Fancy Lunch & Campus Revisit

Next week marks two months at work, and it's going alright so far. Life since I touched down from Adelaide has been full of surprises, to say the very least. One of those surprises came in the form of an ear-splittingly noisy ball of fur, pictured above. We've named her Eevee, and she's the newest addition to the family. It took us ages to settle with a name for her - at first we wanted something flowery because of the distinct flower pattern she's got on her back. Anyway, she keeps everybody on our toes, mostly because she won't shut up most of the time. @__@

With work taking up five days of my week, the weekends have become a vital two days for relaxing and doing lazy things like sitting in front of the laptop. I've been climbing a lot with Nick and Hanna, and Mira joined us for a session yesterday. Feels good to climb though I wish it was cheaper. So I usually take Saturday to climb and Sunday to spend time with the family.

This Sunday was different though. I haven't seen Sha and Fyra in a while, and we decided to have a super fancy lunch date. Sha made the reservation under Smithy Bob, hehe. Nick suggested eating at D'Italiane Kitchen at Jaya33, so that's where we went. It was a really nice place and the food was expensive. Everything was really delicious though, and worth the money. I'll be writing about our experience there soon, so I'll update this blog post with a link when it's published. 

After lunch ended, we headed off to meet Jov - the last I saw her was in early January while Nick and the girls haven't seen her at all since they got back. So what better place for the Taylor's gang to catch up than at Taylor's itself? We shamelessly strutted onto campus and grabbed some chairs to sit while facing the wind breezing through the academic blocks. Before that we were hanging out at the empty food court while drinking Chatime.

It was really nice catching up with everybody - I miss all our hang outs and how I used to see these wonderful people every day. Hoping very much that we'll still get the chance to meet up at least every once in a while, what with everybody's busy schedules. It's a shame we can't all see each other more often. Jov said that there are ducklings on campus now but I didn't see any! Oh well. Hard to believe that so much time has passed since we were studying at Taylor's, especially since campus hasn't really changed that much. 

Two Years

More than a week ago was the 2nd of December, marking mine and Nick's second anniversary together. What can I say? He's one of my best friends, and he makes me laugh all the time. We were friends for almost a year before we got together, and he knows me so well. I can be myself around him, and despite all my lame jokes and antics, he still layan me (after shooting me with the Nerf gun for my lameness though).

Getting the chance to study here in Adelaide together has been an amazing time, and I'm happy he's here with me, keeping me sane and grounded, looking after me when I'm down. The best part is always having someone willing to go on adventures with me, and we've done all kinds of stuff here, from travelling around Kangaroo Island to looking out for platypuses in Aldgate. 

We decided to visit someplace new for December the 2nd, so we chose Hallett Cove Beach. We initially wanted to go to Marino Rocks, but Fyra suggested Hallett Cove instead. So we prepared a sort of picnic lunch and took the train from Adelaide to Hallett Cove.

This mural was at the underground tunnel at the train station. It was so pretty, I couldn't help but take a picture. The walk from the train station to the beach took about five minutes, and the view was gorgeous!

We took a bench facing the ocean. There were quite a few people around as well, also having picnics. We could see people walking around on the beach below with their dogs. The dogs seemed really happy, some of them rolling around in the shallow water and chasing after gulls.

We had a pretty simple picnic. I made some potato salad with minced beef, while Nick baked a bunch of stuff like shrimp toasts and spring rolls and wrapped it up in foil to keep it warm. We even had some cheese twists and dip. It was a satisfying lunch, very peaceful. It was very windy there though, what with the breeze blowing in from the sea.

This is Ezno, a friend we made while we were there. His owner was walking him down the path in front of us, and he stopped and turned around to put his head on Nick's lap. He was really friendly, he started moving around between the both of us, trying to get more attention. He was a big boy too, and his fur was soft. Strangely camera-shy though; when I tried to take a picture, he wouldn't sit still.

