I suppose I shall do a birthday post.

I think what is considered fun has changed over these years. A friend noted not too long ago that I could actually sit down, have a coffee and chat without getting restless and walking around instead, getting distracted by anything that passes by. While my birthday has been rather uneventful, other than spending time with J.C (thank you~ it’s always nice having a good friend like you around) and going to my last class for this semester, it has been a good one, with many birthday wishes and blessings sent to me via sms, msn or in simple words. A nice, quiet and relaxing day where sleep gets replenished, an extravagant dinner prepared by my dad, enjoyed by the whole family (except sister, who is in America right now) and now, a moment to just sit down and reflect, as I tend to do with my blog entries.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Stepping back to the beginning of the week, Monday was a rather hot day, where I met up with a dear friend at Hyde Park (a common place to find me now actually, been going there quite a bit just to walk, to relax, to watch chess games like the one above being played by avid chess players). Spent at least 2 hours watching chess games in the morning with TT, it was just so relaxing, under the shades of the trees and the distant (could have been more distant, but at least it wasn’t way loud) sound of bagpipes being played by a person at the fountains.

If someone said to you that they wanted to see you just for a minute or two, would you get the feeling that it’s something serious (and not necessarily good news either) that they want to tell you/ that you’re in trouble? Got a bit worried when my friend said that to me on Sunday night, but rather than giving me bad news, this was given to me:

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

XD domo-kun!

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

=D I never actually knew what he was, but I’ve seen that character around pretty often. It’s a brown monster, NHK mascot, with the typical “domo konichiwa!” opening line making up his name of “domo-kun”. Cute, haha.

Still on Monday... let’s see, watched people playing the big chess for a whole morning, talked to a random uncle that sat next to me on the bench, unsuccessfully tried to get TT (head of chess club) to play, and then headed off to grab something to eat.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

After trying Star Bar and finding the food/atmosphere pretty good, we headed to The 3 Monkeys bar, quite a famous place. Had Monday Pie and orange juice (we don’t drink!), but atmosphere… maybe it’s because we didn’t go upstairs, but it wasn’t that great. I can imagine why people would go bar hopping around city, there are so many around, but if ever I do go bar hopping, it won’t be to drink- it would be to eat. That defeats the whole point of bar hopping ^^’’ But anyway, pie. It was good, especially with the very buttery mash~ and the carrots and peas sort of made it a little bit healthier. It was getting quite hot (around midday), so we sat at Ten Ren and chilled. Then we went into a puzzle store afterwards, and got a metal puzzle:

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

The hanayama cast ring II.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Photo taken with my brother’s older camera. Not PS.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

What it looks like when it’s undone. Aim is to put it together back into the ring. Figured it out =D
Went home, slaved away on my essay. Came back home and saw Scary lying on the mat being lazy.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Random photo:

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Rawr.

Tuesday~ Class at 10, then headed to Ton Ton for ramen. Didn’t really feel like eating that day, so I found it pretty mediocre, nothing special (of course, it was nothing compared to Ryo’s ramen, which is, I think, the best you can get for ramen in Sydney)

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

I had a test to study for the next day, and so, we headed to Star Bar and must have spent at least 4 hours in there, getting drinks (non-alcoholic ones) and occasional snacks (chips, garlic bread) and trying to study. Haha, study. Yeah right. I think it must have been the lack of caffeine that day, I was really really sleepy the whole time. Maybe it was because of the dim lighting of Star Bar too, and the air con. After so much caffeine intake during the past few weeks of coffee, tea and Mother (energy drink), I decided to give it a rest that Tuesday, and ended up not being able to concentrate on studying, feeling extremely restless and fidgety, getting distracted with practically everything, from the big screen showing football games, to disturbing my friend sitting opposite me (I’m so sorry!) who was trying to read up on chemistry ^^’’ But, it was pretty relaxing spending hours there… though the songs they play are really quite trashy indeed, compared to Ten Ren and their nice selection of Chinese songs.
(digressing, for those who listen to Chinese songs, Jay Chou’s “Capricorn” album has some pretty nice songs~ I’ve only heard two songs so far, and they are absolutely great XD No, I’m not a Jay Chou fangirl…)

