Sundays

My father was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday and was told to rest at home

I am on study break this week and it was kinda nice having my father around. We talked quite a lot =)

The maid cooked a feast every night come dinner time (Sydney aunt and uncle is here visiting too), we never have such fancy home cooked dinners unless it is a Sunday. It was really nice to have the whole family sit together for dinner for so many nights in a row

Everyday felt like Sunday. To me, a Sunday never feels like Sunday unless my father is around. Any day can feel like a Sunday when he is at home.

That Saturday

I didn't even know that my father was not well for 3days, he sent my sis to school, went to work from 9am to 9pm like normal. Unlike me, he never complained much. He slept early, i just thought he was tired.

Mom told me she was bringing him to the hospital to get checked yesterday morn. Did a brain scan and my father called me (while my mom drove) to say that he had blood clots in his head! And he was going for an operation in Pantai in Bangsar.

My father sounded normal, convinced me that it was all alright. Still. I cried a tear or two.

I badly wanted my Saturday to be normal so i went home (from the routine Sat breakfast with E). Did some stupid work and went for my 1.50pm gym class. My bro, sis and maid went to the hospital earlier

Forgot to bring my phone, took my time in the shower, went home to find an sms from Mom saying that my father's operation is at 5pm. Damn, its almost 4! I rushed to get to Bangsar, i knew i needed to see him before they took him away for the operation. I had a feeling that we wouldn't be able to see him from 4.40 or so.

I didnt make it in time, when i got there at 4.20, he was already in the operation theatre. Kinda wanted to cry.

Had to push out negative thoughts, thoughts that i couldn't help thinking, like "What if the worst happened and that i didnt get to see him BEFORE he left the operation?"

Would going to the gym be something i deeply regret? I thought back to the few past few days when my father was sick, i was so busy with work (and i came home quite freaking late) that i didn't really get to talk to him to notice he was sick, let alone hug him, something i haven't done since i cant remember when.

Hung out with bro, mom n sis in the cafeteria and my bro asked me "Why are u so late?". I mumbled, i couldn't tell him that i went to the gym, i couldn't look at him in they eye.

It was quite a long wait for the operation to be done, had to keep on telling myself that it was gonna be ok.

And thankfully it was, the operation was a success! I don't know how much regret there'll be inside of me and how long it will eat me alive if things turned out differently.

I am SO thankful

Great

My precious baybeetea name has been stolen

Recent Google searches and Live searches reveal other people calling themselves baybeetea, exactly MY spelling out there.

Most of them created this year! Dammit, i've had this name since 2000 (in yahoo mail and since 2003 in blogspot).

Its been 8 years, its MINE! =(

I need to do something about it. Shit. Anyone know how to trademark names? How much does it cost? I need to do something. I am so pissed.

Peak'a Boooo

It just crept up to me and said BOO

The PEAK PERIOD is HERE and i didn't know it till yesterday!! HAHAH

I read it here, but i didnt think it applied to me! =P

Which makes sense, thats why i haven't had time to blog

Which makes sense, i mean, its been so so long since a had a full chargeability. The fortnight ending 31st Oct, i'll charge 100% to clients. No more Available Time

Which is funny, this week i've worked in offices in Damansara Heights, Shah Alam and i'll work near the Subang Airport, all in one week man!

How i wish i could say Denmark, Spain and South Africa instead! HAHAHA, dream on

Australia Spring 2008

Day 1, i lugged my giant luggage across Southern Cross and tried finding my way around the station. Memory's rusty, took the wrong train...

Simple day, a rainy walk along Chapel Street, i never went there in 2007. Dinner at bestfriend's place. Met her local Aussie boyfriend of Greek descend. He's nice and he makes her happy. I approve!

Day 2, met up with Aunt and cousins. Aunt brought me shopping! I bought my very first pair of Nine West!

Didn't wanna throw the box away but i had to =( Its so pretty

Day 3, went back to the house i used to call home to gather the stuff i left in boxes neatly in the closet.

Ended up chucking most of my stuff into the recycle bin with the yellow lid. Some went into the charity bin. Then went to meet my old boss and have lunch, he gave me 20% staff discount! =)

Then i went to the beach to sit on the sand and reminisce

In the evening i had dinner with PN, Vietnamese food and hung out in Starbucks discussing photography =P

Day 4, bestfriend and i shopped, and then yummy Thai dinner with bestfriend, LF, DL and RC. So nice of them to come out and meet me plus send me off to Southern Cross where i took the CountryLink overnight train to Sydney. Alone.

Day 5, YW came to pick me up from Sydney Central in the morning. I bought us Krispy Kreme and she brought me to this cute coffee place along King Street.

Its just a short walk from where she lives. Sydney Uni Village is beautiful!!!!

Honours student YW had lab and mice to attend to so i was on my own most of the day. Nice Thai lunch tho, green curry pork! Love the atmosphere of the restaurant she brought me to.

She handed me a map and told me to visit The Quadrangle on uni grounds. I had no idea what i was looking for but i found it and its like a scene from Harry Potter.

