a little Xtra

THe same BUddhist Babes in the Botanical gardens.. come on guys.. wat's keeping you???

Had one BALL of a time with BLIA ( Buddhist LIght Int. Assc) Young adults DIV ... Walking the Buddha path tour.. OMG. it was AWESOME.. (jumps around) LIke... Hubert was saying.. i think i still have enuff enery for another bike tour. Seriously, this semester I've discovered that the youth group has brought me soooo much joy ! From discussion classes, to my translation group, to singing and just hanging around with my Dharma pals... it really lightens my heart and heals my soul every saturday I go to the temple. Guess that's wat Yong Wei Fa shi was saying about Good fellowship. I had sooo much fun this weekend! SQ, gina and Jeff came over on Sat.. We just formed a singing /guitar group to perform for Buddha dAY ( it's on the 24th and 23rd of APril at Federation square!!!! come and have a look!) .. gonna perform SO eXCITED!!!! omg. I had soo much fun on saturday. it reminded me so much of my choir days. When i sat in front of my comp, with the cds, listening to teh songs again and again in order to arrange the score. This time, 4 of uz were at it. True it's frustrating and tiring, but I enjoyed every bit of it.. i miss singing in a group soo much. I miss practises ( time consuming as they are) , arranging scores, messing around with tunes and harmonies... This was in a way better coz the songs are special ( praise the Dharma!!!) and guess wat??? i get to bring my baobei along for the ride.. oh yes.. 3 guitars , 4 voices, a flute, one composer, and 4 enthusiastic ppl.. You've GOT to listen to Jeff's compositions! I swear he is FANTASTIC. 110% talent!!! my new ou xiang man... He writes sooo well.. and his words.. the way he intergrates teh Dharma into such wonderful tunes .. ti's really aweseome!
anyway, enuff gushing about the weekend :)
today's bike trip was fantastic! met with teh rest in fed square, hiked to botanical gardens for ice breakers. Thanks to SQ's wunnerful imagination, it saw uz all running in circles.. ( literally) .. but i think we were screaming so much, we just shattered the utter peace of the Gardens. :) Then we had a tour by an aborginal guide. It was amazing ...I had an interest in anthropology since sec. school dayz, i had read about the aborginal pple quite long ago, coupled with HP lessons.. but after the tour, i discovered how little i still knew about this mystical, but friendly ppl who were the original owners of this land. Their culture truly calls for our respect ... it's so rich, so dreamlike but yet it makes so much sense in this crazy modern world of ours.
After a sip of mint tea, and watching Alex survive a death defying roll down the hill ( courtesy of Yappit) , we headed to teh Yarra river for lunch ( BBQ) ... YUMMO!!
Then we picked up our bikes and headed for Albert park .. to more games, more food.. then we rode to the beach.. where we played human bingo and shot more photos.. then it was back to La porchetta's for dinner.

Had so much fun.. :) didn't wanna leave. ( check out the bottom photograph) . lol.. serious. made a lot of new frens, strengthened many bonds. i've seen so many of them aroudn the temple but i realised how many names i still didn't know. So yez.. the list goes on...

Buddhist Babes on the Beach.. Oh dudes!!!!!  

Dinner at La porcatta's. SQ posing at the back :P  

ADvert for twisties...  

YAD at the St Kilda's beach. Hair surf's up! 

Uz on DA beach. Hair surf's up!!!! 

aborginal heritage tour.. royal botanical gardens 

Royal botanical gardens. on the aboriginal heritage tour.  

lizhen doesn't want to go home. Ok.. she was feeling suicidal.  

med knobs year 3

Er... this pic was taken last year actually. i long wanted to put it up, but never got round to doing it. Yup.. that's the bbq at Amy's house. that glorious day, the wunnerful ppl and the yummy yummy food. can't wait for Aveline's one next thurs.. :)



ANd now on .. to BLOG proper.
Yez.. miss XL is back with more hair raising, larger than life tales of her life in Melbourne. SOrry about the hiatus, and the blatently shameless substitutes pulled from emails from my dear guest writer Hilda. but b4 i lose all my readers to my dear pal, i 'm baaaaack!
ONe more week to easter ,( MIss XL stares longingly at her calender).. time flies tho'. half the semester has gone.. i'll be back in spore b4 i know it.
Last week was hell tho'. You'd think that after a test , you'll get time to stretch and relax.. but noooo, i get thrown head first into another pool of immuno. Just managed to get my head up above the water for my first breath since taking the plunge. SOrry guys, i know i've been walking around like a zombie this week and acting like i have a broomstick up my behind. forgive me .. i juz haven't been catching up much in the sleep debt and all the work load reining down plus my limited memory was just too overwhelming. but after a good nights sleep, and the arrival of the weekend .. And DHarma session tomolo!!!!! ( yay!) I"m feeling better..


