Alrightey guys, i promised i'd blog on the Rotto trip, and here, i'll keep to my word. BUT i must forewarn you that if you are running on a 56k connection,.....it might take a while to load the photos so go eat lunch or something first eh, there are 25 photos in total, meant to be 30 but i decided to load those onto the flickr slideshow. OK here we go!

To be honest, i woke up thinking it would be horrible. I looked outside and there were clouds everywhere, even the occasional sign of rain. I was dissapointed, because today was my 'big day out' and i seriously mean it. (as you will no doubt see later >.>) BUT! Thank God, things took a change for the better (if not best) with regards to the weather at least, it turned out to be THE perfect day (and like, i mean it) for going to Rotto, not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny, not too wet. Perfect. Thank You God =)

So i woke up at around 7AM all ready for this big day. Cuz came round at 7 30, she incidentally woke up earlier ....ok that's a massive understatement, she woke up pretty much before the sun came up. I shant say any more, i was horrified when she told me what time she woke up =_=' . So with around 1 hour on our hands, we began milling around pointlessly outside, making the most of the dew that was still on the flowers.


Shots spotted by cuz (the hard part) and taken by me (the easy part). Emily came at around 840 to pick the both of us up and scoot us off to Rotto!

After a few wrong turns we finally arrived at the C shed, and a few calls from some of our group already ON the ferry told us that if we didn't hurry, there wouldn't BE a ferry left. So mindlessly i scooted around the corner, saw all of them just as Leon told me they were about to leave and shouted,

"TELL THE FERRY PILOT NOT TO BE SUCH A NAZI!"

little did i know, the ferry pilot was standing a few meters in front of me. *erhmm*, anyway! We all made it on time, which was a great relief. Turns out nazis died decades ago.

The ferry trip was more pleasant than most of us thought, even Tak, who is very prone to seasickness was absolutely fine the whole trip, he even made it to the outdoor balcony where we captured the boat's wake:


As we left Perth behind suddenly everybody started to become hyperactive, and before we knew it cameras were flashing everywhere! I , however, decided to save my memory for the actual island. Poor Jenny wasn't feeling too good though, on the boat Cuz, Leon and I were quite worried about her. But it's ok, she came out fine, and smiling like the little angel she is =). Dave, on the other hand.....


just kidding.

Upon landing we ventured to the town center, the general convenience store, where we ....well ok, we found my roll, albeit it was $6 not $2, a slight exaggeration. 300% the price but hey, what's an extra 4 bucks yea? (geez, dont be such a stinge Dave! XP) Emily and Theresa purchased some REALLY POTENT erm....what do you call em... POP ROCKS! THaTS IT! and Leon had a few. Seriously, he was in pain. They were that strong, so he had to assume the open-mouth superman position in order to stop the POP rocks from killing him :


One of the girls was holding a bunch in her hand, and her hand must've been moist or something, coz they exploded in her hand...which was quite funny. But it must've been painful XD cant imagine them in your mouth man....yecks.

In order to get around Rotto, we needed bikes, so off we went! in search for bikes. I almost led them in the wrong direction....my memory is obviously a problem. Thank goodness for Dave and Cham who, i'm guessing, have been here many times. They knew the way. Bio camp obviously taught me nothing.


In our different array of clothing and backpacks, we actually looked like quite a proffesional group. well....i thought so at least. Until it came to negotiating skills....


when finding the appropriate number and type of bike for our group proved to be more of a challenge than anything else. In the end, everybody got a single, and Cuz and i took a 'tandem' (i'm the only one allowed to say that =_=) a tandem is basically a double bike, the front person steers and brakes and the back person pedals. Well, both pedal..but you get the picture.

May i suggest, unless you know each other relatively well, and have a positively flawless sense of balance...dont ride the tandem. Fortunately, Cuz had the balance, and i had the power. Both of us generally knew what the other was thinking, so we were fine on the bike. Took us a while to get started though.....but once we got the hang of it we were cool =)! I'm not sure i have a pic of that bike eh....i'll try and grab a photo off somebody else.

FIRST STOP! this lighthouse near the settlement, where we took a break for some photos, and they were quite nice, as you can see :


the ladies, and the gents:


what a group we were XD

Pro-ish if i may say so myself. Oh man....you want to know who's who? ~_~. In the girls shot, left to right:

Cuz, Jenny, Sharon, Theresa, Hailey, ...Lam?, Emily

in the guys shot:

(back row) Eddy, Cham, Tak, Me, Tao, Wei Kee, Leon (front row) David, William.

