>>

catch a falling star....

>>

put it in your pocket
save it for a rainy day

i once read in the sunday age an article on the lines of how females tend to become stuck to the past and hence are more likely to be unhappy and depressed. whereas, on the other hand, males often forget the past more easily, move on quickly and dwell less on unhappy memories. i am not a fan of stereotypes, but this generalisation seems somewhat true albeit, of course, there are always exceptions and lots of other factors like personality and etc which come into play too. reminiscing isn't necessarily a bad thing, and to overlook the past too much mightn't be such a great thing either...in the end it always comes down to balance...

....pages gone by and already written are sneaking up to cast a shadow on those fresh new pages to come. the ink is spilling and is not quite sure where to run. the corners are fraying because the pages aren't being turned. the words remain bottled and buried beneath a million question marks...

but for one thing i am quite sure to say, happy memories never fail to add a dash of sunshine to cloudy days. thank you, for those memories, because i always keep them in my pocket, for those rainy days :)

c is for cupcake

>>


i have this recent obsession with cupcakes, not that i've baked any (yet!) or even eaten any in the past so many months...

there's something sweet and rather fairytale-ish about cupcakes. perhaps, deep down inside i'm just keen to go crazy over decorating mini cakes with icing, choc chips, sprinkles, raspberries...you name it. i haven't yet found a good enough excuse to bake and embellish a batch of cupcakes though >_< and i really should be eating healthy food instead of rich lusciously delicious cupcakes brimming with sweet sugar, creamy butter and a load of other high GI ingredients...in the meantime, (while i gather motivation to exercise and think of a convincing excuse to create some cupcakes) i figured i'd just doodle it out onto my sketchbook instead - 100% fun and 0% calories :]

...and voila, a petit gateaux, from blueberrymint's sketchbook bakery.....




>>

a fresh start and a taste of the rainbow

>>


twenty ten. a new year.

there's something about new years that always brings an extra spark and a good sprinkle of fairy dust to the summer holidays. somewhat somehow another year has been journeyed through...and before you know it, it is time to turn to a new page and therein lies opportunity to start afresh. a clean, blank, untouched page - eagerly waiting to become filled with happy moments and realised dreams.
it's like that feeling of glimpsing the rainbow behind the clouds, the sweet taste of hope.

>>