Content

Viva la calmness,

This is exactly how I want the holidays to be. Managed to calm myself down from the hurrying mess that was uni, and just enjoyed the company of close friends, enjoyed waking up with nothing to do but hobbies and passions, and really just letting my mind function the way it really wants to be.

I know that by next week, I'll be back into the rat race but I've managed to achieve everything I set out to achieve these holidays. That pretty much just means that I'll start the second semester with a totally refreshed mind - and that's what I really want right? Hmm, scrap the rhetorical question, it's a deadset yes.

The only thing I regret about the holidays so far is that I haven't been that physically active at all. Wihlst I can sit and blame it on the shitty weather, I sorta didn't have much of a motivation to go out running anymore. Although on Friday, I worked up enough botheredness to go for a run and golly damn, didn't it feel good. I did feel I was pushing myself to the limit so that's all I could ask for.

I think I'm the only one that actually enjoys watching the Tour de France. I used to think itwas the most boring thing ever, a bunch of men in tights riding a bike around France but really, it isn't the most boring thing - and it's not because of the bunch of men in tights. Alot of things are actually going on and I can't help but feel a bit of admiration for these guys who are busting their gut to pedal 200km each day, just so that some dude in their team can get to stand on the podium.

I have tickets to Green Day. Shit will be cash.

Writer's block moment... I'll think of something funky to post up later in the day.

                                   Tan.N

Em Jay

Viva la king,

I couldn't believe Tian when he told the table as we were having lunch after the Vision Science exam two weeks ago. But yes, the man who gave up his entire life devoted to entertainment has passed away.

Thankyou for being so good at what you did, and thankyou for allowing making our kareoke sessions so much fun. We do have to break it up from the Backstreet Boys from time to time. May you rest in peace and make every impersonator think twice about doing "it".

                                                       Tan.N

Things I learnt today

Viva la learnings,

1. A beat up 16 year old car is actually fairly unreliable, no matter how much you talk up about the beat up 16 year old car to your friends. But a good rev of the engine normally does the trick. Stupid thing reckoned that it was out of battery (I better get this checked actually before I hit up optom camp)
2. You know you're travelling too slow when you travel the speed limit on Heathcote Road (100km/h) and an elderly couple overtake you in a car that looks more beat up than your own 16 year old car.
3. When you buy a dog, you learn to adapt to their personality. WHen you make a friend, if their personality doesn't coerce with yours, you tell them to fck off.
4. Fish and chips is nowadays not defined by how well the fish is cooked, but moreso how the chips are cooked. Suppose we should be calling it Chips and Fish now.
5. You can never have enough guitars. Seriously. They are like wives. Just without the divorce papers.
6. I had to overcome the fact that I have to accept that my older sister is now breastfeeding her daughter.
7. Listening to Metallica gives me energy.
8. THere is truly an insufficient amount of "duck"/duckling baby toys. Teddy bears and puppies are so overrated man.
9. My guitar amps sounds more trebly as the amp warms up.
10. Not everyone knows what a beef curtain is.

                                               Tan.N

Happy Birthday April Rose Le

Viva la absolute beginnings,

This whole year, I haven't been eagerly anticipating anything else but this (although waiting for the night of the Living End gig came a close second I daresay). When peopel asked me what I was looking forward to, it was probably this.

So I wish a very Zeroth birthday to my new niece, April Rose Le. She graced the world with her presence this morning at 8.30 and so far, she seems to be a very healthy and beautiful baby even though she was born a couple of weeks premature. My parents got to see her this morning and said that she looked very bright, alert and of course cute.

Last thing we want is an ugly baby anyway.

The sister called the home phone this morning, asking where mum was. I picked up and told her that mum was out and it was only then when my sister gave the news to me: "Yeh, I sorta gave birth this morning." I dunno, there was this flat casualness in the way she said it, as if "yeh, I just ducked down to the shops to buy milk" or "yeh I left your socks on the chair." And how do you "sorta" give birth. Now, I'm not sitting here, thinking I know everything about the female anatomy (because I don't, I am a male) but I'm pretty sure you can't just "sorta" give birth to a live human being. But I suppose this isn't the whole point of the situation anyway.

Thinking about April just makes me feel excited inside. I noticed recently (and by recently, I mean the last five years of my life) that I have this sort of compressed emotional state - I never feel deep sadness nor deep excitement. But honestly and truly, there definitely is some excitement about this new existence. Within the timeframe that isn't defined by absolute values such as seconds, minutes or hours (although you physicists might pick out that time is actually relative instead of absolute but shutup) but rather defined as moments, we have this being.. this existence. And while April's current lifespan is still shorter than the duration it takes to recharge a lithium battery, you can't help but understand the future that her life holds for her.

