flatmate invited me to join the 'family' downstairs because one of them was leaving for the holidays.

 there was dinner provided - curry chicken, noodles, chicken pasta, bread and broccoli.
 also joined them for the outing to the casino - my first time there. it was pretty nice.
 swanky hotel lobby.
 xmas deco.
 nice hotel carpet. i borrowed nude heels from flatmate.
 went to the club at the casino. worst retro night dj ever.
practically no one on the dance floor because of the terrible music selected by the dj.
hung around for an hour, watched some people dance, tried a bit of dancing, and left cursing and swearing.
one of flatmate's 'family', in particular, told everyone we passed by on the way back to the car, not to go to the club. lol. he's really outspoken and a real character.
they had decided to bring their laptop to the field and play their own music there.
we ended up in the car park and had fun watching the theatrics of the guys dancing like manics.

so i went to Scarborough with boss and his friends. armed with only a theory on surfing, i thought it would be okay.

this is the surf shop where we hired the boards from.
boards for sale.
the fat blue one is mine. i read that beginners start with big fat ones. unfortunately it was too heavy for me.
anyway, i have no pictures of the beach, but we went to the spot where a surf school held lessons for the kids. the waves were no existent at first. i tried to put what i read online into practice, but my arms could not paddle, it was hard to get on the board and i didn't know how to position myself. much less "pop-up". apparently that is pure arm power since my legs are not on board, it being too short?
boss and his friends left me to figure it out on my own, checking on me periodically.
20 minutes in, the waves started being erratic and i got caught the horrible washing machine of crashing waves like 6 times. one of those times, the board hit me on the jaw. it hurt, but i felt okay so i continued to stay on the water. after being bashed around, i decided to watch the waves and learn to avoid the danger zone. lol.
after another 20 minutes where i was pleasantly floating like a beached seal on the board, i felt my face and was surprised that there seemed to be a v-shaped dent on my jawline. and my fingers came away a bit red. the wound was bleeding...
huh. but it didn't hurt so i didn't really bother.
it was after another 5 minutes that the guys decided to rest. we went on shore (i was rolled around again while doing that) and i showed them my injury. they seemed quite non-plussed, and i went with one of them to the life guards.
the life guards were quite alarmist - they looked at it and said it was deep and probably needed 2 stitches. and they did some basic cleaning and stuck a plaster on it.
then boss took me to a nearby clinic that the life guards mentioned, but being Saturday, there was no one who wanted to handle my case.
then he dropped me off in the city and i went to Royal Perth Hospital.
i was told to report to the emergency section.
first, the triage nurse does a basic assessment of your injury. and asks for your name and phone number. then gives you some print-outs for you to bring to the other side.
there was no queue number system for the triage, so people could jump queue, but luckily it was only about 4 people when i was there.
i followed the orange lines to the other side where i gave more information to the receptionist and waited for them to call me.
while i waited, this lady came in with a palm-sized fish hook that went through her palm and she was in a lot of pain. she and her partner were quite bogan (unsophisticated). she got called in first
then a rather cute young guy in scrubs called me in. it was Dr Alex.
beside me was the fish hook lady, an old guy with bandaged little finger, and drunk and hungry injured guy.
Alex did some checks to see if my brain got damaged by the impact, making me stare at his nose and pull his fingers. and his senior told him to glue the cut instead of stitching it.
the doctors and nurses were not rushing around. it must be tiring and stressful, i think the more experienced ones use black humor to get through the day.
the fish-hook lady was afraid of injections. they put her on a bed and gave her a pain-killer, and they brought out pliers for cutting the hook.
i waited there, as the fish-hook lady waited, while the staff seemed to slowly take their time.
when i got a bed for Alex to clean and glue the wound, the fish-hook was finally getting the hook cut and removed.
Alex said the cut was deeper than he thought, so he put plenty of glue.
and he also gave me a tetanus shot.
i went out of the hospital with dressing over the 2 strips of tape. when i was taking my shower, i realised my front neck muscles hurt. must be from the impact of the board.
the next day, the arm with the tetanus hurt like crazy (left arm). my jaw was okay though. i had some blue-black bruises on my legs and my stomach muscles hurt.
the following day, my left arm is still practically useless.

one of the guys saw my bandage and commented that he got hit on the face by his board too. but his was worse because somehow it made his tooth go through his face. yikes.
i'm really lucky the board didn't hit in worse ways.
still keen to try it again though, but with actual instructors. or just do body-boarding.

watched Hunger Games - Catching Fire yesterday.
enjoyed it. Jennifer Lawrence has a nice face. lol
poor Lenny Kravitz... the dresses he made were amazing.

and going surfing tomorrow.

http://www.wikihow.com/Surf
http://www.surfing-waves.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16356

important -
learn to paddle
turn board perpendicular to wave
learn to pop up and look at shore
learn to cannonball over side of board, not front or back of board
learn to surface safety and not get hit by board

 you can see kangaroos for free in the city area. at Heirisson Island. i walked there after work one day because the weather was not too bad.
 a major road artery runs through the middle of the island. at the end of the island is a very large fenced area where wild kangaroos were live. they were introduced there a few years ago.
in the fenced area are a few pools. i was determined to find some kangaroos and decided to walk down this path. it looks like a good setting for a depressing movie.
 apparently all the kangaroos were chilling in the marsh area under the trees.
they were quite nonplussed by my presence but i didn't want to encroach on their space so i kept my distance. i thought they might kick me if they felt threatened. lol

 cafe bosses treated us to dinner - Italian food at Catalano's Cafe at Vic Park. early year end celebration because 1 of the staff was going back for 3 months.
 appetizers. in attendance - the 2 bosses, and 7 of us. a bit awkward but it was pretty good considering... talked about random stuff.
my salmon pasta. it was the creamiest and yummiest pasta i ever eaten. the servings were all quite large.

 went to mullaloo beach to check out how the surf looked
 it was really sunny and many young people sun bathing
 you get used to such views here
 sand is very fine and white. and very hot.
what you don't see are the horrid flies. not just the beaches, the city, my neighbourhood, all full of flies in the summer.
no waves... water was cool/cold

from 10 nov... went to IKEA.

 patio that connects to dining and kitchen
 red white black
 white kitchen and dining
 outdoor dining - my fav
daim tart!

