An Unpleasant Encounter (and a Lesson learnt)

Today (Well actually YESTERDAY now haha since it's 12:01am) I saw a woman and we had an unpleasant encounter.

She had a whitte dog in a pram and was towing the pram along, had a bag around her hips and was holding a money collecting tin. By her physical state, it was apparent that she was attempting to beg for money.

She came up to a crowd I was standing in, and everybody in that crowd walked away awkwardly as she was starting to talk about desperately needing a motel to stay in tonight. As I reached for my wallet, she smiled at me and I made small talk, asking her what her dog's name was. She said it was Misty.

This is where the encounter becomes unpleasant.

I give her most of my coins (including gold ones) but she spies a $20 note I had inside my wallet, which I needed for today (well yesterday). She looks down at the coins I gave her, puts them into the bulging hip-bag and thus rendering the collecting tin pitifully empty again, and her attitude turns sour.

Rather than the kind smile and grateful eyes she had for me, instead she snarls and insists I give her the note, whilst I stand there not knowing what to do. Expletives and uncouth language begins to spew out her mouth at me and she gets louder and louder, which undermines me and makes me feel guilty and selfish.

What do I do?

I stand there and take it. I don't even know why I didn't walk away or try talk back but she made me feel so horrible and selfish and the constant 'f-word' droppage is uncomfortable and just plain MEAN.

I don't know what I was supposed to do in this situation. Eventually she marches away (snarling more swear words about me under her breath) when it becomes apparent that her guilt trip attempt has me frozen and I won't hand over the note, although I did consider giving it I would only be able to return home and eat lunch that day if I, say, asked her for $10 change from a $20 which she wouldn't give me and I knew she would just get away with my $20.

And what I did after?

I don't think I handled it in the best way by walking dejected to the bathroom and bursting into tears, but that's what I did.

That was my unpleasant encounter, and I'm still contemplating how I feel about it. I don't feel any resentment or anger towards the woman, (although I did at first), nor am I any longer afraid of her but I do feel pity for her. How much of what she screamed at me was true, about her living on the streets and desperately needing a motel? What if I was in that situation (if it was true)? Wouldn't I want all the help I could get? Was I being selfish, seeing as I'm here typing this on a computer and she possibly doesn't know where her next meal is? Can I justify these things she shouted at me that I can't help, such as having a family and a house? Was I supposed to apologize for the wrongs the world has given her?

In the end though, if we consider perspective, our life on Earth isn't eternal. What we have here is just a foreward to the main event: Afterlife. That's why I think, even if in this life I end up with a far more wretched life than the one the woman seems to be having at the moment (possibly), we must remember everything happens for a reason, if I end up along that path so be it, and that GOD is always there for us whenever and wherever. So I pray that that woman, however at first unpleasant that encounter was, is better now or at least has calmed down, and that if screaming abuse at me in public helped her, then so be it.

I guess I can even see it as a blessing because I got to appreciate all that I already do have in life :)

Love: Michelle

I know today's blog entry was a little different to normal, so here are a few pictures of things I was planning to make this blog about before I had that encounter.

I got my glasses fixed (rememeber the ones Biscuit chewed and broke?)

My mum bought me a WHOLE BOX of Mi goreng. WHAT A TREAT!!!!! :D

My sister and I spent two hours finally taking down all the Christmas decorations :)

The Adventures of Superdawg and Revisiting Childhood

So I took my dog Biscuit out for a walk on Saturday to CL's house in the street behind mine (on account of the fact that CL is on a holiday with her family and we wanted to break in and rob her haha JOKES we have been feeding her dog Sugar for her) :D

Standing at CL's front door for about 10 minutes trying to work out which key will open the several locks and Biscuit getting impatient, trying to explore the front lawn lol

                                     Biscuit: "Why are you guys taking so long?????"

Anyway we heard Sugar barking and when we finally got inside Biscuit ran straight to the clear door where Sugar was :)

And we thought they were going to get along just fine. But then...

That's Sugar in the background too scared to socialise.

