Shells & Snowflakes

Y'all probably hate me for saying this but seven weeks is definitely not enough for me to do everything I want to do in the holidays. I came back from Port Macquarie last week, only finished unpacking a few days ago and next Saturday, I'm heading off to the Gold Coast for The Big Lift. (Maybe I should've just left all my shit in the suitcase.) I'd planned to take it slow this week but life happened and all the catch-up promises I made during semester caught up with me and slapped me upside the head. I'm not complaining though. There are worse ways to live.

And I do appreciate the fact that I am able to spend so much time with different people. It makes every adventure that much more interesting; every conversation teaches you something new and gives you something else to think about. I used to spend so much time with the same old people, having the same old conversations and being stuck in the same old world and environment. It was comfortable but it wasn't healthy. And growing up in the area I did and going to the school I went to made complacency such an easy trap to fall into. You think you can just cruise through life with minimal effort - relying on a couple of select people to take you places and show you new things but the fact is that opportunities don't just fall out of the sky and it takes initiative and effort to grab these with both hands. I have a long way to go and so much more to learn before I even reach this point but every person I meet, every memory I make takes me that one step closer.

But enough philosophical preaching, y'all probably just here for the photos and I would hate to disappoint.

Monday

Partners in Crime: Sharon, Sienna and Milo Milkshake (aka Magical Milo)

Location: La Perouse / World Square / Darling Harbour 

The Orange Family were had been hankering for some good ol' fashioned adventuring times in the whatsapp convo over the last few weeks so it's good that we finally got around to doing it. They brought their fancy schmancy big-ass cameras and I took my shitty old Samsung phone and we headed down to La Perouse for some photography fun. It was colder than Winterfell down there. Pretty sure I caught like hyporthermia or something. Totally worth it though because I found that pretty purple shell above. 

After La Perouse, we hopped on a bus back to Town Hall to meet Renee and Angry Alice for dinner. Sienna took a short detour to her apartment to fetch something (how cool is it that she gets to live in the city??) and we walked to Grill'd for much-needed sustenance. Burgers were great, company was even better and afterwards, we headed down to Darling Harbour to look at shiny things and giant floating turd shapes. Yay!

Tuesday

Partners in Crime: The Vibewire Crew

Location: Ultimo

Okay, to be honest, Tuesday was a bit of an uneventful day because I was mostly at my internship working on a couple of things. I did get to meet some new interns though and for once, the whole Social Media team was in so we got to do a bit of strategy planning and brainstorming together. Pretty sure I went somewhere afterwards but for the life of me, I can't remember what.

Wednesday

Partners in Crime: Harry, Ron and Hermione (+ Tian and CGay)

Location: Hogwarts

This was the one day I actually stayed at home within the whole week. I'd made half-hearted plans with Othilia but we decided to go shopping the day after instead. So I ended up having a Harry Potter marathon in the daytime. This is how I amuse myself okay? Don't judge. This culminated in an emotional rewatch of the last film with Tian and CK that night. It was da bomb diggity. 

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Thursday

Partners in Crime: Othilia in the daytime and the Chinese Class gang at night

Location: Sydney Westfields, Ramen Kan, Karaoke at K1

Hi Othilia. I'm sorry for dragging you around town in a futile effort to find the perfect trench coat. We visited every single potential coat store in the St James / Westfields area and didn't even find anything. Actually no that's a life. After you left, I blew about $110 on a coat from Portmans. It wasn't perfect but it'll do the job. I also bought another jumper, a hoodie, primer and some dry shampoo for The Big Lift. I am now a little bit broke :(

After my nine hour shopping spree, I walked over to Ramen Kan in Chinatown to meet up with the Chinese class gang before our awesome karaoke sesh. Great to see everyone again and to get to know the others outside of class (there's only so much bonding you can do over pinyin). Celine and Kay killed it at K1. They should be on like talent shows or something. Afterwards, Kev gave us a lift home (since some of us were from the West) and holy bejeezus but his car is Siiiiick. Upholstery was new and shiny, the interior smelt nice, engine was super powerful and responsive, exterior was badass - it was such a nice car that it almost made me overlook the fact that he ran like four red lights on the way back... 

Next up: Fastbreak Frenzy, Yum Cha with the VW crew, stalking George Calombaris at the Good Food and Wine Show, Saturday night fireworks and modeling playground equipment at an abandoned park at 10pm on a Sunday night. 

Port Macquarie: Part 2

To see part 1 of my Port Macquarie post, please click here. Some of the photos in this post (like the one above) were taken by Michaela or Michaela's camera. I've indicated, with a little 'x' below the picture, which ones these are. 

Day 3

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Day 3 started off with an early morning beach walk. We got out of bed and made the short trek to the beach which was about 10 minutes away. Mik brought her camera and took some really lovely shots. As always, I used my Samsung SIII... 

Port Macquarie: Part 1

It's been five days since I came back from my Port Macquarie trip with my two uni friends, Michaela and Jessica. We spent about six days up there and I can honestly say it was one of the best trips I've had in a while. We did everything we wanted to do but never felt the need to rush or cram the itinerary. Some nights, we spent in the apartment curled up on the couch watching movies or just having girl chats over champagne and chocolate. And funnily enough, we all wanted to do the same geeky things (i.e. whale watching and horse-riding). They're seriously the easiest people to get along and I think that made all the difference.

