Reunion with Japanese Food

Tonight I met up with some of my high school friends for dinner at Moto Japanese Restaurant, which was probably the first time I had seen some of them since Jane's 21st or my 21st birthday!

I drove myself there, but missed the turn-off when I drove past the first time so I went around the second time. I almost missed it the second time as well but did a U-turn!

I was one of the last to arrive but that was OK! It was really good to see everyone again! We all ordered our food. Some of us ordered an entrée's and a main, while some ordered the large Japanese meal box. I ordered some mini won tons as my entrée and Teriyaki chicken. It was funny when Evan told the lady from the restaurant that he didn't want the sashimi. She first asked if there was something wrong before taking back and if he wanted it cooked. Later on she asked him if he preferred a different type of fish. I think she might've been a little hurt!

We updated each other on what was going on with our lives, and talked about what was happening with some others in our year - who was getting married, who was getting pregnant, who came out of the closet...It's amazing how much we've all grown up!

We left just in time for me to drive home (I'm still on a restricted license!), but I can't wait for our next catch-up!

Helping People Give Up

We had a smoking cessation workshop today which I found really insightful! We practised motivational interviewing and different ways of encouraging people to give up smoking, and did a few role-plays. I found all of this really useful as I have a few friends who smoke, and I really don't like seeing them sending themselves to an early grave.

I did try some 'motivational interviewing' on a friend after the workshop, and it did help me get an understanding of where my friend was at and what they were thinking at the time which was good.

You can't really give help to people until they not only acknowledge they need it but are willing to accept it though, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up! I'm just waiting for that moment ;)

Blackout!

Tonight the power went out in our house! I was in the middle of...studying...or trying to...when it just went pitch black! Admittedly the first thought that ran across my mind was...did we pay the power bill?? It turns out that power was out throughout the whole neighbourhood!

It just happened to be dinnertime for us, so we tried to light up a few candles so we could see what we were doing and eating.

iPod and iPolish

I've been constantly checking the Dick Smith website for the past few days to find out when the new iPods will be coming in. The date of expected arrival has always changed, but today I had a feeling it would be coming today, so straight after getting dissertation completed, I caught the bus back to Henderson with Chen (and saw Angie too!) and visited Dick Smith, and guess what? They had just arrived today! Finally!!

I have to say that despite being quite anti-Apple, the iPod Touch is pretty cool. It's quite thin and the user interface is easy and smooth. The video camera is decent but the photo camera isn't the best, but that's OK. I'm still looking for a lot more apps and music to load onto it though as I have hardly anything on it right now! 

I'm a little afraid to take it with me too since I'm afraid of breaking it! I should get Aonghas to buy me a case for it just for peace of mind.

I'm starting to wonder whether I should get the iPhone now. My plan is to pass my iPod to my dad once I buy my dream phone, I'm not too sure when that will happen though! It's a little annoying only being able to connect to the internet through wi-fi though.

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While I was walking through West City on my way out, I passed a beauty stall where a lady approached me, giving me a little plastic pottle with some cream in it. She told me not to eat it before she grabbed my thumb and started buffering or polishing or filing or doing something to it! 

She was trying to persuade me to buy this nail set for my special lady...in this case my mum! I wasn't too keen and told her I'd have to talk to my brothers, since we usually buy gifts together.

After being impressed with my shiny thumbnail, I asked her if it was normal for guys to have shiny nails and she said she got her boyfriend to do it! I was going to ask her to do my other thumbnail, but I thought I better not since she's doing it for free!

Research: Complete!

After spending a whole year together, our group finally got our final year dissertation finished today! Our final research totaled 16,300 words (including appendices and references!) and 71 pages! I don't think I've ever handed in a project that huge before!

We had stayed at uni till 7-8pm for the past few nights, sending in revised versions to our supervisors to check each time. We came in early this morning to correct the final changes made by our supervisors. They hadn't sent us their changes by the time we arrived though, so we went over to their office.

Jessica and Becky pretty much rewrote the results section in the final few days and were afraid that a lot of changes would have to be made, but luckily the changes that needed to be made on the final day were minimal.

We went back to the pharmacy resource room to make the changes. I made the final changes to the reference list, and it was finished! Our final document was aptly named 'FINAL This is It'

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDCwiJm2ryE)

We went over to the Information Commons computer room to hang out since we had nothing to do for a couple of hours. The time we had booked to get our dissertation printed was at 2pm. It was quite refreshing to be finished while everyone else was stressed out and rushing to get theirs done!

We heard quite a few stories about people crying after being told they had to rewrite a lot of their project in the final weekend, arguments between members...a lot of drama! We managed to avoid having too much drama within our group!

There was a free sausage sizzle outside which helped pass the time away.

2pm came, and we went down to the pharmacy office to get our dissertation printed. What a special moment!

We didn't hand it in at that time since Becky was going to get it ring-bound at her husband's work.

At least we've got all the writing done now and don't have to worry about doing any dissertation over the weekend like other groups, and only have to do a presentation and one-on-one interview with the assessor.

Now I have no excuse not to be studying!