Poor Sugar is hiding

But then after a while she got over her fear and they made friends! See how cute :3

Haha maybe now they can go on dog walking parties to dog parks or something :))))) Haha and Sugar and Biscuit: See even their names go together :) They can be BFFLS now lol

Also another thing: Sugar has this awesome living space

She has this awesome cushion shaped like a bed and 2 KENNELS! One on top of the other!!! It's like a double storey house for dogs!!!!!! :O

Lately I have had this urge to dig out this old thing:

Yup the trusty old PLAYSTATION 1 :)

I remember the first game I had on PS1 was some 101 Dalmations game my dad bought me.

And my sister and I played this game for like 2 hours +

Seriously who else played Crash Team Racing growing up? BEST. GAME. EVER. Mario-kart will NEVER compare LOL

I also read these two books yesterday

ENID BLYTON: MY HERO GROWING UP!!!!! :)

HAHA I have so many Babysitter's Little Sister books....I bet anybody who has read these book knows that one chapter that repeats itself in every book. Yes, you know what I'm talkin about...'I'm Karen Two-Two my two families blahblah Little House Big House Now I'm going to name all my pets like Crystal Light the Second etcetc'

Anyway that was my brief blast to the past :) I hope you guys are having fun wherever and whatever you're doing! I've been spending today writing out Legal Studies notes :) Very proud of myself because I managed to somehow turn my Legal Studies textbook into an iBook on my iPad (which is a feat for me because I'm very bad with technology...)

WIN! Now whenever I go to the library to study I don't have to lug around heavy textbooks I can just bring my iPad :)

Love: Michelle

The Adventures of Tintin

Today my sister took me out to watch this:

IT WAS SUCH A GOOD MOVIE!!!! Probably the closest thing to an action movie I will ever watch. Haha well it did fit action movie criteria: Sidekick (Snowy), explosions, car chasings through the streets, drive by shooting, use of more than 2 types of unusual transport (eg ship, motorbike, helicopter). Yes 'Tintin' has my ultimate approval (it's one of those movies where I would actually willingly watch again in the cinema :D )

We went to get our tickets pretty late and didn't pre-book so we ended up with seats in Row D

Since our seats were kind of to the side we decided to sit in the middle of Row C instead because there was nobody in that row and it was nice even if it was a little too close to the screen :) Since we were so close though everytime the camera panned quickly across the screen it was a little blurry and dizzying but not too bad :)

Hey I always wondered how old is Tintin?? I always thought in the comics (which I LOVED to read growing up. They were the BOMB) that he was around 15-16ish but then I was watching the movie and he could drive planes and cars and lived in his own apartment but then somebody else in the film called him a 'young boy'? He looks and seems young but I guess he must be 19/20? Because he's a reporter as well and you have to be older than a teenager at least to have a full-time occupation like that. Oh well he is MYSTERY AGE because he's TINTIN haha enough said :)

Tintin actually made me want to be a reporter when I was young because the whole detective and mystery and adventure thing seemed so exciting (as you can guess, I also read copious amounts of books like Nancy Drew, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven growing up LOL).

Ooh and Snowy too gave me unrealistic expectations for what a dog should be able to do HAHA.

                                                    BISCUIT Y U NO SNOWY??!!

And Biscuit's just like "Hey whatever I'm better than Snowy."

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SUPADAWG IN DA HAUS ;D

Love: Michelle :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROGER!!

Well technically he turns 17 TOMORROW on the 6th but today was his birthday party! Thanks for the party, Rodge, it was a blast :) Reminds me of 'Grease"...Summer lovin' had me a blastttt... :D If you guys recognise that song YAY

We went to George Thornton Reserve to have a barbeque at first and the weather was not too hot today actually, quite cool yet humid at the same time (how possible? well it's Australia LOL cos right now as I'm blogging this it's thunderstorming and raining outside which is quite a change from the heat wave barely a day ago).

This is a bit of the Reserve. GZ and I took Roger's dog Chloe for a bit of a walk. She is so cute but quite fat HAHA...

Chloeeeee :D See how her tongue is all out? She KEPT panting and wouldn't stop so we thought maybe she was thirsty...

So we brought her to the tap and she drank lots but she KEPT PANTING non-stop for the whole day...She was probably tired and it was hot.

The reserve was fun! Some more pictures....

