All I ever needed was to eat popcorn with you

[Everything Sucks (When You’re Gone) – MxPx]

And so today marks the 4th month of which I have been dating the truly lovely Amelia. For an awful moment this morning we forgot what  we did to celebrate our 2 months, but a quick flick through my blog – ah trusty friend – reminded us that I nearly died eating at Crazy Wing at Glenny.

But, alas, today we decided to go to Doncaster Westfield Shopping Center. Now, before I write any more, I should note that Mela doesn’t really like going to places she’s not been before for long periods of time, but due to either mis-communication or grievous fault on my behalf, I didn’t know this, so I planned for us to take a 40 minute bus ride to Shoppo, a place I kind of know, and a place she’s never been to. It was a cold day, and she was feeling slightly sick, but determined to make the best of today.

She read stuff on my phone on the bus ride there while I cradled her head, and then when we got there, we immediately headed to eat, being so hungry. We went to the foodcourt, known as The Drum, and she wasn’t feeling hungry so she only got a small salad (which turned out to be massive anyway) while I decided to pig out at Spudbar…which turned out to be a bowl of potatoes at the bottom…and then heaped with loads of Bolognese sauce, sour cream, japalenos, chilli flakes, cos lettuce and something else I forgot. But when I mixed it, it became a bowl of not that appetizing looking goo…that tasted amazing. Albeit I got bad breath. Originally decided to give the tummy a rest and be able to get the $2 Double Cheeseburgers but Mela felt sick, so we just went window shopping instead. Spent a good few hours doing that, until she felt so sick we had to sit down and rest.

Had coffee/mocha at a chocolate lounge, where the girl serving us complimented me on my hair (yey). Stayed there for a bit just chatting about how sweet the chocolate was, though it was great chocolate, then we walked around a bit more. We ended up walking around for hours because we wanted to eat at the sushi train at the food court which opened at 6pm, so we wandered around until my feet got really sore, and she got upset because, like I mentioned before, strange place with nothing to do. We sat in front of the TV display at Myer for a bit watching this HD 3D TV. At 6, the sushi train slowly opened, but it wasn’t really producing anything. We ate 2 plates, and realized they were 5 bucks each for altogether 4 pieces of food. Paid for it (got weird looks from the waiters) and decided to bus back to Glen to eat at a familiar place – Mela was getting really sadface and that made me sadface too, it’s an anniversary after all.

We ended up eating at Star East Cafe, sharing a plate and an entree. She started feeling better halfway through the bus ride back after loads of cuddling, and finally told me what she thought I already knew. We then went to the library where she picked out a picture book for me to read to her to cheer her up, and I put on funny voices until a librarian walked past us.

But yes, 4 months! 5 months will come and go before we realize it, it being around Valentines and…her hating Valentines Day. Then Uni will start, testing us on our bond and ability to not be around each other all the time, seeing as she goes to a different uni, us having different amount of contact hours, and her starting a new course as a 1st year and me in my final. But I have confidence we will hit 1/2 year no worries!

And I like that there are still things to learn about her, like that she hates new places…

Happy 4 months darling!

Alex.

A stranger to some and a vision to none

[From Yesterday – 30 Seconds To Mars]

Today I nearly fainted at work, which wasn’t so fun. It was weird, because I’d eaten in the morning – albeit not a full breakfast, but definitely enough to keep myself from blacking out – and I’d drank water. But it was humid, and maybe my body was just suddenly reacting badly. Halfway through taking an order, everything turned into those stars you see when you rub your eyes too hard, except it didn’t go away when I screwed my eyes shut, and then I couldn’t hear anything. I barely called out to my manager – thank goodness I had the nice one – to take over before stumbling to the back (somehow missing falling into the fries machine) and in the end I had to sit in the office for about 15 minutes and another manager, the shift manager, came in and gave me some nuggets to eat even though I wasn’t hungry. The food didn’t make me feel better, but at least I stopped blacking out, so I did the rest of my shift with a raging headache and steadying myself on the register.

