MODERN MUSE

Peace, Love and IKEA

2011-04-27T13:25:00.003+10:00

I think we can reach a general consensus that we all have a love/hate relationship with IKEA.

Great things about IKEA: the affordability of their restaurant menu(!), the free pencils(!!), their Swedish meatballs(!!!!!!!). Of course, it goes without saying that IKEA also has its drawbacks: the crowds of people, their showroom labyrinth (designed to keep you trapped within the store for the longest possible time without actually causing brain damage), and their incredibly-difficult-to-pronounce furniture names (Skruvsta? Svelvik? Björkudden? as;ljkdskas).

But, love it or hate it, you have to admit that despite its few faults, the Swedish megastore is a fantastic place to shop (and take pictures for your blog, apparently… hahaha).

Sneak peak of my newly renovated room in the next entry! :)

A Valuable Lesson

2011-04-24T14:55:00.002+10:00

Valuable lesson #584: Do not tie your hair up in a bun in photos. You will look like a prepubescent boy, apparently. Ugh.

(Anyway, I'm blogging again you guys! Easter eggs for everyone! O O O O)

The new cupcake

2011-01-27T13:53:00.002+11:00

Macarons for breakfast. Good idea? Or best idea?

Four Eyes

2011-01-25T13:05:00.002+11:00

Yo, I got new specs.

When looking at the demographics of all the people who have these glasses, 52.5% of them are geriatrics and 47.499% of them are calculus geeks. The remaining .001% is a smallish, misinformed Asian chick who thinks that looking like a librarian is more important than looking attractive.

At least I can see the world in HD now.

Sausages and Sabotage

2011-01-02T22:23:00.007+11:00

This week, in between not cleaning my room and sleeping in til 2PM, I managed to kick start the new year with a bang. Retrospectively, 2010 was a pretty rad year (yes, I said “rad”. I’m saving “da bomb” for an even more special occasion).

New Year’s resolutions: Do more and worry less, beat my top score in Ninjump, buy less crap, stop thinking of Cadbury as a food group, and spend less time watching videos of kitties on YouTube. Of course, realistically, the likelihood of me achieving all of these resolutions is on par with Jersey Shore’s JWoww covering up her tits. Highly unlikely, but possible.

Anyway, here are photos from a friend’s birthday party last week - the epitome of class, sophistication and good citizenry. As the night went, we ingested our weight in sausages, fist pumped to Afrojack, rolled on the lawn, and made use of the uneaten sausages (see: last photo). I guess to sum up the party, it was about 50% mischief and 50% cholesterol.

I hope 2011 has many pleasant surprises installed for everyone! (And more seasons of Jersey Shore plzplzplz).

I will be getting back to blogging very soon!

Time Teller

2010-12-21T15:45:00.001+11:00

Christmas came early this year when Andrew surprised me with this little baby:

Confession time: I'm nineteen years old and I have trouble telling the time. And not like "it takes me a few seconds longer to read analog", but rather, "which is the hour hand? How long have I been staring cross-eyed and slack-jawed trying to figure out if it's 1:50 or 11:05?” It probably doesn’t help that this watch is completely white and in analog, but I love it nonetheless.

I couldn’t have found a watch that’s more… me.

Wedding Bells

2010-12-13T20:49:00.003+11:00

Weddings make me especially happy. Invariably, your dad drinks one too many chardonnays, your whole extended family forms a congo line on the dance floor, and everyone’s just having a big ball of fun. Except, of course, for your dad… who’s knocked out cold at the table.

Congratulations, Peter and Hayley!

on the stereo

2010-12-03T22:00:00.000+11:00

Stereosonic Sydney.

I need to build myself a time machine, stat.

Meow

2010-11-14T20:30:00.003+11:00

Holy fuck, it's been ages since I last blogged. I could have had a baby in this time. Not that I did. We're talking hypothetically.

I know I sound like a whiny broken record by this point, but sorry that posts have been so few and far between lately. It's true what they say: when it rains, it pours. I've been under siege for the past month and have had to deal with: a) final exams, b) tonsillitis, and c) working 7 days a week sounding like an asthmatic middle-aged man due to said tonsillitis. I can't summon a word that describes my state of mind right now, but I think as;dflsjdalkk should suffice.

