a review of summer 04-05

the yellow rays in the sky start to fade into red.. the sun's long disappeared behind the hills, hidden in a shroud of thick gray cloud coming in from the sea..

ok i'm no poet.. but what a great way to end the summer hols officially.. it was a gorgeous warm day even though the sun was mostly hiding behind the clouds.. after had all my prelim lectures, did the Okia walk on the Peninsula and saw quite a lot of seals :)

has this summer been a success? back in October as the classes and labs came to a close, i was quite apprehensive about the upcoming summer.. it was gonna be my first summer away from home and i always thought Dunedin was the last place u'd want to be for the first half of summer at least, i.e. the pre-Christmas months.. too quiet.. the thought of long days meant i had so much day-time yet so little to do.. and that's actually not a great scenario to be in.. then i heard my cousin in Aussie was thinking of visiting Malaysia for Christmas and there was a chance there.. as it turned out, she's going in July when mum and bros go back.. but before that there was the prospect i'd have no idea what to do for four months!!!

i guess having guys like Bing, Paul, Becs, Rach Brown, Justin, Jarod, and Andrea in Dunedin for the pre-Christmas months helped a lot.. i felt less lonely.. in fact, Matt P did call one night from his place in Whitby which was awesome..

the one thing i regret was prob not looking for an indoor job, e.g. waitering or office work.. and judging from the November we had it was v easy to see why i wanted to work outdoor work.. it was a gorgeous November i recall.. so it seemed December would be even better.. how wrong i was! it turned out to be one of the colder Decembers on record.. it was raining heaps.. but not only that, it was cold enough to turn the heater on.. i blame car companies for being slow to produce cars which release less carbon dioxide.. but anyway, i did earn quite a bit of money.. i just can't remember how much!! i think it was def more than my target of $200.. prob 250 or 300.. doing odd jobs in gardens, that sort of stuff when Dunedin decided to turn on the nice weather..

so came Christmas, and my first ever away from Malaysia - an oft-overlooked fact actually.. and it was quite wonderful.. it seems that the weather behaves on the day our Lord was born :) we spent the Christmas-New Year hols in Akaroa, Nelson, Wellington and Kaikoura.. Akaroa was awesome from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day.. New Year's Day in Wellington was actually awful.. it rained and nothing except the Red Dog was open.. a wipe-out by any standards.. but the days around it were p good.. good enough for fireworks at Sam's..

the day we came back to Dunedin, it was pouring with rain like the day we left.. i don't really remember much of the four days i had back.. prob coz of the weather :) apart from a cricket game i saw at the University Oval between Otago and Northern Districts.. but really nothing there.. my summer hols, as i expected, became more exciting when i reached Malaysia on Jan 10.. when u have shopping centres, restaurants, and bars open till 10 pm at least, and the heat of the English football season v much on and sports channels which cover it almost 24/7.. ah that is definitely one thing i miss.. compare that with a cancelled Sri Lanka tour - fair enough decision considering the devastating effects of the tsunami - and nothing much after that until Parachute at the end of the month.. there's a clear winner there..

and i've talked breath and length abt my tour to Malaysia so won't elaborate more.. memorable one though.. and so we've come here.. the past two weeks have been v quiet, awaiting the students to come back.. and to be honest, it actually feels strange.. i was actually a bit adverse to O'week, until i got into the heat of it on Thursday.. too late though i bet.. hey i dint even know that all first years wear togas.. yeesh missed chance..

well, it's not all alien for my classes..at least in the second semester coz Natalie and Hayley from Elim are in the same classes as me.. lots of familiar faces for GENE and BIOC.. well just have to see.. i'm excited and nervous at the same time.. definitely be a couple of new ppl to meet.. or rather ppl who i recognise from Health Sci but dint really know well..

as Bing told me, "Slowly but surely"