Now that you know all of us, never ask me again XD.

We then cycled to the closest beach, dont ask me the name, for i know it not. And went BRITTLE STAR HUNTING. Which turned out to be in vain...for those of you who haven't seen a brittle star, it's quite something. Google it. Harder to find than you think though. We also went camwhoring. And spotted a Lizard David promptly named 'godzilla' Although it could fit quite comfortably on my arm. Since most of the girls are shy about the shots, i'll just put up one of the guy shots:


Yer Rock on! i love the "i'm hell buff" look Dave's got XD

Whilst riding we saw some very very nice shots. I took alot of them, but i dont want to resize them coz it would kill the shot. I'll put the full version on the slideshow, with all the full people shots too. but if you do want all the shots (i mean ALL) , i've zipped them into an archive, i'll send it to you over MSN or something. So here we were looking at the view:


when GUESS WHAT!!!!!! (yes Kim, this is it) WE FOUND WEEBLE!!!! MY CHRISTMAS QUOKKA! *HYPERVENTILATES*

THERE HE IS!!!!!:


awwwwwww he's cute as ever. Eating an apple the Emily so kindly gave to him. UNTIL!!!!!!!!

He stole some of Leon's shapes (you know, the biscuits), that's when Leon tried to pwn him:


You can just imagine him making his bruce lee "HWOAAAAAPAAAAAAAA!!!!!" sound.

BUT TO OUR SURPRISE!!!!!:


Weeble decided to open up a can of whoop-ass. And pwned leon, and stole the rest of his shapes.

R.I.P my friend.

.....we're joking, it was something that we staged (quite obviously XD) whilst we were on the boat XDD. moving on.....

We reached the climax of our journey, the south part of the island, where most of the photos i'll put in the slideshow were taken. NO doubt the most breathtaking part of our journey. Obviously we had to cam-whore for a bit.


My ever thoughtful cuz, trying to listen to the beautiful sound of the waves lapping against the rocks. . . until Leon, Dave, Cham and i burst in yelling out who could throw a rock the furthest XD. i'm sorry cuz >< next time i'll pick up and leave you alone XD


As you can tell, Jenny was a bit tired. Poor girl >< but she made an awesome effort in the last cycle, and ended up pushing ME up the slope o.O Camwhoring is contagious. Starts off small:


Before we knew it everybody wanted a shot. Here's my trying to use the timer function on two cameras:


and:


Dont blame me, >< i didn't see the red light T_T and yes, yes, everybody is laughing at me, i like to think they're laughing with me though XP All in all, great, great fun. We even found a spot so close to the breaking waves, where a little rock pool with colourful crabs was XD. Cham almost got hit by a wave thanks to Sharon. Sharon almost fell in thanks to herself, and I took the best shot with a ripple thanks to Eddy XD (flickr account) so there! how's that for interdependance. All the while watching the floor for dugites XD

That pretty much summed up our massive journey, we were fast running out of time and had to return the bikes within the next hour. SO we sprinted off, Jenny and i on the Tandem, Cuz and Leon sticking in one group with Leon taking the lead. He led us well, over the undulating hills and through the winding passes. After around 30 minutes we turned around......

and realised the group wasn't following us ROFL. Turns out we took the faster route (by my reckoning) and were very far ahead of them, who decided to go along the outskirts, while we took the middle route. Jen had to stop once to undo a wedgie that got serious HAHAHAHHA (sorry XD) but apart from that , we were fine. Made it back to town ahead of the others, who had to stop a few times for different people. It was there i met Amy. Amy the peacock again. (dont say. it's a contradiction. shut up)

She was hungry, decidedly.


and when i wasn't looking, she GRABBED A CHIP FROM MY HAND! felt like slapping her man, but i had to settle for some wise-cracking insults:


After we returned our bikes, and came back to town to grab a quick meal, we were ready to set off.....or at least most of us were:


We got back to the jetty, and all hopped on the boat. Admiring the view, and thanking God for the awesome weather. Would you be shocked if i told you that was only half of our day? yeah. thought so.


