SOAP Symphony

The day that I have been looking forward to since the day I started crashing to one of my friend's orchestra rehearsal during my Tuesday break is finally HERE. I have been waiting patiently for about 4 weeks and now I could treat my ears for some soothing music.

Today did not start accordingly well as planned. Firstly, I set my alarm clock at 4:30 in the morning. But being someone who is a heavy sleeper, it seems very ambitious of me to do something impossible. Well, I did wake up but just to turn off the alarm. I heard Cim moaning all the time in a very pissed tone whenever my alarm went off. I purposefully snoozed it every time it went off just to assure that I might wake up but alas my attempt to wake up early in the morning to finish studying for my biochemistry quiz went down the drain.

Guess what, I slept in and woke up at 9 feeling worse because I did not know if I could manage to finish where I had left off. I started to panic. But before leaving for uni, I at least was able to scheme everything.

It was drizzling outside. Rain has been pouring down on Sydney for two weeks.

On a completely different notice, I fell down once because my mind was too occupied about something. I did not see there was an uneven plane in front of me and I tripped. It was a terrible fall and all I could think of in my head was the word "haemorrhage". Thank you so much for the courses I take in Medical Science, that as soon as I fell, the first word that popped up in my brain was the word to describe blood that escaped from the circulatory system. I tried waking up, I could not care less if there was people watching (I guess no one saw me), my pants just around my knee tore because of hitting the ground so hard. Suddenly, there was this man whom I met earlier approached me saying if I was alright. I was so grateful to him that he took sympathy. I did not know that anyone would saw my great fall. I was kind of embarrassed. Good thing I did not break anything and was still able to continue walk on my own. Thank God, it was not a rainy day that time, or else the fall would be worse.

To continue talking about the rain and the fall, I was on my way to the bus stop today, it was raining, I was rushing and my biggest fear of slipping just came true. I fell down. The woman who was walking beside me suddenly asked me if I was alright, again I was embarrassed. I had a trouble time of decoding why my lower limbs were not synchronised that made me lose balance. I fell down at the same location where I hurt my knee. I quickly got back up, thanked the woman, and quickly rushed again to catch my bus.

My first class which was Pharmacology tutorial is always a blur to me. I should start re-listening to the lectures again. This is the only subject I am left behind. I am totally clueless.

I decided to study for my biochem quiz that day rather than going to the lectures. I had a quiz at 4 and I spent the rest of the hours to study. I was thinking I should do my best on the quiz and so that I could enjoy the reward I give to myself that night (ie the concert).

Quiz was not as hard as I had imagined but I made a couple of mistakes. But oh well, I could just catch up with the next quizzes that is happening in two weeks time. I can't believe mid-semester exam is just right around the corner. AGRGH.

After we had finished the quiz, I felt like shouting at the top of my lungs, being so psyched about the concert. I could not help myself but to smile all the way. I could feel myself being so cheerful that very moment. As if a heavy burden had been lifted off.
ps: This is my first ever concert!

UNSW orchestra

love the trumpet trio! <3 -- they were playing Anderson's 'Bugler's Holiday'

first half is done and should I say, it was marvelous

lol, this is just like a normal selfie taken at a normal lecture. this is a lecture hall btw. -_-
we took this selfie in the middle of the 15 minute interval break between the transition from the UNSW orchestra
to the UNSW wind symphony. 

the second half is just about to begin with STAR WARS theme! what a great start

Finale was Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings soundtrack arranged by the conductor, Steven Capaldo himself
this was seriously the best and it was a great choice to end the night.
Why are they so good at this! kyaaaa

Throughout the concert, I felt goosebumps everywhere and the show was totally worth it. They had spent all those weeks of rehearsal for such a great performance. I was in awe from the beginning till the very end. My highlight of the whole show was without a doubt The Lord of The Rings medley but also an unfamiliar song composed by Percy Grainger called Lads of Wamphray. This march song was very refreshing indeed. 

I could not possibly wait for their next upcoming performance. I hope they play something that I am familiar of. :) 

Parramatta Getaway

Time to catch up with Santa today. This getaway was probably sort of an unplanned date. To be honest, we planned it during our midsession-exam period which was about a week ago, but we did not exactly figure where to go to. At first we were planning to go somewhere far by ferry. But then, we took a short detour instead to Parramatta which was a train away! I psychologically think it is more closer on a train ride than a ferry ride. However, it is pretty much the same. I know, super weird, huh. Anyway, I kept on rambling on important stuffs. Let's start on the real dish of this blog post!

Both us decided to meet up at the central station in the city. And from there we took a train ride (around 30minutes) to Parramatta! Another thing we haven't actually planned was where to eat. So along the train ride, I was texting people who have been to Parramatta about their recommendations. They said something about "laksa" so I just googled it and found a decent restaurant with a great review.

Upon arrival to Parramatta Station, we took a look at the map provided just before the exit. It was just a 5-minute walk everywhere around the radius of the station which was cool. We did not have to take a bus to wander around the suburb. I think it is called a suburb. It is definitely not a city, because if it was, then there would be two cities which was a bit bizarre. Anyway, I just typed in my thoughts to elongate the paragraph even more. Yay me!