Then I met up with Mela for an early dinner and hanging out in the city. She held my hand so I would walk in a straight line, and we went to the Original Lolly Store to stock up on some sugar, because according to her I was probably somehow low on blood sugar. Then we went to Menya in the small alley with Boost and the Harajuku Crepes, and I ate my entire bowl of ramen. After eating we went to our spot on Southbank and then I felt hungry again, so I had McDonalds (shush! I ate a small hamburger only, okay? And we tried Steamed Bun for the first time and it’s so soft and glorious I’m going to do it for every time I order a non-large burger) and then took the Pakenham home so it would be easier on her to take a bus home.

When I got home, it turned out Dad bought a new TV today which is digital capable, so Mom could watch the Aus Open seeing as our old set-top box broke. But we bought a TV for the kitchen, and it turns out that the antenna we were using for the kitchen TV (as there is no wall mounted antenna there) is either not strong enough or blocked by our brick house, so I could only get the analogue signals and still no digital signals. I guess we have to move the TV over to the lounge room for now so she can watch tennis… The TV is also capable of playing stuff straight from a USB port, so I think when she’s not using that TV I might just plug my own hard drive in there, and free up my laptop screen…but I don’t know, I have so many things plugged into this laptop that moving it around will be quite a pain! We’ll see.

4 months coming Thursday, but we haven’t really got anything planned. On the train home today she fell asleep in my arms, and it was quite comfortable – if not slightly bad for my back as I was sitting sideways. Maybe on Thursday we’ll just go to her house and snuggle, like we did for our 1 month.

Anyway also going to watch how I feel tomorrow, because I am eating loads tonight (I still maintain my bout of faintness isn’t from under-eating, because I’ve been massively hungry before, and it was a completely different feeling), but that might be because my body is trying to heal from something so it needs energy. Might sleep earlier tonight as well, and seeing as the baby is working tomorrow I can’t go out, so I’ll sleep in. I hope it’s not anything bad, but I’ve consumed a lot of sugars and salts today, in case I lost them through sweating, and I’ve also eaten all my noodles meaning I’ve got the carbohydrates.

Alex.

Happy birthday Amelia!

Today was/is Amelia’s 19th birthday. I tried – and possibly failed – to get a surprise going. I think she knew, but she acted along well anyway.

I went to the city earlier in the morning to get her presents – yes, I left it til the last minute. I got her a notebook in which I wrote my birthday message, and hopefully she’ll use that notebook to write down some cool dreams that she has. I also got her a box of tissues and some Strepsils because the poor girl had gotten sick just yesterday – the eve of her birthday.

After realizing that she’d be late coming into the city with Ser-, I thought I had enough time to go to the florist right outside the Town Hall and got her a small bunch of mini carnations.

In the end, her friends Ly- and Ei- actually got there before she did, so when Amelia finally arrived, they ran up to her to hug her as a way of surprise.

We went to Dessert House for some cheap lunch. I don’t really think I’m a photo blogger so I won’t post the numerous photos of food and us that Amelia took. After lunch, we went to Starbucks to sit for a bit. We sat there for ages, and Brendan and Nha- joined us, and then later on Des and Tat (they’re all, bar Brendan obviously, Amelia’s friends). Brendan and Nha- got Maccas, and Nha- was nice enough to actually get me a cheeseburger. I think I scared Ser- a bit when I more or less bullied her into taking my money to buy her drink – I just really didn’t want to hold onto so many coins.

L2R, Amelia, myself, Ser- and Brendan. Ser- doesn’t like having her photo taken. This photo was after a LOT of persuasion.

After getting many glares from the Starbucks staff – one of them actually had to tell us to quieten down – we sort of all agreed that instead of going to Papa Gino’s on Lygon as was originally planned, we’d all just eat the cake in the city, then go back to Glenny to have dinner. So I made a booking at Zest 91, and went to pick up the ice cream cake from QV. Amelia cut the cake with a plastic knife, and we ate the cake with little plastic spoons.

At this point, Ly- and Ei- had to leave, so Tat and Des went to Ferntree Gully where they parked the car, so to meet us at Zest, and Brendan, Nha-, Ser-, Amelia and I went to ICUE to play some pool. Nha- is extremely good, Brendan is passable, and I think I made the wrong impression and Nha- thought I was decent, which I am not.