The boat left on time, and before we knew it (well for me anyway, i spent the whole trip sleeping. Thanks for the shoulder cuz XD), we were back in Freo! Since Leon's mum came a bit late to pick him up (45 minutes XD) we went for a final round of camwhoring. Again, it started small, with Tak, Cham and David's special pose:


and spread like wildfire XD


and in the end, it proved that the day took its toll on us when we all went 'super-saiyan' and assumed our dragon-ball poses (thanks alot for making me and the rest look like absolute idiots Tak...i swear those cops were about to charge XD)


Gotta love the agro expression Sharon tried to put on. And Cham's pose was positively real XD
haha but dont take it seriously! it was the most fun i've had in quite a while and we were all reduced to a clump of laughing bodies on the floor. I reckon Leon's mum must've been like ...."what have you done with my son!?" after she came, but no, we cleared up our mess before then XD

After that, Emily raced us back to her house. My poor cuz was so tired she slept on my shoulder the whole way. It was 6 15 by the time we arrived. 4 of us (Cuz, Theresa, Em and Myself) showered in the space of half an hour (considering there were 3 girls, an amazing feat) .... (-yes Kim, i know you shower fast, but they're not you =) ) got to choir by 7 10, found ourselves the only ones there (apart from Wei wei and family) and started late, at 7 30. We have an awesome item prepared for the Sunday though, get ready! =)

Although everybody was falling asleep in bible study, most of us held fast XD and we ended at around 9 30. Upon which Wei wei raced us home to Cuz's house.

All in all, a really really fantastic day. I'm sure that i speak on behalf of the group when i say that we really enjoyed ourselves. Although, i'm sure that you could see it took it's toll....

Specially on the way back, when my poor Cuz had to tolerate a sleeping Jenny and I on both her shoulders XD

Fin~

Hey guys! i'm gonna blog about 3 things, but only 1 in detail. That's gonna be the church BBQ that was on Monday, (awesome day XD) and the easter sunday before, and the ....tuesday after XD.

Where to start...ah Easter Sunday, i'll just say it was pretty ordinary for me, i mean sure the occassion was awesome and couldn't be any better acknowledged but.....well, i got sick that day =_=" and was in like 3 items so needless to say i wasn't too happy about that....still though, it was great, and the special mention goes to the choir, and all members of the choir who performed admirably. Well done all =) and of course the Young Adults, who put on a stunning show. Go you guys!

Now the BBQ.


It was at a place called Churchman's brooke dam, on the most perfect of days. The weather was nice and cool, sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in sight. How i would pay if everyday were like that. But anyway,

Alot, and wait, i mean, alot of people turned up. Just in the youth i think there were at least 20, add another 20-30 parents or so and you end up with a grand total of approximately 50 people. Luckily the picnic area was nice and spacious, so we had lots of room to move around and mingle. The first thing that everybody did though, was go on a walk to explore the surrounding region and the actual dam itself.

After walking around the general picnic area and coming across errr..


i'll err....leave it to your imagination as to deciding what that is. David couldn't help commenting that it was a bucketful of turd though >.> (he might well be right though =\). Camwhoring was inevitable, and we grabbed some random groups of people to just take nice shots by the nice little brooke that was running through our area.


aww what a beautiful shot. Lovely group of girls they are, and then there was....


erm yes *cough cough*, moving on....

We walked up the narrow (slippery) steps to get a view of the dam from high up...my my we weren't dissapointed. Take a look for yourself, i dont think my pictures do proper justice to the actual scene (put in a fresh breeze and the gentle warming heat of the sun sitting in a cloudless aquamarine sky and voila!)


i actually purposely took the ugly banks to show what our government means by 'low-level' and let me tell you, for once, the government aint pulling your leg. The leves are (well, at least in this dam) extremely low. So people, people, as honest citizens interested in the welfare of our state (and perhaps our future) i urge you to think about this picture.....and how much nicer it would have been if the water levels were up. CONSERVE water please!!!!! ok, that's my government propaganda issue for the day.


There we go, sorry i was taking it with one hand, that's why the tilt is a bit off XD but that's a better (still bad though) shot of the pristine waters that comprise churchman's brooke dam. Love how there are trees and everything in the shot....sky looks lovely as well, but we digress.

Whilst we were up there, we made full use of the view to take some senseless shots, this particular one influenced by Tak:


and i'm not sure what we were meant to do but it was good nonetheless....yeah thanks a heap Ken =_='

Oh well, whilst walking along there, i look just in time to see David kick my soccer ball down the side of the dam XXXXXXXXXDDDDDDDDDDDD good work there XD. FORTUNATELY, it was the side where there was no water, just like a rocky slope, and we had to talk him into climbing UP it, not rolling DOWN it, justified by the fact that if he tried the latter, he probably wouldn't have been in the shots we took later XD.

