Sorry, this post is cloud heavy. (GET IT?!)  No, seriously, it's just full of fluff.
Ok, I'll stop.

But I couldn't resist when I saw the beautiful fat fluffy clouds float past my window yesterday after a morning of rain. Once upon a time, I was obsessed with the weather (along with dinosaurs, ancient Egypt and dressing up as a hobbit...but more on that later) and could identify all the cloud types. I also remember in a regional spelling bee in primary school, one of the words I got was "cirrocumulus" which I smugly spelt right. Gosh I was such a cool kid.  

So of course in a bout of excitement yesterday I whipped out my telephoto (unfortunately my room isn't actually 20 storeys high) and- in the case of the first photo- squished my face against my bedroom window to get these. Dedication! 

But worth it; there's something about clouds that makes me so calm, especially ones that are so fluffy they don't even look real.

ALSO, totally unrelated but I found out that I got some traffic linking to THIS POST and photo from people searching "asians with freckles" on Google images. Also people searching "awesome shopping trolley" somehow clicked over to my blog as well. Ahaha too funny...

I had been meaning to do this for a while, and finally buckled down and finished it last weekend. I didn't even bother carefully selecting photos, just copy and pasted a few folders from this year and ran down to Bing Lee to print them off, because I knew if I dawdled around I'd NEVER get it done. The result? Some really random photos in the mix including a stupid photo of dumplings which didn't even taste that good anyway. But hey, gone is the sad wall of peeling posters and blutack, though it was hard to say goodbye to the sexy legolas one...

What I learnt:

1. It is a bitch to tessellate photos neatly if they are odd dimensions. 

DON'T DO IT if you want to make life easier. 

Only do it if your photos are handy dimensions, like the bigger ones are exactly 2x the smaller ones etc.

2. Do a little research on which places print the cheapest; if you print  like 200+ photos, the difference can really add up. 

I ended up getting them printed for 7c each!

3. Put photos that you love or mean something to you.

 If you are like me, you will get so sick of looking at the stupid photo of dumplings that didn't taste that good, instead of feeling all smiley and happy at all the memories on display.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally did it. I think these days with shooting digital, we just end up with thousands of photos saved and hidden away on our computers and hard-drives which is a shame because they should be seen! I like being able to look at one photo and remembering the story behind it, and seeing all the moments laid out on my wall just reminds me that life isn't always crappy and dreary, but colourful and rich too. Hopefully over time I'll keep changing it up and adding more photos to it.

 | ID/Pass, diary, papers, lab-book |


On another note, this week I started on a summer research scholarship at a research institute coincidentally near my house. Adjusting to the 9-5 work routine was pretty yuck after my 1 week holiday but I quite like the work so far. I'm working in a project doing stuff on a tumour suppressor gene related to malignant mesothelioma...for anyone who is interested. The lab team is extremely nice, more like a family really and the facilities are pretty brand spanking new.


There was a media launch for Asbestos Awareness Week on my first day which was a little full on, but in the best way possible. On the second day, the entire lab surprised me with a birthday cake! (The cake count for my birthday this year is ridiculous. It's like 8 or something, if you include R's ridiculous idea of buying me 4 cheesecakes...) But yes, the first week has been tiring but great. I apologise in advance if my blog posts for the next 2 months or so are a bit truncated, verging on non-existent during the week!

Congratulations if you are still reading this. Off to do stuff. Like return your lovely comments.

My sister wading out, Kiama

Why do we insist on making it complicated? 

Cut out things which don't matter. 

Less consumption. 

Less wanting.

Less worrying, what-if-ing, doubting. 

More learning, experiencing and feeling. 

More living.

That's what I'm hoping to do from now on!

Doing flashy tricks with fire.

Our cook/chef/entertainer.

Waiting for food to be served.

Raw eggs, lined up and ready to be thrown. 

Not kidding when I say they were cracked all over the place, including on WW's dress.

Doing tricks with utensils while cooking.

 "Please don't hurt me!"

Pretty sure all our faces looked like that actually. 

I would have taken more photos of everyone attempting to catch food with their mouths, bowls and hands (most of the time failing) but I was too busy being kind of scared shitless. Didn't really matter though, as it culminated in having pellets of egg fired at me in quick succession (gave up and ended up with egg up my shorts) and a bowl of rice hurtled at me...without the bowl (clearly futile, half of it ended up on the floor and my upper body). 'Special treatment' apparently.

Despite all the food that didn't end up in the right place, we were super full by the end of it. So we ate some ice-cream and cake.

Cutest smiley cake! 