At 5, we thought it best to go back to Glenny. Said bye to Nha-, only to be greeted with sheets of rain. We slodged through a crossing with no lights, and found our way onto a packed Glen Waverley train – one of the few that seems to be running that afternoon. And not surprising either, seeing as already the gutters were overflowing, much less the lowered tracks.

The train ride was pretty terrible, mostly because Amelia had developed a headache, couldn’t sit down to sleep, Ser- had no sense of balance and so kept on falling onto one of us (and dislikes physical touch). I was just glad we managed to make it onto an express train that was running at all. I didn’t even consider the possibility of being stranded in the city today.

Went to Zest 91 for dinner. Sat upstairs, not after going up a crazy winding spiral staircase to get there – not the most comfortable decor idea. Met Amelia’s friends Andrew and Steven.

Oh, right, throughout the day Amelia was trying to find ways to work me into her conversations to tell her friends who I am. Her subtlety led to her telling Tat and Des “oh, by the way, that’s my girlfriend”, and telling Andrew and Steven “oh yeah, Alex, yeah, I’m dating her”.

Because the dinner was mostly Amelia’s closer friends, Brendan and I ended up having a bit of a chat with each other – something we haven’t managed in a while, and I never realized how nice it was to talk to him. It was different to when on Skype or MSN, because online he tends to do weird things and is distracted easily, but in person it was better to keep him on track.

It was a pretty long day, and it was made worse by extremely bad weather. But I really hope that Amelia liked it anyway, because I know that it was some effort for the people who came out, and I know that for the people who didn’t, they wanted to.

And a huge thanks to Ly- and Jan- (the latter of which ended up having to work, so couldn’t come) for helping me organize the whole thing!

Alex.

Because Of You

To lighten the mood I’d joked that I’d blog about it but in a mock-serious manner, making it worse than it actually was.

But the truth was it was nonetheless one of the scariest moments in my life.

Here is a dramatic recount:

7:19 am. Carmaine has embarked onto the 3rd carriage of one of Connex’s oldest models of trains at Syndal station. She rejected the offer for a seat and stood by herself to the side. Her back was facing the rest of the group.

7: 19 am – 7:45 am. Onboard the train. The train ride passes as per usual, with light hearted conversation being thrown around. Other passengers of the morning train embarked upon the locomotive, partially blocking Carmaine from the rest of the group.

7:42 am. Passing Kooyong station. Carmaine has remained noticeably quiet throughout the train ride. Sudden thump sounded. At first it was mistaken that the train, in its age, had a mechanical problem. But as I turned around to look, I noticed that Carmaine was no longer visible.

7:43 am. Stood up briskly, shouting, “Carmaine!” Rest of the group noticed that something had gone awry. Pushed aside man partially blocking Carmaine. Carmaine was on floor, having collapsed. Her eyes were closed and her face pale. Asked someone to press the emergency button only to find none on board. Dialled 911. Yes. In my state of utter shock I’d dialled the American emergency number. Fortunately it reconnected to 000.

7:44 am. Train arrived at Heyington Station. Was on phone with Ambulance. She asked for the nearest suburb. Wasn’t sure, so said, “Heyington Station on the Glen Waverley line! St Kevin’s College!” Woman repeatedly told me to calm down and tell her the nearest suburb. Disembarked train, helped Carmaine to nearest bench. Caitlin was on phone with Ambulance, having more success than I. The train driver, being notified by a kind lady who had ran from 3rd carriage to inform him, made sure all was under control, and promptly left.

7:45 am. Called Carmaine’s mother, received no answer.

7:46 am. Called Carmaine’s dad. Explained situation to him. Carmaine was feeling better and color had returned to her cheeks.

7:48 am. The next train arrived on platform. We had been standing around trying to keep ourselves warm and make small talk. I was not cold, I was running on adrenaline.

7:49 am. Embarked upon the crowded carriage, and asked that Carmaine have a seat as she had been ill. A kind woman and man gave up their seats and Annie sat with Carmaine, who was still rather weak.

