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tammaiyaOkay I've got some free time today to chillax, so I'm going to do some proper LJ entries. With photos, even!
Monday 23/11: Did not have to pull all-nighter on Sunday night! In fact, I went home by like, 6pm, because we'd miraculously finished all our parts early. It was magical. So instead I went into uni in the morning to help Kareem put the finishing touches on the final version of the memorandum, by which I mean being a formatting nazi. Although I did not manage to pick up a footnoting error in my own section where I referenced bad faith instead of damages. whoops.
Following this, I went shopping with my mother in Woden for suit-related things for the competition. We found a few long-sleeved shirts, despite the hot weather, and bought two. Sigh, I hate suits. As for shoes, Athletes Foot in Woden was closed for renovation, which was ironic because that's essentially why we went to Woden in the first place, so we drove out to Belconnen instead, where I got a fairly comfortable pair of mary-janes (so long as I don't put my orthotics in, because then my feet sit too high in the shoes). After which I came home to quickly get ready to go out with my schoolfriends as a kind of combined farewell things for those of us about to bugger off overseas. Victoria was in fact flying out to Thailand the next day and she's not coming back until after me, so it was my last chance to see her for a while and I probably wouldn't have time with preparations to see the others again before I left either. (True fact. I didn't.)
It was a really fun night. After dinner at an Indian restaurant we stayed until really late at Mari's. It was good to just hang out with my friends; I haven't had much chance to do that this year. Although I did get some vicious mosquito bites all over my legs and feet when I dropped Jen home...
24/11: Chilled out at home during the day, played some FFXII. Went to uni for most of the evening except when I came home for dinner. Forget to record NCIS. Dammit.
25/11-26/11: I can only assume I spent most of both days at uni working because I have no particular memory of them...
Friday 27/11: Slept in, because I was super tired and two of my team-mates were at work and the third was working in his dorm by himself. Went to my hair appointment with no real idea what I was going to do with it this time other than vague ideas of turning it dark brown, except mum liked it the colour it was (ironically), and maybe get a fringe...?
Here's the result:
My parents both hated it. XD; Apparently the colour is too dark and the fringe is too messy, or something. Of course, everyone ELSE seems to like it better than anything else I've done with my hair, including my aunt and my sister who told mum she has no taste, so who knows? *shrug* I like it. I think next time I'll get more hair cut into the fringe because it's a bit wispy as is, and maybe I'll get a permanent colour... the inky look came out on the first wash so it's now back to looking kind of burgundy, and I think I liked the violet-black better. But sometimes it's weird remembering I'm not blonde anymore, especially in Japan where everyone I know only knew me as a blonde. I don't know if I want to cut off my options for going BACK to blonde. *contemplates*
But whatever, back to uni until 7.30, and then I went to Tristan and Kathy's combined 23rd-- no, sorry, the 3rd anniversary of their 20th birthdays. XD It was good to see everyone together-- there were people there I hadn't seen in months or even years like Dani and Adrian and it was really nice to catch up. Of course, I was one of the few people there who was completely sober as someone who had to go into uni the next morning and also drove, so I ended up being the proxy responsible one. Scary thought, no? But as a dutiful best friend I plied Tristan with a constant supply of water and made sure he didn't crack his head open when he stumbled or in one case actually almost fell over, so I think I did an okay job. I was also hit upon by about 4 drunk dudes; I am not sure if this is a compliment or not, but guys, I'm not dumb enough to fall for the "you really need to go in the pool!" line. XD; One of Tristan's friends from school who was about as trashed as Tristan was (although Clive's always like this, don't get me wrong) kept being like, "Tristan! your friend is really hot!" and Tristan would be like, "DUDE, SIOBHAN'S AWESOOOOOME! :D" and I just had to laugh because they had the same conversation like, five times or something, I don't even know but it was hilarious.
It was certainly a different experience because usually I'm one of the really trashed people, but it was still fun, even if one guy kind of put a downer on the end of the evening by going all aggro drunk and breaking Kathy's blinds and running off into the night. Um.