Once lunch was done with, we packed our stuff and climbed down the steps to the beach. It's a nice place, and the rocks were in all kinds of colours, all sanded down reds, browns, greys and blues. There was a walking trail going up the hill in the picture above, apparently part of the Hallett Cove Conservation Park or something like that. Too bad we didn't have the time to check it out.

Check out those rocks! Beautiful beach. We spent a while just walking around the beach and taking pictures before going back up. While resting on one of the benches, Ezno and his owner came back, having made a round of the beach. He seemed happy to see us again, haha! His owner was really friendly too, we talked for a bit before we had to go to catch the train back to the city.

Back in the city, we had dinner together at Kishi Sushi, a little sushi bar on Rundle Street. Sundays are their promotion days, with all their sushi train plates going for $3, so we decided to make full use of it. I had a pretty satisfying dinner, and definitely a wonderful day. 

To Nick:

I had an amazing time, and really, discovering new places with you is one of the highlights of our time here in Adelaide. Here's to even more adventures together in the future. <3 nbsp="nbsp">

Homecoming

The past two weeks have really been something.

Last week Atuk went for an angiogram which went well, Alhamduilllah. He says that he's not as easily tired as he once was so that's awesome. I love you Atuk. :)

And then a couple of days ago Spyro broke his tail so we had to send him for surgey. Poor baby lost two inches of his beautiful tail. Here he is with his new pretty satellite dish collar. He's fine now, albeit a little groggy and weak from a jab the vet gave him.

I have three days left to the holidays.

I think I'm just going to take it easy. No epic war-on-boredom plans, no deliberate jumps into activity. If things happen, they'll happen. I have to teach myself to accept that not everything we plan will come through ... sometimes Allah has a different plan for us. :)

Semaine deux

I think it's time for a holiday update!

And blurry cat photo is blurry. Very aware if that.

Week One of holidays was ... actually sort of depressing. But emoboy tendencies aside, I got to watch A-Team and eat durian mochi, which by itself chases most troubles away. I also got to eat real durian, which also chases most troubles away. Except for bad breath, but hey that's what breathmints are for.

Week Two is so far miles better than Week One. It's been interesting. :)

So yeah, things I planned to do at the beginning of these hols:

1) Paint shoes

2) Make DIY kit

3) Get a part-time job

4) Put together Book of Motivation

5) Read books

6) Short film

7) Sleepover

8) Morning swims

9) Sky Trex

10) Paintball

11) Rock-climbing

12) Draw portraits

13) Picnic

14) Learn at least one guitar song

15) Make at least one piano cover

16) Shoot zombies

That's all I've got so far. Must get my butt into gear.

Battle cry

You want a fight then?
Well bring it on! We know who's in the right! We know who was first in the game!
Last one in is a rotten egg.

I declare we charge into battle. Ready your weapons.
You asked for it.

Sneaky ninja

So today was interesting.
Got an inspirational talk in the morning.
Round two of ... CRR practice after that.
Had CCS tutorial ...
Spaghetti for lunch thanks to Fyra. :)
A very eventful EC tutorial.
Saw some sneaky ninja action.
Performed some not so sneaky running across a roof (!).
Got stuck.
Parkour!Fail.

Got home and ... I honestly don't know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. What's the right thing to do? Do I do what I want to do or what I should do so that other people don't feel bad?

I'm having issues with being myself at the moment.

Why is the world so damn ambiguous?

Long short week

This little guy has replaced Russel on the dashboard of my car.
Mira gave him to me for my birthday. :)
Sammie has named him Tigermouse.
He dances sometimes. Other times it's like he hates me or something. Ah well.
To Russel, the very first ... ornament I ever got for my car (The Mouse).
RIP Russel. You were a pretty lame flower who didn't dance quite enough.
But you were my first. Ilu 4eva bby <3

Went exploring when it was raining heavily at Lakeside the other day.
Found some cows!
How exciting. The novelty wears off the moment I catch a whiff of the manure though. Urgh.

