WHAT A DAY

It’s now 10.06pm on a Saturday night (April 15, 2006), I’m having yogurt from my fridge and enjoying the relaxing and safe atmosphere of my room as I just got back from an amazing 2 days, inclusive of today. But first let me start with yesterday (Good Friday), for me it was lonely Friday, not cos I planned it that way, just cos it happened that way. In fact, there WAS a plan that had been formulated for Good Friday. But you know how a situation can change in the fraction of a moment or how your feelings change the second you hear a word or a statement? It was like that for me and that’s why my whole day changed from a planned and controlled situation to a messy, wild ride. It all started during exam week (on Tuesday) when Alex suggested we go for lunch and then a movie on Good Friday to celebrate the end of exams and welcome the beginning of our first term break.

On Thursday, after school, Sonia, Yuka and I met up with Shairah, Martha and Suhaida in the city because that was the plan. They skipped class, but we didn’t. Go figure. Anyways, we found out when we met up that the Kuwait guys were with them as well (4 of them: Othman, Khalid, Mohamed and Abdul). They were at Subway when we met up, to cut the less important parts out and try to keep it short, we spent the rest of the day hanging out with them (except Yuka, she left early to buy groceries and get home), I had fun getting to know the Kuwait guys a little better and even learned Arab, somewhere in between I mentioned our plans to watch Scary Movie 4 the next day (Good Friday), little did I know, I’d regret it the next day. So anyways, being the polite person I am, I asked if they’d like to join us, they said to call them the next morning to confirm the time.

Original plan for Good Friday: Go for lunch, watch Scary Movie 4 with Alex, Shairah and all, drop by Vanessa’s BBQ at her place in Spring Hill for dinner before learning how to Salsa for free at night with Martha and Sonia (I didn’t want to, I was trying to be a good sport so I said ‘yes’), go to Fridays (name of a club) for drinks and stay over a Sonia’s place.

GOOD FRIDAY, I spent the whole DAY alone----- had lunch alone, watched 2 movies alone, got followed, ran like hell, didn’t shower, didn’t brush my teeth…... It was messy. Allow me to explain.

On “Lonely” Friday, I woke up before my alarm clock rang (again), at 8.50am. I lazed around for an hour or so on my bed trying to get back to sleep, but couldn’t. Fair enough, we were supposed to meet for lunch at Garden City then watch a movie; by the way, Garden City is where Alex stays. So I called Othman at 11am mainly saying that we should meet in the city and figure out how to go to Garden City together at 12pm. He said okay and so I got ready. I planned on getting the daily bus ticket so I could take a bus back home after the movie and pack clothes and stuff to stay over at Sonia’s so I wouldn’t need to carry a bag full of clothes and wear a skirt(for Salsa) the whole day. I reached the city at 12.07pm. All the major shopping malls were closed and there were less people on the street compared to usual. Even the food shops were closed, except for Mackers and Hungry Jacks and the expensive steak-serving, wine-pouring restaurants. After waiting a while, I gave Othman a call again and this time he tells me Khalid is still asleep and asked if we could change our plans a little (which was actually a lot), asking everyone to come to the city for lunch including Alex so he could take us to Garden City. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be pointless then to go to Garden City just for the movie?” So I told him I’d call him back and then called Alex to check with him. Alex then told me that he’d just have lunch at home then meet us for the movie when we got there and told me Yuka and Che Wan (Yuka’s boyfriend) might be coming and told me to call her. So I tried but she didn’t pick up. So I thought, “Forget it.” I called Othman back, he asked who was going for lunch, I told him it’d only be the 4 of them and me, cos Alex said he stays near Garden City and wouldn’t want to come down to the city and Shairah called me that morning telling me she wouldn’t join us for lunch and I couldn’t get Martha whom I think was still sleeping when I tried calling her and Sonia told me over drinks the previous night that she wouldn’t be joining us for lunch or the movie. At that time I could hear hesitation in his voice. And I had a feeling he would decide (for all of them) not to come. And so I was right, he said that he DIDN’T THINK they’d be joining us. Aha!!! Then I asked jokingly, “so what am I supposed to do? I’m already in the city!” Othman laughed and told me to get lunch at the Myer Centre Food Court then give them a call after and they’d meet me and we’d figure out how to go to Garden City. I was on Queen Street then and so I walked while I talked on the phone, and when I saw the food courts were locked, I told Othman. He directed me to Edward Street (actually I had a map), and said there were restaurants open there. He told me to get lunch and have it at their place (I had no idea where their apartment was and I still don’t know where it is) and hang out till it was time to go for the movie. I then said OK and hung up.

