LBL day three, maybe i'm not addicted to chocolate after all...

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i was out yesterday, and had work today, so only got around to updating how i'm going with the LBL challenge.

my lil bro tried luring me to eat junk food yesterday - with the smell of original thins and that satisfying crunch from those cripsy chips. then he offered me raspberry drops, knowing i couldn't accept it. was it torture? not really, since the logical part of my brain told me that it's all gonna end by sunday...

then yesterday night, my friend gave me a block of chocolate, dark chocolate - my favourite! it felt a bit odd letting it sit inside my bag, as i waited - hungry, thirsty, and tired - for fifteen minutes for my train.

when i got home last night, there was all this delicious leftover food in the kitchen, and my starving stomach just cried out silently. again today i got home after work, and had to spend an extra quarter of an hour or so preparing my vegetable porridge when there was two perfectly cooked, well-seasoned dishes sitting on the dinner table.

it just emphasised, and brought to light again, the simple luxuries we are so fortunate to have.

ps. here's a pic of my packed LBL lunch - fried egg with diced vegies sandwich + sliced apple + carrot sticks

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LBL day one, where are my tastebuds going?

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day one of the challenge and i'm feeling pretty energised despite the lack of flavour and variety in my carefully portioned meals. i'm quite happy about the groceries i managed to buy with only $10, and although taste is a bit compromised, at least i can get an almost balanced menu, plus an apple a day!


today's food has turned out pretty well, even with my two failed attempts - at cooking a soft boiled egg (which turned out hard boiled =.=") and at frying an egg without oil (which i ended up having to convert into scrambled egg). i think by the end of these five days i might get eggs/oats/carrots-phobia after consuming a dozen eggs, 900g of oats and 1kg of carrots.

day one menu:

brekky - creamy oats + hard boiled egg
lunch - scrambled egg sandwich + toast + carrot sticks
afternoon tea - apple
dinner - mixed vegies porridge

 
oh i'm craving chocolate....and seeing all the yummy food when i open the pantry or fridge door to take out my meagre food supplies really doesn't help! but the rather bland meals, lack of choice and limited nutrition, really makes me think of those who are living below the line each and everyday. we are very fortunate to have so many things that are often taken for granted.
 
feeling extra extra extra grateful today.
 
 
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living below the line from tomorrow!

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finally finished midyear exams this morning, hello holidays! this year, i'm gonna start my winter break on a different note. from tomorrow till saturday, i'll be doing the live below the line challenge.

for the next five days, i'll being living on $2 of food each day to help raise funds for the oaktree foundation, thanks to all the wonderful support and donations from my family and friends. fundraising from this campaign will be going towards helping establish and maintain schools in impoverished communities in cambodia, papua new guinea and east timor.

education can make longlasting changes in the plight to eradicate poverty. with the help of scholarships, training, building of facilities and equipping schools with adequate resources, many more children will have the opportunity to learn, and receive the education that is key to breaking this vicious cycle of extreme poverty.

$1.4 billion people, or in other words, one fifth of the world, are living on $2 or less everyday. although only eating $2 of food a day is only a small challenge compared to that those in poverty face on a daily basis, i hope that through this tiny taste of their struggle, i can not only gain a better understanding of myself and the world around me, but also be able to do a little bit of something for others.

after much planning and going to the market plus coles, and aldi too, i managed to get a fairly healthy bunch of grocery that will hopefully satisfy me for five days - breakfast, lunch and dinner - that's 15 meals!

looking forward to an exciting challenge ahead! :)

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something different to munch on

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look what i made for lunch today :)





soba noodle salad with nori, sesame, carrots, lettuce and celery...oishi!


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inspiring people

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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

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adventure # 1 - once upon a time

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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*...


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venture and you shall discover

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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

little adventure

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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


>>

la di da di da .....

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if only

the sunshine would come out to play

one of those faintly purposeful days, just been eating food, feeding my growing addiction to playfish games, weeding the garden, and doing other random things that don't really go together. i'm feeling fidgety. and it's agitating.

i dunno, but sometimes i feel like i need to go off on a holiday, or just do something drastically different and run away for a moment or two. it's odd, that mixed emotional state of being tired and energised at the same time.

