Off with the old...

Bye 2008.

Was around town in Melbourne today where there was fireworks to send off the old year and usher in the new.

2008 was indeed a year filled with a little bit of everything. A good year. There were more happy days compared to melancholic moments. The only thing is that it was gone too fast. Wondered when I will get used to write 2009 instead of 2008.

Goodbye,student years, welcome working years.

Goodbye, Melbourne, welcome back, Malaysia.

Goodbye goodbye goodbye...

And a Happy New Year! 2009 here I come...

A Blue Christmas

Christmas Eve in Melbourne. The sky is crystal blue.

There's an indoor Christmas tree;

and an outdoor one.

Reindeers and carol players dotted the streets.

Also Santa and crazy tall cricketer.

People are awaiting presents to be opened;

and also the arrival of Jesus Christ.

A Christmas Eve BBQ;

and Christmas Lights in Ivanhoe.

Merry Christmas!

Perfect

The ceremony was getting boring. There she was, squirming uncomfortably in the stiff and stuffy gown, itching to just get the whole thing over and done with. All these make believe grandeur supposedly to crown off her four years of hard work!

Lai Shan contemplated her Uni life for a moment. No there’s nothing to shout about. Happy times, yes. Sad times, yes. But no intense life changing moment worth remembering. Uni was dull. And lonely.

Her mind shifted to the time she won the public speaking competition last year. It was a moment of joy and elation. All her friends came and mobbed her. But it was short lived. She caught sight of the boyfriend of the runner up hugging and wiping off tears from her face. Like being pricked by a pin, Lai Shan knew all these achievements are no substitute for a lonely heart. There’s no one for her to share her joy with, to chatter and gloat over the win again and again.

Likewise, when she lost the competition this year, there’s no one to comfort her, no one to cling to and she ended up crying into her pillow until it was all wet and soggy and her eyes all puffy and red.

Every time she saw a couple holding hands while walking towards the lecture hall, her heartache increase a single notch. Every time her friends managed to find someone to call their special half, she puts her best smile up and congratulate them. But deep down, emptiness added with a twinge of jealousy reigned. “When will be my time to be lucky?” She always wondered. The nights she spent in front of the full length mirror at her home staring back at the girl in front of her had been countless. . Not bad looking at all. The skin is smooth, the face flawless. Eyes big enough, nose straight. But still single.

“What is wrong with me?” she wanted to scream and yell. She was socially competent, has lots of friends who seem to enjoy her company. She was bubbly and fun to be with. But there was no one inviting her to the prom night. No one sending her flowers on Valentine’s day. No one whom she can smile and say proudly to her friends “he’s my boy”.

***

Jayeire Lim. Every girl either envies or despises her. It seems that the whole male population of the school swarms around like she is the queen bee. It may be stretching the truth to the limit, but in the eyes of countless girls thirsting for attention, the above statement is very true.

Jayeire is the most popular in Uni by everyone’s perception. In lectures, there are always some boys sitting on both of her sides. In the canteen during lunch, ninety nine times out of a hundred she will be the only girl sitting in the whole table. In the library, she was always seen studying with boys. Or on the grass on the front lawn of the Uni. Or next to the basketball court. Well, anywhere.

She is by everyone standard, a pretty girl. She is accomplished too. Representing the Uni in various competitions and won a couple of them. Dux of the class, with results that never cease to amaze people. She oozes confidence when she sashayed her way to the lecture theatre, she exudes charm when she went on stage to promote the latest club activity. She is nice too. Friendly and humble, funny and helpful. Deep down in their heart, every girl admired and wants to be Jayeire Lim. And she is every boy's wet dream.

No one remembers the last time in Uni that Jayeire can’t be found without at least two guys by her side.

***

The usher summoned everyone to be ready to go on stage. Straightening her graduation gown, Lai Shan walked slowly to the side of the hall. One by one, she watched her peers went on stage to receive their scroll. At last it was her turn.

“Bachelor of Engineering, First Class Honours – Lai Shan Jayeire Lim.” She went up the stage, and received the scroll with a bright smile, accompanied by the most thunderous applause of the night.