So, been at Lakeside for a week now.
Can't say I'm ecstatic ... there is so much improvement needed.
They say that it's all coming, so I'm waiting and I'm hoping. Give them a chance for a bit longer.
(Parking and jam and cafeteria crowd and blargh.)

Flood in the library on the same rainy day.
A pipe burst and water started pouring everywhere. Every time the cap got replaced, it would burst back open a while later. Happened three times while I was there. I loved people's reactions to it though. One guy ran over and fixed the cap once. Another guy saw the commotion and started calling to his friend, "Take my camera take my camera!" It was so funny.

Have some pictures of Zed and Spyro.
Just because.

:)

Peach wants to bite you

This post is dedicated to a fish.
His name was Peach and he liked to bite people.

Three and a half years ago, Mira found him in a pet shop.
She decided that she wanted him because of his sexy eyes.
So much for that.
I decided that they were evil eyes. He would watch you while you were in the same room with him. And he moved the pebbles around his tank to create a wall so that he could hide behind it and spy on you.

One day, his tank cracked and he was moved into the fish tank in my room. My goldfish were transferred to the big aquarium downstairs. I was a little iffy about him at first. (he was a weird fish). But as time went on you just ... get attached, you know?

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I can see him staring at me through the bookshelf, directly opposite my bed. That was his way of trying to send me telepathic messages along the lines of "FEED ME DAMN IT I AM HUNGRY."

Three days ago, he stopped asking me to do that.
He stopped asking me to feed him.
I even managed to stuff a piece into his mouth. He spat it back out.

Peach died today.

He was the craziest fish I had ever known.
He's bitten me a lot. My fingers bleed because of him.
Other people have also gotten bitten by him.
He splashed all the books I keep next to his tank because he tried to get my attention.
He tried to jump out of the bucket while I clean his tank.
I used to be paranoid about him committing suicide.

I know, fishes are ... pretty boring.
But Peach wasn't. He was entertaining.
I miss him already.

The room is so quiet without the sound of his tank filter.

Jingle ball

Today, visited the pet shop at OU.
There was a pair of bored looking Persian cats in a cage.
I poked my fingers at one, and s/he kept nibbling at me.

Hanna found a little toy ball with a bell in it.
She showed it to them and WHOA. They were suddenly so alive!
Running around the cage, following the jingly ball.
So we sneakily lifted the cage door and dropped the ball in ...
While the workers weren't looking.
They were so happy, chasing after the ball and bouncing around the cage.

I hope we made their day more interesting. :)

Ps.
Watched How to Train Your Dragon with Nad yesterday.
It was pleasantly surprised!
I love Toothless. Like a giant flying kitten. Aww.

Fuzz

Dear everyone.

I give you great pleasure in introducing the officially named
Agent Exzed Kipling.

I like to call him Zed for short. :)
The conflict over what to name him was solved by simply joining all the different names together. Haha he even breaks Scout's old record. Scout had three different names (Scout, Unyil, Chedet) but Zed has one super long one.

Isn't he adorable? Such a cuddly little baby. <3>

Plus one

Meet our new baby. :D
Still unnamed so far.
Everybody's fighting over what to name him so we're gonna give it a few days.

Basically what happened was that Mama went to visit her friend, Beverly. When she got to Beverly's house, she said that she had found a half-dead kitten on her porch so Mama took it to the vet. It was barely moving and the vet said that it was anemic, had worms and a fractured leg. So we left it there for a week.

Fetched it today and he's as good as new, albeit with a limp. Running all over the place like a puffball on legs. <3 Alhamdulillah he's healthy.

Now all we need is a name.

To moogie

Mowgli-googly bear darling,
How were we supposed to know that our time together would be so short?
Time together is just never quite enough.
Thank you for being there for us after Scout said goodbye.
Thank you for the healing.
I'm sorry you had to go so soon.
We miss you already, baby.

Here's to the original Party Cat (Meow-Meow).
I hope you're partying it hard in catheaven.

