I thought I would have an abundance of idle time to spare as soon as the exams are over but time, as I found out, is a luxury that one can only dream of having more of. There hadn’t been a day where I could wake up past noon and have the privilege of indulging in the gratifying discourse with myself about what to do for the rest of the day, because there is always something on the To Do list waiting to be crossed off, someone that I have to rush off to meet, or a work shift to attend.

The whirlwind of the first semester of ’09, also my last semester as a second year student, extinguish itself quickly enough; one, two blows and it’s done. One of the growing pains that I had to go through this semester was finding out that I’m only… human. I stupidly kid myself into believing that I could wake up for every lecture and tutorial, have the time to study enough (or the brains) for me to ace my exams, put in twenty five hours a week as an ice-cream girl at Freddo’s, and still have some semblance of a social life. It only dawned on me ’till much later when I was having my pre-exam breakdown, a result of my lack of readiness, that I am only human and there is only so much I could do, given the circumstances and resources. I was crippled by the one thing that made us human – limitations. So a superwoman I am not, to which I found out with much dismay.

I tried my best, I really did. Even if I had the mental capacity to accommodate everything that I had to do, I was held back by physical restraints; there are only so many all-nighters that my body could take. After surviving the final paper of Accounting for Corporate Entities (ACE) set by Noel Boys, our lecturer who is infamously known for churning out the most notoriously difficult exam papers ever, I told my parents not to be surprised if I don’t pass the subject. What I didn’t tell them was the fact that the final paper for that subject wasn’t even a tough one to tackle (I’m sure those of you who have taken the paper will concur!), yet here I am wailing to my housemate right after the exam that I am SO SURE that I’d fail. I can’t be lucky twice, I told everyone, having barely passed last semester’s accounting paper. It wouldn’t have been so bad on my already-bruised ego if the paper were actually a tough nut to crack; at least I had a reason to fail. Now I’ve never been particularly fond of Noel Boys (I absolutely hate his tasteless sarcasm) but boy, am I glad to know that he saw fit enough to give me a grade that I still don’t think I deserve. OMG I just logged into my uni email account and there was an email announcement on an amendment of result for the ACE paper. What you saw wasn’t what you get. The actual grade has been released and I have actually failed. SIGH sigh sigh. Ah, I’m sure faith played a big role here.

Maybe this is the wake-up call that I really need. Maybe I’m not cut out for business school, maybe I just need to brush up on my time management skills. Sigh, only one more year of uni left and I am mulling over my current path of tertiary education. Final year will be an entirely different ballgame I’m sure, so it’s high time I change the rules of the game too. But right now I just want to relish every second of being back home for this short two and half weeks just to recuperate from the harsh reality of the last few months.

Here are some pictures my annoyingly deficient camera managed to capture in the past months. Enjoy, as I go fix myself some buttered (actually, Planta) toast with a sprinkling of Milo powder on top! Awesome stuff, everybody should try it!

The electrifying Jason Mraz performance at Festival Hall!

Sights from the car en route to Ballarat.

Statue of Queen Victoria in the heart of the town of Ballarat.

Sdyney in May: Our spread at Pancakes On The Rocks!

Sdyney in May: Fei, Yiaun & I in front of the Guylian cafe – Fei’s pick over Lindt for our hot choc session after dinner, and it couldn’t be more apt!

Sdyney in May: Fei, thank you for taking the time out to meet me in the midst of tests!

This is one of those late nights when the boys have just finished their beer + boytalk session out in the balcony and us girls with dinner and dessert. Everyone (except me) was so crazy in love with San Remo instant pasta that night and ate right out of the pot! You can even see Eu Jinn‘s look of arousal (from pasta?!) here!

Visited the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail) when Hock Jeen was in Melbourne for a couple of days.

On display at the Gaol.

In the padded cell of the watchhouse!

Eu Jinn & Hock Jeen.

We sign ourselves up for what was deemed the ‘Watchhouse Experience’ where we were treated like offenders, bodysearched thoroughly and kept ‘overnight’ in one of the cells. Fun!

Nice picture of Ash and Eug during dinner at Horoki on Ash’s birthday. Food was good there but the serving is tiny; we had to order seconds.

Met up with Ee Vonn when she was finally given a Melbourne flight on her roster!

At Koko Black after a movie with Zi, Trang & Ola. I feel so awkwardly Asian with them. Zi grew up in Spain, Trang lives in Hungary and Ola is Polish, but they’re all very nice and chatty!

At the Hello Sailor Vintage Fair with the girls!

Pinkytham with the most adorable bag ever! A vintage Gucci mini trunk that Janice later bought.

Fooling around with sunnies that weren’t even ours!

Necklaces for sale at the vintage fair.

A very cute picture of Jacq halfway through perming her eyelashes! This was when Jacq, Fei & Yiaun bunked in with me when they came to Melb from Sydney.

Last but not least – sleepover/baking party with Su Lynn, Janice & Wai Ping! Can you see the scrumptious apple crumble we baked! :D