Whatever, photo! It's not a very good one of me because my fringe really is messy and my eyes look kind of washed out, but it's the only one I've got so. XD
Saturday 28/11: Getting out of bed was kind of painful and I was about an hour late to the team meeting. This wasn't JUST because I didn't get home from the party until like 3.30. It was also because I woke up at 5.30-ish with a hypo, and then in the morning my blood-sugar rebounded to exceedingly high and made me feel 10x more like a zombie than I would on just insufficient sleep. <<; Came home early evening to eat a sad excuse for lunch and put the final touches on the poster for the competition, which has been unveiled now so I can feel free to upload:
I then went out to Eugenie's welcome home party, where I stayed perhaps a little longer than I ought to have considering I hadn't packed yet-- Mum told me to leave at 10, and it was more like 11, 11.30. <<; But again, I hadn't seen people in so long and I was having fun catching up. That week was kind of a catch-up for a year of not much socialising, I guess.
Again, photo! Filched from Eugenie's sister Isa, cause I didn't have my camera that night.
After the party I went home and I was totally intending to stay up packing, but I was just so tired that I didn't really get very far before I gave up and went to bed.
29/11-30/11: Having not packed the night before, I was stuck doing it the day I left, which was very stressful. In the end, I never did find my universal->Japanese plug adapter. >:| It's really frustrating, I'd seen it, like, the week before! I kept it safe for MONTHS, and then finally when I NEEDED it.... ugh. I also couldn't find the cooler pack for my insulin, which meant my mum went into a paranoid rampage to get another one which I'm probably going to be made to paid for, even though dad and I kept trying to tell her it really wasn't that necessary for a few hours in Cairns, and it wasn't cheap either. *rolls eyes*
Eventually my parents got going to lunch-- for my dad's birthday, which is the 30th-- and I continued to slog away with my packing. Which I THOUGHT was just underweight, but ended up about a kilo and a half overweight. Getting back when I have MORE STUFF is going to be an adventure. << I was originally planning to leave at around 3 to pick up a teammate's luggage before he boarded the bus and then pick another teammate up from near Belco before heading out, but I really wanted to say a proper goodbye to my parents and wasn't done packing then anyway. So I waited for them to come home, and faffed around with ipod playlists when the packing was done, until some time past 4.
Although, as I later discovered, I forgot to take my orthotics out of my sneakers. FJSKLFJSDLFDS.
Anyway, I got to Melissa's place fairly easily, and we headed off to Sydney, which felt like a much quicker and less painful drive with someone in the car to talk to, I have to say. It WAS a fairly quick drive, too; we were there in about 3 hours. I guess we only took a brief pit stop at Sutton Forest, whereas I usually stop to eat, but still.
However, when we GOT to Sydney things didn't go so much according to plan. I rang my siblings, who told me to drop the luggage off at the hostel and THEN the car off at Ceilidh's (I was going to go to Ceilidh's first since I knew how to get there) then laughed at me when I was like, "so... where is (street which the hostel is on), anyway?" <<;; But then we GOT to the hostel and they'd LOST OUR BOOKING! Or rather, Melissa's booking was fine because she'd made a separate booking later when she changed her mind about where she wanted to stay, but they lost the booking for me, Mamoru and Kareem. *HEADDESK* But Mamoru said he'd stay with a friend who he was going out to dinner with, and my siblings offered to put up anyone who needed it so after Melissa, Kareem and I, plus my siblings, my sister's boyfriend and a friend of theirs went out to dinner, Melissa went back to the hostel and Kareem and I ended up crashing with my brother. Phew. I've certainly learned my lesson about emailing for bookings rather than ringing on the phone, though. Even if I got lucky having siblings in the area.
