Hooray! I am glad to announce that I have been fortunate enough to be given a slice of the Koonkii pie and am now being privately hosted at…. *drumroll*

http://yuggles.koonkii.com

Just to explain, this move isn’t a step forward in any sort of plan to achieve blogosphere domination, but rather one that will give me more freedom to personalise my little corner of webspace (I don’t think there are very many readers here, anyway. But thanks to those that have stumbled upon and occasionally pop by here! Your blip on my stats is some what affirming for me. It’s the case of whether or not a tree makes a sound if it falls in the woods when no one is around). I had hopes to design and put up my own layout by Halloween but I realise now that this is no longer a possibility after how long it’s taken me to just change the WordPress theme! That and I have a million assessments due, boo hoo.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, I have amped it up a little. This comes as a bit of a surprise given this little blog only came into existence as a product of the whittling away of valuable study and assignment time (who said procrastination wasn’t productive?) – turns out I actually enjoy updating and maintaining this thing. I suppose it’s good in that it forces me into the habit of documenting and reflecting upon things I’ve gotten up to and makes me feel my life is more interesting that it probably is (hah!).

Anyway, to celebrate (just for you Twig!):

It’s a cat trapped in an envelope! Peek-a-boo!
I got this one yesterday

Of course, it would only be polite to do the linking of the hand that feeds:

• http://twigstechtips.blogspot.com/
• http://koonkii.com

Nghi and I hadn’t seen each other in a while so we planned a date on Friday night. Starvation was already upon us so dinner was our first priority. We had hopes to try Mamak, that Malaysian joint that is all the rage at the moment but our empty stomachs disagreed with the long queue outside. Instead, we headed over to Capitol Square where we indulged ourselves in some Korean food at MillioRe. I don’t have any pictures unfortunately (too hungry! wanted to eat!), but rest assured, it was a satisfyingly good meal. I had the BBQ beef ribs while Nghi opted for some pork rashers which I thought were much like bacon, except  unsalted. We decided to cook our own food, our apparatus being tongs and a hotplate perched on a portable gas stove – this way, we would have an idea of the ETA of our meals, a finger on the pulse, if you like.  I think this was the perfect set up for this particular night because I would have died in anticipation of cooked meals arriving at our table.  A side of the potato starch noodles (divine!) was also ordered but we soon discovered that we couldn’t accommodate it all. Thank God for our saviour that is the doggy bag! I guess the unlimited refills of the tasty complimentary side dishes (Banchan) didn’t help, either. I know this entry is useless without pics but to try and make  up for it, I will show you what I got to wash it all down with some of this:

A grape juice drink with real grape bits in it!

We walked past the Chinatown Night Markets on our mission to fill our grumbling bellies and made the resolution to return straight after dinner to see what finger bling they had on offer. We found these:

Nghi’s new ring

My new ring

… and bangle

I also witnessed for the first time, the Konad nail art system. All this time I didn’t realise it was a little rubber stamp. Intriguing! I almost wish I was a fan of it. We thought it best to make our way back to the car to save ourselves from spending all our pennies.

Saw this on the way. Interesting! Looks like sushi shaped ice cream. Mmm.. Did someone say ice cream?

Nghi with Bubblegum (mine) and Peanutbutter Choc Swirl with cookie dough and Nerds mixed in (hers). She swears by this combo. I didn’t see the attraction, though.

It’s little wonder we found ourselves heading to Cold Rock for dessert next. We didn’t have quite enough room yet but figured we would by the time we got to Newtown.

Très délicieux!

I thought it was funny that I was eating ice cream the colour of her top while she ate some the colour of mine.

26.09.09 – Heathcote Pipeline

After having a geez at Trailflix, the boys suggested we ride something different. We rode six kilometres of uphills towards the end!! Tiring, but doable, it was a nice change of scenery and we came across some interesting things along the way.

The pipeline that carries water from Woronora Dam to the households

Setting off

Low tide at the causeway

Found these growing on some trees. Looks like a scrotum! Tee hee!

The rock was warm, ok? It was a bit cool and windy despite the sunshine. I took the opportunity to get my lizard on and even out my glove tan.

ECHIDNA! Spotted this little critter on the way back. He burrowed his head into the sand when we tried to get a closer look, though. “I hope they think I’m a pile of sticks!”. I was pretty excited, haven’t seen one of these in the wild before!

17.09.09 – OPI – Kinky in Helsinki

I wasn’t sure if I liked this colour at first. It’s a little brighter than I’m used to but I’m glad to report that it grew on me in the end. While the pictures of it in direct sunlight suggest that it’s a bright hot pink, it has another dimension of red/magenta (a hint of which the indoor photo shows) depending on which angle you look at it from.

OPI – Kinky in Helsinki in direct sunlight

OPI – Kinky in Helsinki – artificial lighting indoors

20.09.09 – OPI – Yoga-ta get this Blue!