HAHA I didn't even realise when I took this that CG was doing such a funny pose :D He wasn't even aware I was snapping pics. Wow he must just naturally talk and act like that....well he is a Drama student :P The more I look the funnier it gets...It's like he's giving some fashion advice or something HAHA

A photo of all the junk food we brought to the picnic...we hardly finished much of it actually :L

Casual B-ball at the Reserve

3 loaves of bread waiting for the meat to arrive....Rodge bought these frozen hamburger patties and when we opened the pack they looked very orange and unappealing but after they had been barbeque-d they turned brown and actually tasted really nice :) Thanks to JJ for her EXPERT barbeque-ing skills :) We realised that nobody brought any sauce and sauce really makes a burger taste so much better so MP and GZ went to go buy sauce and came back with a huge bottle of juice and that was literally gone in less than 10 minutes HAHA.

Ooh before I forget: Shout-out to AS! Your salmon lace shorts today were really cute!! (I know I told you twice today already ahah but they really were :D)

The Reserve was filled with dog walks, barbeque-ing and fun talks (A standout moment was with KF: my fellow can't'-ride-a-bike-and-so-compensated-for-that-lack-of-skill-by-skateboarding-and-riding-a-scooter buddy :D)

 Seriously I had a Digimon Skateboard that was 100 times cooler than any bike. And hot pink roller blades and an awesome slver sleek scooter. Pssh. (I'm just saying this so I don't feel inadequate about not being able to ride a bike LOL)

Afterwards we all trekked to Rodge's house (I walked Chloe back) and we decided to swim and those that didn't want to or didn't bring swimmers played pool. HAHA so everyone decided to pool :P Okay I didn't make that pun up it was GZ but I stole it for this blog...

Roger's pool is AMAZING! There is a cave up the top that you climb a few rocks to get to and that thing on the side is a water slide :) There are little statue animals that look really real like a turtle and an alligator and a bird so it kinda looks like a cool display at the zoo for seals or something :))

Lots of fun: Water fights with self-confessed Pool Mafia JM, CG picking up everyone and throwing them into the pool, playing 'Akifball', so-called 'planking' onto the water which doesn't really work because the water holds you up..

After I had gotten out of the pool and changed etc I was feeling really hungry and I spotted a a piece of foil with all these rectangular pastries on it. At first I thought they were curry puffs or spring rolls or something then I but into one and I was like...Is there chocolate inside this? Turns out JC had taken a box of these:

and had covered each of the chocolates with puff pustry and baked them. It was so delicious!! It's like the healthy version of deep-frying chocolate (except baking them in pastry is still not exactly healthy...)
I was onto my 4th favourite-pastry-hybrid when i spied a half-eaten one on the corner of the foil and predictably, inside was a Turkish Delight. Seriously NO ONE likes/eats the turkish delights! Well correct me if I'm wrong about this theory, readers :D

Anyway I went home soon after that but THANKS FOR THE PARTY RC it was awesome I hope you had a fun day celebrating your special day too :D Except that your birthday is on the 6th but still I remember my 16th birthday party I held it like 2 weeks after my actual birthday because of clashing with exams/assessments so yeah it's perfectly cool to celebrate your bday on another day than your bday (ensuring it's not TOO far from your actual bday....probably 6 months later is pushing it a bit LOL)

I'm glad I ended up going, you've been one of my best friends since year 7 (going to your house today I remembered your party in Year 7 SERIOUSLY THAT WAS AWESOME) and I'm glad I didn't flake on you after all. You see, this is the story of the drama of going/not going to Rodge's:
-At first, I was going to carpool with my friend JP who lives just one street down from me (SUPER handy we can have our chem study seshs easily even once at 9 she came over and we were just both in sweats LOL then we had a quick revision for the prac test :D One time at 9pm she even came around with red velvet cupcakes randomly :D)
-Then JP couldn't go anymore so my mum said if I didn't really want to go (because BT and RH ma gurl frans weren't going I didn't feel up to it) I shouldn't go so I thought ok I won't go
-Yesterday I saw RH and BT (and HH too) at towers and after shopping for Rodge's present we decided we would go after all
-This morning I got a text from BT saying she wasn't up to it due to tiredness and I decided not to go cos i'm not that great with bus catching (also sometimes I get into anti-social apathetic-ish moods where I just want to read Horrible Histories at home and eat Mi Goreng)
-Then I got a text from GZ saying if I wanted he could catch the bus with me then I realised I CAN'T BE A FLAKE! That goes against my belief that you have to live up to the decisions you make and put effort into friendships, and whether you're up for it or not, sometimes it's not only for yourself but you have to think of other people. I couldn't let Rodge down! So I turned my attitude around and heypresto my dad said he could give me a lift to the party. WOO!