We then did some mandatory screeching (karaoke) to Katy Perry and irrelevant asian music videos. After that, we sat around inside World Square and talked about everyone's different plans for the summer, involving a lot of jetsetting, working, lounging on a beach in Fiji (jealous) and catching up with family. So it was unbelievably nice to see everyone before they all dispersed into their busy lives for the next couple of months.

Beautiful friends. (ph. by R)


 I went home in an exhausted-happy state laden with gifts, the smell of BBQ-ed meat in my hair and the realisation that I got unbelievably lucky in befriending these amazing girls; can't believe I've known most of them since the early days of high school (and even earlier!). Lucky, I tell you.

1. Put on pants and stare at them.

2. Cut a slanted line a few cms lower than how short you want it to be! 

Unless of course you're fine with them fraying and exposing your butt and genitals.

3. Fold over, cut the other leg. Put them on, make adjustments.

4. Prance around.

I actually do not understand how fashion bloggers do it. Cutting the jeans took like 5 minutes and taking photos took almost an hour on account of me being an awkward turtle in front of the camera and having to balance my camera precariously on a dresser drawer. Mostly the awkward turtle part.

But yes, yay for free shorts!

What does this look like?

I thought it looked like a nebula, or a magellanic cloud. When I took some haphazard photos of the fireworks on Saturday, I didn't expect any of them to turn out properly so I was super excited when I opened this one on my computer! Funnily enough the combination of the visible smoke and fast shutter speed which made my photos turn out like this is exactly the opposite of what you are generally supposed to do when taking photos of fireworks? Which is incredibly lucky as I had NO IDEA what I was doing on the night.

But yes, this photo makes me happy, partly because I'm in love with space images (I may or may not have 8 or so posters plastered on my walls...) and partly because I love fireworks. That snap crackle sound pretty much makes my heart skip a beat without fail. So beautiful...

Anyway, here are the rest of them:

Sorry, still doesn't do them justice at all but thinking about fireworks just gives me goosebumps. Fireworks remind me of so many beautiful memories with so many beautiful people, it reminds me of lying on the grass in summer, my family laughing and that blissful moment on New Years when the whole crowd looks up, completely silent as the sky explodes. That has to be my favourite day of the year, it never loses its magic for me. I can't wait.

This is what I got up to on Saturday night:

 | Double layered ice-cream cake | Laughing, eating, face-palming | Friends playing with forks | Overexposed photo of my face | Sitting in the park | Milk shots | Waiting for dinner |  Potato gnocchi | Slow-cooked salmon pizza | Selling glowsticks | Late-night pool |

Spending time with good company and good food = good times. We celebrated my friend's birthday, and- unbeknownst to me until I arrived- mine as well (even though mine is in a week). Suddenly things made sense (why R was being mysteriously keen and why I got multiple urgent phone calls from friends wondering if I was ever going to show up) and at the same time I felt so stupid and ridiculous for moping the past few days and complaining to R that no-one cared about me yadda yadda. BUT ANYWAY.

We spent the day eating, and eating. Somewhere in there were a lot of silly moments like lounging around in Hyde park, being forced to do milk shots, and watching a certain boy walking around with a picture of Bieber on his crotch (?!) like the cool person he is. Also watched the icecream cake melt (icecream and m&ms is seriously the best combo ever) and subsequently bottled the melted cake....to do cake shots. Delicious, I know. We then headed to Eat Love Pizza for a hearty meal, played a bit of pool, and did some general gallivanting around.

And somehow, coincidentally, there were fireworks on in Darling Harbour.

| Better photos next post! |

I really don't think the night could have turned out any better!

Also, my friends gave me a Pandora bracelet with a couple of beads/charms on it including a soccer ball which alludes to how we met (violent soccer game involving too much shin kicking). I was and am still so touched by the thought behind it and solemnly pledged to wear it everyday, which is helped by the fact that I can't actually get it off...


Still, the thought of a couple of guys crammed in a jewellery store stringing and restringing a bracelet because they "had to see which beads looked good with each other" is too cute. I am so blessed to have such lovely people in my life :'-)

And- just quietly- I hate you blogger for being a complete bitch and making me redo this post, after deleting it. 3 TIMES. Really appreciate it.

P.S. I LOVED reading your responses to the What makes you smile? post, so much that they gave me warm and fuzzies and I am contemplating making it a regular thing...? Would love to know what you think!

1. Long-haired strangers reading on my afternoon bus home.

2. Sportsgirl's colourful ice-cream van.

3.Wandering through the city midday.

4. Lazing around R's house, discovering little things like this sticker.

5. Unexpectedly loving a scent; Miss Dior Cherie smells like strawberries...so good...
6. Writing a giant summer to-do list.
7. Snuggling with my 2 very angry birds.

8. ...in my bed.
9. "I can do anything good!"
10. Lisa Mitchell's "Clean White Love"