OKAY, so I evaluated the situation- I’m going to have lunch. I have the choice of eating alone or getting take away then calling Othman again and having to look for their place. No way, too lazy to go hunting for an address or a street. Do I even want to eat at their place? I don’t even know them all that well. I’m not gonna put myself in a potentially dangerous or uncomfortable situation. And even if they were nice guys, I wouldn’t want to intrude. I don’t like it when my privacy is disturbed and I’m sure they wouldn’t like it either, they barely know me as well. And if I do eat alone, what would I do afterwards?

So I had all these thoughts in my head, contemplating the possibilities and what kinds of decisions I should make while I found a Kebab shop on Edward Street like Othman said. I paid for a doner and sat down at a table in the corner. I chowed down while taking notice that I wasn’t the only one having lunch alone, there were these 2 other guys that were also eating alone and sitting at a table alone. The shop owner, this old guy who served me earlier kept glancing over from time to time, I could see him think, “I wonder why she’s alone. Poor girl.” That’s what I thought about myself too, initially. But as the day progressed, I actually learned to enjoyed my alone time. Back to lunch, as I ate I saw an old couple walk in hand in hand, it’s so heartwarming to see a couple still together at such an old age and still so close and loving. It was really sweet; I’ve seen a few old couples before, walking down Queen Street holding hands as well, it’s the cutest thing. So, during lunch I looked around and watched people and their interactions with one another, the thing is that when you’re alone, you tend to notice and spot more things compared to when you’re with a group of friends. So after lunch, I went back to the counter and ordered a cappuccino to pass time. As I sat back down, I tried to take my coffee slowly and all the while got continuous glances from other patrons coming in for a meal, I bet they were thinking the same thing as the shop owner. I finished my coffee faster than usual and left the shop, I was tired of the staring and wondering.

I walked around aimlessly for a while, meditating: “What should I do now?” I looked at my watch; it was 1pm. Argh… time moves like a snail when you’re not having fun. There were still another 2 and a half hours till it was time to meet at Garden City for Scary Movie 4. Somehow my feet walked me pass Hoyt’s cinema in the middle of Queen Street. And I wandered in to take a peek at the movie timetable. Oooh… Inside Man at 1.10pm. I was just on time! I looked at the duration, it was 2hrs 09mins. I thought to myself, if I watch this movie, it should end at about 3.15pm, just in time to take a bus to Garden City for Scary Movie 4! This was perfect timing! This was a plan… So I bought a ticket, student price $10.80. It was weird saying, “One ticket for Inside Man please.” I must admit this is the first time I’ve seen a movie alone and in a foreign country. Guess there’s a first time for everything! I picked a seat (another different thing about Aus and Mas: it’s free seating in the cinemas here, for the good seats, it’s finders keepers, losers weepers) just in time for the advertisements to start. When the movie finally started, I strained to look at my watch in the dark, it was 1.20pm. Hmm… I wondered if the timing was so perfect after all… But too late, if it didn’t work out, then I’d deal with it after the movie. 10mins before the end of the movie, when they’re explaining what was stolen from the bank and why, I spot a slit of light flashing on and off through the holes in the zipper of my pouch on my lap. I pick up the phone; Shairah’s on the other line asking me where I was, in a squeaky high-pitched voice. I whisper that I’m watching movie and it’s towards the end. I told here I’d call her back after the movie. After I hung up, I saw that there were several missed calls from Shairah and felt guilty for not giving her a proper explanation. I then shifted my attention to my watch; ooh… it was 3.20pm. I doubted the possibility of me joining them for Scary Movie 4.

