The Tale of Kyuubi

On the 10th of July we welcomed Kyuubi, at 6 weeks old Malamute x Border collie home. He was simply the most gorgeous thing I'd ever laid eyes on. It was night time on our trip home and Kyuubi was fast asleep and since Daniel was driving, I got to hold him on the drive home. Lucky me :3 He was quiet but not shy, he was already playful after he woke up.




At 7 weeks he had already mastered the sit command and learnt to sit before he was going to be fed. At 8 weeks, we began taking him to Puppy School weekly. Initially, he was terrified of the other puppies! And kept hiding from them, but in little over 10-15 minutes, he was excitedly playing with them.




Kyuubi was a super star at puppy school. I don't want to boast but how could I not, I felt like a proud mum. He already mastered sit before attending puppy school, while all the other puppies there were still struggling. Over the course of the next few weeks, he learnt to lie down on command as well. A skill which won him puppy olympics in the final class hehe. He also got to wear a tiny little graduation hat and received a certificate.




At 12 weeks, we took him to get his second vaccination. He was fairly calm during the process and it didn't seem to bother him too much. Prior to his injection, we met a very friendly almost fully grown german shepherd. Kyuubi was uncertain at first, as he had not had any close encounters with larger dogs but just like at puppy school they were soon playing together. I stress how important socialisation is, if we never took him to puppy school, he would have been terrified of the german shepherd, furthermore he might not know proper etiquette which could lead to a disaster.

At 14 weeks, he was around 14 kilos I believe. And to think, at 6 weeks he was barely weight 5 kilos. Talk about fast growth! Being quite the food vacuum, I bought Kyuubi a slow feed bowl. It worked to some extent. Unfortunately around his 15 week mark is when I broke my toe. I didn't get to spend as much time with him in the weeks following and he grew into one giant puppy.


Now he is just over 5 months old, weighing nearly 18 kilos, at 6 months he should be at approximately 2/3 his final weight. So he still has growing to do! He is now full of energy, yet still loves his long naps in the sun. Daniel takes him out for walks daily, taking him to a local primary school with a fenced off oval. Here he gets to socialise with other dogs and run as much as his heart desires.

Oh oh, how could I forget, on one of our walks we met Danny, who was walking his Shadow, anEnglish Pointer and coincidentally is Daniel's neighbour. So Kyuubi often goes on walks with Shadow. 

Things to work on, proper leash walking and recall. I also would love for Kyuubi to be friends with Daniel's neighbour's cat, but I think the cat is less enthused about the idea. Besides from his occasional mouthy behaviour, which has improved considerably over time, Kyuubi is still one big baby. Although he is incredibly handsome and looking quite dingo-like these days, don't you think?


I love you Kyuubi.


Love Lisa.

A Broken Toe

It's been a while I know. Too long, I think maybe I'm getting sick of this blog. Not the idea blogging, no. I created this blog in 2008 if I'm not mistaken and I think I just need to overhaul the whole thing. Revamp it, start afresh...You know? 

And secondly, I fractured my big toe falling down the stairs, lucky me.
I get to sit at home and study all day every day, like as if that wasn't what I was already doing.

So that happened on Friday night, and I kid you not that very dayI had decided I was going for a run on the weekend and I had all these plans. Guess life is telling me that I should continue to sit on my lazy ass and eat timtams instead of ever becoming fit.

Woe. Is. Me.

Love Lisa .

PS. Now that I have so much lovely time to sit here, I will blog about the past 2months, in as much detail as I can remember.

Posts:

• Kyuubi & puppy  school
• The numerous 21sts 
• Trip to tyaak
• The salvation of my hard drive (YES)
• Commerce ball
• Birthday & gifts
• Some beauty related purchase

One Of My Worst Nightmares Became Reality

I don't want to sound over dramatic. But just over a week ago my external hard drive stopped working. Initially I didn't even worry about it, I thought that it just needed to be restarted, reconnected or the USB cord was broken. But after futile attempts at getting the HD to run by myself, I began to feel the first signs of panic.

