Coogee

My favourite kind of beach is the one I’m not in. I don’t like the feel of salt and water stuck all over me. I don’t like the change rooms and bathrooms there. I don’t like the thick and sticky feel of sunscreen. I don’t like how the beach air turns my hair into twigs. I don't like waves smacking into me, determined to knock me over. I don’t like how the sand makes it twice the effort to walk - I’ve already gone out of bed and made the effort to come all the way out here, why would you make it more difficult for my willpower to walk?

But I went to the beach with Trang anyway, because I have been a potato for far too long.

The only thing I liked was the rock pool. The lack of sand and fortress of rocks made me forget I was at the beach for a moment. There were also little crabs and fishes. I tried to google "how to hold a crab at the beach" so I wouldn't get snipped, but all I could find were instructions to dig holes for crabs to fall into. Thanks, wikiHow.

I came home and excitedly told dad that I saw crabs and his first reaction was "DID YOU CATCH ONE" then quickly became sensible and told me it's illegal to take them home. IT'S LIKE HE KNEW MY INTENTIONS.

Ficus

After living in this city for my whole life, I've never been to the Royal Botanic Gardens nor knew of its whereabouts. Fiona and I came across it when we decided to randomly get off at Wynyard station to explore. I was kind of expecting flowers and colours exploding in my face. It was mainly all greenery and every plant looked the same.

You'd think that I'd know how many campuses there are for my uni, but I don't. I had to go home and google "castle royal botanic gardens sydney" and found nothing because the supposed castle is a part of the University of Sydney for music students. I still prefer to think of it as my castle, but instead of horses, we have unicorns.

This guy was drawing this massive artwork of Spongebob and Patrick at Circular Quay. It's supposed to look 3D once it's finished. I can imagine business people rushing towards the station at peak hour, hoping to get a seat, and having to stop for a few seconds to turn back and curiously look over at this artwork, and maybe even give up a little more time to peer through the lens. I like little surprises like this.

Abercrombie

Being Dora the Explorer roaming around the city. The world is suddenly a fascinating place when you have your camera with you. You kind of notice things that you wouldn’t normally pay attention to.

Amy and I saw this on Tumblr and we got excited over it because things like this don’t exist around Sydney. So we decided to go after her last exam to find this Abercrombie Lane. When we got there, it was just a dodgy looking alleyway that greeted us with... nothing.

We walked through it anyway and kept looking up as if we were expecting the tetris blocks to appear out of nowhere. Or maybe it was hidden like 12 Grimmauld Place from Harry Potter. I came home and researched it, and it turns out that it was taken down at the beginning of 2009.

UM. OKAY THEN. NOT AWKWARD AT ALL.

This is where I’d imagine a modern city Rapunzel would be locked up in. Except she wouldn’t be worth saving because the tower is so small and you can so easily just jump out and only break an arm... or leg. Or fall into a coma and become the next sleeping beauty.

Solus

Because (look at me start a post with a conjunction) I went to uni today despite it being a weekend, I decided to take my camera out and hoped I wouldn't look like a tourist at my own uni with less people around. Although I still act like one because I don't know over half the buildings that exists at uni. So this is what my typical Monday to Friday consists of:

WOW YOU'RE ALL FASCINATED AND MUST BE IN COMPLETE AWE IF YOU'VE SCROLLED DOWN TO HERE. BUT I ASSURE YOU UNI ISN'T THAT GREAT.

I went to see Vivid after, which is a light show display in Sydney. It's not as fun being a tourist by myself. I felt a bit lonely and preferred the company of my family since it's kind of our thing to go to the city at night.

Dimidium

THREE DOWN, ANOTHER THREE TO GO. I'M HALF WAY THROUGH MY HSC EXAMS.

This is how I celebrate the end of everything to do with Economics. I listen to Fireflies sung by cats and dogs because they're party animals. Oh yeah, and I've been feeling really festive because I have a soft spot for any song with bells in them. I blame Justin Bieber's Mistletoe song that was realised two months too early. And I question anyone's sanity for wanting to spend their Christmas underneath a mistletoe. Why would you want to expose yourself to Nargles like that?

This HSC thing is made such a big deal out of but once you're there, it's just like any other exam if you try to forget the fact that these exams are worth 50% towards your marks. I spent the last couple of weeks like a poor beggar asking others to send me luck to counteract every bad thing that could possibly happen to me just in case. I spent many nights sleepless because Nargles stole my sleep. Then goblins came into my room and turned off all six of my alarms so I did not wake up at 4am as planned to do last minute revision. I swear I did not hear even one of those alarms ring so I woke up two hours later. And I realised that I have this habit of blaming mythical creatures that may possibly not exist to feel better about myself for every unfortunate thing that happens to me.

I'm starting to find it more difficult to decide what I should do everyday now:
a) Study like crazy.
b) Continue rolling in my own misery.
c) Start my busking career with Anne.
d) Turn my sister into a raccoon.

Splendor

I brought Cedric to school the other day to take photos for the Year 12 yearbook so on my walk home, I decided to be a creep and take photos of flowers in other people’s front yards. Imagine how awkward it’d be if the owner of the house caught me.

I literally spent over 15 minutes chasing bees trying to get a nice photo. I still haven’t learnt my lesson after getting stung twice in my life by these creatures when I was little. I also got stung by a wasp too. And here I am still alive to tell the tale of my non dramatic adventures of a muggle.

There's a strike for all public schools so I get the whole day off tomorrow. Right now the angel and devil on my shoulders are having a very heated argument. I should really study but I haven't gotten anything for formal. I am so over thinking about it that I'm not bothered for both. I should really discipline myself and get my act together.

Just 10 school days left till I graduate. Just 10 school days left till my Year 12 formal. I’m starting to feel really scared. It’s like I’ve been a caged up, pampered and spoon fed zoo animal and I’m suddenly being released into the wild expected to fend for myself. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to manage. I think reality finally sunk in that my life will be drastically different within a few months.