Building with four corners and a field in the middle. There was a couple making out on the grass and i so felt like taking a picture of them, the girl was on top of the guy! Hahah

One of the corners. Why can't Monash Clayton be like that? Or Peninsula or Berwick?

I wanted to check out the touristy spots at night. Last Dec, when i was there in Sydney with the family and the boyfriend, we saw these sights during the day. I wanted to see it by nightfall.

Right choice! Darling Habour:

I wish i didn't bend my stupid leg. Really nice pic otherwise.

My old tuition friend WC was nice enough to meet up with me and the 3 of us walked to the Opera House

Pictures with people in it on my camera turned out bad, still waiting for WC to send me the ones he took on his 7.0megapixel camera phone

Structures turn out well tho =) Sydney Habour Bridge

Played Diner Dash on YW's Nintendo DS till 4am. Its amazing how i managed to get up in time to catch the 9.15am train to Newcastle on
Day 6

Sitting there on the train, starring out the window at the countryside, all alone, on that damn 3hour train ride, I FELT LIKE A BACKPACKER! Hahahahaha

Camwhored while waiting for PL to come pick me up from Warabrook station.

Its so hot in Newcastle, PL came wearing shorts, and she stared at my winter jacket like said people would think u are crazy. HAHAHAH. What to do, i came from Melbourne.

She made me lunch, we catched up. Then we headed to the beach for a dip, love love the waves, stupid of me to leave my camera on the sand, no good pix there.

It got cold and windy in the evening, exactly when we decided to have ice cream. We were shivering!

My leg turned to stone! Look:

Haha, lame. But it was fun =)

She brought me to dinner at Goldberg. Their pasta is so so good, the best food i ate in my trip. And then we shared Newcastle's specialty dessert: Sticky Date Pudding

Love the ambiance there, worth every cent of the $25 i paid with my Commonwealth Debit Card (treated her to dinner for giving me a place to stay)

After dinner, we took the bus back and my dear friend was so blur we missed the stop and had to walk through her campus in the cold! Damn funny, we were freezing! They had a Commonwealth Bank branch on their campus! Hahah, but its such forest at her campus than it is at mine!

Day 7 was Korean food in Strathfield for both lunch and dinner, before and after shopping in Sydney's DFO.

Stupid little me had some problems with her return ticket, they printed the wrong date and i didn't check properly! Thankfully, they changed it for me FOC =)

Day 8 at Parliament Station. Thats where bestfriend worked the 7am shift so i went over for some Coffee HQ.

Look at all those people dressed in black on that Monday morning, scurrying off to work. I was so glad to be on annual leave! Oooh RC was one of them! HAHAHA poor soul. When he comes to visit Msia next yr, it'll b his turn to laugh at me.

I walked along i-forgot-what-street,

Admired Cathedrals. Walked along Collins Street, saw two of the Big Four accounting firms and i wondered...

Walked to the park and lay on the grass...

It was good just starring at the sky, not having to worry about work =P

In the afternoon, Masters student bestfriend wanted to go to the State Library so i tagged along. That woman doesnt know how to work a photostate machine so i did it for her

Love the interior of the library, so ancient. And love what my new purple Sony Ericsson camera phone =)

Nice dinner at Fratelino's, where bestfriend's housemate works. Good quality time chit chating, killer good salmon thin crust traditional oven baked pizza. And not to mention the "hot pizza boy" as she calls him...

Day 9, god, guess what i did on Day 9?! I woke up at 5.45am to go to the gym for a 6.15 Bodypump class but i walked the wrong way and ended up in Toorak train station, which is at the other end. I was so pissed. I walked so much that by the time i got to the gym i avoided the treadmill at all costs. Too late for my class too! =(

Bestfriend and i waiting for the tram to the city, where we shopped along Swanston Street before heading down to Clayton for ex-housemate HS's graduation ceremony!

Me, HS and her S'porean bf F. In the background is B smiling at the camera!

LF and i. Goodness, she's graduated, i still remember meeting into her in Sunway College's 4th floor toilet, she fell and her knee, or was it ankle, was bleeding. She was a MUFY student while i was in AUSMAT. Pre-University days!

At night bestfriend and i had Ying Thai 2 (really bad service but really good food) and Dolce Freddo's ice cream! We walked along the Yarra River, watched the flames at 11 o clock outside Crown Casino. I went in to lose some money and to pick up the free poker magazine Bluff

Day 9, was a simple day at St Kilda

with bestfriend and DL on the tram. Ate scallops and Golden Gaytime ice cream!

Went back to finish up my packing and got ready for my flight back to Malaysia

That sums up my 10 days, 12 nights (2 nights in the plane, 2 nights in the train, 8nights on mattresses) in Australia. Spent RM5,800 on flight, food, transport and shopping.

Less than one week after my return, the STUPID Australia forex dropped like mad! I could have had the same trip but save RM1,000 if i went slightly later =(

Gotta go, working on another unit trust fund tomorrow. And i just found out tonight! Thats the life of this auditor