So as we were walking down, we noticed that they labeled the toilets "Adam" for male, and "Eve" for female. Implying in a sense that the Garden of Eden could be compared to Churchman's Brooke. Could i just blatantly say now...err Churchman's brooke is lovely, but um, no. just ..... no. Anyway i noticed that Adam had some....extra anatomical features added on to him. if you take my meaning. I wont go there though ~_~

So there we are walking down and when we reach the bottom, we hear somebody yelling out from the top, upwards we lift our eyes and lo and behold:


We remember we left David up there, since he went up to collect the ball XD. There he is (on the right) with Leonie. sorry dude XD

After coming down, our whole group ate lunch, and ran to the field to play a game of 'captain ball'. Obviously i'm not going to elaborate on how to play the game here, but it was good fun. We won the first half 9-6. Then the second half, Cham came and we got owned 20-16. Which Sharon is STILL taking the piss outta me for XD, it's ok though, all in good fun. The other team certainly showed us how to play properly ><. Next time yea Eddy? =) Special mention would probably go to Cham, for absolutely owning the game, and Jenny and Sarah, for scoring the funniest goal in the world XD

Upon arriving all sweaty and exhausted back to the picnic area, we decided to take a massive group shot. This being my favorite:


probably because most of us were smiling and looking at the camera. However...if you go download the full version of the OTHER shot that i put on my flickr slideshow player (just below) you'll find the funnier shot. Try and see why, (Eddy and Ken XD)

as a sidenote, you CAN download the full version of any photos on my flickr slideshow (the black thing down the bottom). Just click on the photo, view in new window, and when the photo appears, click on the 'all sizes' button to the top left of the photo. Voila!

Well, just as we thought our day was drawing to a close, nope, all of us decided to head off to Sharon and Eddy's parents' farm. PERSSIMON....PERSIMMON? farm! and it rocked. I love the soft perssimons (that's how we'll spell it for now XD). Here take a look!:


Look at all those fruits! Man that was awesome. We bought a tray, Collin bought a tray, i think every family bought a tray! XD they were SO nice. Fresh picked as well! i mean, just look:


So nice and ripe. mmmm, most of us couldn't wait to eat them


as you can no doubt tell.

After the farm, all of us decided to meet up the next day as well (because we obviously love each other so much n_n) SO that led to the carousel expedition...where two groups of us went, one to watch March of the Penguins and the other to watch Ice Age .... which started a whole argument about which was better (which, many of the ice-age guys are still arguing with me about) - (i, of course, was one of the more refined, watching the REAL thing ....March of the Penguins, and i'll just say, i didn't regret it. ALL of you go watch it at some point, YES YOU JENNY!! *prods*)

before i forget, Leon, you never replied to my SMS man =\ what happened there? didja forget to turn your phone on? You shoulda gone. Although you would have been one of the ice-age people, indefinitely >.> and Rob....well, your phone wasn't working so i depended on Leon to give you the message, but since he didnt reply.....i think you would have watched March of the Penguins as well. damnit. Next time.

And Tak man!! what happened, never reply to your MSN XD. Bugger it, next time we'll definitely get the WHOLE group going....that includes Josh too, i should really smash that guy for not going on Monday.

Oh well, at the end of the day i guess everybody was exhausted (yes, that was Sunday, Monday AND Tuesday) pwoa. Even i can feel the strain on me now. My legs are killing me, i'm still sorta sick (thank God i'm recovering) and yeah. but seriously. i dont think i'll be doing that for a while again, 3 days in a row just kills the immune system XD


As my dearest Cuz will no doubt tell you.

Fin~

p.s prayers extended to Leon, who's down with the flu, Eddy, Sharon for the same reason, and myself, ...for the same reason XD
p.s.s March of the Penguins RULES!! (sorry Jenny, cant hear you XP)

Pwoa, what can i say? the holidays have come at last and not a moment too soon. I'd like to thank my Mum, Dad, Friends, Cuz, Cousins, Randoms, and most of all, God for helping me through this term XD. Ok, now that's out of the way, i feel like sharing some of my last week with you.



Did you picture me, slacking off, having a very peaceful time...you know.....finishing on Wednesday, and just enjoying myself to the max?

you'd be terribly mistaken.

My last week was the manifestation of perhaps the week from hell. i had so much work. just look at my diary.