GET DOWN GET DOWN..

My dear Lz persuaded me to donate blood. ok.. nah. she suggested it. and i took up the idea rather cautiously. I've always wanted to donate blood but never managed to summon up the courage to face the needle. Finally, i decided that if i didnt' try it, i 'd never know how it would go. Anyway, wat was a little discomfort in light of the lives you could save?

" Isn't it gonna be painful?" Bala peered down at lizhen and me in the brownless med library. " I was soooo glad i was under 18 when my frens in college wanted to donate blood." Although he did regale us of stories of blood spurting out of this dude's arm ( coz he had bulging biceps), lizhen and I still went ahead with the donation.

First part of the procedure was standard. fill in forms, have a blood test for Hb level. I wasn't even getting cold feet, which was pretty unusual for the scarey cat me. I had the inner peacefulness to even pick up a Times magazine splashed with story commenting about this University professors' remarks that women were intellectually inferior to men ( more on that next entry). The only fright i got was staring at my weight on the weighing scale.. HOLY CRAP. ok. i'm officially overweight. OH joy.

Passed the Hb test, was led to a bed by a nurse. I caught sight of lizhen grinning from another bed. SHe was already hooked up to the machine.

" Right or left arm?" the nurse asked me.

" er.. left. " there was waaaay too much work to be done . coudln't sacrifice my right arm, altho' i wouldn've given my right leg to get an ice cream then ( irrelevant piece of info from teh already overweight XL)

I hopped onto the bed and stretched out the sacrificial limb.

THe nurse expertly snapped on the blood pressure cuff. I have no idea how she acutlaly managed to hear anything over the din in the background. And then an older nurse swabbed my arm with alcohol.
There go all teh staph epidermidis and the streps... i mused.

" This is gonna sting a little," she said reassuringly.. I braced myself.

The pain wasn't bad, it just felt like a normal blood test. But then..

" Oh dear, it moved," the nurse frowned.

Uh oh. not good.

" Hang on dear," the words were followed by shifting of the needle, and needless to say, the pain. Think of the lecture on hyperalgesia and allodynia.. you'll know how i was feeling.

" oh gosh, it moved again," the words sounded like a death sentence.

I felt the needle shift again, with more accompanying signals up my Anterolateral column to my Cerebral cortex.

" Oh wait.. "

Please Lord Buddha, help me bear this

" Right, " the nurse patted my hand. " Your vein moved soo much! About an inch and a half!"

Er.. right. SO my veins were doing teh boogie wooogie.

Well.. not only were they doing a boogie woogie, but they were also happily relaxing. Thing is. i've the worst threshold of pain ever. I've always had fainting spells pretty easily since 12 years of age when i keeled over after a blood test. So when my veins decided that it was time for a vacation to Happy land of vasodilation, my brain juz wasn't very happy. Nausea slowly crept up onto me..

" you ok?" the nurse peered at me.

" er.. i'm fine."

SHe was still commenting on the vein. " Tell 'em , the next time you donate, that you've got mobile veins."

" hmm. oh ok. "

" you sure you're ok?" she looked a little closer.

" er. yeah.. oh ok, i'm feeling a little nausea."

" Nausea?"

I think i was turning a little pale at this point.

" Do you want to take it out?"

I think Hilda, I understood your dilemma the last time you donated. It's sad because they've already hooked you up to the machine, to stop now meant that the blood couldn't really be used coz it wasn't enough. I didn't want to stop.

"Could you wait a little longer?" i pleaded.

She nodded. But after a minute, asked again. " Is it getting worse?"

It sure was. I didn't know how long i could keep my lunch down any longer.

" ok, i'm taking it out now, " She reached down.

I didn't even feel the needle leave. I didn't even notice the wrapping of the site of entry. I just felt sooo sad that i didn't have the ability to give. I saw lizhen sitting up on the bed and waving at me.

" i'm sorry, " I told the nurse. " Maybe we could try again later later?"

" Nah, don't worry pet, " the nurse patted my head. " Once you start having a reaction, we have to stop." I guess that's what they mean by treating your patient in the BIopsychosocial context. This lady was wonderful. It's a skill really to treat your patient as a person instead of an object with a presenting problem. SHe was absolutely caring and made me feel at ease even though I was being such a problematic donar.

I tried to will the nausea away. Contracting my leg muscles wasn't helping much. Lizhen came over to say hi and then disappeared to teh refreshments table.