After the movie, I checked the movie schedule again and saw that scary movie was at 3.50pm. I then decided to watch it since they would all have seen it by the end of the day and that would leave no one to watch it with me. I called Shairah back while waiting in line to get yet another movie ticket. They were already in the cinema at Garden City and I told them that I couldn’t join them (obviously). When it was my turn, I asked for a ticket but the lady told me that it was at the branch in the Myer Centre. Because the Myer Centre was closed that day, there was a specific entrance that led only to the cinema. I had to find that entrance before 3.50pm. As I went on my way, I suddenly decided to try out the IMAX theatre at Southbank as the tickets there would be much cheaper and I also felt guilty wasting so much money on going to the cinema, $10.80 is approximately RM30, oh my God. I walked for 10mins to Southbank only to find that all the Scary Movie 4 afternoon shows were sold out, the available times were only at 8.30pm and 10.50pm. CRAP! I walked back to Queen Street in search for the entrance to Hoyt’s at the Myer Centre. By the time I had found it, it was already 4.05pm. I wasn’t about to pay for a movie at the price of $10.80 after missing the first 15mins. So I bought a ticket for Scary Movie 4 at 5.45pm. You must think I was crazy to do that for many reasons. But my day was already messed up, nothing went as planned and so I needed movies to cheer me up. So what would I do with all the time in between? I called Nadira to verify the time of Van’s BBQ. Nad told me that Van would be coming to the city to meet up with her friends and take them to her place at 5.30pm. Nad told me to meet Van so I wouldn’t have to find her place myself even though I’d been there before, but I told her I had already bought tickets to watch a movie so that was a no-go. I told her I’d give her a call after the movie for instructions if I couldn’t remember how to get there. Then I walked around and bought a soft serve ice-cream from Hungry Jacks for $0.30 (cheapest ice-cream around and the only thing that when its price converted to Ringgit is cheaper than Malaysia’s: RM1) and walked to the previous Hoyt’s cinema where I watched Inside Man to check the duration of Scary Movie 4 because I forgot to do so when I bought the tickets and wondered if I could make it to Van’s BBQ. I then sat at the many tables in the hall leading up to the ticket counter, finishing my ice-cream. I received a message from Phaedra asking if I wanted to join her, her boyfriend, Jess, Jonathan and Shannon’s cousin to Harbour Town the next day for shopping cos there was a SALE!!! I called her and told her “yes”. After, I took my Ipod out and watched an episode of Family Guy that Has put in my Ipod before I left. Thanks Has! In such situations, the only friend you have is your Ipod, trust me. But then again, only a person like me would do such things as hang out alone for a whole day and watch 2 movies alone just because some people planned something and I was the only one who followed it. But I don’t blame anyone, it’s situations like these that you can’t get angry and blame it on someone cos it’s nobody’s fault but your own. I was too punctual? No, I was too… I don’t know. I guess I was slightly pissed but didn’t know at whom. It’s just like last time in KK, badminton Sundays; I used to be punctual but ended up waiting half an hour. So I’ll take it as a lesson. You learn from experiences like these.