Now, that right there is all the work that i had to hand in/collect last week. Half of it i forgot to collect, so you can imagine what it really would have been like.


Now, in order to shock you, i've decided to compare this amount of work with say, with another massive volume.

This is one of my favorite textbooks ( i can see Kim hiding - not from Gooch ) this book weighs a total of 4.214 kilograms. (calculated in Biology) And at a total of 600 pages, it is my heaviest book. It is actually the heaviest book in the entire syllabus, you think you're Applic book is heavy? try carrying this around classes =_=. Now. a 4.214 kg book with 600 pages and my diary side by side, lets see.....


Well. I think i've made my point. What is inside that God-forsaken mess? Stuff like this:


and:

er...oops, how did that get there... >< anyway...

Yeah, most of my last week was spent studying biology. (come to think of it....i dont know why, considering it was the only subject i DIDNT have a test for =__=) But you know, it's good fun. Oh come on Kim =_=.

So needless to say, i was kinda looking forward to the holidays if you know what i mean....in more than one way. It would mean the end of tests, work and it would also mean that i could catch up with alot of work, and hang out and chill etc etc. the stuff that you usually do on the holidays.


Ignore the err.....piece of male anatomy sombody kindly drew on my diary. (stop laughing -_-) Yes, that's proof that i was looking forward to the holidays. In fact, that was highlighted in week one. More recent proof includes...


There we go. Doesn't take a vivid imagination to picture exactly what that word was. Well, you know, can you really blame me for looking forward to it? Oh, and yes. The entry above that, well, that was the homework i got for the holidays. FREAKING JOY MAN!!!! LOOK AT HOW LITTLE IT IS!!!!!!!!


PFTT man, i was so happy that the teachers decided to be nice to us (damn Zeeb!! *shakes fist*) freaking %@)(@! but it's ok i mean....LOOK, it's a history assignment, NOT EVEN DUE AT THE END OF THE HOLIDAYS! This is like, great man, i expected an assignment from every subject!! Pwoaaaa, i was so happy.

Until she handed out the assignment sheet.


It's a freaking Oral investigation. We have to act it out. That's not even it. Well, i'm partnered with Rob, which should make my workload slightly less. But the problem? Neither of us can act for [fill in blank] it's true. We cant act, in fact Rob may be able to slightly, but i....just cant. i absolutely suck at acting, specially as an American President.

You heard me, we have to act as Richard Nixon and an interviewer, i think i'll go with the interviewer... less to say, i'll just look and nod. Rob can answer in elaborate detail. In exchange, i'll do the paperwork........


Ok, so maybe i'll say a bit more than i should. Just to save my holidays x).

The last day was a complete waste of time. First we had 4 hours, yes, four.freaking.hours of english literature. However we had to do our oral presentations/watch others do theirs. I'll mention the background,

I started a 7pm (the previous day) and worked up till 2 am (the next day XD) just finishing off my oral presentation . I'd like to use this blog just to thank a VERY SPECIAL person, who else but my lovely Cuz, who stayed up with me UNTIL 2 am, reminding me to practise every 10 minute interval and encouraging me throughout my moments of particular distress (i.e trying not to fall asleep). THANK YOU SO MUCH CUZZZZZ. And you say i owe you no obligation? you are too nice for your own good dear.

Anyway, i did my oral. Was very happy with my result (i wont tell you here =) ) and we moved on to maths!!!!!. OK ,maths was a very different story.

The first thing the teacher does, plonk a like 12 page booklet of questions on our desk.

"do them all"

we're like =____________=. But it turns out it was like grade 1 maths. Seriously, i'll show you.


and i've like put the only equation you need to know on the sheet.

I think the hardest question was this one (mind you , it wasn't hard at all)


So after finishing them after around 30 minutes, when were given an hour and 30 minutes to do so. We were just sitting there. So we started to play hangman XD and tell lame jokes (which i shant repeat here- for fear that people would close down this blog) - thanks Aido and Fez for lightening up the spirits XD

Oh well. Then we went home (anti-climatic) and .....now ......i just woke up (this is the day after the last day xD) and i'm bored. and i'm not gonna start history yet (so dont look at me like that)
Well, my next week i'm pretty much fully scheduled....mixture of outings and studying...which sorta works well for me, i've already burnt the previous holiday timetable so dont worry guys, im gonna survive.

And yeah. pft. Before i do anything, i better pack up eh......


er....yeah. pack up.

Fin~