Update~ ^^

A super cute kitty to brighten up my day~ =w=

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Once again sitting at Starbucks... just chilling, taking a bit of time for myself :) Despite what I said in an earlier post, I've currently more or less discontinued my internship; given that I haven't gotten my licence to practice yet, the stuff that I've been doing (drafting contracts/ drafting pleadings/ drafting affidavits/ etc) can be construed as unqualified practice under the Law Institute of Victoria Ethical Guidelines =.= Don't really feel like getting into trouble for doing what I'm told, but my boss said I could come back for my practical placement towards the end of the course, so that's pretty awesome~ :) and given that I'll be starting my Practical Training Course at Leo Cussens in July, I think i'll just take it easy for the next few weeks :) 

Hopefully that won't mean being at home all the time... really, I find it more stressful being at home than being anywhere else because my parents -- being super traditional Asians -- are always on my back about one thing or another. Sometimes I just want to sit and do my own thing; blog, read/ write my novels, play some video games (Dishonored is SO. FRICKING.AWESOME!!!), watch tv, etcetc, but I can never really do these things at home. As a result, I end up spending a small fortune on coffee and public transport because Starbucks has pretty much become my second home =/

...And then my parents complain about that... =.=

Anyhoo, on the bright side, I actually managed to get a lot of writing done the other day (by which I mean I got about half a page done :P). My plot is slowly coming together and I'm actually largely happy with the stuff that i'm writing now. I think this largely has to do with the writing course that I did earlier this year with Lilliane Grace. Basically, in 'busting the talent myth', she taught us that the only thing that really prevents anyone from writing well (you know, aside from actually having a good grasp of English...) is our inner critic. And the only thing that can help us to deal with that critic is an attitude of trust and acceptance.

I've since found that this outlook is applicable to life in general, and it has certainly helped me go after what I want, both professionally and in my personal life. In terms of writing, I'm finding that I have more confidence in my ability to write something decent because I'm not always thinking "well that sounds stupid".  Oh, that reminds me! I got Derick to read over some of my story the other day and after perusing the prologue, he was like "...this sounds familiar..." then proceeded to give me a synopsis of my own writing from when he read it three years ago :P (Yes, this has been a masively long work in progress :P)

The funny thing is that I don't actually remember sending him my story, but I was really touched that he actually remembered everything so clearly ^^ And that's just another example of why I like him; I can't think of an exact English equivalent, but in Chinese I would describe him as "细心" (?? xi xin?? - cannot chinese :P) which I guess is a combination of attentive/ thoughtful/ considerate :)

Anyway, on that topic, I went clothes shopping with Scott the other day~ ^^ We were all supposed to meet up in the city at 1:30 after Scott's exam but Derick and I both slept in so we ended up meeting up at about 3 for lunch :P It was a pretty good day, not in the least because I got to watch in amazement as Scott wolfed down TWO Simply Grill'd burgers, PLUS chips, PLUS a large Mango Magic Boost Juice :P Anyway, we ended up going to Jay Jays where Scoot bought a couple of t-shirts, a shirt and a hoodie-shirt~ ^^ They all looked really good, so I think that despite the time constraints, we did pretty well for ourselves :P Although I actually think that Derick was a lot more helpful than I was... =/ Which really just makes me wonder...

IS IT THAT HE'S REALLY GIRLY OR THAT I'M NOT GIRLY ENOUGH?!?!?!?! ;A;

Anyway, in the end, I also bought a couple of skirts, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt~ ^^ Probably the most random of all were Derick's purchases... a Mickey Mouse cap (which I picked out~ :D *proud*), random badges and a super cute panda pluggy that lights up when his phone rings (also me~ :P *pride x2*)~ :3

Derick with his hat~ :D
He looks like he's about to go beat up someone =.=
THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU REFUSE TO SMILE AT THE CAMERAAA~

Nail art with the Natio nail polish that I got in my June Bellabox~ ^^
(Shade: 'Valentine')

Later, we met up with Seb for coffee which was great~ ^^ It had been a while since he and I had been able to have a good old fashioned bitch session without having to worry about social niceties so it was really good to be able to talk openly with him instead of having him act as a mediator between me and my other equally opinionated friends =.= In any case, it's really good to know that we're all on the same page now~ ^^ and as usual, Seb gave his opinion in his fabulously bitchy way~ :P

Probably the only bad thing that has happened in the last week or so is that I burned my hand at Starbucks :( My cup of green tea essentially exploded and scalding hot water managed to soak through my glove. Apparently Starbucks doesn't have anything to make into a makeshift ice pack (i don't believe it for a second, stingy bastards... and if they really don't then... really?? OHS people!!! >.<) so I had to hightail to the pharmacy to get some burn cream =.= It's slowly getting better now, although I still have it bandaged up.............