The boys witnessing it all have the same thought “Ah, I wish she was mine. If only she was not that perfect - then perhaps I will have a chance…”

Days we count before going home

Counting down the days before going home.15 days left. There's so much things to do until I don't know what to do - ended up doing nothing at all. There's just so many places to go and things to eat for one last time. Friends to meet. Things to pack. It's hard. Deciding what to throw away and what to keep. Everything seems to stir up some memories, be it bitter or sweet or in between.

Family was here for the past fortnight. Been a busy tour guide, dispensing all my Melbourne wisdom on them. Trying to share with them a piece of my experience. A snapshot of my world. A smorgasbord of food, places and people. Even the four seasons of Melbourne. Somehow Melbourne dispensed some winterish weather while they were here:

Cold and raining at Great Ocean Road;

Cloudy in Mornington; and

Sunny in Ballarat.

However quite happy that the animals treat us well this time round- there were an endless stream of penguins at the parade, a peacock showed us his proud feathers in Churchill Island and a Koala bear came down and greet us in the Koala Bear conservatory. Rare occurrences.

Today had a long hard look at my cert, taking my sweet time savouring every letter, every colour, every corner. Four years of hard work painstakingly double boiled and distilled into just this piece of paper 38cm x 27cm big. Yeah I was dead serious when I said I did savour every single drop of it.

At last now I can add B.Pharm (Hons) at the end of my name. It will officially be Kho Boon Phiaw B.Pharm (Hons). Come to think of it, my degree title looks like my name. Got B and P. Maybe I was destined to do pharmacy all the time.

Had a look at all the other certs I acquired also. Guess I was a typical Asian, always striving for that piece of paper. Most probably they won't be of any use, but at least each of them have a story to tell and can trigger some nice memories. It's the journey that matters. 

Now, its time to tie up all the loose ends. And hopefully leave with no regrets.

An overnight occurrence

They suddenly sprouted around Melbourne like spring flowers brought about by the overnight December drizzle. The father with spectacles in the baggy sweater, the brother with the camera slung around the neck, the sister tagging along trying to hide the protruding rabbit teeth and the mum who is inevitably the shortest of the lot. Of course at the head of this little tour group is the flashy guy or girl, with hands pointing around like signposts on the street.

They swoop upon places with style over substance, eating in places such as one where Bill Clinton had his first bowl of pho even though the store two streets over serves pho with 30g more noodles and 10 extra slices of meat for the same price. They go to exquisite Greek and Italian restaurants, with menus so exotic that they sound like foreign language. Then smugly the head of the mini entourage will tell the rest what a Moussaka or Parmagiana is, bathing in the glory-ness of the resulting oohs and ahhs. Too bad it will be short lived as the father will inevitably denounce that it was too high cholesterol and the mum said it was too salty. Not to mention too expensive.

They also went to the shopping centres like Myers and David Jones and the myriad of Direct Factory Outlets, their mental calculators going overdrive as they compare the price of the Adidas shoes and Tommy Hilfinger shirt with the equivalent in their home countries. They brought chocolates, key chains, koala bear miniatures, ticking off relatives names off an imaginary list as they went on.  They walked, trammed and taxied, showing their faces in famous places and again, inevitably, got a piece of themselves captured in other people's photos and then unwittingly got cursed upon when the photos were developed. Ah, the photo would be perfect, if only those tiny ants weren't there!!

Then on a certain rainy day, you will see all these tiny sets of people congregate together, and wondered why they all looked familiar. Most certainly because they were there when you were  admiring rocks on Great Ocean Road or Penguins on Philip Island. And that day will be the day when they see their cash cow - the flashy tour leader they send over as a greenhorn calf three or four years ago - got the stamp of approval from some Australian University as "fit for the market". Smile of contentment will be on their face. Another success story to boast to their neighbours back home!

Lucky Guy 9

Third year at Monash University Parkville. Refreshed from a two months holiday back home, I was eager to start the year off with a bang.

Uni started off with the busiest and scariest semester - a total of six subjects to be conquered. The sheer amount of lecture material was never seen before and was indeed a quantum leap from the honeymoon period which was the first two years. It was also the first time we had the so called most important subject, Clinical Pharmacy, which deals with diagnostic sign and symptoms, treatment selection and monitoring of various maladies. I like the subject a lot as I found it most interesting and relevant to the things I'm studying now.

