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You know what? I have THE BEST friends. Each day, my appreciation for you guys grows and grows.
I guess along with all this social activity comes a lot of catching up and with catching up, distance becomes very obvious.
I spent majority of the night talking with a very old friend, I think actually my first real uni friend. We used to be incredibly close, to the point where I would receive calls from her at least once a day. However, we also became friends with a guy - who we both ended up liking. I ended up with the guy and even though he was someone who I came to love and care about very deeply, even though my life would not have been the same without him, a part of me always felt guilty about being involved with him because of the deep pain it caused my friend and the huge rift it caused between us. Eventually we patched things up but even though she always assured me that she was over it, I could always sense a certain mistrust from her, a holding back which made me terribly sad. Well last night during our long talk we came to address the issue again and she finally truly forgave me. The difference was instantaneous. Suddenly we were no longer restrained to trivial conversation; she began to open up to me about her problems and I was able to properly share my own with her. I was so sure that I could never have that with her again and am so glad that she was able to find it in her to forgive me.
Another very close friend tried to commit suicide earlier this year. Now, this is is far from new to me - I had a friend chase a bagful of valium and prozac with vodka when I was 15 and then had another friend overdose on antidepressants when I was 20. I am notoriously bad at dealing with these situations and though they survived, our friendship dissipated. This most recent friend was like a sister to me and after the numerous incidents, I couldn't handle it. Once I knew she would be okay, I needed some space from her. Usually this "space" leads to the loss of the friendship, but I had told her about my past experiences and she was able to understand my reaction, allowing me the time I needed without jumping to conclusions about my reasons. When we were both ready, we started talking on the phone, meeting up, eating out and now our friendship is even stronger than before.
There are so many others as well...
- The girl who has always lived on the other side of the world but who has always been there for me. I have literally known her now for half my life and I hope to continue to increase that percentage. *hehe*
- The girl who is always willing to put her own life on the backburner to help me with mine.
- The guy who was brave enough to remain my friend even after I rejected him so harshly. I do value your friendship and I know that we are better like this than we ever would have been as a couple.
- The guy who drove me to the hospital and waited with me in the emergency ward for 4 hours, even though he was starving and it meant he missed his favourite tv show.
- The girl who is like my twin and who I know can always relate to whatever I'm saying, even if it's terribly obscure and/or random.
- The girl who is my mentor and idol. You are always willing to help me with the Big Girl stuff like teaching me about mortgages and the advantages of offset accounts. *lol* I would be more than happy if I could be half as wise and mature as you are one day.
Once again, this is not a complete list but to all my lovely friends, you are beautiful and wonderful and I would not be the same person without you by my side each step of the way.
Var
sent a postcard on 12/18/2008
Still to come/to catch up on:
- Anna's 21st and surprise return from Germany
- wushu dinner and ice cream (wait till you see how we had the ice cream)
- most romantic date I've been on with mystery girl (has Var really given up on the walking frustrations that are men and turned lesbian? Hmm...stay tuned to find out more...)
Var
sent a postcard on 12/17/2008
Pomegranates - 15/12/08
Until the apartment she bought is completed, Rina is staying at her cousin's place, so after work, Pauline and I offered to help her move the last of her stuff over. Her cousin's place is just a block away from mine so I know the area is nice but
PHWOAR.
HUGE place. Lotsa space.
Their kitchen has a built-in coffee maker and chilled wine cabinet. Like...WHY?!
Antiques on the mantelpiece? A plasma screen tv on the floor? And, what is that? An apartment fireplace?!? Hell yeah it is!
And a beautiful view from the 20th level from the SECOND balcony. Note that this is the second of THREE balconies. My friends, THIS is my goal. I will put these photos up in my room and that will be my motivator to succeed: to one day own a place like this. *hehe*
Anyway, second reason for going there was because I had been over the previous night as well and we had been discussing weird/exotic/foreign fruit. I had mentioned I had seen pomegranates in Safeway the other day and that I had never tried them. They hadn't either (or rather, they weren't really sure what I was talking about) so we agreed that we would get some and give them a go.
"Mum" at work again. Look at her multi-tasking! =D
Here's a close-up. Pomegranates are a strange, strange fruit.
Anyway, once we finally got around to eating them, it was a messy business. How the hell do you eat pomegranates? Well folks, apparently THIS is how you eat them. WE were going about it in a very wrong, time-consuming and frustrating way. *lol*
However, what little we did get from them was delicious and somehow extremely filling. If you've never tried one, I totally recommend giving it a go! Just...read the instructions first.
Wushu - 16/12/08
Okay, so anyone who does wushu knows the cardinal rule is do not miss training! The reason? Cos it fckn canes when you try to get back in. I missed the last three sessions cos two Fridays ago I was hungover from Anna's party (I'll post about that eventually), Tuesday I was working and last Friday I was hungover from the work Christmas Party. *lol*
So was back at training today and I swear to god, I have totally reverted to unfitness. -_- Back to daily gym! Was totally worth it to go, though, if simply just to see this:
Yep. Thanks to my talent for making people's desires come true (*hehe* you just gotta ask before I can make it happen, though ^_~) the boys are now sparring after training. Light boxing and grappling. *hehe* They show me their war wounds once they're done.