Not that there was much sleep to be had anyway, since I don't sleep very well the first night someplace different and the alarm was set for 4.30... But nevertheless, I got up, had a shower, checked over all my stuff, and everyone made it in plenty of time for check-in (since it was actually a domestic flight Sydney-Cairns, we didn't have to be there 2 hours early, but we were there an 1 before the flight which left some leeway). Everything actually went pretty well. Aside from me losing the expensive testing kit that Telstra gave me as part of the trial. <<;; D'OH. I know I used it in the Jetstar lounge in Sydney just before boarding, and I didn't have it at the international terminal in Cairns, but neither lost property in either airport nor Jetstar found it. sfjksdlf who the fuck would steal a testing kit, for gods sake? I mean, it had two insulin pens in it as well, but... well, who'd steal insulin pens, really? They'd have to be diabetic for a start and probably really desperate for a second, which you would THINK would limit the pool considerably, but perhaps not? Whatever, IDEK. >:|
The flight to Japan was actually surprisingly non-painful. I was kind of expecting the worst because usually I want to die at some point during the flight and it was JETSTAR and also, I'd never been on an all-day flight before. But it was actually not as bad as usual. The leather Jetstar seats are actually pretty comfortable, and the daytime thing was good because I can never sleep ANYWAY and I didn't feel frustrated about that like normal. Plus it meant when I arrived in Japan all sleepy, I could go to bed fairly quickly rather than try to function for a full very long day in order to not mess up my sleeping patterns. And of course the flight was about an hour and a half or so shorter going from Cairns. I mean, overall it was about an hour or so longer because we had the 3 hour Sydney-Cairns flight earlier, but it was broken up, which I find preferable. It makes me both antsy and sore staying in the same seat for too long. As it was I got a little bored by the end of the flight, but nothing too bad.
... this post meanwhile is long enough so anything after we reached Japan can go into a later post. I'm sure you're thrilled. *g*
PS, any current or former Tokyo-ites, any suggestions on where to go for my birthday tomorrow??
Monday 23/11: Did not have to pull all-nighter on Sunday night! In fact, I went home by like, 6pm, because we'd miraculously finished all our parts early. It was magical. So instead I went into uni in the morning to help Kareem put the finishing touches on the final version of the memorandum, by which I mean being a formatting nazi. Although I did not manage to pick up a footnoting error in my own section where I referenced bad faith instead of damages. whoops.
Following this, I went shopping with my mother in Woden for suit-related things for the competition. We found a few long-sleeved shirts, despite the hot weather, and bought two. Sigh, I hate suits. As for shoes, Athletes Foot in Woden was closed for renovation, which was ironic because that's essentially why we went to Woden in the first place, so we drove out to Belconnen instead, where I got a fairly comfortable pair of mary-janes (so long as I don't put my orthotics in, because then my feet sit too high in the shoes). After which I came home to quickly get ready to go out with my schoolfriends as a kind of combined farewell things for those of us about to bugger off overseas. Victoria was in fact flying out to Thailand the next day and she's not coming back until after me, so it was my last chance to see her for a while and I probably wouldn't have time with preparations to see the others again before I left either. (True fact. I didn't.)
It was a really fun night. After dinner at an Indian restaurant we stayed until really late at Mari's. It was good to just hang out with my friends; I haven't had much chance to do that this year. Although I did get some vicious mosquito bites all over my legs and feet when I dropped Jen home...
24/11: Chilled out at home during the day, played some FFXII. Went to uni for most of the evening except when I came home for dinner. Forget to record NCIS. Dammit.
25/11-26/11: I can only assume I spent most of both days at uni working because I have no particular memory of them...
Friday 27/11: Slept in, because I was super tired and two of my team-mates were at work and the third was working in his dorm by himself. Went to my hair appointment with no real idea what I was going to do with it this time other than vague ideas of turning it dark brown, except mum liked it the colour it was (ironically), and maybe get a fringe...?