Other subjects in the semester include Pharmacy Practice, Microbiology, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry. Definitely not a stroll in the park.

I was elected to the post of Treasurer in PISA that year, and was pleased to hear that STEPS were well received by the new International students, even though a few complained that it was way too wordy. Activities in PISA started off with a little bit of hiccup as our welcome dinner coincide with the students' English proficiency test. Nevertheless, I remembered that our nasi lemak and teh tarik was well received.

Throughout the first semester, we continued to have sporadic activities. Some activities received good response, whereas some have so little people attending that it had to be cancelled. Nevertheless, all activities taught me valuable lessons on what were the priorities and likings of students in general. I really felt that joining the club improved my applied psychology and marketing skills.

Being part of PISA was also a great way to make friends. I was more confident by that time and can initiate small conversation with people. This confidence was also built up via my role as a Student Ambassador and Global Friendship Series (GFS).

That semester I also applied for the role as Student Ambassador, which offers selected students leadership training in return for services promoting the Uni. It was the most prestigious role in Uni and the group interview was very scary. All the other students answered the open questions so well and so quickly and I have no chance to talk until the interviewer had to ask me a question directly. I have no idea how I got in the program as only 15 students throughout the whole campus were selected.

The first few events I joined in my capacity as a Student Ambassador was awkward and uncomfortable as I don't know anyone in the team. Luckily I found my footing sooner than I thought and became firm friends with most of the other people in the team. There were a lot of useful training sessions like leadership training, public speaking, emotional intelligence, cultural awareness which added value to my University experience. We also had the chance to meet prominent members of the profession and have them sharing experiences with us.

That year Uni also introduced Global Friendship Series, an initiative to integrate students from all different year levels and walks of life. I joined the first activity and was immediately hooked to the novel concept. When they asked for volunteers to run the activities I immediately sign up. I was the first official volunteer. Galahad and Kush signed up later and we were the trio of brothers who put our heart and soul into trying to make it the best program in the campus.

I don't know was I was thinking that year, but I also applied and got accepted to be a Disability Liaison Unit (DLU) notes-taker. My job is to help people with a disability take down lecture notes during their lectures. Luckily the job only start in the second semester or I would have some problem coping.

Despite my average score that semester was the lowest amongst my four years, I felt that the shift of focus to integrate more co-curricular activities into my life is the right one. It was one of the most enjoyable time in my Uni life.

Graduation

It had been a hectic fortnight, starting with the 8 day trip to New Zealand, a day trip with Uni friends to Phillip Island and four days touring around Melbourne with my family. After a 10 hour sleep, at last I had time to sit down to reflect and write about the last important milestone of my university life - my graduation.

It had been raining the whole week in Melbourne, but luckily my graduation turned out sunny! It was gorgeous having blue sky and green grass as a graduation backdrop. Too bad the ceremony was held in the main campus, which is far away from Parkville.

Funny how the only physical end result of four years of hard work and toil was just a piece of paper that you can roll into a scroll and throw away somewhere on your desk.

And how the whole actual ceremony is just 1 hour long and the amount of time you spend on stage is a mere 10 seconds. It was hard condensing everything you had gone through in four years into such a limited amount of time.

I'm extremely thankful and grateful to my family and friends who made the long and arduous journey to Clayton for my graduation. It was touching having you all at my side taking photos and having this day frozen in time to be viewed and reviewed again in the future.

To all of you, I would like to say a very big thank you, Without the support and encouragement of all of you, I would not have this day in life. A big thank you to JPA too, who sponsored my whole education here.

And thanks for the presents and best wishes. Especially to my cousins who "shipped" all the goodies from Singapore.

I had acquired a few new pets in the process. I promised I will take good care of them. ^^

At last I'm ready to join the workforce and apply all I had learnt throughout my four years here to make the world a better place. Being in the health profession, I have hordes of ideas to empower people to take charge of their health and live a better life. Hopefully I have the opportunity to turn my vision into a reality.

I believed I had did everything I could in University and left with fond memories and no real regrets. It's time to close that chapter of my life and say Hi to a whole new world.