I blog as much for myself as I do for the people reading this blog so apologies in advance if some of what I post seems rather mundane. I'm just trying to keep a record for future Cynthia.

Ready? Onwards we go!

Music Covers, AFL and Giant Glowing Bunnies (Vivid)

Guess who's finished university for the semester?

That's right. I'm that annoying person acting all celebratory on social media whilst everyone else is slaving away at their exam preparation. I'm that person flooding whatsapp with requests to hang out and kindly being told to f*ck off by her friends. I'm that person camping outside your house in her car; who won't leave until you pay her some attention. Basically I'm that person you want to punch in the face.

Life Lessons from '500 Days of Summer'

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I think Zoey Deschanel and Joseph Gordan-Levitt should get together in real life, marry and then contribute to the general improvement of the world by populating it with attractive, musically-gifted hipster children. Unfortunately the two say they're strictly platonic so there's another couple I can add to my 'Why Are You So Blind To Your Own Love' list.

Hello all. I watched a thing. It was called '500 Days of Summer' and I really liked it. I know this movie ain't exactly new (it was made in 2009) but I'd never seen it before so I'm sorry if this post is five years behind schedule. It shouldn't really matter though because I'm not reviewing it. I just wanted to talk about a couple of its key themes because I found the messages in the film so relatable.

This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront this is not a love story.

And what a shame it isn't, because as far as romcoms go, I found this to be one of the most accurate depictions of a budding romance between two people. Not saying that I know what it's really like ('cause I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have like, experience before you can claim that) but the interactions did seem genuine and the characters are drawn in such a way that you can't help recognise bits of yourself in there. I liked that the film addressed the whole awkward scoping out stage of a relationship ('So...do you like like me?) and when the two were dating, it wasn't the kind of dating that involved moonlight and stars and really cheesy heartfelt declarations shouted to the world. No. These people went to Ikea and looked at furniture for fun.

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Sidenote: What is it about couples hanging out at Ikea without the intent of buying anything? I saw it in this movie and have also heard of real-life couples hanging out there. Is Ikea a thing now? Is ready-to-assemble furniture an aphrodisiac? Am I missing something crucial? Somebody please explain me a thing.

I think one of the key messages of this film is that love is relative when it comes to people. Just because you feel a certain way about someone doesn't mean that that person feels the same. So just because Tom thought Summer was the one didn't mean that Summer recognised that same connection in Tom, even though it may have looked it on the surface. I was reading an interview with the writer of the script, Scott Neudstadter, and he said that the screenplay was based on a real-life experience of his. After a failed relationship with his own personal 'Summer', he and a co-writer created this script. He bumped into the ex-girlfriend when it was finished and sent her the script to read. Interestingly enough, she read it and then sent a letter back saying that she really identified with Tom. She didn't recognise herself in Summer at all which is testament to the fact that as humans, we tend to project our own feelings onto others. It comes as such a shock when you actually do realise that it was all in your mind and the other person had no idea. At all. So they weren't consciously orchestrating your crushing misery and rejection. That was all you.

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And that's why unrequited love is such a bummer. I guess I am speaking a little bit from experience but then again, this is something that almost everyone out there can relate and attest to. You're unaware of it but you start to attribute so much significance to the interactions between you two. If they said something to you the other day, was there a double meaning to it? If they didn't pay attention, did you do something wrong? It's like when Tom interpreted Summer not reacting to his music as some form of disinterest or rejection when really, she just hadn't noticed. It is kind of pathetic but I guess that's why they say love turns you into a idiot.

As Summer said, sometimes life just gets in the way of relationships. People fall in love, people move on, some people just aren't in the right stage of their life to get into commitment and others just haven't met 'the one'. There are a lot of reasons why and the film managed to address that in a way that wasn't too cliched. I thought that was cool.

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And because I'm having like a massive brain fart at 1:10am at night I'm just going to list the rest of what I found relatable from the film. Sorry. This is probably the least elegant end to a post ever but I just can't do it. Give me a break, okay? I just finished my last assessment for Semester 1 of university today(!)

• "People don't realize this, but loneliness is underrated."
• When Tom admitted to not having seen that girl from the interview before and she said, "Well you must not have been looking." I felt like that summed everything up nicely because while Tom was too busy having his world crushed by Summer, he'd been too blind to notice that he was 'summering' (I totally just made up that verb) someone else. Again, the film places a lot of emphasis on timing.
• Narrator: "Tom walked to her apartment, intoxicated by the promise of the evening. He believed that this time his expectations would align with reality..."
• Rachel Hansen: "Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate."
• Tom: "I love how she makes me feel, like anything's possible, or like life is worth it."

Childhood

I was fortunate enough not to have a lonely childhood. 

There were always people around me. 

And I mean always. 

Because my friends and cousins literally lived in the same townhouse as me. 

No. Really. Look how over it 10-year old me already was. 

'Cause these people were strange yo.

Real classy types, y'know.  

I mean just look at that poise.

That confidence.

That self-possession.

But I put up with it anyway.

Even though they sometimes left me out. Unintentionally.

And intentionally. 

We called ourselves 'NASTY C'.

...guess who was the 'C'?

But I didn't mind. 

Because in the end. 

It was all in good fun.

And they are pretty cool people anyway. 

*Shoutout to our parents for dressing us in horrendously bright-coloured clothes so they would have no trouble locating their misplaced, wayward children.