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something new

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it's been a long while since i've sat down to just pour out a few - out of the much too many - thoughts that are swimming around in my mind.

despite my appetite dampening recently, my love for food was still strong enough to lure me into trying out some new recipes today. one that was a major flop, and one that still needs further experimentation.

i went to the health food aisle of coles today to buy some tahini (which is basically sesame seed paste). it's really nutritious, especially the unhulled variety. when i got home, i opened the jar and scooped out a spoonful, expecting a flavoursome burst. but, eeeuuughhh. my first impression - this tastes like bitter chinese herbal medicine. i think the taste was just too strong for me. ohhh dear...and i now i have a 385g jar of it sitting at home...how on earth am i ever gonna finish it? hopefully i find a good recipe to accompany it...soon.

by the afternoon, another crazy idea was tickling me. actually i had heard about it from my cousin, and the thought of a 5-minute-microwave-chocolate-cake had been revolving around in my mind for a couple of days...to the point where i could no longer resist it. it's quite simple and takes under 10 minutes from prep to plating. the cake didn't turn out too bad, albeit a bit dry (probably because i had halved the oil). the highlight of it all was just watching the cake insanely rising from the mug in the microwave. it was quite an incredible sight. i'll definitely try this one again, lol, just for the thrill of watching the cake rise :)

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nothing-in-particular

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its just one of those days when there's a whole pile of things waiting to be done and instead you just feel like sleeping in, taking the entire day off and just munching your way through the pantry. just one of those nothing-in-particular days.

and then when it has almost come to an end you find yourself staring at the blank face in the mirror, wondering why a perfectly good day has just gone done down the drain - irreversible, unretrievable.

so you promise yourself, not to let this happen again.

tomorrow will be a better day.

after all, a cold and rainy day can be just as enjoyable as a bright sunny day...it just all depends on how you choose to live it.


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a letter to my beloved enemy

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dearest procrastination,


sometimes it frightens me a little how time can slip away unknowingly. i really was planning to get a good two or so hours of much delayed studying to be accomplished -_____-"

please don't tempt me any longer. please don't try to lure me into reading interesting articles or doing any more random quizzes on the net or eating food unnecessarily.

.....pretty please?


yours sincerely,

the part of my brain that is still functioning

............................................



....yes...i really should get a move on those biochem notes or something equally productive so that i actually have spare time to bake those choc chip cookies for my bro's school fair....yay COOKIES!!...that shall be my motivation :D

a little day from my little world

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today has been more unproductive than i thought it would have been. but somehow i still managed to scrape through some chem revision and had extra motivation to go for a 30 minute walk ... so i'm satisfied. lately i've had a slight obsession with doing those quiz thingys on blogthings.com ... some of its quite true, i liked the 'what does your handwriting one say about you?' one, i'd say 90% accurate...

and i decided to read the newspaper today, like actually read entire articles, usually i just skim and recycle it. two articles particularly caught my attention - one was about happiness and the other was about tears... what a coincidence they happen to appear in the paper on the same day! the happiness one was about the relationship between the activities that people do and how happy they were. apparently some research found that unhappy people tend to watch tv more... weird huh? but its interesting how they thought of drawing a correlation between happiness and activities... i think in the end it always depends on the person of course, on personality.

anyhows, moving on, the other article was about how crying is beneficial being that emotional tears released can actually expel chemicals related with stress. so literally when you cry, you are letting out the stress. and crying is a unique human trait...i always thought that other animals could too...hmm... i think that illusion must be from watching too much cartoon and kids movies... >.<

ramble ramble ramble .....