I had yet to ask my brother, who is quite good with computers, for help. And I'm not going to lie, I did expect him to be able to fix it, as he's fixed any technology related problem I've ever come across. But alas, he couldn't do anything either (the HD couldn't even run disk recovery programs) and when I heard the dreaded words that the problem was most likely with the hardware. I knew was royally screwed.

So, I'm not sure of what the next step is. He's been asking his IT friends for suggestions of data recovery labs, but they don't know of any that are more than a gimmick ready to suck the money out of desperate people (aka me).

I've yet to even explain why losing the contents of this HD is my worst nightmare. It contains all the photos I've ever taken with my nikon. So that's nearly 7 years of photos gone. I am sentimental, and I didn't capture photos of every significant event in my life for no reason. So this loss is truly one of the worst things that could happen to me.

And before you get all high and mighty with my about making backups, trust me I've wanted to kick myself a million times for not having a back up. The fact is the external was originally the backup of all the photos I had on my computer, until I couldn't store any more photos on my computer, so I started moving them onto the external. I kept thinking to myself that I need to back it up, One copy of anything is never safe. I'm such a fool.

Love Lisa.

A Thought

If I take most of the photo's at all my friend's birthday's...who's going to take the photos at mine? Oh dear. I don't claim to be a photographer but I know how to frame a decent photo, so that the angle is flattering and well, use my camera + flash (since it has been my baby for the past 6 years*).

And like hell will I hire one of these supposed 'event photographers' that seem to be popping up on facebook all too often. If I was going to hire a photographer, I'd hire a real one. But since I can't afford that, I'll have to make do with annoying my guests to take photos for me.

Love Lisa.

*Whoa, I can't believe I got my Nikon more than 6 years ago, that sounds like an awfully long time and I guess it really is.

Most Anticipated Event of 2013

We're getting..

A PUPPY! AHHHHH!!!!!!  *faints*

Okay so it will live with Daniel so it's not technically mine, but still, I've never had a puppy/dog that I've been able to spend a lot of time with or visit on a regular basis. Throughout my life, when I've gone over to a friend's, who has a dog, I'm almost always far more interested in playing with the dog than anything hehe.

So this is the closest thing to me getting a dog, one I get to interact with, occasionally take for walks, wash, brush and love (on a full time basis of course). I'm getting emotional again just thinking about it.
This morning I spontaneously woke up at 7.00am (after <4 hours of sleep) and just started researching about puppy supplies and general puppy 101 on my phone, for 3 hours while still in bed, before my phone died and I knocked out because I was so tired.

Few people could understand with how much intensity I've wanted a dog, it's been my obsession for my entire lifetime. I love dogs and have since the moment I was aware of what dogs were. I spent my childhood with my nose buried in dog books.

SO EXCITED *squeee*

Love Lisa.

Mermaid @ Tracey's Underwater 21st

Tracey's 21st at her house was last Friday night. I had to do a speech and I was so stressed about it, for those that don't know me well. I hate hate HATE public speaking. Throughout high school I never managed to make a speech without blushing tomato red (hence making me even more embarrassed and nervous) and not being able to articulate my words. But hey I've never done a speech post-drinking so I definitely had the inebriated version of confidence. And it all went by in a blur so I don't have anything to cringe at when I think back haha. But it was a fun night, Tracey

Makeup. I still need to work on blending out the edges but considering how my make-up used to look, this is an improvement.



Face: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum #54
Eyeshadow: Sleek Original Palette, Bourjois Single Eyeshadow, Ebay lashes, Mac Fluidline, NYX Jumbo Pencil

Nails


CG For Audrey, Sea Spray, Mint, Techno, Optical Illusion; NYC Silver

My mum sewed me an amazing mermaid skirt and bandeau (from scratch!).





Love Lisa.

Exams & Tracey's Dinner

So you can't even call me a blogger any more, my inconsistency has been taken to a new level.
I've been under more stress this year than I can remember. VCE exams have nothing on uni.
I had 3 exams this semester: Molecule to Malady (a biomed capstone subject) and 2 pharmacology subjects.