 

And true to the motto of Monash University - Ancora Imparo - I will strive on continuing my education in life. One can never stop learning.

New Zealand

Lalalala...

LALALALA...

Ah...

Ahhhhhhhhhh.......

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.....

Kaboom!

End of story.

Off to the land of long white clouds...

For a week from tomorrow, I will be in the land of the long white clouds, a place where I was supposed to do my four year undergraduate course, until of course when fate intervened and I found myself Down Under instead.

Will spend eight days exploring the sights of the North Island of New Zealand, spending time in places with weird names like Rotorua and Taupo and Coromandel.

Hopefully the change in scenery can give me inspiration to write more stories. ^^

Results were out yesterday. Quite a relief that did better than expected. Saw a 9 as the first number for the first time since year 1. Too bored and did an analysis of my results.

Happy to found out that my results are quite consistent over the four years, even though there was a drastic drop after the first year. Things do get tough progressively, or I got lazier as the semesters went by?

Anyway, that means only one thing left to look forward to in my Uni life: the graduation ceremony. It will be held 8.00pm 11th December 2008. Just a mere two weeks away..

Lucky Guy 8

"For this research, you are going to find out and interview people suffering from chronic illness on their experience." A stern looking Dr. Jennifer Marriott told me when I met her to discuss about my Summer Vacation Scholarship.

"Gosh," I thought then "can I really interview people with my half past six English?" But then I reasoned, it was a good skills to acquire.

Getting the Summer Vacation Scholarship was another highlight of my second year. I was quite surprised because I was only a second year student and I got my first choice project. Most probably only a few students applied that year. It was lucky in a way as now most students are aware of it and hence the competition is stiffer.

During that time I spent 4 weeks in the Pharmacy Practice department. I was supposed to do a research on chronic illness but it only lasted for two weeks as the ethics paperwork fell through. So luckily or unluckily I never knew, I never got to interview people. Hence I hopped into another one, which is health promotion. I was allocated a desk and computer In the PhD room, and it was kind of a good experience feeling like a PhD student for the very first time. I also participated in the journal club where they discuss matters of interest concerning their research.

It was then too that I met Robin, who was the friendliest and most playful PhD student in VCP. It was fortunate that I met him because between us we came up with a plan to do a survival handbook for International students. Our collaboration gave birth to STEPS, a 32 pages handbook on things an International student should know concerning living around Parkville. I'm unabashedly proud about STEPS because it was the first time I initiated something and had it published and given to other people. Hopefully they find it useful.

That year was also the year VCP celebrated it's 125th Anniversary. I felt very fortunate to be part of the campus when they celebrated such a huge milestone. They were a lot of activities on campus to commemorate it but unfortunately I guess I was still too timid to put my hands up to join in. The only activity I joined is the first ever leadership night on campus, where we got the opportunity to have an Antarctica explorer sharing her experience with us. It was also then that I discovered that Uni function has lots of good food and free alcohol.

Second semester 2006 also marked the first time I hang out with other people other than the three girls. It started with Wei Siang inviting me to join them for badminton. From there on I met other people like Woon Pang, JP, Jim etc etc. I found out that they were all very friendly and approachable people, and wondered why I didn't take the initiative to talk to them earlier. It was funny that it was through badminton I met most other people that year. I got close to Galahad also through badminton, and also other PISA members as PISA held a badminton day that year.

I realised that it was hard to make friends in lecture theatre. The best way is either thorough prac groups or club activities. It was this realisation that from my third year onwards, I tried  my best to be heavily involved in Uni life. I tried very hard this year to motivate the first years to join clubs. Having a lot of friends really does make Uni life feel like Uni life. It was this realisation that made my Uni life so memorable.

The Lottery Winner Story

Eremaine woke up, brushed her teeth, changed into a spaghetti strap and shorts and proceeded to walk to the lottery shop near her house.

At the lottery shop, she pulled up a sheet of scratch paper from the neatly stacked pile on the booth. With the blue pen that is attached to the booth via a thin white string, she crossed out the six numbers: 6, 11, 13, 22, 33, 37.

She handed in the paper to the tall man with moustache behind the counter, paid him $1.10, waited a few seconds for him to process it and then got the receipt from him. She neatly folded the receipt and carefully put it into her purse.

