1. To cut back on coffee - 1 cup a day
2. Get a Job.
3. Keep fit and exercise at least once a week!!!
4. Remain positive! a pessimistic attitude to life only makes it worse each day!
5. Be more active in volunteering!
This year started off well with a trip back to my hometown in Hong Kong in mid January. In Hong Kong, I got to see my bro, my relatives, sharon and her family, most of my uni friends and live in tall apartments among bustling streets with crowded people everywhere. Although I could not read much Chinese, I was able to explore on my own and travel to different places without being around with my father. I went to HK Disneyland the very first time, celebrated Chinese New Year there the first time since I moved to Melbourne. I also went to Macau, which was quite different from what I had expected. I expected Macau to be very similar to Hong Kong with many tall and modern buildings, but it was more like Shenzhen. But one of the most memorable moments was spending time with my aunts, uncles and cousins during Chinese New Year. We all gathered to have lunch at Mei Foo, with my eldest aunt cooking a Chinese style meal for us all and chatting to my cousins. The trip ended with a gathering with Teresa and Alan for dinner and chatting at Mary Jane Cafe prior to my flight back to Melbourne.
February - April was a time for me to sought things out. As Teresa was leaving us for good, I got to use her room as my new study room. It took a while for me to get used to things without Teresa around or complaining about something. I had to start uni earlier than usual to organise my final year project, which I found alright because it was just literature research on my topic. It also took me a while to get used to my final year at uni, as I had to drive to school myself instead of my father dropping me off on his way to Bunnings; most of my friends were gone and I had less classes. Bananas - I had my last piece of banana that was sold for less than $3 back in early March before Cyclone Larry. I remembered that I had it at Steph’s place with Tennessee, Claire and Sam and we were having fruit salad with pancakes and bananas.
Nothing much happened in May. All I rememebered was that I studied hard for my Volc and Seds exams and worked hard on my final year project. So I suppose the month was quite boring, with all study and no play.
And I nearly forgot that I had my birthday in May. I didn’t plan to have a 21st birthday celebration unlike all my other friends, but they threw a surprise party for me anyway. I was thrilled to have my Wesley friends (notably Steph, Claire and Sam) at Chadstone to celebrate my birthday although most of them had their exams at that time. I also attended Eli’s 21st party - a 1920s themed party held in Brighton and Steph’s 21st birthday party held at Albert Park on 1st July. I gave speech at her birthday party as being one of her close friends. It was also nice to see Sam, Krygger, K, Jaani, Hoang, Alan, Adam and other Wesley friends at the gathering. And indeed, hours was spent into watching the World Cup on TV, cheering for the Socceroos.
Again, nothing much happened in July, except for Aaron’s farewell dinner, which ended my two year long crush on him. It was difficult to pull through my thoughts, but it seems that I was able to put my emotions aside. Haha! Nicole - the daughter of Cherry and Timothy, was also born around this time. They celebrated her one-month anniversary in August, where they held a party at some restaurant in Caulfield.
Most of the time in September - October was spent on my thesis, which I think I have written lots about during the past 10 months. Doing it was ok, but dealing with the actual problems was rather annoying. And I went to Leo’s graduation day at clayton - he took us out for dinner at Red Emperor the following Saturday after his graduation.
Finally, the biggest part of November was that I submitted my thesis, feeling happy and relieved. I then spent the rest of my time, job hunting, catching up with my family and friends….
Strawberries picked by Winza from Sunny Ridge farm, Main Ridge on 26/12/06
The best moments, highlights and some of Winza’s bad moments in 2006 are reviewed here….Month by month:
January: Trip to Hong Kong Disneyland, Chinese New Year Celebrations, iPod Nano
February: Macau, Slavery in Box Hill, Honours Project Assigned, New study room
March: Uni started, Volcanology Field Trip
April: The PP crisis, Data crunching,
May: The sudoku hype, Bus Uncle fad, Pokemon addiction, Otway basin/Anglesea field trip
June: Belated surprises, Exams, Eli’s 21st, Fifa World Cup,
July: Steph’s 21st, Data crunching/Mapping Hell, Nicole’s birth
August: Massive downloading addiction, AL’s farewell
September: Crazy mapping, insomnia, crazy bullshitting, dockland photo expedition
October: Crazy drafting ‘n proofreadin’, brain cells gettin’ depleted, New Phone,
November: Thesis submission (wtf?), exams, job hunting.
December: The Wii launch, the Wii, cousin joins us for Christmas and fruit tour,
Every year, we had had a Christmas barbecue at home with friends and other employees from Seng Hing. Once again, mum made us sushi, we were given chocolates and we had a group of people playing mahjong. What was different this year though, was that the barbecue was held in the mist of cold weather, Cherry bought her baby girl along, my cousin Samuel joined us and we offered an alternative form of entertainment, the Wii.
Like last year, we organised a group trip to Sunny ridge strawberry farm and a total of 17 people signed of for it. It wouldn’t be as hot as the previous trip, but hopefully it wouldn’t be freezing.
Oh.. and by the way - Merry Christmas..
But who do I say it to anyway? No one reads this blog.