I was not looking forward to the M2M exam or the theory based pharmacology exam, but both ended up being so much easier than I expected. That's not to say that they were easy in any way, because they were not. But I think I always expect the worst, therefore it's more likely that things will surprise me in a good way.

My last exam was on the 21st of June, which was also the date of Tracey's birthday. Jenny organised a surprise dinner for her at The Trust in the CBD. Emily and Cath also attended, but Pauline was too sick to come. I had roast duck ravioli, it was pretty good, not amazing. Only worth it because it was 50% off the entire menu. And we all had deconstructed chocolate cake with caramel mousse. That was definitely amazing...although still would not have been worth the full price, as it was only a tiny amount (around $18 if I remember correctly).

We then went to Cho Gao (which is now known as Asian Beer Cafe) in MC, after failing to find where Little Red Pocket was. After about an hour there I attempted to leave only to find the exit blocked by a whole crowd of people. Soon learnt that a guy was unconscious on the floor. Not sure of how it happened exactly but he did regain consciousness after firemen and paramedics arrived. After a dramatic hour or so, they let us leave via the fire exit.
 




Love Lisa.

The Good

GAMSAT results came out on Friday. I'm not going to lie, I didn't expect to even better my previous score, let alone do significantly better. But I did. I am thanking the GAMSAT gods. I'm pretty sure I explained how defeated I felt after the day. So either I am lucky or I've seriously underestimated my intelligence my entire life. Perhaps a combination of both.

So what does this mean? A better chance at getting into post grad, especially getting a CSP place, as opposed to full-fee. The yearly cost of full fee places for DDS (and MD) is ridiculous. Unless you had a wealthy family that could provide monetary assistance, there's no way someone my age could afford the difference that HECS doesn't cover (without taking out a loan etc.). This has been my main source of stress for quite a few weeks now.

After more than 2 weeks, I'm 99% recovered from whatever ailment I had. The only good thing that came about me being sick was that I caught up on sleep. But now I'm struggling to wake up after >8 hours of sleep. When going to uni on 5-6hours used to be the norm. I guess it's a positive thing. My previous lack of sleep was probably quite unhealthy.

Love Lisa.

Dear Blog,

I have neglected thee.

What has been happening in my life? The usual when it comes to uni and that side of things. Stressing like hell over post grad opportunities though. See, unfortunately for me, I didn't realise there was a cap on HECS (or FEE-HELP as they call it now). With that being said, I can see no reasonable way in which I could afford a full-fee place in the future, thanks to the Melbourne Model.

I have to start applying for post grad places before the 30th of this month, it feels way too soon. I'm not ready for this :( GAMSAT results are also likely to come out in a week or so. Gah, I don't know whether my fears for my performance on it are unwarranted or not. I just need to know my results so I can stop second guessing myself once and for all.

On the 30th of March I attended my first 21st birthday celebrations that I have ever been invited to! It was Zinta's 21st at the Nevermind Bar. It was nice to sit and chat with friends. I much prefer that over clubbing birthdays. Here is practically the only photo of me from the night:



Then on April 27th, so just over a week ago, it was Emily's 21st, held at her abode. Emily's house is such a familiar place to me (and I'm sure many of my school friends), it was the place to hang out on the holidays. It was really really such a good night. And quite a classy affair, she did an amazing job with the decorations + their was catering (with amazing food). I did bring my camera along and managed to get quite a few nice photos of the night :)





Speaking of 21st's, people keep asking me what I'm doing for mine. And to be absolutely honest, I don't feel like doing anything, because I don't think I'm capable of organising anything decent. I don't know who to invite, where to have it, and especially when to have it. The 2 weekends after my birthday have already been booked out by other 21sts. But the thing is I think everyone is going to judge me negatively for not having one, and that in itself makes me somewhat anxious about the whole idea.

Also right at this very moment, I have struck down with some sort of rhinitis inducing cold. Needless to say, I'm not feeling too chipper. Especially when I have another mid sem in a week's time. The end of semester exam timetable is also out, this year is truly flying fly and I'm having a hard time keeping up.