Love: Michelle

P.S. Looking forward to having a girlie day out with my older sis tomorrow :) We may be watching 'The Adventures of Tin-Tin' in the cinema then eating ice-cream from Mother Crepe. Hoping you guys all have exciting plans tomorrow too!

On the mention of my sister, a funny convo we had yesterday: [To understand fully 'Home' is the name of a club in Sydney]

Me: So I hear you're going out tomorrow night.
Rose: Yeah, I'm going clubbing.
Me: Oh where are you going?
Rose: 'Home'
Me: No where are you going clubbing?
Rose: I'm going 'Home'
Me: But I thought you said you were going out!
Rose: Yeah I am
Me: I was asking you where you're going exactly
Rose: I already said I'm going 'Home'!

Stupid conversation continues for 5 minutes until
Me: WHERE ARE YOU GOING??
Rose: A CLUB CALLED 'HOME' !

ROFL

Love: Michelle

Summer weather has finally caught up!

And by that, I mean it's very hot here in Australia (as opposed to the constant raining we had in December). Perfect weather for swimming, which is incidentally what I will be looking forward to be doing tomorrow at RC's birthday party :) Ah summer days...
Yesterday my cousin and his fiance came over for dinner :) My mum made really nice food:

This is nice steamed fish :)

My mum makes the BEST steamed oysters :) She puts vermicelli on top

An up close of my oyster. There's a soy sauce-sauce my mum makes to garnish them it tastes really nice :)

Ooh Biscuit got a new toy recently

HAHA it's the starry unicorn thing from Neopets :) She LOVES it. When she want to play fetch she will hold the unicorn in her teeth and brush it against your leg then drop it on your foot HAHA :3

This is Biscuit enjoying her new toy :)

I also rewatched 'Grease'

Remember this movie? I LOVE IT! It's my favourite musical  :D My favourite songs are 'Summer Nights', 'Beauty School Dropout' and 'We Go Together' :) You should watch it if you haven't already!



Hmm what did I do today....Well I decided to study UMAT (well do some practice papers) and since it's so HOT I went to the library :) Nice air-con there. I procrastinated a bit by reading an It-Girl novel (BT remember that time I borrowed one on your dad's library card haha and we were joking about how his card borrow history is just full of It-Girl books?)

It-Girl makes me want to go to a boarding school :( Waverly Owls!!

OH on the subject of Dad's I'd like to do a shoutout to my Dad: HELLO DADDY! I know you read this blog HAHA :)

Ooh I also saw HH, BT and RH at towers tioday and we shopped by RC's present which I hope he will like :) Just casually standing in the can aisle in Coles trying to decide which flavour he would like best and constantly changing our minds haha

OH ANOTHER EXCITING THING: Biscuit's mother Tia had another litter of puppies!! They were vorn on Boxing Day so they're only 9 days old :)

Here are some PHOTOS:

Love: Michelle :)

The Day After New Years Day :)

How was your New Years Day everybody? Here is a recap of mine :)

-I gave my dog Biscuit a bath. She hasn't had one since last year (HAHA I love saying stuff like this on the first day of a new year).

This is Biscuit's tub that I wash her in and here she is all wrapped up in a towel after her bath :) So cute :3 She is very well-behaved at bath times and likes licking the water for some reason. The first time I gave her a bath she licked the dog shampoo suds too but evidently the taste of them was not to her liking haha and she hasn't done it ever again.

One thing she HATES is getting her face wet haha. Poor Biscuit.

HAHA Biscuit reminds me of Voldemort here (well Quirrel-Voldemort). :D

-Also I made jelly :)

Mango and Raspberry flavour and the cups are supposed to be boots :) Interesting shaped cutlery always

makes food more interesting. Like cool ice-cube moulds shaped like orange slices or something :O

Hmm another thing that happened yesterday was that I got a noseblled in the shower. This is quite normal for me seeing as I get nosebleeds extremely often; in summer I usually get two a day and I remember one time when I came back from a few weeks in HK my first week back to Australia I had a nosebleed 3 times every single day. The contrast of the weather was too great. OH and also when the weatner changes I get nosebleeds HAHA.