Having said all that, I've read through all the questions I've received on Formspring (for which I'm incredibly grateful!) and will get back to everyone shortly. :) As a general FAQ, yes I'm still alive, the nailpolish I'm wearing in the previous post is 'Galactica' by BYS, these pants are by Witchery, and I can't believe that I snuck a photo in the change room either hahaha.

Anyway, I learnt an (arguably) valuable lesson today. It's so easy to get caught up in your own fashion fantasy, especially when you're logged onto a computer for most of your waking hours and see pictures of hot girls wearing things like this and this, then go shopping with equally delusional people who say things like "yes OF COURSE you look amazing in that crop top!" and then step out into the real world with all the starry-eyed sartorial ambition you can muster.

But then of course, you turn up to work.

And then you realise that you are wearing a crop top.

And that your boss has noticed that you are wearing a crop top.

And the combination of these two things - your midriff and your boss - is decidedly not normal.

Fuck. Never wearing a crop top ever again.

Whirlwind Week.

2010-08-01T21:30:00.003+10:00

Short absence: After a two hour drive where I was a hair's breadth away from hitting into a truck and running over a wombat, I've finally moved into a unit in the Blue Mountains. This pretty much explains why it's been quiet here the last few weeks and why my Twitter has been flooded with packing-related tweets. Man, you have no idea how much physical labour went into condensing my stuff into a tiny suitcase. I'm thinking the thirty packets of Mi Goreng were a little extraneous...

For those who've asked, I'm actually staying here because I'm required to attend clinical placement out of Sydney. Admittedly, I'm not terribly excited about living alone for the next five weeks (I can already imagine all the washing machine drama) but at least I can aimlessly stroll through the aisles of my local grocery store and buy more junk food than I could ever explain purchasing, then watch as many back-to-back episodes of True Beauty as I'd possibly like. Right? RIGHT. (This is me trying to convince myself.)

Things that I realise I've taken for granted:

Fast internet. At any rate, I do have sporadic internet access here, but it. is. painfully. slow.
3. A community of Asians. Every time I step outside it's like a game of Spot the Asian. The ratio of Caucasians to Asians is literally like... 20000000000:1. I swear to God, the moment I'm back in Sydney, I'm going to hug the first Asian I see and make out with a bowl of Pho.

Needless to say, I miss everyone terribly, so for this entry I decided to get all nostalgic and gross and post up some pictures that were taken the week before I left. A bigger recap - I promise - once I have a second to breathe.

P.S. I finally watched Inception on Friday night! I won't give too much away but, seriously? WOAH. 2 points if you thought it lived up to the hype, 10 points if you successfully followed the plot from start to finish, and 28396 points if you were completely baffled because you were too busy thinking about doing naughty things with Leonardo (wait. Just me?).

Oh, La Brea

2010-07-14T20:54:00.001+10:00

I'm finally back from camp, resting up, icing my sprained ankle (long story short: I am a klutz. And that was a pretty big rock) and I'm ever so thankful that I wasn't mauled to death by a bear. While all the hiking (50km to be exact) have made my legs look like some sort of miracle, I've come to the sad realisation that I am not cut out to be a camper. There's only so much rugged terrain and outdoor toilets a girl can handle before she blindly trips over a rock and rolls her ankle. Real talk.

Anyway, I'm planning on a huge post to pay penance for my extraordinarily bad blogging etiquette - but before I do that, I just want to direct your attention to my new shoesss:

My friend Susan directed me to their website (visit: here), certain that I would love these boots, and I wrote back all "UM UM OMG OMG", and she probably inched quietly away from her computer, frightened. In any case, thank you Susan for showing me these brilliant boots! I thought they were a nice spin on the average lace up boot and the cutouts are freakin' sick (even if my feet flabs awkwardly hang out). Can't wait to wear these pups in.

Get yours at Platypus Shoes - the thirty percent off sale certainly helps to ameliorate any buyer's remorse you might be experiencing.

