Hi friends!

Fridge problem: I had a huge problem last week dealing with rotten fruits/ vegetables in my fridge. It seemed as though i was throwing away everything in my fridge because it had gone mouldy/ turned black/ giving out a putrid smell ect. Threw away half a watermelon, a few corns, whole bunch of lettuce, some blackened carrots, half a cabbage...

At first i thought that the fridge was too cold, because my grandmother taught me that vege will go bad if it is too cold(?), also the weather was freezing cold then so i didn't realise anything wrong with the fridge. Then a few days later when the weather got warmer i thought that the fridge was not cold enough because it seemed as though it was near room temperature. I told my landlords and when they came to check it with a thermometer, it turned out that the fridge had totally broken down already! Lol. Anyway, being very efficient people, the very next day they replaced it with a brand new fridge and now i have a new fridge! Thank you Joy and Andrew!

Monday: Decided not to go for Chem Tutorial on Monday but to go for the one on Tuesday morning instead because otherwise i would have 4 hours of breaks before my next lesson. Also, if i go for the tuesday tutorial, my 2 hour non-lunch break would be shortened to 1 hour only. Ultimately, my mondays will start at 4pm (instead of 11am and 4 hours break) and my tuesday will be more packed but less time will be wasted on breaks.

Anyway, it was a good call to sleep in on monday till a bit later because i read from the discussion board on FLO (Flinders Learning Online which uses Blackboard as its server, seems like every school uses Blackboard (VJ, SMU)) that the tutor didnt turn up. The afternoon lecture was semi-cancelled too because the lecturer went to the wrong lecture theatre and arrived 30 minutes late, which by then everyone (save 20 out of the 200) had left.

Its been 3 weeks of school already and i havent had a lesson on Monday yet!!! Week 1- Chem tutorial cancelled, Bio pre-lecture cancelled (for people who didnt study bio in Year 12 ie me). Week 2- Adelaide Cup Public Holiday. Week 3- Chem tutor didnt turn up (plus i swapped my timetable), Bio pre-lecturer went to wrong venue. Lol, but i do end lesson on friday fairly late, at 5pm and had had lessons on friday for every of the 3 weeks, so i guess that balances things out.

Tuesday: Julian bought a new car and he took Nina, Emily, Paul and I on a spin to the city. Apparently in NZ the usual speed to drive is 150-180km/h and Julian was very used to such speeds so i was a bit apprehensive about taking his car. But because it was a brand new car, he was very cautious about driving and so it was all slow and safe.

We checked out Nina's room in St Annes College and its big and spacious. Loved the common area near the entrance where there are comfy sofas and shiny wooden flooring. I simply love lounging on big sofas in big spaces now, haven been too cooped up in my small narrow flat where i have only hard wooden chairs and a small cushioned armchair.

Wednesday: Went grocery shopping at Marions. Bought apples, bread, yoghurt, celery, carrots ect and had to heave the heavy bag all the way uphill. Tiring!

On Thursday, Julian drove Nina, Tim, Patrick and I to Yum Sing, a chinese takeaway restaurant, during our 1 hour break to have lunch. Food was good and affordable and in huge portions.

Went over to Paul's place on friday night to watch Glee on my pirated discs bought from Malaysia. The disc kept jumping and the subtitles were bad, luckily Cindy had the first few episodes on her Ipod so we enjoyed 3 good quality episodes of Glee. I love the soundtracks and i think Quinn is really pretty! I also like the headmaster Figgins? He is like unbiased and rational and makes the drama more believable.

Saturday afternoon Paul came over to my place for some bio help. As i didnt take bio either (we both took physics) i wasnt of much help. Luckily Emily took bio and psychology during year 12 and offered to help. Paul and i went to visit Emily on Sunday at Uni Hall for some bio coaching. Her room is small but cosy. Emily has so many pairs of shoes! Like 20? Quite overwhelming in a small hostel room (not the smell, just the idea of it lol). She plans to have a wall feature of shoes, and i think it would be a super awesome idea.

Saturday Night: DVD night at Grace/ Kathy/ Gabby's house watching SKINS with the 3 girls, Emily, Ram, Paul, Julian and I.

I've never heard of Skins before! Have you all??? Either i live under a rock, or it is just not hugely popular enough, but everyone else here has seen Skins before!!! I think its a good show, quite addictive the more the story line builds up, though i could do with some subtitles hahaha.

We all trekked to Pizza Hut in the middle of the night to get pizzas half way through. Tried piggybacking on the way back and all the other girls can piggyback Paul except for me! I collapsed the 2 times i tried it, and i am not the smallest not the skinniest of the bunch, omg what is wrong with me!?

Anyway, we werent stranded at their house this time round because Julian drove us there. Ram drove us home because he 'took one for the team' and didnt drink. Actually, i didnt drink too, but neither can i drive, lol, anyway thanks Ram!

Culinary Adventures:



My very first bento box! Rice, mixed vege and fish fingers. Looks colourful and appealing but quite tasteless. Also, it was cold because i prepared it the night before and stored it in the fridge and there was no microwave oven in the refectory where i ate it. Nonetheless, i enjoyed it, because it was a refreshing change from eating sandwiches for lunch.


Late lunch on a Saturday: Mixed vege, frozen sliced beans, bacon, an egg and baked bread. Originally i wanted to microwave the veges and bake the bread and bacon in the oven. But the bacon kept breaking into tiny bits as it was still frozen and i couldnt put tiny shreds of bacon into the oven as i didnt have aluminium foil. In the end, i had to fry the bacon and since i already had the heat going in the pan, i dumped the vege in and fried it as well.

The bread you see above caused me ALOT of trouble. For dinner i tried to microwave/defrost bread because i kept it in the freezer. I put it into a microwave safe box and left it in the microwave for 2.5 minutes. When i opened the microwave door, smoke just poured out, as if 10 cigarettes have been left in the microwave. The microwave safe box was oozing with black tar-like-liquid and the box was deformed. The whole oven was splattered with the same black liquid.

It was SO smelly! I was so worried the sprinkler was going to go off or the landlords would come over to see if i was smoking in the house, lol. I tried to salvage the box by soaking it in water/ expanding it using hot water but it was too deformed and smelly i threw it away in the end. Spent close to an hour wiping the oven with tissue paper because i didnt want to dirty my dishcloths with carcinogenic toxins. Left all the windows open and turned on the stove hood-fan, as well as the ventilator in the toilet but the whole house still smelt like a smoker's breathe. There was no wind that day too so the smell just lingered for a day... EW!

On hindsight, i think the bread was too dry when i put it into the microwave. Microwaves work by vibrating water molecules in food right? So i guess there was no water for it to heat up and hence it burnt my bread and produced burnt tar which forced itself out of the box and splattered everywhere. Valuable lesson learnt, though i dont think i am going to use the microwave for a long long time while the horrid smell is still fresh in my mind.

What a long entry! Thanks for reading through everything and tata!