>>

yeah, i know, i should be studying since the anatomy exam is almost 3 hours away but meh...relaxation is just as good a preparation for exams right? haha or am i just making up an excuse to be lazy?

anyhows i think i've had enough of neck muscles and their attachments ( and valves of the heart, larynx and phonation, nerves and blood supplies...and the list just goes on...and on....and on....) for the week. i'm actually glad to have 3 exams this week because then they'll be over and done with and i can get another step closer to the summer hols!!

studying at home gets rather boring after a while, if i wasn't at all interested in this semester's content i probably would've dozed off a couple of dozen times this swotvac...so i'm glad that at least some bits of anatomy are interesting :)

oh, and i am so very annoyed at my next door neighbours who have decided to plant a gigantic swimming pool in their backyard. haven't they realised there's a drought at the moment?? and the local pool is only a 10 minute drive away ... *sigh* rich people who don't have more creative and useful ways to spend their money... and what bugs me at the moment is that they're laying down the tiles and rebuilding the fence right now, and my room is on the side that's next to them, which means all the unbearable noise from the sawing and drilling and etc only needs to travel a very short distance to reach my room and drive me insane!!! arghhhh.... stupid neighbours....

lol enough venting and rambling for now... even if i don't study, i do at least need to munch on some lunch before i head to uni... yay! hehe.... food makes me happy :P

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spring cleaning

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it is often said that laughter is the best medicine, but i'm sure that walking must come a close second to that.

i figured it was time to chill and empty out my brain today - at least emptying out the unnecessary trash stored in my mind that was taking over all the good stuff. yes, i decided it was time to go for a walk, a nice brisk, almost power-walking-speed stroll in my neighbourhood. and it kinda worked.

the sky was nice to me and didn't rain. half an hour was just right for enjoying the spring scenery (i.e. people's prettiful gardens with blooming flowers ^^). amongst the fresh greeness of the trees and grass, i could almost forget everything and it was just plain me, and my music, and nature.

by the time i got home i didn't feel tired, but rather, refreshed and perhaps even energised. my mind had cleared a bit and felt lighter than before. some of the mess was dumped, some was recycled into better thoughts, and hope, inspiration and motivation had a good dusting so now they're sparkling in the light and visible again.

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s l o w

i'm such a slowpoke. i have hardly accomplished anything today and i'm sure there's gotta be some better way to study for anatomy than what i'm doing right now. there's nearly only half of the weekend left and i really doubt i'm gonna make much progress tomorrow despite my supposed motivation. and this isn't the only thing i'm slow at...

i feel that i'm kinda slow at growing and coming into terms with things, a slow-adjuster. i don't mean growing as in growing tall (that kinda stopped quite a while ago). growing up seems too big a task for me, i don't like facing the harsh reality of the real world out there... sometimes i feel like i'm living in my own little sphere, unable to blend into the normalities others take for granted. an anomaly. a turtle hidden inside its shell, afraid to get hurt, afraid to be scarred again.

i should seriously get back to studying or at least i should first of all figure out how i'm gonna organise those anatomy terms and principles.

start afresh, from square one, the long way, because it might be worth it in the end...

.... on a happier note ^____^

for some bizarre reason i feel particularly optimistic, happy and energised today, as if a burden has been lifted off my shoulders and i feel somewhat lighter (...lol, only figuratively (i still need to work on the exercising.. =="))

this year has had its unexpected ups and depressingling low downs; 2008 - a turbulent year to say the least. lots of things happen and not just in a linear fashion, but rather interweave ...like different coloured almost-torn threads tangled together, each thread making the mass all the more confusing than it already is....

but that's what life is like, colourful.

yet, at the same time it's fragile. sometimes letting go is better than holding on tight. taking each step as an fulfilling accomplishment rather than merely heading blindly towards a goal that's a mile away. giving yet asking for nothing in return. putting up a smile in the face of adversity, seeing the glow when the darkness has absorbed the light.

cherishing every moment, living without regrets.