At 5.15pm, I felt like having a drink so I sat at one of the open-air restaurants in the middle of Queen Street just outside Hoyt’s. It was hard getting the waiter’s attention, after a while, a waitress came over and I asked for a Toohey’s New and she told me that on that day I could only get a drink if I ordered food. “Forget it,” I said to myself. I thanked her, got up, and left. I decided it was time to go to the cinema 20mins before show time, get a good seat. So when I get to the top floor of the Myer Centre where the cinema is, guess who I bump into. It’s the “other” group: Yuka, Che Wan, Alan, Suhaida and Kannan. Let me explain what I mean by the “other” group. In foundation, somehow there’s a distinct division of the Asian students. I think it has something to do with the difference in interests, attitude and understanding. There’s our group: Shairah, Alex, Martha, Jonathan, Sherman and I. Then there’s their group: Yuka (Japanese girl educated American style, so she has an American accent, outgoing and puts on make-up everyday, non-smoker, student body president by consensus), Che Wan (her boyfriend, Taiwanese but family moved to Japan when he was young and has lived in Japan all his life, so they sometimes communicate in Japanese, which is cool, it’s like us Malaysians talking in Malay when we don’t want other people to understand), Alan (I profiled him last time), Suhaida (I think I profiled her last time too but neglected mentioning her attitude, Shairah doesn’t really find her amusing cos Sue, as we call her, always wants to be the centre of attention and has an I-want-it-this-way attitude), Kannan (profiled him last time too). Kannan is the only one that I feel I can speak to honestly. The rest, I like and all but sad to say, I don’t take them seriously. Sonia however, is caught somewhere in the middle, but I’d say she belongs with us. She’s funny. Anyways, back to what I was saying, I got off the escalator and they called me from far, apparently they just finished watching Scary Movie 4, which meant that if I hadn’t walked to Southbank (which was a silly idea, cos logically most people would definitely go there to watch movies cos it’s so much cheaper and I shouldn’t have expected to even get tickets cos they would’ve already been sold out compared to the more expensive cinemas in the city), I would’ve most likely bumped into them and end up watching the movie with them, which would have been better than watching it alone I guess. So they asked me the obvious, “Where’s Alex and Shairah?” When I told them I was alone, they looked surprised and had a look of pity on their faces, pity for me… Right… So I had to explain briefly what had caused my solitude. They were trying to be as nice as possible, guess they pitied me, they said I should’ve called them and I told them I did try to call Yuka, but she said she didn’t get a call from me (later that evening she called me to tell me that she HAD received a call from me, apparently). They were also really kind, saying that I could call them after the movie and they’d still be in the area and that I could have dinner with them. I thanked them but told them I had a BBQ to go to afterwards. They still insisted I call after the movie so I said okay. After that awkward moment, I entered cinema 8 to pick a seat. There were mostly couples inside, but after a while, an Aussie guy came in alone, I’d say he was maybe 2 to 3 years older than me. He sat a seat away from me to my left. He was the only other “loner”.

I had loads of laughs and after the movie, it was time for dinner. I walked in the direction I thought was Van’s house but soon came to find that I didn’t recognize any of the buildings and the road wasn’t the least bit familiar so I called Nad and she gave me hazy directions. I asked for the name of the street and Van told Nad who told me it was at St Paul’s Street. I was going the opposite direction so I turned back and started from the exit of the Myer Centre once again. I took out my map and began to navigate while walking. One thing about maps is that it sort of gives away the fact that you don’t know where you’re going or where you are, which kind of makes you an easy target. Anyways, I checked the map as subtly as possible from time to time to make sure I was going the right direction. At one of the junctions of a traffic light, I noticed the guy from the cinema (who sat a seat away from me), pass by in front of me and was walking in the direction of my right. When the “green man” went on, I crossed the road and walked straight. This would mean that our paths CROSSED forming a “T” shape. Call me paranoid but when I got to the next junction which was the Central Station Junction (the only junction where pedestrians could cross both diagonally and horizontally/vertically), I was surprised to find him standing right next to me waiting to cross the road as well. I was suspicious so I looked at him long and hard while he stared at the floor. When the “red man” turned green, I crossed straight but he crossed diagonally, positioning himself across the street to my left. Both the streets we treaded on were parallel to each other’s. I kept my guard up and kept glancing back to see where he was, he always walked behind me. Then again, I could be paranoid but how could he NOT be following me? My assumption was based on where I saw him before, crossing my path and going in a completely different direction from mine and then still appearing beside me at MY next junction. Was I wrong? I trusted my gut and was sure he WAS following me. At this point, I couldn’t stop to check the map cos I was worried if I stopped I’d be in danger; second, the streets were dark and pretty much deserted, not a soul in sight. So I basically had no idea where I was headed and if I was even walking in the right direction. I thought to myself, this is really creepy! But somehow I didn’t feel scared as I walked calmly but at a constant and swift pace straight ahead. I glanced back from time to time making sure he was still across the street and he was. Again, call me paranoid but when I walked slightly faster, I’m pretty sure he did the same. I panicked slightly and called Nad, “Nad! Some weirdo is following me,” I said. “Are you sure?” she asked. I told her he’d followed me from the cinema. She said, “Okay, okay, I’m coming!” sounding worried, which gave me reason to worry. She asked where I was and I described the best I could. The streets at this point were TOTALLY EMPTY and dark. “This sucks” I thought to myself. I decided to run till I reached a busier street so I did. From this point, I didn’t look back, it was an uphill run and by the time I reached the top of the hill I was puffing hard. I looked back, the guy was no where to be seen. Hopefully my running threw him off and he was lazy to follow me any longer. I stayed close to the busy roads with significant traffic and followed them wherever they took me. I soon got to a familiar junction where I could see SSS BBQ (a steak restaurant). I had a feeling I was actually in the right area- Spring Hill. I called Nad while looking around to confirm that the guy or any other guy for that matter, was following me. I told her where I was and she said to walk further up and wait for her at Woolies. So I did, it was no surprise that Woolies was closed, after all it was past 7.30pm on a Good Friday. I cooled down and began to sweat from all the running up the dark streets. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated that much in Brisbane, except for when I went to the gym 2 weeks ago. I waited no longer than 5mins when I saw Nad, Raimi and Sisco (Van’s room-mate, the only guy in the apartment) come up the road, a wave of relief calmed my nerves and I felt secure, finally. I thanked God immediately for keeping me safe and followed them back to their place. I asked Raimi where Shairah was and he told me, “missing”. I had a feeling she wouldn’t come, I guessed that she was mad at me for not telling her earlier about not joining them for the movie.