Or how unfortunate it could be if I over-influence her life with "Tan-ness".

That's what I see as the beautiful thing about babies and youth. The metaphoric and shamefully poetic road ahead of them is still only just developing, and the complicated forks in the road haven't even developed yet. So much can happen and so many things can influence the course of life. I haven't even seen April yet and she's already instilled a vast amount of hope inside of me... an amount that no person or instructional motivational DVD can duplicate.

                                                             Tan.N

What's been encompassing my life lately

Viva la outings,

I have to say the past few days have been pretty much choc-a-bloc with stuff. Again, I'll keep it at list form just to make things a bit more concise:

• I got my pickup changed in the Gretsch guitar. The pickup is meant to sound alot "hotter" than the old pickups but because of the mildly dodgy job the peeps at the music shop did, I'm not hearing anything yet. They've put the pickup too far from the strings, so it's not "picking up" as well as it should be. I tried to do it myself but I figured that you needed an allen key to open up a certain part of the guitar.., but I couldn't find the aforementioned allen key. What I was most pleased with was that the pickup that was displaced as a result of the switch, are actually pretty good pickups to begin with anyway (well the brand name and model suggests so). I thought that the guitar had stock boring pickups but instead, they were actually pickups which are fairly sought after. Win win! What I didn't like though was how much of a rip off the music shop made me pay to pull the guitar a part and solder it up. It was 50 bucks all up, and they were about to make me pay another 25 dollars just to restring the guitar (25 dollars not including the strings themselves). I told them that I could just restring the guitar myself... and that job takes literally 5 minutes to do. Fck that.

• Emily had a little party/bash thing the other day and invited all her friends, school+uni. Whilst making new
  friends, I thought it was super weird how when they found out that I did optometry, I suddenly turned into "Answer-man" as they just shot questions left right and centre: "Why were my eyes blue and why are they green now?" "Why am I -3.25?" "How can I make myself see better?" "Why do babies eyes never grow?". I thought I'd be the last person to say this but it's come to the point where I seem to wear my profession on my sleeve. Am I beginning to like Optom that much? Haha, who knows.. I whine about the course whilst partaking the course, but there's definitely an element of pride when I explain what's going on with the eyes on a physiological basis, and from what I can tell, I can somehow make it sound so fascinating to the layman. Hmmm, I actually love this aspect of the course - the teaching side to it (and well well well, it all stems down to the first passion now doesn't it?)

• Went and watched Transformers with the boys on Wednesday. It's so good hanging around the boys (or any Hurlstonians for that matter) as it's truly on then when I really do feel like myself, and that I act in a manner which best describes "Tan". It's those moments which are, unfortunately, irreplaceable. The movie itself was pretty good, but hurt my eyes seeing as it was at the IMAX theatre. Like it was effing huge. Never been to the IMAX before. Movie had some strong emotions conveyed but in the end, masked by the immense CGI effects and slowmotion booby bouncing and rump cavorting Megan Fox. Couldn't help but laugh everytime she ran, they had to zoom in on the features that best define the female architecture.

• Staying at home and spending time with mum is truly underrated. Since the car accident, she's been spending everyday at home for the last year and it's amazing how she's got on by walking around the back of the garden and tending to her plants... You'd think it would feel pretty lonely. Now that I'm at home, I spned alot of time with her talking, and she's filled with a wealth of knowledge and experiences from the bygone era of Vietnam. I drove her out to Cabramatta today to go for the doctors and she was telling me a story about one of her old high school/uni friends and I got so engrossed into the story that I missed turns and streets whislt driving. That made mum stress a bit because we were getting a bit lost but I told her it was ok, "I was just listening to your story anyway. There's always time to turn the car around."

• It's been way to cold to go on jogs lately which saddens me. I feel like I'm not as fit as I was before and possibly not as strong. Had this full mad plan that I was going to try and get my speed back to where I want it to be but I've been getting so lazy as of late. Actually, this weather should be encouraging the wearing of my tights, so I'm actually quite confused as to why I'm not even excitedly sporting them on and doign sprints and runs. Maybe next week... maybe later... The ultimate phrase for an university scholar really.

• And I need to get back into cooking. Like really. First off, I need to learn how to make some awesome lasagne, then try and woo some sort of unsuspecting female with it. It will be glorious surely.

                                                                 Tan.N