Wish me luck and until my next post, adieu.

Love Lisa.

Peninsula Hot Springs [Belated Post]

I can't believe I forgot to blog about our trip to the hot springs!
We went there on the night of Friday the 22nd of February. We had originally booked to go a month earlier, but around the time which we had to leave, it started thunderstorming. Although the idea of being in hot springs in stormy weather holds a certain appeal to me, it's just not ideal.

I did not manage to get any photos. But overall I really enjoyed the stay, as we went at night it got dark and the lights near the pools at the highest point went out so that was scary because I hate walking down steps/stairs to begin with, let alone in the dark. Actually, the power in general I believe went out in part of the facility, so what was  meant to be the hottest pools were only luke warm :(

We also experienced a Turkish steam room. It was enjoyable in a suffocating kind of way. It was so humid every breath was like inhaling a lungful of water (but in a good way?). I was, however, wearing contacts, and I think I had some trouble with that in the steam room as I couldn't see at all after 10minutes. It wasn't painful, just annoying.

The drive back was tiring, next time we will stay somewhere in the peninsula :)

Love Lisa.

'Mid' Semester Break

Four weeks into the first semester and we're already having our mid semester break. Does that make our semester only eight week long? In my dreams, after this mini hiatus from uni we have eight weeks straight of uni. Joy.

On Friday, we celebrated Jenny's 20th birthday at her house with a hong kong style bbq. It was my first time ever having it and it was pretty yum. I can't relaly describe the process so here is a picture of the setup:

 
(Photo: Julia's facebook)

Although I was dead tired that day so I didn't actually bbq anything myself, her parents I think had pre-bbq a whole bowl of sausages and fish balls so I was just eating from that.

Now to the story of how I turned up an hour late. All seemed well and dandy as we were driving to Springvale, until we went onto Springvale Rd. Long story short it took about half an hour to drive a 1km. There was a level crossing that had trains going past every 5 minutes (bizarre, as it was a public holiday, why were there so many trains). Not only that, once we got up to the traffic lights, and I was waiting to do a right hand turn at an intersection. The traffic lights stopped working. Just my luck.

Love Lisa.

Uni, GAMSAT, Life in General

What can I say.
The GAMSAT was what the GAMSAT is - a soul-crushing experience.
I love being melodramatic.
After a week of feverish studying, I think the pressure really got to me. More than any exam ever has, including VCE exams and any end of year uni exams. I broke the cardinal rule of not over-studying the night before. I really hope to improve on my result from last year.

So now it has truly been one of the longest hiatuses I've had from blogging. Could be due to the fact that I have been stressing over and studying for the GAMSAT since the middle of the summer holidays, which put a real damper on what should have been time to relax and have fun. So much for having a break, huh?

Uni has been alright. After much deliberation at the end of last year, I decided to major in Pharmacology, thus far it has proven to be a sensible choice. I find it interesting, it's not overly difficult and the department has really great people. I'm not sure if I posted about how much I liked studying anatomy last year, but the thought of handling and dissecting cadavers on a weekly basis much too unnerving and confronting. So that ruled out the HSF major. I also found Microbiology and Immunology (my selective for semester 2 last year) very engaging, I like learning about diseases, parasites and so forth. But the immunology aspect had too much content for me to handle.

Aside from that aspect of my life. Jenny and Pauline's birthday were last week and were celebrated accordingly. Pauline had a joint birthday with Yiana, who I also went to high school with, at the Harp in Kew. It was meant to be a dress up theme, it seemed like only myself and a few others actually followed this. Not many of my close friends went that night and I had uni the next day so I didn't stay for long. I did catch up with Sophie, from high school, who I have not seen since Year 12, I discovered she lives incredibly close to me so I gave her a lift home.

