Things to be glad about in the intervening weeks:
FRIENDS

yes, friends hahaha! Amazingly, despite my usual shitty sense of communication with friends, I still have plenty of those. I am glad

THE ABILITY TO COOK FOOD!

I know some of you have been watching my twitter slowly being flooded with some form of food or another. Most of which are of my own doing ^_^ I can only say, practice makes everything better!

I have been busy

Mostly with learning alot of things, hobbies to keep the mind busy, friends to keep everything else busier. I am happy, and that’s also quite important I guess. One of the most interesting thing I did was to run up to Sydney to surprise a friend – someone I haven’t really met before really. It was a good trip, and our online personas are as crazy as our offline personas, if not more When I first went up though, the intention to was to drive her lonliness away. Nevertheless, our love for food kind of went a little overboard ^_^v I am still feeling the ramifications of that weekend!

The other interesting thing that has happened is… me playing alot less games. oh yes, I am still playing facebook games. those are not as life intensive as WoW or Lineage 2 ever was though – about 20 minutes a day, if that. instead, I have thrown myself into learning a whole bunch of things. sewing, cooking, reading – it’s incredibly hilarious and breath taking at times.

What should I attribute all that to? frankly, I don’t know. I think, firstly, it started with me working where I am working, and meeting the people that I did. Then, there was my kindle and the chancing upon the Kindleboards which led to a whole bunch of other things I can’t even describe.

The whole whirlstorm of cooking was further kicked up a notch when I bought my new rice cooker while in Sydney for the visit!

I was intending to get one of those nice Zojirushi Rice Cookers mentioned on the Kindleboards, or even something else I could have gotten cheaper from Singapore. the Problem that dad mentioned was warranty. What if something happens, what if this and that. Plus the socket issue… I decided that yeah, I should just get a rice cooker locally.

I haven’t regretted the decision one bit. Tiger is a competitor to Zojirushi in Japan anyways, and they can’t possibly be that much different.

The point is, the rice is cooked PERFECT EVERY SINGLE TIME. there’s nothing much I need to do, as per rice cookers. wash, fill it up with water up to the indicated lines… wait. Infact, the rice is sssoooo good, I just make sushi rice everyday because it’s just so perfect and makes it easier to… vinegar up.

which just makes me want to cook everything else to go with the rice ^_^ so far, it’s been good… really good. ok, enough food talk. <3

Friends. Such a simple word yet it is so hard to define in actual terms.

Come March 2010, I would have been here a good 7 years. It is not a long time, but definitely not a short time. I have had my ups and downs and I am pretty sure I never thought I would see a number such as 2010 – but I am going to soon. I have staunchly refused to admit any form of homesickness, except once ever when things went downhill and all I wanted was daddy.

Yet, I will now and then admit that I miss the friends I do have in Singapore. For all the crap I ever lived through as a teenager who claims more dramatics than I really should have, for all the feeling of lonliness I ever mentioned, I did have friends. Not many close ones, mind you, but enough for me to go home to and feel like I missed out on a big part of their lives (marriage, kids, divorce – oh yes! divorce!)

Norjit flew in on Nov 30th and took her little tour around Australia with her husband and a friend. This would be her second international trip in her currently not so old life, where else others would have marked it off as one of those things they are repetitively doing. I didn’t get to see her until today, the second last day of her trip.

I was sorely disappointed I couldn’t spent more time with her, but I have never been one for doing touristy things anyways (seriously? letting people drone on and on?) and after today, a part of me was GLAD I didn’t have any guided tours for most of my life, much less going around Australia with her on a guided tour.

I do miss her, and throughout the 4-5 hours that we were together, we gasbagged like old ladies, rushing through conversations while politely inclining our heads towards the tour operator. Very much like how we used to “perform” during school excursions.

When we finally had some free and easy time at the War Memorial, our last stop before she heads back up to Sydney, we politely walked through all the exhibits, then ran to the cafe to have a more intense conversation – for all of 30 minutes or so.

It was as if time and space did nothing, hell I even spoke to her mum on her phone. It all ended too soon though, and soon she was on her way back to the coach, up Mount Ainslie.

Despite Uni, despite all forms of formal schooling, there’s many things that formal education can’t teach. How personalities meld, how lives changes and how the air moves when despite all the changes personalities stays together… I am glad for all that I have and know.

Now, if only she had stayed long enough to meet Aileen, oh God.