Let me elucidate something before I continue the “story”. Earlier in the week (exam week), I had been told by Shannon through sms that his cousin would be coming over to Brisbane and so if I needed anything or if I forgot to bring he could pass it to his cousin and his cousin would contact me and pass me the stuff. So I told my mom what Shannon had told me and so she passed my drum manuscript (the only thing I asked for) to Shannon so he could pass it to his cousin. Later in the week, mom told me that she had also passed a sum of money to Shan’s cousin for my Gold Coast trip during Easter break. To be honest, I was quite surprised that mom would pass that much money to a stranger (I’d never met Shan’s cousin, nor did my mom). But I guess it was cos she knew Shannon and so trusted his cousin as well. His cousin arrived here on Monday and I got worried after my mom asked me if he had contacted me yet (answer was no). So by Thursday (last day of exams), I messaged Shannon asking him for his cousin’s Aussie or Malaysian contact number. He didn’t reply me. So I tried to be patient. I was just worried that his cousin would forget, plus he WAS holding a lot of money. When mom called one night, I asked her how long Shan’s cousin would be here and she told me he’d leave at the beginning of May. So I figured maybe he was busy having fun and since he’d be leaving in May there was no rush. I can’t recall exactly when, but I think it was a day after I messaged Shannon, his cousin finally contacted me through sms. I guessed that Shannon must have told his cousin to contact me. Thing was that the way his cousin sms-ed, I noticed, was extremely similar to Shannon’s style. Shannon would usually asked questions with 2 question marks and the tone in which his cousin wrote was very analogous as well. I also felt like I knew him (the cousin), it’s like we’d been friends for years. But I didn’t say anything to him (the cousin), if I did he might think that I was weird. After telling Phaedra “yes” to Harbour Town, I got another sms from Shan’s cousin asking if I was going and I told him I was. And with that said, I can continue my “Good Friday” anecdote.