God...there is something SO hot about watching guys wrestling. Even though it looks totally gay when they are struggling around on the floor trying to make the other one tap out.
Stop it, boys.
Var
sent a postcard on 12/17/2008
Dinner with Mark and Marian - 9/12/08
Marian was feeling down so I invited her over so Mark and I could give her some therapy. We had some greasy, greasy pizza before hunkering down to some ice-cream cake (incidentally, exactly the same cake as I had tonight).
It was Mark's birthday the previous week and he hadn't celebrated with a big party so we decided to make a small gesture. Unfortunately, on such short notice, the only kind of candle Marian could find was in the shape of Bart Simpson. *lol*
Mark and Marian are two of my closest friends from uni. However in the two years since we stopped having classes together, I have only seen them maybe five times. It makes me sad to think of the distance which has grown between me and my ex-uni friends, all who have now graduated and are either making a career move or are studying masters/honours, leaving me in the dust with my lengthy combined undergrad.
But it's nice to know that even though our meetings may be less frequent, we are still close...
...and we can still make each other smile.
Var
sent a postcard on 12/14/2008
Work Christmas Party - 11/12/08
Since Mr. Boss Man granted my wish for more full-time hours during the uni break, I have been working 9am-5:30pm Monday to Friday. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to go straight from work to the christmas party so I felt a bit like a wreck.
Anyway, my team trammed it to the Flinders property to meet up with some of the others for pre-dinner drinks. Often hotel guests leave booze behind in the minibar when they check out. We're supposed to chuck everything but this team had decided to stockpile it instead. So when we headed there, there was quite a variety of alcohol to choose from. *hehe*
Next we walked across the Yarra to The Pub at Crown for a two-course meal. I didn't have time to take photos of the meals cos I was too busy stuffing my face but just take my word when I say they were well-presented and fckn delicious.
There was a pretty good turnout from all the properties and we took up two huge tables, probably offending other diners with our loudness, but also intimidating them with our numbers. ^_^;;
There were lots of laughs and networking between properties but I think the interplay between my boss and the gay receptionist from another property pretty much stole the show. (In this picture, Daniel has adopted his jumper as a protective device but has found that it is a paltry defence to Rio's strong advances.)
It was hard not to watch Rio's repeated attempts and Daniel's repeated rejections of his affections. It was like watching Will and Grace where the straight one of the pair is also male. Supposedly Rio was just joking but after a while, you really had to wonder. >_> His attentions weren't solely for my boss, though. At one point he was demanding each of the young property managers undo their top button so that he could point a camera down their shirts and take a photo of their hairy chests. I have two words for that moment: awkward and disturbing.
My team (well, those who decided to attend) including three reception girls and the two Boss Men.
Var
sent a postcard on 12/14/2008
Too much has been going on. Seriously I feel too old for being a party animal/social butterfly anymore. TOO OLD, y'hear???
Anyway, WARNING: the next few posts will be very graphic-intensive cos I'm lazy to write in detail, so I'm just gonna do pics 'n' captions. Note also that the photo quality will probably be poor cos I have recently started using Pix Resizer instead of Photoshop cos I have little RAM and my laptop can't handle Photoshop and multiple photos as well as it did in its younger years. Also because I'm lazy.
Note that the next couple of event posts will not be documented in order, either. In fact, they will most likely be done in reverse order just cos I feel like doing the ones that are freshest in my memory first.
So, that having been said, this was TONIGHT:
December Hotpot Dinner - 13/12/08
This is "Mum". The one who was running the show (ie. the only one who really knew how to organise a hotpot dinner). She kindly did the shopping and directed us to set everything up. Then throughout the night she was distributing food, putting food in the pot for us (her children) and generally making sure that our growing bodies were getting a good feed. *hehe*
After setting up, things looked pretty neat...
...but things soon got messy. It looks pretty modest for a hotpot meal but I assure you there was HEAPS of food.
Heaps of weird, freaky food as well. But it all tasted good, no matter how dubious it looked. O_O
People present included the girls...
...and the boys (mirror, say whaaat?!?!)
I was trying to take a group shot but it happened to be right when Ally said, "Oh my god...look at how high Var's heels are!"
So of course, they had to try them out. I think perhaps that my overuse of heels has improved my sense of balance because Rina was teetering.
I did get my group shot eventually.
And then there was ice cream cake. =D You can probably tell from this photo who ate the most. ^_^;;
Happy birthday to Pauline, Dean, Devin and Gigi (who wasn't there but was with us in lazy, forgetful spirit!)!!
Var
sent a postcard on 12/14/2008
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