I stared at the ceiling and cursed my Sympathetic Nervous system and my noceiceptors. My thots were rudely interuppted by the words..
" faint at the refreshments!"

I propped my head up to see lizhen on the floor with her legs propped up and 4 nurses attending to her. Thankfully, she was ok. I suppose, if it weren't in this context, it would have made an amusing sight.

It took us both some time to recover. Even after i tottered to teh refreshments, i was still feeling pretty woozy nad had to lie down somemore. We were both chuckling over our pathetic states when suddenly the gal next to me started gesturing to the nurses.

" Faint in the refreshments!"

And in rushed the rescue team armed with towels and fans.

Well, the slogan shoudl be . " We were utterly floored by the generosity of teh donars."

note.. despite this experience.. i will definetly try to donate again. Probably in singapore where they adjust for your weight and height and give you an LA. but please.. do donate blood. There were loads of ppl there who gave up their time to step forward and give life. you 'll never know when you may need this blood yourself. The pain wasn't bad.at all, it was just my lousy threshold. SO give blood! GIve life!

Lz and I are still standing :) so don't worry

" If only i could turn back time"


I fight a daily battle with time. 24 hours a day is simply not enuff. I struggle to allocate time for eveyrthing in my life.. for sleep.. for eating.. for dancing.. for spending with my baobei ( guitar in case you were wondering) .. and the huge chunk of coz to muggin.

But somehow, only the last task seem to be warrented the right to take up my 24 hours a day. I"ve been sneakily taking parts of the other time slots to feed this ever hungry beast. Time for sleeping as been steadily decreasing .. From waking up in the middle of every night drenched from head to toe in cold sweat, from opening my eyes at 6am and being unable to return to my slumber, and ffrom the pile of books that awaits on my desk, glaring at me day and night, berating me for having the audicity to leave it for one sec.

Even eating or taking a bath as become a gauntlet i have to achieve in a certain amount of time. at 6pm, the race begins to complete everything in the least amout of time feasible. So in goes the food into the pots and pan, into the sink they go , into the fridge goes lunch. dash down to throw rubbish, dash up to have a shower.. dash to the laundry area to wash... sit down.. and open up my books and feel bad for taking longer than i should.

I can't do recreational activities without this nagging feeling of guilt. No matter where I am, be it having dinner with my frens, singing with my youth group, or even joggin in teh park.. I feel guilty. I feel guilty that this time should be spent on these activites tat would do my grades no good.

THe only place and time i feel at ease is my nightly prayers to Buddha. That is the only time and place i can retreat into where time can't reach me anymore. It passes, no doubt, as conditions change constantly, but my consciousness is with the ENlightened one, protected from the ravages of this hungry and impatient monster of time.

Things have a way of sneaking out of your grasp the more you try to mantain a grip on them. ANd constantly trying to control and compare would only bring you suffering.

And i suffer. for not being able to deal with the one thign that this life depends on. Tick tock tick tock.. listen to Gwen Stefani's song..Damn i feel guilty. i shouldn't even be online!

..." you can plan ahead but by becoming attached to a conclusion you project for yourself will only serve to bring you grief. .".. Dr Eric Chan , from a Dharma talk.

I know i should be calling this block.. Hilda's blog.. but here's another great entry from our guest writer


" the Fruit the Fruit, the F*cking fruits."


Today (well more like Friday) was a day of sorts. I kid you not when I tell you that we were running a circus in the geriatric ward. Lost, Mrs X was shuffling up and down the corridors and upon seeing me, she requested I take her to her bed. Also lost (but valiantly trying to hide it) as to who this patient was and what room she'd come from, Hilda looked around for assistance but none was available. So Hilda led Mrs X up and down the corridors,with confused Mrs X all the while asking "Is this my bed? Or is this one mine?" and Hilda could do nothing but give her the most beguiling "I am clueless" smile. Talk about the blind leading the blind. =) The second episode of the day was a rather educational one. Did you happen to know that fruit can copulate? Well, good for you if you did, coz I didn't till I met Mrs Y. "Mrs Y, I am now going to name you 3 objects, after which I would like you to repeat them after me-- Apple, Table, Penny. Can you name them please.""They are all f***ing fruit," she says."I see" was all I could muster as I contemplated this very foreign idea of fruits copulating.I guess things-- good, bad and interesting all come in streaks. The third patient I spoke to seemed rather with-it till I asked him what the date today was."The date, the date, the date, what is the f***ing date." he hollered repeatedly as he thwacked the bed along with the rhythm of the sentence.I made the grave mistake of asking him what the month was."The month, the month, the month, what is the f***ing month!" The tune had not only changed its lyrics but had also increased in decibel.Startled by the sheer volume from a man so frail, I bid a hasty retreat from the ward. But even from the outside I could still hear his hollers bouncing off the walls. I had obviously opened a Pandora's box and now didn't know how to shut it. Worse still, even through the glass partition, I could feel the other patients glaring accusatorily at me for unleashing something I had no control over."Oh God, will he ever stop?" I thought desperately. As there was nothing I could do, I simply waited till I couldn't bear it any longer before turning and walking guiltily away from the echoes of his refrain.