Here's the result:
My parents both hated it. XD; Apparently the colour is too dark and the fringe is too messy, or something. Of course, everyone ELSE seems to like it better than anything else I've done with my hair, including my aunt and my sister who told mum she has no taste, so who knows? *shrug* I like it. I think next time I'll get more hair cut into the fringe because it's a bit wispy as is, and maybe I'll get a permanent colour... the inky look came out on the first wash so it's now back to looking kind of burgundy, and I think I liked the violet-black better. But sometimes it's weird remembering I'm not blonde anymore, especially in Japan where everyone I know only knew me as a blonde. I don't know if I want to cut off my options for going BACK to blonde. *contemplates*
But whatever, back to uni until 7.30, and then I went to Tristan and Kathy's combined 23rd-- no, sorry, the 3rd anniversary of their 20th birthdays. XD It was good to see everyone together-- there were people there I hadn't seen in months or even years like Dani and Adrian and it was really nice to catch up. Of course, I was one of the few people there who was completely sober as someone who had to go into uni the next morning and also drove, so I ended up being the proxy responsible one. Scary thought, no? But as a dutiful best friend I plied Tristan with a constant supply of water and made sure he didn't crack his head open when he stumbled or in one case actually almost fell over, so I think I did an okay job. I was also hit upon by about 4 drunk dudes; I am not sure if this is a compliment or not, but guys, I'm not dumb enough to fall for the "you really need to go in the pool!" line. XD; One of Tristan's friends from school who was about as trashed as Tristan was (although Clive's always like this, don't get me wrong) kept being like, "Tristan! your friend is really hot!" and Tristan would be like, "DUDE, SIOBHAN'S AWESOOOOOME! :D" and I just had to laugh because they had the same conversation like, five times or something, I don't even know but it was hilarious.
It was certainly a different experience because usually I'm one of the really trashed people, but it was still fun, even if one guy kind of put a downer on the end of the evening by going all aggro drunk and breaking Kathy's blinds and running off into the night. Um.
Whatever, photo! It's not a very good one of me because my fringe really is messy and my eyes look kind of washed out, but it's the only one I've got so. XD
Saturday 28/11: Getting out of bed was kind of painful and I was about an hour late to the team meeting. This wasn't JUST because I didn't get home from the party until like 3.30. It was also because I woke up at 5.30-ish with a hypo, and then in the morning my blood-sugar rebounded to exceedingly high and made me feel 10x more like a zombie than I would on just insufficient sleep. <<; Came home early evening to eat a sad excuse for lunch and put the final touches on the poster for the competition, which has been unveiled now so I can feel free to upload:
I then went out to Eugenie's welcome home party, where I stayed perhaps a little longer than I ought to have considering I hadn't packed yet-- Mum told me to leave at 10, and it was more like 11, 11.30. <<; But again, I hadn't seen people in so long and I was having fun catching up. That week was kind of a catch-up for a year of not much socialising, I guess.
Again, photo! Filched from Eugenie's sister Isa, cause I didn't have my camera that night.
After the party I went home and I was totally intending to stay up packing, but I was just so tired that I didn't really get very far before I gave up and went to bed.
29/11-30/11: Having not packed the night before, I was stuck doing it the day I left, which was very stressful. In the end, I never did find my universal->Japanese plug adapter. >:| It's really frustrating, I'd seen it, like, the week before! I kept it safe for MONTHS, and then finally when I NEEDED it.... ugh. I also couldn't find the cooler pack for my insulin, which meant my mum went into a paranoid rampage to get another one which I'm probably going to be made to paid for, even though dad and I kept trying to tell her it really wasn't that necessary for a few hours in Cairns, and it wasn't cheap either. *rolls eyes*
Eventually my parents got going to lunch-- for my dad's birthday, which is the 30th-- and I continued to slog away with my packing. Which I THOUGHT was just underweight, but ended up about a kilo and a half overweight. Getting back when I have MORE STUFF is going to be an adventure. << I was originally planning to leave at around 3 to pick up a teammate's luggage before he boarded the bus and then pick another teammate up from near Belco before heading out, but I really wanted to say a proper goodbye to my parents and wasn't done packing then anyway. So I waited for them to come home, and faffed around with ipod playlists when the packing was done, until some time past 4.
Although, as I later discovered, I forgot to take my orthotics out of my sneakers. FJSKLFJSDLFDS.
Anyway, I got to Melissa's place fairly easily, and we headed off to Sydney, which felt like a much quicker and less painful drive with someone in the car to talk to, I have to say. It WAS a fairly quick drive, too; we were there in about 3 hours. I guess we only took a brief pit stop at Sutton Forest, whereas I usually stop to eat, but still.
