chai wallah

working gives you more spending power than being a student does eh?

daryl and eddie got togther and organized The Chaiwalla Party at the kensington house, covering all the costs. (yupp they catered very good food). it was really impressive, the effort they put into decorating the place to give it an indian feel. we had tea lights and jasmines, a sea-view wallpaper stuck up, lanterns and goood curry :D

more than just that, the chai walla party (http://www.thechaiwallaparty.blogspot.com)was a very meaningful one because it was organized with the aim of raising money to sponsor an child living in poverty for 3 years. within these three years, the organization that they are doing this through will help the child's famly build a small business, so that income will not stop when they sponsorship ends. http://www.cambodiaoutreach.org/childrensministries/childrenatrisk.html
their website probably gives a much better description than i ever will.

what to say - im just quite blown away but what a success tonight was. it didn't feel like a formal fundraiser thingo, like there was totally no pressure to give at all. they were auctioning stuff that fetched pretty good prices, and we had a lot of fun looking at the two jokers market their "products". it was great! we were all really enthusiastic i would think, because the auction didn't stop just at the stuff that people brought and contributed, yihong, sam and andrew spontaneously came up one by one to offer random cleaning/massaging servives. it was amazing! theyraised almost 200 bucks together.

we ended the night with slumdog millionaire projected on the big white balcony blinds and everyone tucked nice and comfortable under blanketsand cushions on the sofa/beanbags. when eddie tabluated the collections, they had raised enough money for almost 2 years! i think that was pretty insane, because their target was just for a year!



anyway, i started this post with a question on spending power because tonight got me thinking about how we spend our money. i dont think that being a student makes you incapable of having enough to give. last night, i met this guy who says he's got no moey. he stays in college where everything's paid for icluding his meals and stuff. so he's got no money and he "finds things". he's like..a finder. he showed me a bag of cookies he found at the medical building, and also a clay cup he picked up from where the engineering students were having a piss up (that's what he called it). he was really nice. christine offered him cookies she'd baked and he insisted on giving us something in return. he even offered us an umbrella he'd found. he was really keen on returning us a kind act. i just thought he was extremely sweet. i wish i'd bump into him at uni again.

i wish i were more giving. haha. man.. it's embarrassing how we can sometimes hold on so tight to the smallest things.

hmm.. i wonder what kind of person i'll turn out to be in the future. i really wonder if i'll become the average singaporean. typical. boring old workaholic who sends her kids for tuition classes 7 times a week, comes home, maybe cooks and cleans, depending on whether there's a maid.. argh. i dont wanna be a typical singaporean! (of course im making a huge, unfair generalization). i like singapore. i do. it's clean, and safe. it's SAFE. i cannot emphasize enough on this fact that im proud of. it's not 100% safe for sure, but honestly, it's probably safer than melbourne.


i can't imagine myself being an accountant the rest of my life. i have decided, that i want to do REAL breadth subjects, not breadth subjects that would necessarily enrich my degree. breadths like Food for a Healthy Planet are great. i enjoy it. yes. i wanna do something i enjoy for my breadth. i dont wanna leave melbourne with just a degree plus stuff that enrich my degree. because then it becomes all about my degree.



ok tough stuff aside, this little one turned 18 on monday. why am i the little one? cause almost everybody here's older than me. most of the people i hang out with are older than me. dong blindfolded me after church on sunday and made me walk to tiff's place where my old and new cellgroups were waiting to surprise me. then daryl and eddie made me leave the room to put on a bib, pampers and suck a pacifier. those jokers. fortunately, dong saved me from having to wear the nappies because it looked quite wrong. they made me wear it on my head instead. i didn't get any pictures. someone else did though. ANYWAYS, it was really nice to have the old cell back together again because i hardly see them at all nowadays. seeing them made me realise how i miss them. really. it was great. after the little surprise, (omygoodness did i mention the extremely good chocolate cheesecake they bought me!!!!??) the k bros, mandy, tiff, trace and i went to taco bill to have mexican food.
neat place.
i really enjoyed my brthday. it was sufficiently quiet, and sufficiently happening. i wasn't planning to do anything. i might have a big 21st though. but that depends. because i would have graduated by then. don't even know if i'll be in australia or singapore. oh, mummy wants me to get married at 21. tell me she's the cooles mum ever. she's insanely hilarious luh. all bcause she wants to be a young grandmother. hahaha..i love you mummy. (i dont know how serious she is.. but we'll see heh heh heh)

hey dont judge me.

oh before i en this post, i HAVE to mention how sweet mark and his family are. mark asked me out for brekkie on saturday, just like we did the week before. but his family was here to visit so it was me and his family. no not awkward. and noooo not meet the in-laws! (people have been giving me that.) anyway, to cut the long story short, they surprised me with a birthday cake! crazy people! i was so pleasantly surprised!

2.30am! i gotta go to bed!