another guest entry from HH :)
Locked out

At work now, came really early, not out of choice. Reason? Coz of what happened yesterday...
I nicked out from teh research office yesterday evening leaving my bag with my wallet, hp, keys, basically everything else that i carry around other than my skin in the research office. Some "kind" soul came in and err locked up the place, leaving me with just a tiny problem-- Hilda locked out of office and everything Hilda owns locked in. I didn't panic at first but calmly and rationally approached the first course of action. Security desk downstairs must have the key. "Excuse me, I just locked myself out of the 3rd floor research office, can you plse open it for me?"
"Sorry, we don't have the key to that office, but we can ask domestics"
Call was made.
"Err, really sorry, but domestics say they don't clean teh place so they don't have the key."
Err right. I pat my chest to make sure my heart is still in my chest coz I can feel it beating in my feet.
" Well, I suppose we could always call teh maintenance guys and they'll come and bust the lock", Mr Security helpfully offers.
Right, and get me dismembered by all other users of the office and hung from teh door frame by my toenails.Not to mention having my supervisor flunk me for my AMS year, which would, I suppose, be the worst of all.
Optimism is a learned response from the millions of times I've gotten myself in brilliant, supposedly once-in-a-lifetime fixes. It's okay, Hilda, it's okay. Breathe... You can always call home to see if your housemate is home, right? Then if she is you can just walk home... I almost begin to feel better until I realise I don't have a coat on. I have on a spandex blouse, a paper thin cardigan and my skin. And it is 0 degrees outside.
Well, to cut a long story short, I made a call home and "thank heaven thank earth" my flatmate was home. Had to leave so early this morning coz I had to leave with my housemate as I hadn't a key to lock up.
=) That's the second time this past 2 weeks I've almost had to walk home in the cold. I think at the rate my disorganised life is going, I can soon put an advertisement up on ebay: " 30 days in the life of the world's most disorganised and ditsy person! Free 5 day trial period. Money back guarantee." =) I think it'd be quite lucrative, considering the stupid things people buy and sell on the internet. Did you know someone sold the Metro newspaper (Glasgow's Streats equivalent) for £100 on ebay?

It was a great saturday!

ok. i missed the tram in the morning to temple. the trams freq is just awful these days. I was jumping up and down in the tram praying to Buddha to get me there on time. THank goodness I made it.. Whew :)
He had the grace to even let me catch my breath ! tho' i was trying to chant and sporadically gasp at the same time. coolbeans.

the lecture was on filial piety. How we owed the deepest gratitude to our parents who devote their entire lives ( from our birth onwards) to caring and worrying about us. HOw Buddha lectureed that we should treat all sentient beings like our parents and be filial to them but we hav e affinty with all sentient beings, be it your siblings, your frens, animals, ppl you hate.. we may have had relationshsip with them in teh past. How we should extend filial piety to caring for other ppl.. Companission should be given to old folks w/o children to care for them, bringing them joy and warmth shoudl be our goal.

SO ExCITING!!! BUddha day is coming up!!! yay! hope i don't fall off federation square steps again. tho/. i'm such a klutz..

ANd i was about to sneak off from disucssion group when SQ handed me a guitar. We were going to sing for study group!!! SCREAM. Give me guitar. will stay. that's my philosophy. I was sooooo happy. SInging the song of Buddha's life , playing for my DHarma sisters and brothers to sing. Gina has an abosolutely lovely voice. she did the song sooo well! I got to perform the Buddhist song i wrote for T and SQ.. :P they suggested i try for Rhythm of Life competition. Hmm. but then again, so busy and my tunes kinda suck. might give it a shot mebbe. wld be nice to go to nan tien temple in sydney.

Met the year ones for dinner at Sen. AWESOME. there were so many of us they gave us a function room. I must say we gelled pretty well with the year ones. I was pretty happy to meet some old RJC batch mates who were frens of frens ( ah.. anti-social me) but it was good to hear the old RJC lame jokes, talk the rj talk. yup. and we haven't had such a big gathering for our year 3s too for a long time. so that was good too :)

Happy birthday XY!!! *hugz* :)