Actually getting nosebleeds in the shower is quite fun because you can't stop the flow and there aren't any tissues obviously so you try to clamp your nose with your hands and the blood runs all down your hand and arms and drips onto the shower floor AND YOU CAN PRETEND YOU'RE IN A HORROR MOVIE !!!!!!!!!! hahaha. Okay..I have strange hobbies....

And then after a while it becomes less fun because you inadvertently start to swallow your blood which isn't that great. Very metallic-y.

Today I went to DFO with my family and afterwards we had pho which was delicious :) Really hot weather today in Sydney, hope everyone else had a great day both today and yesterday! :D

Love: Michelle

P.S. To finish off here is a photo of Biscuit trying to get water out of ears after bathtime.

2012

Welcome to 2012!!

I think I already learnt an important lesson in this first day of the new year (and it's only 1:34am haha): Expect the unexpected (In the wise words of B.Tan)

You see, yesterday night if you had asked me what I was doing for NYE I would have told you I would be watching the movie 'New Years Eve' and then catching a train to North Sydney with my family as we had booked two hotel rooms in Harbourside to enjoy the splendour of the fireworks.

Well.

I missed that train to North Sydney and my family were forced to leave me behind.

Instead, as I forgot my house keys, I triapsed to my aunt's house in North Parramatta (GZ-further proof that she is a superhero HAHA) where I spent the next 4 hours until midnight in virtual solitude watching the TV (as my aunt, my cousin and my uncle had all fallen asleep by 8:30 on account of the fact that they had been working all day and were really tired).
At first I was pretty disappointed (especially after my sister called and was raving about the floor to ceiling windows and how they set up chairs for everybody to sit and watch the fireworks, and how they even got wristbands to walk around the Harbourside area cos apparently it was really exclusive and how one chair was left empty for me) because I was really looking forward to it BUT the time alone really gave me time to reflect on the past year and the lessons and memories I will never forget.

And hey it was still an awesome day because I
-Got to see my dear pals BT, AG, RC and GZ briefly today and got to watch an amazing movie with BT and AG as well.

[I stole this photo from CrysBea chicken HAHA cos I couldn't be bothered to take a photo of my ticket which was H-7 btw]
-Reread Malcolm in the Middle at my aunts house (which is a hilarious series btw)
-Made my first New Years Resolution: Watch the fireworks NEXT New Years Eve, Whether with family or friends, and in a hotel room or in the ground [NOT ON TV], I shall STRIVE to achieve this HAHA I have actually never once went out on New Years with friends and only once (when I was about 5) watched the fireworks in the city with my family so I have yet to experience this 'partying' on New Years everybody talks about :)
-And call this fate or MAGIC but when it was getting closer to 12 and I was all alone, I was getting a little scared I wouldn't be able to ring in the new year with anyone because my mum told me they were still in the city but at exactly 12:00, my aunt's doorbell rang and my family was outside waiting there screaming HAPPY NEW YEAR and then my uncle and my aunt woke up and celebrated too and there were many hugs and kisses which was nice :') So I didn't spent it alone afterall :D

Also this was the first New Years I have ever gotten so many calls and text messages wishing me Happy New Year and wanting to reminisce about 2011 and telling me about their night and whatnot so thank you for everybody's wishes :D

To end this post here is a quote from 'New Years Eve': Although there are things beyond our control (such as natural disasters) we can always control our personal attitudes so this year be kinder, forgive more and LOVE more because love drives the world.

Here's to hoping 2012 will bring trials (literally as well....can't be forgetting them TESTS), triumphs, transitions, trends, tempestuous times and terrific times and everything in between.

Love: Michelle

Update: Here are some photos that my parents snapped at Harbourview yesterday and I decided to slot them into this entry as it seems fitting :)

It's summer right not in Sydney and the days are long so even when my parents and my sister got to North Sydney at 8:40 ish, the sky was still so nice and light outside :)

Some fireworks in the far-off distance

Some fireworks in the not-so-far-off-distance