Gathering at Barahineban Hall

From the time I woke up until evening yesterday, I was struggling to write my IRHR 1001 essay. At this point of time, I am proud to say that I have written 831 words,including references. At least I am more than halfway through my essay, compared to just a few days before, when I had not even typed a single word. Having to reference both in-text and at the end is really troublesome. Thankfully, the next essay would not be due until 28th April. The next round, I shall start researching and planning for the essay earlier, so as to accumulate better ideas.

After preparing lunch, I came to the conclusion that chicken drum sticks contain a lot of fat, because the skin is not being trimmed off. There was a layer of fat on top of the lemon sauce which I had used to marinate the drum sticks. And I do not know how to trim the fat off a chicken as well. From now on, I resolve to buy chicken wings or chicken breasts, where the visible fats are already removed.

At around 9pm, the party of 4 and I adjourned to Barahineban, one of UoN's hostels for a gathering organized by the Nutrition and Dietetics students. Barahineban, according to Hongjun, is the most beautiful hostel among the rest, because of the scenic view when you look from the outside and spacious and clean rooms. There was quite a lot of food prepared at the gathering, such as mee goreng, pasta, pork sausages, salad, potato salad with celery and potato chips. I did not take very much for the fear of putting on weight quickly.

Out of the blue through our dinner, the lights went off. Initially, I thought it was a blackout. But actually, it was planned to give a birthday boy and girl a suprise. The candles on the cake were very special because they were in a shape of a star. I had a slice of the cake, which was made up of white chocolate, cheese and cream. The cake was very sweet, but loaded with calories. My guilty pleasure,huh? The rest of the night was spent listening to the conversations between my friends and Hongjun coming up with jokes to crack us up. At around 12 midnight, we left the place.

During the conversations, there were frequent lightning flashes across the sky. The lightning flashes were so bright that they illuminated the sky to a greyish white hue, which made the night sky almost as light as a day. I had a premonition that a thunderstorm would be approaching, and true enough, it started to drizzle, and the drizzle eventually morphed into a thunderstorm as it got deeper into the night. As a result, we were lost on the roads for almost 2 hours, for the poor visibility hindered Aaron from looking at the road signs clearly. Thunder clapped and the lightning flashed incessantly the whole time. I never saw such bright lightning flashes in my life. Learnt from Hongjun that there is a hailstorm in Newcastle annually, in which rocks of ice that can inflict injuries and damages on people and property respectively fall from the sky. Hope it does not happen during my stay here!

After a seemingly endless drive in a maze, we ended up at Tomago Street, which is near Nelson Bay and about an hour's drive from Faulkner Crescent. But thankfully, a miracle happened. We managed to drive to a short cut road which led us to Birmingham Gardens. From there, we heaved a sigh of relief upon knowing that our house is not far away. Within 10 minutes after reaching there, it was finally home sweet home. Aaron had done us a great favour, for I know it must be very exhausting to be driving in the rain for such a long time, in addition to the stress experienced due to losing the way.

The adventure was not exactly over yet. The thunderstorm had caused the electricity to be cut off and the entire house was thrown into complete darkness. Thankfully, I had my torchlight which gave out quite a powerful beam with me. Otherwise, I would not be able to go get cleaned up at the toilet. Amusingly, I saw 4 of my housemates playing Daidee by the candlelight, for they could have gone to sleep instead. At around 2+ am, I dozed off. But I was awaken by the sudden light in my room, which was a good sign, for it meant that the electricity supply has been restored in our house!

The sky is clear and the sun is shining brightly now, together with the chirping of birds and buzzing of those blood sucking parasites- the mosquitos outside. Aim to finish my essay and CHEM 3310 assignment by today. Wish me luck!