mum

today was your birthday.

and there are a lot of things i could say, but tonight i can only say this:

we joke about the dinosaur thing,
our new favourite phrase is "you're fossilizing!",
and there are absolutely no subtle hints at all in getting you that cookbook.
(the hints are very un-subtle)

but

not for anything in the whole world would we trade you,
or push you away,
or leave you.

because when we were only half a metre long and smelled kinda funky, you fed us and cleaned us and did your best to make sure we were happy.
because when we were really sick, or ripped ourselves open falling down on concrete, you were there to wrap us up and make us forget anything was wrong.
because since our last five hour plane ride, you've worked harder than i think i ever could to give us everything we needed, and so much more.

because even if this was the only 'because',
at the end of the day, we know how much you love us,
and put simply,
we love you too.

so happy birthday, mum.
you are fossilizing very well :)

where's my train?

i was waiting for the train in perth today, and there was a little boy of about four with his grandfather next to me.

i have never seen anybody more excited about waiting for a train before in my entire life.

the kid was jumping up and down, exclaiming things in his little voice...

why do we have to stand behind the yellow line? can i stand ON the yellow line? is that our train? how much longer do we have to wait? grandpa! i can hear the train! i can hear the- LOOK i told you the train was coming! i told youuuu!!

i couldn't help but smile, even though i had a headache that threatened to explode my skull.

on the train, the boy's grandma turned up. the three of them sat across from me, with the little boy chattering throughout the ride.

i can see it! that's the burswood. that's the burswood, isn't it gran. that's the burswood. we're getting off. oh wow, that hotel (apartment buildings) is bigger than that hotel. and that one's bigger than that one. look gran! it's the burswood!!

the voice of the train thus spake: THIS, is burswood.
the train did not stop.

the grandparents of the boys were wide-eyed. they were clearly not from perth, seeing as they were staying at burswood hotel, and so they had no idea what to do.

the little boy was outraged.
why didn't we stop? did we get on the wrong train? can't we just tell the driver to stop us here?
it was very cute.

the elderlies didn't know what to do, so i told them to get off at victoria park and take the next train back up. they thanked me, and walked off with the little boy, who was so indignant that even at the last second, he turned around and asked me loudly

did you get on the wrong train toooooo???

he totally made my day :)


i wish i could be like that again - where a simple train ride could make me so excited i could harldy breathe for the anticipation.
i wish i didn't have to think about every single thing i did, that i could just go with the flow and know that nothing will go wrong.
i wish more things would light up my eyes the way the train lit up his.
i wish i could just give it all to God, and truly let it rest with Him.


...
this started out as a happy post.

backlog

your blog is dead. update. eh, your blog very sien le. blog, you stupid. BLOG!

yeah, okay.
Didn't really have an excuse, really, apart from the fact that my brain doesn't see itself up to doing anything even remotely intellectual.

I have just blogged enough reading material for about... 8 minutes' read, I'm guessing.
Have your blog fix for the hour.

Go on. Don't be shy.


*p.s. Chronologically, you read posts in order of furthest down, to highest up. But it really doesn't matter here. Just letting you know :)

Leavers'

What did we do when we faced the nightmare?

We thought about when it would be over.

So what did we do when the nightmare was over?

We went down to Mandurah!!

And what, you ask, what did we do when we were down in Mandurah?

Well, I'm glad you brought up the question :)

This is one of the two angelic boxes of Kleenex I managed to empty while I was down there, courtesy of the ever-reliable holiday flu I caught on the first night.
There's always a bright side, though. I was allowed to sleep while everyone prepared dinner...
and I got to do the dishes afterwards too.

lllll

There was a lot of cooking involved down there, and far too much washing up.
We also waited for the bus. For a long time.

ll

Cooking wasn't always a friendly affair, but eating never failed to bring us (and guests) together.

ll

We went to the beach for a total of two hours in the three days we spent there.
The playground was half an hour of awesome fun, some of which has been captured on video (haha for William).

ll

We played Alfred's strange and scary games (also caught on video), and we spent half of our waking hours bankrupting Moey, cheating Nigara, and calling Karina's bluffs.



We learnt that us girls are bad at posing, but the boys more than make up for it.
Actually, Alfred is more than enough of a poser for all eight of us.

Playing house was fun, even though we're quite a boring little family that hardly went out and were content to actually just sit indoors playing Maple Story, betting real cash *coughCOINScough* in poker, or watching Karina personified on screen (in Miss Gold-Digger, which is a rather senseless movie).



Three days down south was nice :)
We learnt who snored and who didn't, who could cook, who liked washing, and probably most importantly... who was really bad at bluffing.

So next time, we'll all just cheat Karina at poker :)

school is out

...and has been for five weeks now.

I miss it.