+ one month post

it has been exactly one month since i last posted a blog entry. lots of things can happen in a month, good things, bad things, things that don't mean much, things that mean a lot, happy things, funny things, sad things, annoying things...i've just written a whole lot of 废话 but i can't be bothered backspacing it cos i'm not in such a great mood today.

i should be studying IBS now, i haven't reviewed the immune system yet and i haven't reviewed a bunch of other stuff either. sometimes when i'm in a bad mood i eat lots of food lol... bingeing on junk food, very unhealthy...so lately i've been switching to healthier alternatives (don't know how long its gonna last though...) i ate some dried apricots and a seedless mandarin just a while ago. last night i was helping my bro with reading and it was a book about what a fruit is, it said that fruits come from a plant, grow from the flower and have seeds. so a tomato is a fruit, a squash is a fruit and pumpkins are fruit...which i found kinda interesting, cos i used to think that pumpkin soup was a vegetable soup, lol but its a actually a fruit soup ...

i remember we had a class debate in yr 8 once, about whether summer or winter was better, i was on the winter side, but now i'm not so sure whether i do like winter better... right now my hands and feet and are like unmeltable ice, and i'm wearing gloves and socks already... the doctor once said that my blood circulation wasn't very good, which was why i used have headaches and stuff, and she told me to exercise to improve blood flow or something like that, i wonder how it works... is it increasing the capillary diameter, or like causing cardiac muscle hypertrophy so it pumps blood better...neither sound right...now how did i get onto this topic? lol it seems like a sign that i should be getting back to studying IBS....

me + my thoughts ---->

for some reason i feel like i've accomplished a lot this week. i finally went to do my interview with a dentist, finished my notes for genetics and also notes for those i didn't do last week, got the flu vaccine this morning, am over half way through the first draft of my essay... :] yay!!! hehe...

it's so easy to procrastinate and think 'oh, i'll do that later, it's not that important anyway, i've got plenty of time...' then things pile up like crazy and the end of the story, needless to say, is not exactly a pleasant one. so, i've decided to stop procrastinating and get things done straight away...haha dunno how long this is gonna last though...but at least i've tried >.< and i think making the effort is perhaps the second most important ... after persistence...ok so i guess i'll have to be persistent too....seems like i've made things more complicated than they were *sigh*

sometimes i think, wouldn't it be so good if everything in the world was simple, if everyone in the world had simple minds, and no one was scheming evil plans, no one telling lies, no one making other people sad, what a happy world that would be... human beings are as intelligent a creature as they are stupid, like what einstein said ' only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and i'm not so sure about the former'

my stupid complaints

*sigh* today has been a bit of a dodgy day, and here's why:

1. after our lectures today the weather was really warm, well warm for autumn anyway, the sun was out and all, then the trams at swanston st weren't working so we walked all the way from there to elizabeth st to get the tram. ok, maybe it wasn't that far but it made me feel even hotter by the time i got to the tram stop. the thing is, i was wearing a jumper (stupid me) and i couldn't really take that off...so that really bugged me...

2. i went to get my formal pants shortened at this clothes shop place and the person wasn't there so i have to wait till tomorrow to get it, which by then the infection control prac would be over and i need to wear "professional attire" for that. yes, very dodgy because pretty much all of my clothes don't fall under that category. so i went rummaging through my wardrobe for something suitable to wear, which i have finally found so i'm kinda glad about that. however, i felt kinda outta place and weird when i was trying on that stuff so i'm not quite sure how on earth i'm gonna survive wearing that for the whole entire day tomorrow...

3. i decided to get a start on my dent assignment, which i had already tried but wasn't successful since the dentist i interviewed didn't really have any thoughts about dentistry :S ...anyways, so i decided to call wend's dentist to see if i could make an appointment to interview her....but then i got rejected by the receptionist cos she said the dentist was too busy and etc hence, now i'm starting to stress out about finding a dentist to interview... *sniff*

4. not sure exactly why, but i have a headache now... so i don't feel that great either :'(

anyhows, after letting out all my complaints for the day i feel really stupid for feeling grumpy and down cos they are such miniscule things to feel bad about...hehe so now i'm gonna enjoy what's left of the day :] !!!!

p.s. here's a pic from my phone of a double rainbow i saw on last thursday after it rained :)