it's 5.15pm and i'm excited

because i'm going to eat beef stroganoff with rice for lunch NOW! it smells sooooo GOOD.

ok i think ppl tt read this are going to be like hurhhh. anticlimax.

more later.

more of the mundane--customs/train/house

yep..after i got down the train..i realized how troublesome it is to be travelling alone. even considerations like going to toilet.. u must think ahh yes i must go now before i collect all my luggage etc etc..cos there's no one to look after ur luggage for u and u can't possibly drag everything into a tiny toilet cubicle.

after going to the toilet, and helping this malaysian lady fill out the customs immigration form because she didn't understand how to fill it.. the queue for customs were like SO LONG. cos all the funny airlines from japan and malaysia and etcetcetc all landed already den huge throngs of ppl were pouring out. anw the wait was worth it cos there was this SO CUTE beagle that was working as a quarantine dog and he would smell those luggages going past. but not everyone got to go past the beagle, prolly only those who didn't declare anything got to go thru the dog. otherwise poor doggy would go berserk sniffing out all the weird food products we had on us. The dog doesn't seem to have a rest so poor thing i hope they don't overwork him.

then i found my way to the air train... and the trains come every half an hour and the next train was going to arrive in 1 min and i was like ahhhhhh. so i rushed to get the ticket and rushed down the escalator (and in the process my duffel bag fell off the big luggage). In the train..almost everyone was like white.. and i felt i stuck out like a sore thumb. and i was the only one with like lotsa luggage. it's kinda like the mrt system.. with more lines..and more confusing. I took a pic of the train map: nevertheless, i found my way to helensvale station! On the way, I wanted to like take fotos of thigns i see outside...but i only saw like meadows and trees and grass.. and trees and more grass..not much difference, and even if i captured it on the camera, it wouldn't be nice:( . i saw a few horses, goats, etc on the way too. this whole place is very country-ish.

yeah so i got to the house, which is like nearly at the doorstep of the movie world entrance lol...i can like just walk dere lah haha. but then the rest of the day was uneventful and lonely because i thought i had no internet and was cut off from the world and was feeling thoroughly miserable in this unfamiliar place..that really ultimate sian feeling that u dun feel like doing anything and u want so badly to be back in the comfort of your own home and ppl that u love being close to u..i really kicked myself then for choosing to come here. even botley and mum were taken aback when they heard me over the phone..cos i was feeling so so low.

and that's when i discovered that i could go online! but then again i might be like sapping up the homeowner's prepaid account or sth like that .i'm hoping against hope that this is some unlimited account.. otherwise i think i'd have to compensate him like crazy. but then again. what amount is ever too much in exchange for my sanity? being alone in an unfamiliar place is really quite intimidating and in a way scary too. especially when night started to fall and the whole house became quite dark.

i'm sharing a room with zj, there just 2 beds in there..the home-owners didn't clear out the wardrobe, so i'm kinda lost as to where to put my clothes..so i just randomly hung them somewhere. the place is quite big, and their kid has soooo many medals and trophies. they have a grand piano too. and lots of buddha statuettes.=x

looking forward to zj's arrival! hope i'll have fun tmr!

on the more mundane--plane

the flight there was like okay.. although i had a lot of thoughts on the way there. for one, i'm sorry to say that but i have concluded i think i love ANA like about 10 times more. for one, i dun think the qantas flight crew were very friendly, and i felt as if they had some sorta racial bias or sth. Sometimes i had to bend down to get sth, and my head kinda sticks out on the aisle, the flight crew just brusquely walk past me and my poor head gets the damage. The ppl around me were not very friendly as well. when i was struggling with some huge cylindrical thing that someone else put on my bag in the baggage carrier, since it was so high and i was obviously not tall enough, there was some guy next to me waiting to take stuff from his bag. He didn't even bother to help, he only pushed it away when it was blocking his bag. super ungentlemanly.

The inflight entertainment wise, ANA was better, and the remotes of qantas were like less user friendly. i took some time to find out how to pause and play the movie..cos it worked different from ANA and there weren't any instructions. the toilet too. i was standing there putting my hand under the tap thinking omg why isn't water coming out then i felt so noobish. in the end i realized u had to press the top and the buttons weren't even obvious at all. =/ the food was nice, some beef curry thingy, i liked the rice. but the menu said spicy vegetables, and what came out was, vegetables. where did the spice go? lol. the dessert was some coconut thing.. it looked dubious but it turned out quite nice. and they had cucumber salad which was like not very nice.

as some ppl might alr know.i freak out taking planes. so yeah i was like trying to not freak out by reading a book that dan gave me called fearless lol. so it took off and everything was like ok for a while.. and the seatbelt sign went off and all. all of a sudden..the plane went into violent turbulence and lurched downward and the pilot immediately P.A.ed for the seatbelts to be on. i felt like i was sitting at some theme ride tower drop and i totally freaked out. the first 2 things i did was grab onto the first thing i could grab with both hands. thankfully, it was the two arm rests on either side of me, and not the random guy's arm next to me. He was quite nice, but we didn't really talk.

all in all, an ok flight, save for the very scary few minutes of random tower-drop turbulence. i shd ask dan to ask his dad why it occurs and the works. so that i feel less insecure and less scared.

the longest day ever

it's funny how when you are in a situation that you think really sucks, time drags and goes on like forever and ever.

anw this blog is to blog about my memories during my 4.5 mth attachment in Aust. it's only my first day and there i am thinking 'omg...4.5 months more....'

perha

ps it is only today.. the feeling of alone-ness set in the moment i entered the departure hall all alone. I guess i'm not one to be suited to be travelling alone. no one to share my fears with, my joys, my excitement. when there's no one to share it with u, any positive feelings just dwindle away, and are replaced by fear and sian-ness and all the negative feelings.

or maybe it's always like that. on my first day in US, i felt crappy too. i still remember that live journal post i made. my sinus is back to haunt me.

but then again, there are many things to give thanks for.. for the safe flight here, that i was on the right flight, that i got thru customs and immigration etc fine, that the guy that sat next to me on the flight was a nice guy..that i managed to find my way to take the train..that Mr Perkins is a nice guy.. that I got to this house and sorta settled in safe and sound. physical needs all taken care of, and that's something to thank God for.

perhaps aust will be a time to train me spiritually and mentally. it already is starting to seem so tough.