On Friday the 15th, we celebrated Jenny and Pauline's birthday with pizza and drinks at Jenny's cafe in the Docklands. I definitely ate too much. Once again I couldn't stay for long, I had to drive Michael to the airport in the early hours of Saturday. Zinta's 21st birthday is coming up next week! As far as I can remember, I've never attended a 21st birthday celebration, so I'm excited! But truth be told, I'm not excited for my own 21st, just like I wasn't excited for my 20th. A little depressing when you consider that my 18th and birthdays prior to it, I was always ecstatic to celebrate and organise.

I have a mini haul to share in my next post, some ebay purchases and online purchases delivered to Michael's hotel while he was in America.

Love Lisa.

PS. Major craving for katsu don and ramen at the moment.

Valentines Day

[Seems that I forgot to publish this post until now]

Wishing you all a belated Happy Valentines!

If you've kept up with my blog since last year, you'd know we celebrated Valentines at Big Boy BBQ. So we kept the tradition up and went back again. Bout time as well, I forgot how amazing their ribs tasted! We went there on the night of Friday the 15th as I had an assignment due on Friday morning, hence I didn't want to stay out on Thursday. But on the 14th I was presented with a rose and a very sweet card hehe :)

If you're wondering what I bought for Daniel, it was the Professor Layton game for 3DS, since we've both wanted to play it. It's funny because the night before I planned to go buy it I had a feverish dream that it had sold out in every store, ridiculous, I know. -__-


Dinner was heavenly. The chicken wings were so so, the potato salad was very good as a side (first time I've opted for something other than chips), and the ribs, of course, were the piece de resistance. Slow cooked, tender lamb, slathered in BBQ sauce. The thought of it still makes me salivate. Hahaha, but seriously, this is my kind of meal.


It was a nice, balmy summer night to have dinner outside. I wish I could explain it, but the past 2 days have been the happiest I've felt in a long time. It really is the little things that can make the biggest difference.

I'm so lucky to have someone to share moments with, moments that can just make me smile upon recollection, moments that I'll forever cherish.

Love Lisa.

Chesterfield Visit #2 [Pic Heavy]

So on our drive to the car park of the farm, we saw some cows in an outer paddock, we went to go pat some and then this cow (below) ran up to Daniel! What a sweetie pie, she recognised us from out last visit aww *melts*.


Playing on hay bales.

The bunnies grew up so much!

The piglets were also much more calm compared to last time.

This lamb was the cutest thing I've ever set eyes on, eeee D;

This time we found the horse paddock!


I loved the donkey, I wish he was kept with the horses though, he was all alone in his own fenced off area. And donkeys are actually social animals!

Fallow deer basking in the sun.


Love Lisa.

Chesterfield Farm [Pic Heavy]

I've always loved animals of all kinds, I know a lot of people might say that, but some of my earliest memories were borrowing piles of books on dogs, cats, horses, wild animals etc every week from the library as a child. I didn't just solely love animals, I wanted to know about them in every aspect, I dedicated all my time to learning about and watching documentaries on them.

So naturally when I found out that there was a baby animal farm in Melbourne, I was desperate to go. Daniel passed his driving test the end of last year and bought a car the start of this year! Hehe ;D Makes going places so much easier as I don't have a car, even though I have had my license for nearly 2 years now, but I digress. Here are an assortment of photos from our visits there (yes, we've been twice now).

First Visit

The first animal we fed, Mr Duck.



Mia is the sweetest dog, totally knocked out during the day.


I know some of you will find the below image less than endearing (euphemism to the extreme haha), but I find rats and mice so cute. Look at those tiny pink babies.


Pigs have surprisingly human eyes.

Daniel feeding the emus.

He managed to convince me to feed one after saying it didn't hurt. The emu's beak cut me! I know it doesn't look like much but it stung all day.


2 part story about this gorgeous cow.

I know it looks like I'm trying to keep my body away while touching the llama, but if  you could have seen me from the other side of the fence you'd see my face is literally smooshed onto the wires in my desperate attempt to touch the llama.


DOE, a deer.

Goats <3


The lambs that made me melt.


Sow!


Second photos will be in the next post.

Love Lisa.