I made a decision Thursday night before last to go and look for a place to stay in Sydney over the weekend, so I was over in Sydney for almost 24 hours last weekend to find and inspect houses. Saw a very rundown studio apartment which went for an obscene $300pw, which brought my spirits down. But I did manage to find a few that were nice and so I applied for 3 of them. Monday. No call. Tuesday. An offer from one which was nearer to a very big shopping mall but has a reputation for crime. Wednesday, another offer from one I really liked, but further from shopping malls and a 40 minute journey to work. Well, I've always made decisions that seemed right in the end so I went with the intuition and chose the latter one. So there, my accommodation is settled, thank God.

Road trip on Saturday, to Phillip Island. Many interesting conversations in our car. What goes through our mind when we see someone we've not met for a long time. Will we wonder what's changed with that person, or what the person might think of you, or try to remember his name? For me, I might hesitate to walk up and greet the person if I'm in shabby clothes, hahaa.. I know it's stupid. In a few years time I'll probably have to walk up to the valedictorian and greet her first. It's a sad and disturbing thought, that even with people that you were once close to, you may feel insecure talking to that person when you've not seen each other for a long time. It may be because of guilt that we didn't keep in touch. What a scary thought it is, the fragility of friendship. Such indeed is the reality of life, that we live so much in the now. People always say leave the past behind, but so often we leave our friends behind as well. That's why I always admire people who keep in touch with primary or high school friends. Coz I find it so hard to do that. Hopefully that will change, with the advances of modern technology (i.e. Facebook,msn..etc) hahahha.

Also a point that came up was the facades we put on. How many do we actually have? The welcome night mode? The at-work mode? The interview mode? The witness pair mode? The song leading mode? The I-just-want-to-get-away-from-everybody mode? The bible-study-leading mode? And is there one that is your own true self? I think personally I do have many modes, and most of the time my mode will change to suit the mode of the person I'm interacting with, if I do interact. Like being professional when talking to uncles, or crazy when talking to little kid. Hahaha. Is that a bad thing? I dunoo..

Ok so we went to a place called Amaze'n Things. It's an indoor place with lots of unique and weird things that seems unreal but is actually quite explainable. Had quite a fun time there, then off we went for lunch at a fish and chips place. I vaguely remember the place from the trip in first year of uni. After that we went to a quiet beach before heading off to the penguin parade. We waited for about an hour with a packed crowd, and just when the penguins were coming in from the sea, it started to rain, with lightning and all. Saw a few groups of penguins come into their burrows, but couldn't wait for the large group to come in because it was really slow and the humid conditions were not exactly comfortable. We then walked back along the planks to see the penguins walk to their burrows. The drive home was quiter. I've never been asked this question before, but dipso asked whether I feel superior talking to vertically challenged girls because of my height. Hmm.. never really crossed my mind before because I've grown up being taller than most people, as far as I can remember. I've never thought of it as being an advantage until just a a few years ago. So do I feel superior? Of coz I do! hahaha..

Went to Papa Gino's for dinner before going back home. Had to do some packing before crashing at 4am. What a road trip. An emo road trip, and I actually liked it. Haha. Today was the last Sunday in church for me. Hard to imagine how it's gonna be like in Sydney. I'll miss the long periods of waiting for people to finish talking and start walking to lunch or wherever. Will also miss queuing up for church lunch, and most definitely BASKETBALL!! for lunch we went to Dessert House. Dinner was at ruth's place, a farewell dinner for us. How sad, this is finally goodbye. Said so many goodbyes in the last month or so, but this has got to be the most final one. Haha.. hope to be back for visits in Melbourne though. But still, it'll be a different setting. And my fears are like what we discussed on the road trip. Arghh..

Flying back to Malaysia tomorrow! Probably won't have internet for two weeks.. Will say goodbye to unit 1201 College Square, the place I've called home for 4 years. Nostalgic feelings. Will go eoc now..

I've always wanted to go to the Australian Open, one of the four tennis grand slams, and what better time than now, when I'm not working and best of all I'm in Melbourne, the home of Australian sport. And 1st day tickets aren't so expensive, so I grabbed the opportunity to be part of the crowd instead of the usual tv audience. I wasn't expecting much people since it was only the first round, but there were throngs of people there when I took the tram from Flinders to Melbourne Park. But it was still quite organised with extra tram services operating.

I was on my way to Vodafone Arena and on my way, hola, I saw Lindsay Davenport practicing. This, I think, is Lindsay's first tennis championship after having a baby last year.

The first match of the day at Vodafone Arena was between the third seed Jelena Jankovic and Tamara Paszek. Everyone expected this match to be a breeze for the third seed, but it turned out that it was just the opposite of that. The unseeded player gave Jankovic an extremely hard time, winning the 1st set,losing the 2nd and the deciding set lasted till 12-10, with Jankovic prevaling in the end. A pulsating 3 hour match who everyone thought was gonna end at the 1.5 hour mark, but Jankovic saved so many match points it was unbelievable. What an opening match. I would have liked the underdog to have won though. But I guess experience counts in the end.

I've actually been wasting away the past week or so.. or at least that's what I'm feeling.

Sorting through the pictures of the trip with my mum and sis, I'm sad that there weren't any real nice shots. But I'm glad that the people shots were well taken generally. But yeah, my skills as a photographer is still below par.