She checked the amount of money to be won on the notice board. Good. A cool $2.2 million. That should be enough to do a couple of things.

She began to think about what she can do with the money. Should she spend it on a house? A car maybe? Or a trip to Europe. Oh, who cares, there are still two more days to think about it as the result will only be announced then.

Two days later, Eremaine woke up, brushed her teeth, changed into a white T-shirt and rainbow coloured skirt and proceeded to walk to the lottery shop near her house again.

She took out her receipt from her purse and handed it to the yawning moustached man behind the booth and patiently waited for him to cross match it with the results of the draw. 6..11..13..22..33..37!

"Wow! Congratulations miss! You won the top prize!" shrieked the man, jumping up and down like an excited bunny. He waved the receipt in the air, doing a funny little dance in the process as if he won the top prize himself.

"Yes I know. Thank you." Eremaine replied calmly, while nonchalantly swatting a fly that flew too close to her. "Now can you please tell me how am I supposed to redeem the prize money?"

The man tried his best to explain it to her even though he was still on a high adrenaline rush. Eventually, Eremaine managed to extract the info from him. Since the HQ of the lottery shop is a distance away, she opted to go home and only make the journey the next day.

Back home, she was reading the newest story book by Jeffrey Archer in her bathtub when she finally decided what she will do with her newly-acquired riches. She will just put it into her bank account first until she has a clear idea what to do with it. $2.2 million sounds a lot, but she knew it can be used up relatively easily if she's not careful.

The Two-Men-on-a-Bench Story

Two people were seated on a wooden bench in a leafy park, a scene straight off the pages of Forrest Gump. The only difference being Forrest Gump wasn't there of course, and there was no epic story of running to tell. But nonetheless the story transpired between them were interesting enough to worth a mention.

On the left was a tall man in his seventies with wispy white hair and whose thin fragile body was decked in a homey olive coloured cardigan. We should call him John.

On the right was a young energetic cheerful guy of just twenty three. Wearing a checkered shirt and baggy shorts, he was whistling to the tune of the newest song by a band the old guy never heard of. And we should call him Ashley.

"Having a happy day 'er young man?" enquired John when Ashley paused to get his breath.

"Yes. In a matter of fact, old man, I just got engaged."

"Congratulations! Ah, this called for a celebration. Here's a toast to your happiness." with that, John raised an imaginary wine glass in his left hand and drank to the health of his young acquaintance.

"Why thank you." managed Ashley, a little taken aback.

A few moments of silence ensued, as they both enriched their senses with the chirping of magpies, the sweet smell of the morning dew and the blossoming flowers of spring.

"Aye, you bought back memories of the courtship of ma missus," John reminisced, breaking the silence. "It was such a sweet time. Got her a stalk of rose for forty nine bloody days before she said yes."

"She was a hard nut to crack, ma Gladys. Hard to please," he continued. "Spotted her on the counter of the grocery store when I was your age. Head over heels I was. Took me three days and ten candies before I mustered the courage to speak to her. And it took me another three years before she said yes."

"It must be an arduous three years."

"Far from it, ma boy, far from it. It was the best three years of ma life. I woke up each day planning and scheming how to win her over. It was exciting. I stole a kiss off her once, made her blush. Still remembered when I sneaked her off under the very nose of her dad to a dance party. Ah.."

"Anyway, I guess you have enough listening to an old man rambling. How's your love story?"

"Well, actually I only seen her in person once. We met six months ago while I was holidaying in Alaska. Got her MSN and had been chatting online ever since. Called her once or twice per week. Found out we clicked. Popped the question online last night after a couple of drinks and she said yes!"

"What?" a look of horror swept through the face of John. "You got engaged to a woman you only seen once?"

"Why not.Everyone seems to be doing that nowadays..."

"But..but...but..." John was left speechless. He picked up his newspaper resting on the bench and stood up. "Well goodbye my friend. I hope your marriage goes well."

"Stupid new generation" he muttered under his breath after being out of earshot. "Didn't know what they missed." With a resigned shake of his head, he continued his journey home to the fresh scones oven baked by his beloved Gladys.

The Korean Doll Story

   

He first saw it when he was at the impressionable age of ten.