When I got to the BBQ, I was still slightly disorientated from the “stalker” incident. Even so, I was hungry and went straight to the table of BBQ-ed meat lying in foil after acknowledging and thanking Vanessa for inviting me (of course). As I made my way to the table, I spotted Jessica (Shan’s girlfriend) and Cheryl (Tshung Tsin student, one year older than I, classmate of Lay San, Kak and Wan Sim), 2 of the few people I knew. I said “hi” and helped myself to a piece of steak with a plastic fork and paper plates. Nad kept me company sitting beside me on a ledge overlooking the whole BBQ area (which was not THAT big cos at a glance you could see everything and everyone). I was so caught up in trying to eat my steak when suddenly Shannon walked up and stood in front of me. Holy CRAP! I was lost for words. When one of your best friends pops up out of nowhere, you’d have the same reaction, trust me. I was already shaken from the “stalker” episode and now THIS! My feelings alternated from shock (from seeing him) to anger (for lying to me) and then to joy (cos he was here). Gees. I recall not saying anything to him when he stood there. I was really surprised. Then when my brain popped back in my head and I was functioning again, I smiled and I think said, “what are you doing here?”. It was funny, I really didn’t know what to say. We talked for a while and he explained how he surprised Jess by suddenly appearing on her doorstep and therefore made her cry. After talking for a while, he told me they were off to surprise Melissa (Jensen’s girlfriend). So I said bye and that I’d see them the next day.

I ate and chatted with Raimi about our upcoming trip to Gold Coast and then talked to Cheryl and Nadira. After dinner, we moved to their apartment. Let me paint you a picture. The apartments are really nice, cost:$390 a week, in Vanessa’s case, it’s divided in 2, 1 share is Sisco’s and the other is hers and Amy’s because they share a room. There’s a salt water pool with depth of 2meters right outside their door for all tenants. Just opposite the pool and the door of their apartment is the BBQ area. So, we moved from the BBQ area to their apartment. They invited these Hongky girls to their BBQ and they were really noisy which was bad because previously they had already got 2 warnings from the landlord for “disturbing the peace”. So they asked the Hongkies to play their drinking game in the apartment instead of outside. Amy (from Seri Insan like Van, Sisco and Nad. Smoker) sat outside smoking with Sisco, Van (non-smoker), Nad, Kim (Sisco’s Aussie classmate, smoker), Cheryl and I. Besides us, there was this girl from Tshung Tsin whom I recognized and also another that was in Tshung Tsin for 2 years then switched schools to Seri Insan. So the 9 of us hung out on the verandah drinking CUT and Rum and Coke, some of them smoked. It was funny cos it was like they (Amy, Van and Sisco) were kicked out of their apartment while the Hongky girls and soon many Hongky guys (whom they said they didn’t know and never met) came too. We talked and talked and laughed till it was 11pm, Van’s funny when she’s tipsy. Nad asked me how I planned on getting back, I said, “I don’t know”. She said I could crash at her place since Daniel (her boyfriend) was back in KK for the break and Vinnie (the guy who sent me home last time) was never at home. I asked if she had contact solution and she said it wasn’t a problem. Great, so with that settled we continued talking, drinking and breathing in 2nd hand smoke. At 12.30am, after most of the Hongkies left (leaving only 3 left), we micro waved the leftovers from the BBQ cos we were hungry and played basketball in their apartment (they had this little hoop on the wall and 2 little basketballs). It was fun. After that I played on Van’s electronic drum set for a while and at 1.20am Nad and I decided it was time to sleep. We (Cheryl and I) were supposed to meet at Central Station the next morning, or should I say that morning at 9.30am for the Harbour Town trip so we both followed Nad up to Daniel’s apartment and without taking a shower or brushing our teeth we slept. Cheryl shared the bed with Nad and I took the floor, I called for the floor actually, cos I had been walking around and sweating the whole day. Nad put down blankets on top of blankets on the floor for me and then gave me a blanket and a huge pillow. I took off my contacts=blind, set Nad’s alarm clock for 7am and went to bed. I was so tired but couldn’t sleep straight away. We talked in the dark and soon fell asleep. I’m a very fastidious person so I think the main reason why I couldn’t fall asleep even though I was dead tired and was so comfortable was cos I didn’t take a shower. But I got over it and fell asleep. Then at around 3am, I think, I was awoken by light coming from outside Nad’s door (the door wasn’t closed) and heard the voices of Van, and I think Sisco and the 2 other girls from KK. I fell back asleep after a while and was awoken again when Van came in obviously drunk, and said goodnight and goodbye to both Cheryl and I before they left. I went back to sleep and woke when the alarm clock rang the next morning, I mean that morning. I got up straight away. Cheryl woke up soon after I finished using the bathroom. We thanked Nad and left. Our plan (formulated the night before), was to wake at 7am, take the 333 bus back to Kelvin Grove and Herston (where Cheryl stayed) respectively, take a shower, have breakfast then meet at Central Station around 9.30am. And we did just that.