After that, met up with my parents for dinner at DTF (reviewed about it before in a few entries earlier). Brother couldn’t make it because he was sick (poor guy) but that just meant my parents and I get more food =D Their food was great as usual~ cannot get over how nice they make their xlb XD Their baos are pretty good too.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Their black sesame bao

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Filled with really nice black sesame paste that isn’t runny at all (they don’t dilute it with water, so it’s an actual thick paste~)

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

My dad’s bao, with a huge bite taken out of it ^^~ Thanks, dad, dinner was wonderful!
So that was my birthday dinner celebration, or was meant to be. I had another today though, authentic home-made! But that’ll come later. Let’s see, Wednesday…

Strange, that was only yesterday and I can’t remember much of it. Did my exam (dad was nice and drove me to uni. It was raining and traffic was terrible, but I managed to sleep throughout the whole journey and woke up after about 2 hours of being in the car ^^) and it wasn’t too bad I hope… so that’s one subject over and done with. Met up with J.C for a quick lunch at BB’s before heading to the tutorial together, and she lent me more books to read, and gave me this:

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

XD すごーーく嬉しい！Was nice just sitting down and catching up. Sad we don’t do it as often as before, but we’d have plenty of chance to next year, since she’s in my French class and that’s 4 days of being in the same (hopefully) class~

and then… met up with TT (again… wow, I only just realised we met up so often this week, haha) for some quick window shopping (I don’t get it, why on earth is it so hard to find black shirts these days?!) and a quick meal before TT went to work. Went home and didn’t do much work…
Then today (yesterday by the time I get this posted), Thursday, received many birthday wishes, phone calls, sms, messages~ feeling really grateful and content that people remember it. Went to class at 11, my very last class for this semester, this year, as a third year student. Almost fell asleep in class, haha. Met up with J.C again for lunch =D Took a long walk to towards Townhall, and went to Wasaby (also blogged about before). They changed the menu! Everything’s not in sets anymore now, and it’s the typical choose-your-own-appetizer/main/dessert setup. I think we were quite hungry after that walk ^^’’ so we ordered:

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

fried eggplant with mochi (rice cake). It was so good!! Mochii~~ and eggplants are really good. Starting to find that eggplants are one of the best vegetables out there.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Tuna tataki, their special for today~ Really awesome dish.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

With avocado sauce

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Closeup on the radish that was cut into the shape of a sakura.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Finished off with dessert~ tofu pudding (J.C!! I forgot what it’s called again~ help? =D ) with azuki and strawberry~ the sauce tasted like sesame, and the pudding was firm but wobbly.. ^^ really nice as well. Looks like bao in the photo, haha.

Wandered off to kino, borders, and looked at fantasy/crime fiction books (yup, we have similar taste in books! *hi 5~*) before heading home, where I crashed and slept for about 3, 4 hours. It was such a nice sleep~ think I lacked too much sleep these past few days.

Was woken up by my brother, who just turned my lights on (and I nearly killed him for it, haha) and announced that dinner was ready. My dad went through so much trouble preparing all these wonderful dishes, like crab and other seafood, my mum made soup (she knows it’s my favourite part of dinner =D ) and it was a really cosy intimate family dinner at home. I honestly think I have awesome parents, brother and sister, and friends. Feeling contented, happy, thankful and grateful. I think after a week of hectic uni, and long hours at work, it’s a joy to just sit down, relax and be either alone, or with someone close (for me, it’s my family, and friends like J.C and TT). Some people prefer full-scale parties and celebrations on their birthdays, where tonnes of people get invited, and they can all share the celebration and joy in one big happy bunch. I can understand that, I’m sure that’s fun too, but my birthday… I prefer a quiet celebration, perhaps multiple celebrations with small groups or individuals. I’m still deciding whether or not to organise something next year, but… hm… might change my mind and make small group meetings here and there and take each group somewhere nice and different.

And yes, my birthday is officially over. I took too long typing this blog entry, and it’s an hour late in posting.

EDIT: Of course, the cake which my parents got for me from Tai Ban~

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

=D Mango!