I bought this colour back in winter when I was searching for a vampy black-blue. I was a little disappointed to find that it was more blue than black but was glad that David requested I wear this colour again (he likes that it looks like the magneisum blue that a limited number of Rays racing wheels came out in). Perhaps it’s the recent sunshine that has allowed me to appreciate it for what it is because I loved it the second time ’round. It was a little dark for spring though, and didn’t go with the clothes I have been wearing so far this season.

Excuse the messy paint job in my photo. This was taken right after I painted my nails and before I got a chance to clean them up in the shower. I’m lazy and don’t really bother with nail polish remover. I prefer peeling off  and tidying up sloppy paint jobs in a hot shower – it’s not as messy and doesn’t stink! I’m also sure it’s a lot better for my skin.

OPI – Yoga-ta get this blue!

The wheels that inspired the colour choice. Rays released some of their wheels in this awesome magnesium blue.

24.09.09 – OPI – Melon of Troy

After rocking a darker shade, I thought a lovely, brighter colour should be in order. Enter Melon of Troy. I quite like this colour but am not a fan of frosty finishes. While it isn’t as bad as some others, the visible brush strokes/streaks annoy me. I don’t think it’s that significant that anyone else notices, though – I’m just being pedantic.

OPI – Melon of Troy

It all started with  one of those ‘eco friendly’ shopping bags which I kept under my desk. Into it,  I would collect all things recyclable – paper, packaging, aluminium cans and plastic water bottles -  but found myself needing to empty it  more frequently than I would have liked. Turns out these water bottles weren’t very economical with the space in that bag. It took me a while, but I finally realised what my laziness to use one refillable drink bottle meant for our environment, i.e. 492837423873ty billion empty plastic ones that no longer served a purpose.

The learning curve continues. Much to my recent frustration, I found that 3 out of the 5 pens in my room no longer worked.

What the hell was I doing with 5 of the same pen and why did only 3 of them work?
This would have been attributed to my nasty habit of replacing one empty pen with a new one.

Why hadn’t I thrown out the ones that ran out of ink, you ask?
I guess because the pen itself was still more than just fine. The barrel, grip and clicky retractor thing were all in perfect condition and the Asian in me could not simply justify throwing it out.

What I failed to realise to do, was to buy some freaking ink refills. This way I would have a bunch of pens that all worked instead of just one or two amongst a growing collection of defunct ones.

Empty pens

The solution

Hey presto!

Here I was, thinking I was doing the right thing by taking the initiative to recycle when really, my actions in the first place were where the problem was stemming from. Prevention is better than cure and while I’m disappointed it took me so long, I’m glad I did eventually come to this revelation. Yes, the things you do to correct mistakes make a difference, but it’s the things you refrain from doing that make a bigger difference. Proactivity > reactivity. I understand that this is not something that clicks for people overnight but it all starts with the first step. You’ll wonder what changes you as one person can effect but collect all the recyclable things that you would’ve otherwise thrown out and you’ll soon agree that it all definitely adds up. A social experiment, if you will.

We had been to this trail once before at the very beginning of our interest in off-road riding. As a mountain biking novice, the trail was quite daunting and challenging with technical sections that I mostly walked or took the bee-line through. It didn’t help that I hadn’t exercised prior to that in about 5 years but that was almost a year ago and I’d like to think that I have built up some fitness and a bit more skill (and gonads) since then. With this in mind, Appin has been a ride that we had set our sights on returning to (but with some knee and elbow pads). We finally got around to doing this on Sunday which turned out to be a pretty warm day.

We thought we’d be ok to navigate our own way around since Appin is known for being so well signposted but as you would have it, we’re not that observant and missed some turns along the way. Two unsuccessful attempts were made at riding the trail (one of which ending in someone kindly letting us cut through their family’s backyard to get back to the street) but don’t fret, we were lucky enough to bump into two friendly and ultra helpful riders who offered to take us through the loop. They even helped us set our bike suspension up properly! (Third time’s a charm!). Thanks Steve and Luke if you are somehow (but very unlikely) reading this! We were pretty worn down by then and had a hard time keeping up (that and we’re just crap and unfit riders, ha!) but it was still enjoyable. I skipped quite a few of the technical bits I had set out to overcome (that’s ok, I still don’t have knee and elbow pads and will use that as my excuse) but am sure I rode more of the trail than I did when I first visited it last year. I didn’t appreciate what an awesome ride it was back then but will definitely be going back for more since I have developed a taste for flowing single track!

Getting ready to roll at the entrance to the trail

Buggered after getting lost for the second time

Still smiling… this must have been taken on a rest stop on our first attempt at the loop, hah.
Note the riding gloves I am wearing…

… Because they are responsible for this hideous glove tan I have!

I was really excited about trying a nude polish for spring but was disappointed to find that it just blended in with my skin tone. I reassured myself that it would stand out once we started getting sunny skies because I would develop a tan for it to contrast against… Apparently not if I’m spending my days riding with gloves on! I’ll need to do some serious hand tanning to even this out if I ever want Samoan Sand to look good on me!