We love you.
:(

New cat

New cat, Mowgli. :)
Thought he was a girl at first but then realised that he's ... not. Heh.
Been hanging around the house for a while but walked in a few days ago. So we've taken him in. Krash is quite cool with him so it's all good.

Awww lookit his manja face.

Triceratopsy rainbows

First things first, sorry for lack of updates.
My blogging mojo fizzled out after Raya. Busybusybusy.

So.

Had the annual open house this year and had this crazy idea of inviting EVERYBODY.
Usually I only ever invite the Fresbians over, which is like 5. Haha.
So yea it was crazy hectic running around the place.

The first two people to arriiiive. Sofia and Aidil.
We actually sang the school song together. Crazy stuff, haha. Sofia recorded it but she hasn't uploaded it yet. *nudgenudge*

More school people! Yay!
Hamizah, Laksh, Shinna and me.
I didn't get a pic with Hannah though. Dang. :(

The girls. Lovelovelove.

The dudes.
Mystery of strange weight on my head during the shoot revealed. :|

Everyone. :)

College people came too but pics are all with the photogs. Have no idea when the pics will pop up but when they do, I'm editing this post!
Everyone came up to my room and Carmen made Joe harass Peach the Biting Fish. Nobody noticed the sign I stuck on the tank reading: "WARNING: Biting Fish Approach With Caution." But then I did write it pretty small. Haha.
Ah well.

Yeah I'll admit I didn't take pictures.
So yes I am stealing from random people's cameras.
Thanks to Hamizah for the photos and Sammie for taking our group shots!

Bekas wira dan wirawati.
*is shot*
Nigel, Hamizah, Yen, me, Marc and Tem Mee.
Hmm just realised that all the different companies are represented here.
Hahaha. Not everybody could make it, but this was the best reunion we've had since that first one five days after camp ended. The biggest one anyway. Back when the boys were bald and everyone had a tan.

We watched some YouTube vids on the lappy because I was transferring some NS pics from Yenny's thumbdrive. Single Ladies featuring Justin Timberlake, parkour in The Office, Superman in college and some Japanese laughing show. Hilarious stuff.

Tem Mee went back at this point so she missed out on the jump shots and stupid poses. :(

Failed jump shot. Marc is headless. xD

I want to laugh every time I see this pic.
Every time.

Nigel tried to make friends with Pebbles but she just rolled over and started licking her butt.
...
She has lovely manners.
Nigel: You have nice fur kitty, can I shave it off?
Pebbles: *struts away*

Yen and Marc went back first. :( Here he is with his rempit steering wheel. LOL.
He gave away some mouse keychain that looks like an elephant that was hanging in his car. That was random.

Somebody trying to date all my cats right here. xD
On the way back to the house and we bumped into Molly. She only liked us girls but went to Nigel in the end. So we left them alone.
Molly always was a player-cat though. Should see the boy-cats trailing after her all the time.

This is the EVERYBODY IS AWESOME pic.
Sammie started it, I just helped spread the wildfire.

I blame sugar rush from all the cupcakes.

Anyway, I had an awesome time. Thanks a million and one to everyone who came and I hope you guys enjoyed yourselves.

Full-view if you're feeling lifeless (but AWESOME).

Ps.
EVERYBODY IS AWESOME

Raya rock

Ta-da!
Raya photos!
Did a candid one following the trend from last year. :)

Me and my darling adiks.
(Occasionally darling. Otherwise little terrors.)

Mama and Papa.
:)
A lot of the shots are candid. In a 'Mira clicked the button while people sat on a bench and did silly things' kinda way.

Me and Acu.
Oh and a flower (the name's Ah Flowa). At the side there. We posed with it.
Mira wanted us to love the bench but it was kinda difficult. :|

I'm eating Ah Flowa.

Me, Ah Flowa and Cubby the Camwhore Bunny.

No extra shots with Nazim because he was lazy.
These are just from the photoshoot in the morning, Mira has stacks more.
So. Enjoyed myself this year! Food was excellent, good company and fireworks at night. It was fun. :)