When I got home, Djenta and Ali were sitting at the dining table having breakfast, which goes to show how the previous day was so messed up for me. But it was a lot of fun. They must think I’m some kind of party girl. Whatever, they’re leaving soon anyways. I took a nice hot shower, it was so nice to feel clean again. I had breakfast after they vacated the dining table and crawled back into their room (as usual). I finished breakfast at 9.20am and went to wait for a bus at the stop opposite my place. The timetable wrote that the next bus passing by the city would arrive at 9.36am. Buses as usual are always late, and so was this one. At 9.47am, I reached the city and walked to Central Station. I knew I wasn’t late cos Cheryl sms-ed me saying they’d be late. I sat at the benches in Central Station waiting for the rest to arrive. Cheryl got there at 10.06am and we waited till 10.30am when the rest (Shannon, Jess and Jonathan) came. They said Jian Bing (Phaedra’s boyfriend) was taking a shower and he’d take half an hour so we weren’t waiting for them (him, Phaedra and this other guy). So we departed, cost of train ticket for 12zones: $11 something. Good thing about Aus is that a train ticket=a bus ticket= a CityCat ticket.

Half an hour’s train ride then a 7min bus ride to Harbour Town. We had lunch at the only Kebab restaurant there and tried Turkish Delight (gross, too sweet), we all choked. Then Phaedra, Jian Bing and the other guy met us for lunch. By the time they came we had already finished lunch so we started shopping without them. There were plenty of branded stores and stuff was cheap. The most expensive thing I bought was $20 only. If you’re an Australian, then that’s Dang cheap. The cheapest thing I bought was $5. I finally bought a basketball (Nike, $10, in my favourite colours-red and black)so I can play at the half-court just outside my place. Total money spent that day: $109 inclusive of train ticket but not inclusive of food. Not bad, I think… Don’t know bout my parents though. Haha… It was great. It was cool being able to talk to Shannon again after such a long time.

Harbour town was great, Good Friday was great, everything is fine. I think I did well for my mid-sem exams. We’ll see.

Next on my calendar- Gold Coast trip (thanks a lot for the pocket money mom and dad!!! Love you guys!). I know it’ll be good fun. I asked Shannon if he and Jess wanted to come cos it’d be great to split the cost further plus Jonathan is coming anyways, but he said they won’t be joining us. Bummer. But he’ll contact me when they go to Dreamworld so I can join them. Yipee…

But during these holidays I should be researching for my TPS essay on reasons for low Aussie birthrate and for Economics1 on Import Industries in Aus (partner: Shairah, we picked the food industry). I should also be e-mailing my Communication1 teacher, Helen Manchon (love her, she’s so cool) on my draft for my Reflective Journal 2 on how I felt I did on my mid-term paper for Comm. I’ll get to that soon.

Today’s Monday. Gold Coast trip is a 2 night, 3 day trip from Wednesday to Friday. O.C. returns tomorrow night. Yipee. And tonight’s the 2nd part of The Ten Commandments movie as an Easter Special programme. Last night I cycled to Dominos opposite Coles in Newmarket at 6.10pm and got back at 7.05pm. Mainly cos I spent a lot of time waiting for the pizza to be ready, Dominos had order after order both on the phone and by customers coming in to collect, like me. It’s like working out just before dinner. Good exercise to get my calf muscles back in shape. But thing about cycling that I found out is that if you cycle too much your ass starts to hurt like after horse-back riding, which I’ve never done, but I’ve been told.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading and thanks for caring.