8:10 am. Arrived at Melbourne Central station, where we disembarked so to allow Carmaine to sit down and eat. Sat down at food court. Got Carmaine cinnamon pretzels and the others had McDonalds.

8:12 am. Made numerous phone calls to the school to ensure their awareness of our circumstances. Joked lightheartedly – away from the phone – that Carmaine had given us all an excuse to skip Period 1 and have McDonalds for breakfast.

8:40am. Having spent enough time at Melbourne Central, departed to take tram to school.

9:00 am. Arrival at school. Promptly took Carmaine to Sick Bay. The lady behind the desk looked at Carmaine meaningfully and said, ‘I’ve been talking to your mom.”

9:01 am. Bid farewell to Carmaine, and proceeded to do the necessary paperwork. I.e. Seeing Mr Rus-, filling out late book etc.

9:05 am. Put bag back in locker. Walked Carmaine to her next class, which she insisted on attending.

All times were rough estimations.

The preceding story was based on a true story.

Alex.

P.S. Take care of yourself, Carmaine.

What I did today…

Right, so I took a day off school on the basis that:

1. I only had 2 classes, none of which were SACs (no messy forms to handle)

2. I wasn’t feeling too crash hot this morning and didn’t want to infect anyone.

3. I need more time to prepare for my SACs (but seriously the first 2 were the more important ones).

So today I didn’t waste my precious time. I caught myself up with Merlin, I slept in soundly, I did Legal notes and I did English notes, and you may have noticed I revamped my blog. Thanks to Carolyn for her contributions on the music player. Hopefully my choice of music doesn’t put anyone off (it shouldn’t; I’m awesome).

A lot of schools have closed down, but MacRob hasn’t, which is infuriatingly stupid. I hope our school will see the danger soon.

Otherwise, all is well. I hope everyone else has been keeping healthy.

My stats spiked up in the last few days because people had been coming in to read about the swine flu. There is obviously nothing to read, so I’m sorry about that, but the stats are nice.

Alex.

The injustice of it all…

MHS has been closed down for a week (I’ve heard this from 2 rather reliable sources. One of them dates a MHS boy the other IS a MHS boy).

MacRob, however, is not.

Christina and I were in Chinese when I got the news from Catherine, and Christina prompted complained, “Why can’t we just get some Yr 9s to go pash some MHS guys so we can get a week off school?”

Political incorrectnesss and just plain meanness aside, I agree with her.

MHS is PRACTICALLY MacRob, disease-wise. If they get closed down why can’t we? Sure, they have 6 confirmed cases and we have 2 awaitng test results and me who is feeling a bit feverish, but still.

The one good thing that’s come out of this partial closure is that at least Flinders St in the mornings won’t be crowded by juniors and their boyfriends/wannabe boyfriends/wannabes.

Alex.

What I’ve Done

So let mercy come
And wash away…
What I’ve done…

I’ve gone and imported this blog onto my notes on Facebook. So the traffic should get a bit busier, I hope. I made it so that you can read my post, but to comment you’d have to come here. Ingenius, no?

By the way, that was “What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park.

In other news, we got our new internet installed finally, 1 and a half months late. We’re now with Telstra Bigpond. It comes with a wireless thing so when we get a new computer and when I get a laptop I can totally just use the internet from my room. How awesome!

And, Dom had gone get himself tested for swine flu. Results in a few days. Hope he doesn’t have it, the poor bugger.

That’s all for now.

Alex.

P.S. Catherine I really really do love you for what you wrote.

Happy Easter

I don’t really celebrate easter, but seeing as this post doesn’t have a central theme, I might as well wish everyone a happy, fun but mostly SAFE easter. Sure the road death toll isn’t that crazy high, but you don’t know the number of people who are maimed for life. They’re never mentioned.

Today I got up with a bad scratched throat. I thought to myself, “oh shit, you’re getting glandular.” Well I still don’t know if this is glandular I’m just going to hope it’s a bad cold.