Soredemo, Ikite Yuku (watch with subtitles)

それでも、生きてゆく

in a tragic back story full of regret, despair and guilt, 2 people fall in love.
a bit like Romeo and Juliet, except the guy's little sister got murdered 15 years ago and the girl's brother was the high schooler who killed her.
two families thrown into turmoil, one of the victim and the other the assailant.

this japanese drama from 2011 (Soredemo, Ikite Yuku : even so, i'll keep living) tells the story from the two families who have to live with this terrible and painful past.
for 15 years they lived doing the best they can with the lot they have. the assailant's family live together like a normal family, as if they can cut off ties with the boy, enduring curses and harassment from others. the victim's family broke up and store up their grieve and pain under a thin facade, the mother misdirecting her anger at the father who could not get over the loss. she left him so she could live anew, while knowing the thin line between self-righteous stoic living and suicidal despair. everyone is living as normally as they could, until the victim's father's last days, when he thinks he will meet his daughter in heaven, and he reveals his desire for revenge by wanting to find the murderer to kill him. he passes on what he found about the murderer to his son and dies.
that was the start that led to everyone slowly starting to take difficult steps to understanding and doing something about their regret, despair and guilt.

the main actors who play the guy (Eita) and the girl (Mitsushima Hikari) are fantastic because i could believe them and love them as they grew to come to terms with their past. they faced their problems head on and didn't run away from them.
the actress (Mitsushima Hikari) stands out especially because her transformation was unstable and emotional although her character was strangely naive yet straight forward. she was naive in that she still loved her brother, had fierce love for her family, was straight forward in her cute awkward dialogue, but yet behind this was a deep sadness because she also knew her brother was a dangerous killer and that she was tired of putting up a strong front. the actress handled this conflicting sides of the character really well.

and the victim's mother (Otake Shinobu) is another stand out. she hid herself from her family and was cold to the husband she divorced and the son who lived with him because that was the wall she put up to separate herself from the past. the actress does not have much screen time to show the process of how the wall breaks down, but when she does, she can express dramatic tension so well and i am amazed at her acting skills.
she slowly came to terms with her fears as the mother of a murdered child, told her new family about the unbearable pain of living a lie, went to live with her son, made peace with her late ex-husband, confronted the murderer, talked honestly with the family of the murderer and was finally able to come to terms with her own grief. the part where she attacked the murderer was so brilliant because of the nuanced control of her acting. she had to pretend to be civil to him to protect her daughter-in-law because she led the murderer to her house. then she released her anger at him, it was irrational and believable because you could imagine a mother animal without fear or regard for her safety, directly venting her frustration and hatred at a dangerous man, while knowing that it was hopeless and she may well be killed by him. this determination to demand answers for why her daughter was murdered, like the determination to confront reality, is the thread that connects her so closely with the quest for redemption that is shared by the main characters.

the creators of the drama know this and executed this story almost flawlessly. the pace and mood and look of the drama - all the elements came together so well.
like reading a good story, you go away knowing more about people, and life. strengths, weakness, sadness and happiness, even if it has no obvious meaning, being alive is something you do but also something you can't control. this active and passive aspect makes living hopeful and yet subjects us to pain and suffering. by showing how people can take action to change the course of their lives, i realise that i should also do the same.

[–]uberlad 

What's your very best life advice?

[–]_Drew_Carey[S] 

Learn how to set goals.
That's the key to everything.
That includes designing your own success.You define what the goal is, it's not somebody else's goal,it's yours.
People think automatically "oh I don't want to make money" or reach other people's goals. It's not what your relatives want you to do or what society wants you to do. All goal setting is is figuring out what you want to do with your life, so whether you want to be a CEO or the happiest hippy in the world, set goals. I was totally lost in my life until I figured out how to set goals.So from my perspective it's the most important thing you can do. There are tons of goal setting books out there and you can get good advice from any of them (I mentioned two of them earlier).

source: reddit

lovely animation and nice message :)

just watched this episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations where he was in Emilia-Romagna - the Italian region with the cities Bologna and Parma.

holy shit.

i want to go there.

i want to eat at San Domenico.

damn.

hey! i saw One Republic live!

 Emma Birdsall. really nice voice.

they opened like this. waited more than 2 hours!
 we were next to the stage.
very close to the action. it was a small venue. Beyonce was performing in the arena next door.
and 3 drunk older ladies were very annoying - they took our space and were noisy and tipsy. another older lady couldn't stand them anymore and told them off. that lady was awesome for standing up for herself and also us.
 Ryan Tedder said he likes the crowd in Perth. same population size as his hometown? and he got us to sing call-n-response style. from what we saw, the crowd wasn't very high, but we sung pretty well.
 he did a bit of Beyonce's Halo - he wrote the song. and covered a bit of Macklemore's 'Same Love', and did chord progression song improv while playing the piano. he sung a bit of Coldplay and Rihanna too. and 'Treasure' too.
 he did a lovely version of 'Life In Color'.
 it ended with a confetti bomb
 Ryan Tedder has an amazing voice
 and he's very energetic on stage
 fun banter with audience
 all round awesome stuff
 enjoyed the concert :D
 can probably find clips of it on youtube. lol