Speaking of writing blogs, I haven't been putting much effort in my blog lately. This is mainly because I don't have the "time" to write. Not to mention, sometimes I even got a mind fart of vocabularies during the process of blogging. Usually I started with uploading the photos, but then, while waiting for the photos to be uploaded completely, the writing mojo just faded away and in the end I only wrote captions below the photos and a few lines at the end of the post. What an enthusiastic blogger huh..

Anyway we wandered around to find this laksa restaurant called "Temasek". It rings some familiarity to my ear somehow. It was incredibly hot that day. I felt parched as well. In addition to this, I think I was in a flu-stage symptoms. These made me feel even worse. What bumped me more was that I saw this restaurant sign but the dyslexic me read as "The Mask", it was supposed to be "Temasek". We walked past by it a few blocks away. Up till the point where I was enlightened to browse the image of Temasek. It was a good thing the lion logo was similar to the one I saw. So, we turned back and finally we were so close in filling our tummies with good food.

the laksa place! Temasek!!

chicken laksa

oh pardon my super lame face

The first bite of the laksa tasted okay. I preferred the laksa provided in UNSW. But after a few spoonfuls of laksa, it tasted good. First taste impression really matters to me. So far, best laksa in my laksa list category is the Matthews Laksa in UNSW.

Santa and I talked about everything we missed while having lunch. After lunch, we felt a bit guilty of devouring so much oils in one go. Then we decided to walk to the park and the famous Parramatta River.

found a cute abandoned shoes. It's cheetah print, I bet the toddler is FABULOUS.. Just kidding

old Government House

super weird canonball

there is actually a mattress inside this pavilion. guess where it is. Hint: it's on the left side.. I wonder if there is someone sleeping there at night

we almost took another wrong turn in finding the river. we were getting so far away from it

finally! it is gorgeous isn't it

i had to take this photo. i just HAVE TO

aww lily pads

clovers

this was a public art which we coincidentally found

we took a photo inside the Artist Studio building

After finally reaching our goal to find where the Parramatta River is, we decided to go to the Visual Artist Studio which I thought there would be a free exhibition of arts that we could see. However, the building was there but when we entered and went up to the second floor, we could see nothing but empty rooms. These rooms are like classrooms. But no one was in it. There was no art displays either so we quickly went out of the building. And went to the huge Westfield instead!

we should eat here sometimes! what a cute cafe

the building walls are too adorable

bought a yogurt lassi from a juice bar outside of a Dymocks sale stand. What amazed me more was there was a sale at Dymocks. I bought one cookbook which costed 2$. It was a hardcover and really in good condition.

We headed back to the central station in the city. Our feet were exhausted. We decided to have dinner at Chef's gallery in the city. Unfortunately, with our great luck, we had to line up and wait for 30 minutes before we could get any table. The place was booked.

just realised this picture was tilted. lol

In the end, after so many "no"s in which place we should eat, we ended up in Darling Harbour eating Madmex.

this is not spicy at all speaking from someone who has really sensitive chilli taste buds

for dessert we went for some gelato at Movenpick

lol what a derp right haha

kevin bumped into us! He didn't even recognise me! gahhh KEV! -_-

posing as aussie as we could be. LOL. wannabes....

We talked a bit more during our dessert session even after Kevin left. We headed back to the bus stop near the central station and the most unexpected experience happened. We were both walking down an empty alley while suddenly there was a guy asking if we could help them take photos since he wanted to show that he could take a better photos than his two other friends. I thought I could help in taking his photo but instead he put his arms around me and Santa and started posing for the photo. I did not expect to be in the photo. Weird. Then when I thought it was all over, his other two friends took turn in taking photos with us. He didn't even do the selfies right. He didn't even get my full face on the photo. Anyway, when it was all over we scurried as fast as we could, and when we were about to cross the road, we saw that they were behind us. There was a group of people next to us who was also hindered by these guys insisting to take selfies with them.

You might think that this was the end of the weird stroll around Sydney, but it's not over yet! When I departed with Santa and took my bus to Coogee. There was a stranger asking whether this bus was going to Coogee. I told him Yes. And then I thought it would be the end of him asking questions. But then, he suddenly asked where I was from, and even my name. I stupidly answered. The next thing I knew, the bus stopped at the last stop which did not look to me like the last stop because it was really far from the actual stop. This guy who called himself George, went down the bus with me and we walked together. I was super paranoid that he might do something bad to me. Then, he asked if I had a phone with me. I quickly told him that my phone was dead in which I lied. -_-. Afterwards, he asked if there was a public telephone around. He was visiting his friend who was staying in Coogee and he wanted to contact him. I was a bit unsure where the public telephone was at the time. I felt that there is a phone somewhere there so I pointed my finger there. Finally, we departed, I was relieved and I speedwalked my way home! I kept on glancing my back to check if he was not following. Thank God that I reached home safely.

Why should the world be so messed up that even I myself could not trust anyone with anything. This is totally another point to add up to people to long for the day to come soon!