There it was, in the torn page of the smudgy magazine, the picture of the Korean doll under the heading Nijaye Collectibles.

He was so fascinated by it, the doll decked in the colourful Korean hanbok costume.

Not to mention the curly tresses, small squinty eyes and pouty lips of the doll.

For that day onwards, he decided he will go and find the Korean doll.

Unfortunately, collecting money to buy the expensive doll proved to be a difficult task. Little by little he saved and scrimped. It was not until he was 21 before he got enough money to buy one.

And then there was the problem of finding out how to get the doll. It was virtually impossible to find a doll of any kind in the backwater county he came from, and so off he go to the big city.

In the first city he looked, he found a Nijaye doll in a downtrodden hobby shop. It was lucky he found the shop at all, tucked in an obscure back alley it was. The Chinese Nijaye doll is still in mint condition, its white cheongsam with red cherry blossom print still spotless. The straight fringe, the round eyes, the ruby red cheeks – it was breathtaking.

He was tempted, but remembering the Korean doll is the ultimate quest, he decided to let the beautiful Chinese doll go.

In the second city he looked, he found a Japanese Nijaye doll dressed in a blue silk kimono. Sweet dimples, cat like eyes and dark eyelashes. This time it was in the house of an old couple who were desperate to sell it for some cash.

Even though sympathetic he was to the plight of the couple, he had his sight firmly set on a Korean doll, and with a heavy heart, he turned them down.

He continued to hop from city to city, from a shop to another, a house to another. He found a Malaysian doll in a Baju Kebaya, an Indonesian doll in Sarong, an Australian doll in a Lifesaver costume. There were all beautiful and perfect, and every time, he was tempted to buy.

But every time without fail, the alluring picture of the Korean doll he saw in the magazine more than ten years ago will surface in his mind, and off he went to another city, another shop, another house.

After two years of painful searching, he at last found the Korean doll at a rundown, ready to be auctioned off shop. But unfortunately it was not perfect. The pink hanbok was torn in two places, the tresses full of dirt. The nose was chipped off in a corner, the left arm scratched. He was disappointed, but then it was a true Nijaye Collectible Korean doll, he reasoned. And he wanted it for so long. And he had searched for it for so long.

So he decided to pay the owner the money. Even though deep down he knew that he can use the same amount of money to buy a perfect Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian or Australian Nijaye Collectible doll.

But at least he got his Korean doll.

The balloon story

Kendemeyer glanced at his watch, tapping his left foot on the plush carpet impatiently.

“Damn” he mutters under his breath. “Why does a woman always has to be late?”

His mobile rang as he snuffed out his fifth cigarette of the hour.

“Sorry sweetie I will be 10 minutes late.”

“That’s okay love, you are always worth waiting for.”

He hated himself for saying that.

“Oh, I know you are bored waiting for me sweetie. Why don’t I give you a little challenge to keep you awake?”

“Okie love. Your wish is my command.”

Damn. Why he has to be so weak.

“I expect to have a helium balloon waiting for me when I see you. Don’t disappoint me!”

Kendemeyer looked frantically around the shopping strip. Gosh where can he find a helium balloon at this place at this hour? He paced around the corner. Turned left. Turned right. Turned circles. No balloon as the clock continuously ticked down.

***

Lynette got the balloon as she passed by the pharmacy to admire the make up kit she wished she owned. Apparently they were promoting their newest weight loss program, as the smiling sales assistant gave her a pink balloon with “Fight the fat” emblazoned on it.

Her little girl will be so happy to see the balloon. It was a few months back since she had bought home anything fun for her daughter. Life had been so hard since her husband left them to fend for themselves one year ago.

She was bouncing down the street, happily carrying the pink balloon on a string when he spotted her.

***

Kendemeyer can felt his heart beating faster as the time ticked away. He had broke into a sweat but still no balloon. There was now only two minutes before Vixenne arrived. Last time he failed her task, she didn’t speak to him for one week.

He was on the verge of giving up when he saw the sweet girl with the red hair-band across the street with a pink balloon on her hands. Without thinking twice, he beat a path to her.

“Hi excuse me miss, I was wondering… can you give me the balloon please?”