Year 8-10 was a bit of... err... I wouldn't say it was a complete waste, because I did learn things, but it was the last two years of high school that really left an impression :)

You know, getting up every morning after an average of 6.5 hours of sleep was painful. Truly. But I'm glad I stuck with it because it was so much more than just slogging through 8 periods of class each day.

Some classes *coughCHEMcough* were more playin than learning.

Others *coughLITcough* were never fun, but at least the people sharing your pain were pretty cool.

scattered.

In lower school, the TEE feels like it's an age away. In year 11, the workload is suddenly quadrupled from year 10, and you panic a little, but you know you still have time. All the way up till your mocks in year 12, you never really feel like those finals are going to come. When they do, it's surreal and in the middle of each exam, you hope you'll wake up and realise you still have a week to study for the monster in front of you trying to pass off as a testpaper.

So the library became our second home for a while. It was like being at school. You couldn't avoid seeing high school kids there, annoying all the uni students with loud 'discussions' and too much giggling. I hated having to go in my school uniform, because tartan skirts are just oh-so-inconspicuous. I believe group studying reduces stress. At the time. Okay, group studying just postpones stress ><

But there is a point in the midst of all that stress where you realise that it's all pointless. Getting that 99 point something TER isn't important anymore. If you've been studying the whole year for something, you sure as heaven better know it the week before the exam, otherwise you're pretty much screwed anyway.


In the two months leading up to the TEE, I think a lot of us knew that we would finish off the five years with decent results and a WACE (unfortunately, I do realise I don't speak for EVERYONE here ><). We also realised just how far the TEE is from being the most important thing you will ever do in your life.

In the last two months of my time in high school, I became friends with so many people I had hardly spoken to in the last five years of my life. People who were just classmates before suddenly became people I'd miss when it was all over.

llllllll

People I saw a little bit too much became people I wanted to keep seeing, to keep hanging out with, to keep getting angry with, and to keep pissing off.

llllllll


Valedictory was a stunning night not because we officially graduated, looking smart with our white sashes. It was because of the huge amount of support and respect we demonstrated as a year group (I have stories about this, but just believe me without them). It was because we all grew up a little, knowing that it was the last time we'd all be together. It was what happened afterwards, when we all gathered outside to do the hug-and-bye thing. We learnt then, that there are no such things as cliques. We are all one class, together in the knowledge that even though the days of spoon-feeding are over, we are good kids and we will turn out okay.

Yeah, the homework sucked. School hours were carefree, and exam stress made me feel like rotten bananas (my mood smelled like them too). Friendships were strained, mended, ended, forged, strained again, and mended again.

You can look back in ten years and believe high school was a breeze, but right now ask any Year 12 just out of school and they'll tell you it wasn't easy, that it's been the toughest part of their (rather short) existence.

But they'll also tell you that it's been the best time of their lives and, quite frankly, they wouldn't trade it for the world.

Know it's been great,
believe it gets better :)

this is so stupid

This is a year 9 math question that I was asked...

In a class of 30 children, what is the probability of two students having the same birth month.

So... any two students, any month of the year.

This is what I did first:

30 students
probability of having birthday in any one month = 1/12
probability is the same for all children
so use a Binomial distribution
X~Bin(30, 1/12)
Find P(X=2) = 0.26427
This is the probability.

But it's a year 9 question, right, so we were pretty sure Binomial distribution shouldn't even come into it.

I can't stop thinking about it, and then the answer hits me and I feel so dumb.

Because if you have 30 students, and only 12 months in the year, you're obviously going to have more than one child sharing their birth month with another. There is no way to distribute 30 children between 12 months without having repeats.

The probability has to be 1.


This is what the TEE does to you. It makes you feel smarter than stupid.

But I'm glad it's over :)



[edit] call me sad for not being able to let this go, but is the question asking for exactly two students, or any two students?
I conclude that the wording is ambiguous and I've just wasted ten minutes of my life.

bliss in

16 hours and 15 minutes.

flipping pages

Ephesians 5:29-32
Remember, remember, remember.

Matthew 7:1-5

All I can be is the best I can be.
No looking left, or right, or anywhere else.
because everything I could do, make, change,
starts and ends right here,
with me.

Ephesians 6:1
OK.

Galatians 5:22
For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

scone(s)

I came out of my exam room this afternoon, starving. Good thing my mommy loves me and she packed me a date scone this morning :)

I was still eating it when I got into the car, cause I eat slow, and it's cool like that.
...and I was still eating it when we were turning off Karel into South ><

Then we brake suddenly.

...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
I was so cut.

But then mum turns around and sees my face.

"Eh, it's okay."

She sticks her hand into her handbag, and...


Is she awesome or what? :)

TEE

this is it.
breathe.
don't panic.
you will be fine.

o.m.g.