Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Uni started yesterday - still recovering from the fact that winter break is over... Sigh... But I've got other things to look forward to - like the final installment of JK Rowling's Harry Potter! [grin] I've pre-ordered the book (this is the first time I'm pre-ordering) about a month ago at Dymocks Bookstore, Bondi Junction branch... The recommended retail price here is $49.95 but Dymocks is selling at $29.95 - so I decided to use the $30 gift card I won in a lucky draw for a survey for med students. Timely, don't you think? I know it's not as cheap as Big W's $25.95 but what the heck, it's only $4 difference plus I'm actually buying the book for free! The guy at the counter even returned me with a 5-cent coin as the remaining balance of the $30 gift card (over here, you don't have to use up the entire value of the gift card at one go)! When I checked the pre-order price on Malaysian bookstores' websites like MPH and Kinokuniya, I figured I landed myself a pretty good deal considering that even after conversion, Dymock's still cheaper than the RM100+ price back home... That is, of course, until Tesco and Carrefour decided to sell them at RM60+... Then again, I have nothing to complain as I don't have to wait till the end of the year to read the book. Plus, Dymocks threw in a limited edition bookmark, book bag and receipt docket (see above photo) - they're all in the shades of purple with shiny sparkles (woohoo!)... I also get to enter a lucky draw in the bid to win a magical trip for two to the homeland of Harry Potter - Britain! Though I doubt I'll be that lucky, hehe... Pre-ordering was a splendid idea - you don't even have to queue up to get the book - it's just "flash the receipt, grab your book and go"! There's no need to worry about waking up super duper early; I collected my book at noon instead of the release time of 9AM... A lady came in to enquire about the book when I was collecting mine but the guy at the counter apologised, saying that it has run out of stock and that the lady has to wait for the next batch to arrive - jeez, all sold out in less than 3 hours! Anyway, I reckon JK Rowling has redeemed herself from the disappointing writing style she adopted in books 5 and 6, at least in the first few chapters of this 7th book - I'm taking my own sweet time to read the book at leisure rather than rushing through it for the sake of knowing the storyline. My friends who have finished the book all concurred that this is perhaps the best book in the Harry Potter series, so, fans out there are in for a delightful read - myself included! ^_^

Pictorial Updates...

Ok, I realised I haven't been blogging lately - anyway, here are some pictorial updates in chronological order...

Basser now has Foxtel! It's something like Astro for those of you back home in Malaysia... I hope I don't get addicted to it...

Red Frogs Australia visited Basser before the mid-year exams with free coffee and hot choc, sold Krispy Kremes at an amazing $1 per doughnut and lent us the latest Nintendo Wii to play! It's so cool - you can feel the remote vibrating when you hit a ball across (using the remote itself as a racquet!) just like you're playing real tennis!


Post-exams lunch @ Seoul-Ria (Korean restaurant in the city) - fantastic food (cold noodles, unagi, BBQ, seafood pancake, etc.), free flow of side dishes (including spicy potato, kimchi, pickles, lilybuds, konyaku jelly, etc.) and great service (there's a tiny button at the side of the table that you can press and the waiter will come right up - very useful when we want to refill the free side dishes, hehe)! The ambience of the setting was really warm and cosy - above's a photo of mainly 2nd year med students from Malaysia and Singapore...


Mervyn, Eunice and Jess had their housewarming the day after exams. Had an early birthday celebration for both Mervyn and Tsang Yew, both 22 this year - we got them to strike this rather gay pose for the camera as they were cutting the cake...

Attended the District 70 Toastmasters District Officer Training Day and Changeover Dinner - I'm currently Area 24 Governor (NSW suburbs under my charge include Kensington, Randwick, Coogee, Maroubra, Rosebery, Mascot and Eastlakes) for the term 2007/2008... Above is a photo of the 4 generations of Area 24 Governors linking arms together after the dinner - my predecessors include Helen, Ross and David...

My shiny new Area Governor badge awarded to me at the dinner... This year's theme for District 70 is "Respect Responsibility Rewards"... I still can't believe that the district's colour for 2007/2008 is purple (my favourite colour)! Must have been fated... [grin]

A shot taken @ The Cell (Zi's place) after Linda's farewell dinner with the rest of my bible studies group. Dear sis, all the best in Malaysia and God bless always! Looking forward to your graduation in August!

My little "gallery" - the wall space allocated to me to paste up some of my works for one of my winter gen eds (Drawing the World Within Without) @ COFA (College Of Fine Arts) on assessment day... I've spent close to $100 just on art materials! The bottom middle piece (in case you're curious) is an ink painting done on 3 A1 cartridge papers (or you can use 3 A0 litho papers) taped at the back together - that's the size of 24 A4 papers (even taller than myself)! Above it is my abstract self-portrait... Had lots of fun in COFA for the past 2 weeks - imagine drawing 20+ items without looking down on the paper, then drawing the same stuff but this time with the other hand (if you're ambidextrous, you use your mouth!), then drawing the same stuff from memory - all these in 3 minutes each! I also had to sketch Catherine's portrait in 2 minutes without looking down on my paper - luckily the face I drew was still recognizable! And what about those 2 minute sketches of my classmates posing on the cube blocks?

My final drawing based on some structures placed in the middle of the art studio - the items are either metal stuff or mirrors or have smooth surfaces so we have to draw the reflections and lustre as well... It's a black and white colour pencil drawing on an A2 sized mid-tone neutral-coloured Canson paper... Took me more than 6 hours just to complete this drawing (I left COFA that night at 9PM eventhough class was scheduled to end at 5PM - some of us tend to stay back to complete the drawings) but it's worth it - Kurt (my lecturer) was right: I would never have imagined that I'll be able to draw something like this! 2 weeks of intensive drawing really does make one improve, especially an arts noob like me!

Another one of my noob drawings - it's a compressed charcoal plus willow stick drawing on A1 cartridge... My hands were all black by the time I was done...

The conceptual performance space model I built for Baz Luhrmann's "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" (the one starring Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes) in my other winter COFA gen ed, Design in Performance...

I'm officially done for my 12UoCs (units of credit) of gen ed requirements by the end of this winter - no need to worry about it for the rest of my uni years - yay! Wonder why I'm so gung-ho to finish them off so early when I have up to the end of my 4th year to do it (general education are like electives; med students do them starting from 2nd year to 4th year - I completed mine in only half a year, muahaha!)...

Exam results were released yesterday - I achieved better than expected since there were so many changes to the format of the paper... Really happy and pleased with my results - it's all thanks to God! ^_^

Less than a week left for my winter break - hasn't really been that much of a break for me, has it? Especially with 6UoCs of COFA gen eds - picture me being artsy from morning to night every weekday during the hols, lol... I shall relax a bit more this week before HM-B (Health Maintenance B) kicks off next week! Ciao!

Beginnings, Growth & Development - B

Finished my exams on Thursday. The format of the paper's so different this time round - I don't feel like reproducing the questions here; too much of a hassle... But I'll briefly state what each short answer question entailed:

1. GIT embryology, histology and physiology
2. Nutrition and development (Piaget came out! - read previous post...)
3. Teenage depression
4. STDs (gonorrhea and syphilis) and puberty physiology

Had a good lunch with the Malaysian-Singaporean gang after the paper at Seoul Ria in the city - pics will be posted up in the next post... Also had my Toastmasters district officer training and changeover dinner yesterday - again, the pics will be posted up the next blog entry...

Allow me now to go fulfill my duties as the new Area 24 Governor, lol... =P