Lynette was startled by the request. “Err, but I want to give the balloon to my daughter..”

“I know this is a big ask, but my daughter was hit by a car this morning. She is now at the hospital. She asked me to give her a balloon but I can’t find one..” Kendemeyer ended the sentence in a sigh, while putting on his most pitiful expression. Desperation always brings up the best actor in him.

Lynette was skeptical but her heart of gold got better of her. “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope your daughter get well soon. Here you can have this balloon.”

“Thank you so much! Oh I will always be indebted to you.” Kendemeyer managed to get a tear trickling down his left cheek as he said this.

***

“Hi sweetie, here’s your balloon.”

“Oh muaks” she pecked him on the cheek “you never disappoint me.”

As they walked down the busy street hand in hand, Kendemeyer felt so lucky because he has a stunning beauty strutting next to him. He loved seeing all those envious glances from other men.

“Aw this balloon says ‘Fight the fat’. Eww. Gross. I hate that word.”

With that Vixenne released the balloon and it flew up into the sky.

At that moment, Lynette was turning the knob of the door into her small room. She heaved a sigh of dejection. Her daughter will have another plain boring day.

Lucky Guy 7

 "One..two..three..four..five..six..seven..."

"Where's the rest? There were supposed to be 12 right?"

"I don't know... a few fell down"

Second year started off with a trip to Great Ocean Road with the first year International students to visit the 12 Apostles. I got to go as a PISA rep. 

I think the highlight of my second year is being PISA's Publications Officer. My job was to maintain the club's web site, churning out all the event posters and writing articles reporting the club's activities. It was a job I like a lot as journalism is something that I have interest in since secondary school.

It was the year when I found out that I loved to be in a position where I can contribute to the well being of fellow students. It was fun being involved. Participating in the great next PISA is the thing I constantly looked forward to that year.

I remembered it took me a while to get used to the people in PISA. I don't talk much in team meeting until much much later. Come to think of it, I was still extremely shy during second year.

The notable activities I took part in PISA is the Hip-hop dance class. It was the very first time I learn to dance and it thought me one thing - I'm helpless at dancing. Nevertheless it was fun. I also played in a soccer game with the med guys. It was memorable because as the goalie I let in 8 goals. I remembered the girls manning the score board was frantically hoping I didn't ship in another because the manual score board only had zero to eight.

On Uni, it started earlier due to the Commonwealth Games being held in Melbourne. As our campus was near the Games village, Uni was halted for 2 weeks for security reasons.

2nd year is more of a transition year. The year in the middle where nothing much happens.It was characterised by long practicals. I used to dread Thursdays and Fridays where we got 6 hours of prac in a day with only 30 mins break in between. Half of them are chemistry based and we spend a dreadful lot of time mixing things in test tubes, purifying our products and do a melting point test to make sure we did it correctly.

We had role plays in Pharmacy Practice. During the time, we got to be either pharmacist or patient in a mock pharmacy. We learnt how to ask the right questions and how to tackle awkward situations. It was the first time I got to experience counselling people and I found it really hard. The first case I ever got was about Morning After Pill. Heck, I don't even know what it was then!

to be continued...

Swish 08

Swish was the graduation farewell party for fourth year pharmacy students.

 

This year's theme was Arabian Nights - A magic carpet ride.

It was magical. Everyone going into the venue was showered by rose petals.

The event was held at Cossar Hall, which is Uni. However, it was greatly transformed for the night. For instance, there were two tall minarets adorning the stage.

A belly dancer also made an appearance.

There was also a camel resting at the back of the hall. I figured that it was thirsty, so fed it some wine.

It was a great night where we got to mingle and take photos with lecturers and other students.

During Swish they also gave out the Student Community Achievement Award for students who had somewhat made contributions to students life in Uni.

Surprisingly I got one of the award! It was peer nominated and I didn't really thought that anyone will nominate me as the process is very complicated.

To that person, thank you very much for nominating me. I hoped I really did made a difference to students life in Uni. This award really meant a lot.

And here's me posing with the award surrounded by two stunning models.

Now there's only two things left in my Uni life to look forward to: the day the results are released (Nov 28) and graduation (Dec 11).

Till then, it will be continuous partying. ^^