However, when we GOT to Sydney things didn't go so much according to plan. I rang my siblings, who told me to drop the luggage off at the hostel and THEN the car off at Ceilidh's (I was going to go to Ceilidh's first since I knew how to get there) then laughed at me when I was like, "so... where is (street which the hostel is on), anyway?" <<;; But then we GOT to the hostel and they'd LOST OUR BOOKING! Or rather, Melissa's booking was fine because she'd made a separate booking later when she changed her mind about where she wanted to stay, but they lost the booking for me, Mamoru and Kareem. *HEADDESK* But Mamoru said he'd stay with a friend who he was going out to dinner with, and my siblings offered to put up anyone who needed it so after Melissa, Kareem and I, plus my siblings, my sister's boyfriend and a friend of theirs went out to dinner, Melissa went back to the hostel and Kareem and I ended up crashing with my brother. Phew. I've certainly learned my lesson about emailing for bookings rather than ringing on the phone, though. Even if I got lucky having siblings in the area.
Not that there was much sleep to be had anyway, since I don't sleep very well the first night someplace different and the alarm was set for 4.30... But nevertheless, I got up, had a shower, checked over all my stuff, and everyone made it in plenty of time for check-in (since it was actually a domestic flight Sydney-Cairns, we didn't have to be there 2 hours early, but we were there an 1 before the flight which left some leeway). Everything actually went pretty well. Aside from me losing the expensive testing kit that Telstra gave me as part of the trial. <<;; D'OH. I know I used it in the Jetstar lounge in Sydney just before boarding, and I didn't have it at the international terminal in Cairns, but neither lost property in either airport nor Jetstar found it. sfjksdlf who the fuck would steal a testing kit, for gods sake? I mean, it had two insulin pens in it as well, but... well, who'd steal insulin pens, really? They'd have to be diabetic for a start and probably really desperate for a second, which you would THINK would limit the pool considerably, but perhaps not? Whatever, IDEK. >:|
The flight to Japan was actually surprisingly non-painful. I was kind of expecting the worst because usually I want to die at some point during the flight and it was JETSTAR and also, I'd never been on an all-day flight before. But it was actually not as bad as usual. The leather Jetstar seats are actually pretty comfortable, and the daytime thing was good because I can never sleep ANYWAY and I didn't feel frustrated about that like normal. Plus it meant when I arrived in Japan all sleepy, I could go to bed fairly quickly rather than try to function for a full very long day in order to not mess up my sleeping patterns. And of course the flight was about an hour and a half or so shorter going from Cairns. I mean, overall it was about an hour or so longer because we had the 3 hour Sydney-Cairns flight earlier, but it was broken up, which I find preferable. It makes me both antsy and sore staying in the same seat for too long. As it was I got a little bored by the end of the flight, but nothing too bad.
... this post meanwhile is long enough so anything after we reached Japan can go into a later post. I'm sure you're thrilled. *g*
PS, any current or former Tokyo-ites, any suggestions on where to go for my birthday tomorrow??
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Date: 2009-12-12 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 01:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 05:22 am (UTC)Oh man talk about a crazy week XD I hope you're doing all right over there~
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Date: 2009-12-12 01:05 pm (UTC)haha, yeah, it was pretty crazy, and then there was the week of prepping here in Tokyo.... XD I haven't spoken to you in ages! What's up?
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Date: 2009-12-12 07:46 pm (UTC)I'm being killed by the papers right now >_> It's gonna be hell until the 22nd (and maybe more if I mess up before then... augh)
I should just log on to aim one of those days.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 07:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 01:02 pm (UTC)Got IM?
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Date: 2009-12-12 01:04 pm (UTC)I have gtalk and AIM?
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Date: 2009-12-12 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 01:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 08:59 am (UTC)I went to the Lock-up a few times on my Bday. If you tell them it's your birthday you get a special dessert and they take a picture that they give to you.
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Date: 2009-12-12 12:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-13 12:27 am (UTC)