...............and it makes me feel like a ninja~ >:D

Anyway, this seems like a good place to leave off for now :)

Once again, I've unfortunately been too busy to test out many of the beauty samples from my Bellabox, Violet Box or Lust Have It box... although what I have tried (Natio nail polish in 'Valentine', Street Star (?) lipgloss in 'Transparent Baby Pink' [this sample was expired but I tried it before I realised, lol~], and the Seacret Body Lotion in 'Ocean Mist'), I've been quite happy with :)

I have, however,unsubscribed from Lust Have It. I had my doubts about the quality of their boxes earlier in the year, but after seeing their great January 2013 box, I decided to give them a go. I have since been more often disappointed with their boxes than I have been happy, especiall last month's box which, aside from being incredibly empty, just looked like a bunch of left overs =/

I'm still looking forward to receiving my Bellabox every month though~ ^^ and, as I haven't made up my mind about them yet, I can't wait to see how Violet Box fares in their second month :)

♥

A notebook that I made for Derick~ :D may have gone overboard with the aging/ antiquing~ ^^;

And a seal for the finishing touch~ ^^
........ I WANNA KEEP IT NOW~!!! ;A;

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~ Update ~

"hmmmm... I should get up... but this rug is so fruffy..."
hehe~ the look on this kitty's face sums up my feelings so well~ ♥

So in my last post I mentioned that I had landed a few Legal Studies tutoring gigs... ultimately these fell through pretty badly (one because of sudden changes in my schedule and then the parents being super rude when I approached them about changing class times, the other because the student was incredibly slack and made any excuse to skip his classes) =.= it's so difficult trying to tutor kids who don't really care about their studies.  In any case, I'm not particularly broken up about losing those jobs, especially the one with the rude parents; tutoring jobs come and go, but ultimately I have my own career which I need to be focusing on and if parents can't understand that, and more over, are going to be incredibly rude about it (to the point of being verbally abusive and calling me 'naive', 'manipulative' and 'dishonest')... well...

I don't have to deal with that! >.<

On a happier note, other aspects of my life are going pretty swimmingly~ ^^ I started an internship at a law firm a few weeks ago which I'm pretty pleased about.  Even though it's unpaid, it's pretty good for the experience~ ^^ So far, I've been drafting pleadings, affidavits and contracts so there's definitely a good amount of hands-on stuff~ I'm really happy that I'm actually able to put to practice some the stuff that I learned during my degree, especially in Civil Procedure~ ^^  I put in a lot of work for that unit when I was studying it but the outcome wasn't as great as I had hoped (I got a Credit T^T) so it's really, really rewarding now to have a barrister who has had about 40 years of experience praising my work and telling others to base their work off mine~ ^^

Hopefully this internship will open some doors for me in the long run~ I should probably be less slack about going into the office tho :P tbh, I find the idea of being in an office to be mighty depressing.  It's okay when I'm already there because I get pretty caught up in my work and sort of power through without a care for my surroundings, but when it comes to dragging myself into the office, I usually end up finding myself at Starbucks instead because I love the (pretentious?! XD) atmosphere and I actually get a lot of work done~ ^^  Anyhoo, I should probably just buckle down and show up more often :P FOR MY FUTURE~!!! *war cry*

In other news, things with Derick are going really well~ ^^ I've always said that he's the nicest, most genuine guy I know and that still holds true.  He is so incredibly sweet and even when he's being incredibly frustrating, I never for a moment doubt his intentions.

He has his lazy moments, but when he puts his mind to things, he is also incredibly focused and determined which I find to be quite endearing.

There are those times where the conversation lapses and neither of us are sure of what to say.  I was quite worried about that to begin with, but as he said to me "topics come at go, but that doesn't affect how we feel about each other" and we're together for those moments where we go to have dinner at Yoyogi and spend the next three hours wrapped up in a wonderful conversation about video games -- to the chagrin of the staff -- and end up forgetting about dessert~ :P

Happily, those moments aren't too far or few in between~ ^^

Obviously it's still much too early to be counting chickens, but at this point in time, I'm fairly confident in how I feel about him.  It seems like over the last few years we've been going around in circles -- whether it be because of poor decisions on both our parts or, more often than not, simply poor timing of circumstances -- we've disappeared from each other's lives time and again, and it's been one hell of a ride to get to where we are right now.  I think, though, that things can only look up from here~ ^^

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