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has left me a question on Formspring! I sincerely appreciate all the wonderful feedback. I'm currently working through everybody's questions so hopefully you won't have to wait too long for a response. xo

Bless this mess

2010-07-08T21:26:00.003+10:00

Oh boy, I am exhausted to boot, but now I can rest easy because all my clothes are tucked away in my closet and my favourite items are neatly displayed on the new clothing rack (which was on sale in Target for $10, by the way. Steeaaall).

On another note, I will be going camping(!!) over the weekend until Monday - and I couldn't be more terrified of what's in store (I can already imagine the fiasco that is me taking a leak behind a bush, only to be mauled to death by a bear). I know that sleeping in a tent is a huge departure from the warm bed that I'm used to, and that it's probably an ill-informed decision to go camping in the thick of winter (stupidstupidstupid), but it should be an interesting experience.

Things I need to do before tomorrow:
1. Find my torch and insect repellent.
2. Prepare some food. I only know how to make sandwiches which is a bit of a concern.
3. Stop watching this YouTube video! (Googling "fat kid rapper" seemed like a stellar idea.)
4. Umm... start packing.

Though, truthfully, I can't see myself getting any of these things done until the morning I leave because I am all shades of lazy and terrible. At this rate, I think I really am going to be mauled to death by a bear. ACK.

As expected, posts are going to be few and far between, but I will answer all your questions the minute I'm back.See you all shortly! :)

Don't skimp on the salad

2010-07-07T19:02:00.000+10:00

Well now, that was one unintentionally long break.

I know I may have dropped off the blogging radar a little (FAQ I was not abducted by aliens), but to sum up my life sans blog in exactly three letters: ZZZ. Need more sleep to avoid looking so cracked out. But now that I'm officially freed up, I can spend my time doing things I haven't done in a while. Like sleep in until three. And watch MasterChef guilt-free. And pretend I'm a Top Model in front of my bathroom mirror to a playlist of terrible 80's synth music. You know, everyday things.

In all seriousness, I'd like to say thank you to my (remaining and somewhat dwindling) readers who have encouraged me to blog again from the get go. You've all been incredibly supportive, and it's nice to know that everyone's more than just pixels on the screen (insert ensuing "awws" here). Although my gig over at my old blog has ended, which has been somewhat of a bittersweet ordeal, I'm excited by what Modern Muse has to offer.

For the past week, I’ve been scuttling around doing all kinds of miscellaneous, un-Jenchu things like shopping for cat food and baking soda. I spent a good ten minutes standing gape-mouthed in Target's baby section yesterday. I still have no idea how I ended up in that section, but I swear. to. god. my ovaries exploded at the sight of size 2 baby sneakers (my exact thoughts at the time: OMG OMG OMG A:LSLKJF). I've never given child rearing much thought, but I am now convinced that my sole purpose in life is to make lots of mini Jenchu's hahaha.

On a more exciting note, I treated myself to a DSLR camera some months ago - a Nikon D5000 for all you camera-savvy people playing at home. As a disclaimer, please don't expect any fancy photos as I'm still essentially a DSLR virgin. I'm pretty much shooting things in auto mode at this point because all the 294135 different functions make me nervous, but baby steps, people, baby steps.

Anyway, I took the camera out for a spin on a date with Lisa and Daniel a while back. As it turns out, cheese bread, an all-you-can-eat salad bar and some mischief in a carpark equals a fun night out. Bonus points if you find some random chick's photobooth photos.

Enjoy!

On a side note, some minor changes:

As you can see, I no longer have a comment section dedicated to each post. In its place is a Formspring (http://formspring.me/myaddiktiion) where you can ask me a question/comment/send me a sexy picture of yourself in a mankini. (As an example, you could query my thoughts on physics. And I would reply with incoherent jibberish because that is the sound of me banging my head on the keyboard.) I figure it's relatively easier and quicker to answer everybody's questions as a collective mass. Just follow the link or click on 'ask' in the top navigation to get started. Hope to hear your thoughts on the new blog!

And finally, feel free to follow me on Bloglovin' here. :)