Anyway, I was reading about how Dom played Tetris on the DS a lot so I decided to down  – ahem buy legitimately – the Tetris game on DS. On my way, I also bought Monsters Vs Aliens the game, some random Naruto game, and this:

Dani was the one who introduced me to this. It’s one of those rhythm games, like Guitar Hero or DDR. It’s quite addictive, with many levels and TB voices and it even has, as one of the tracks, the Mario themes, as well as all the oldies video game themes.

Tomorrow is Eunice’s baptism. And then after that I’m going to Chadstone to find sweaters and a bag. But damn I hate feeling sick.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Monsters Vs Aliens, seeing as in the video game, B.O.B. (voiced by Seth Rogen) is SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY AS! He just randomly blobs around and swallows random crap. And we all know movies are 10x better than games. That’s why I’m not going to play much of the game until I’ve seen the movie.

Otherwise, life is fine. I tried FaceStalking yesterday. It was morbidly interesting (er…morbid may not be the word, I just meant there was a morbid fascination). I knew what I was doing was oh-so-beneath me but I still did it anyway. It wasn’t hard. And no Carmaine, I’m not referring to my reading your comment to Bee. I meant…someone else.

And Cheryl is addicted too. Haha. I win. And she took quizzes just like I did. And my quizzes came up with funny answers. I’m apparently a baby dyke who, while being unperverted, is ready to try anything in the bedroom in the heat of the moment.

Be afraid.

Alex.

Cross My T’s And Dot My I’s

Today I wrote those letters (or rather, finished writing the letters) to those people. I discovered 2 things:

1. I can actually write straight and neat, but only in one letter.

2. I can write a LOT one minute and have a complete writer’s block the next. Which I know is usual for a lot of people.

I can’t wait until the recipients read the letters. Because then they’d know a small part of me. (“Can you feel it? Can you feel me inside of you?”)

Apart from that I didn’t manage to achieve much. I wrote Eunice’s and Dani’s before the weekend, and today I wrote Bee’s and Carmaine’s.

Right now, mom had just come home and immediately had started screaming at my dad. I wonder how much more of this he can bear before he really blows his top. And by that I mean either something directly towards mom or something kind of passive. Most of the time I can block her voice out but it does become hard sometimes. I hate that he doesn’t retaliate, and I hate how she’d not let something go, and would keep picking at it and picking at it.

Like when I lost my Metcard (which I know is stupid but just bear with me) I got a telling off which I know I deserve. But I figured she’d respect that I’m nearly an adult and know that I feel enough shame already, and punish myself and learn from my mistake, but no. She spends the whole day telling me what a disgrace I am, and how useless I am at looking after myself. She tells me that she’s sick (which she was, 2 years ago, for about a week) and that she’s always tired, yet she manages to find enough energy to scream at me at a volume that in other households would be considered as a full-heated argument. Once she came home and didn’t stop screaming from the moment she walked in, until dinnertime (dinner which dad and I cooked for her) and then after dinner as well. That’s of course, not mentioning the abusive names she call me. But I might be wrong. It could just be a Chinese tradition to call a husband an imbecile.

Whatever. I think I need to get myself a stressball. That, or more TV time. I’m lucky that I’ve found escape when I’m by myself, and friends when I’m with others. I’m not like some kids who have no one, and I’m not like some kids who gets bashed.

Crap, this blog turned emo.

Writing the letters was soothing, definitely. Because every word I wrote reminded me of the person I was writing to.

You should try it some time, just write a letter to a friend, best friend, sibling, family member if you have one you actually like…(which brings me to the point that my mom would openly and while I am around tell people my bad points, and even somehow make my good points into jokes or silly ideas, but STOP SHUT UP!) and tell them what you think of them, or what you’re thinking in general. Even if you never post the letter, it could still help you. I COULD take my own advice, write a letter to my mother, then burn it, but I don’t want to waste ink, paper nor time on her.

De Fluffe, Out.

P.S. My nose and chin (yep that too) has reached its final stages of peeling. Now it’s just dry. I’m going to use some of my scent-less moisturiser. It hurts like a bitch, my nose does. Thanks Julia for your suggestion.

P.P.S. Geez my blog’s a bit bipolar. I talk about how much I love my friends then WHAM how much I hate being at home. Then back to friends again then WHAM snap back to bad feelings.