How did you spend Australia Day?

Today, I mark the 5th year in a row as a volunteer with RACV on Australia Day.

Thanks for having me!!

Was great fun and I enjoyed catching up with some of you!

Saw part of the air show in an opening in the trees. Lol. Couldn't really get a good shot in tho. Shame.

Here's some of the better ones. Took these with my new Note 3! :)

This is my Chocolate Choc Top before it went in my belly.

A view of the RACV Picnic and Federation Vehicle Display.

So, how did you spend your Australia Day?

New Record!! 1 Whole Year Without a Blog Post!!

Amazing, right?

So much has happened in the past year, but not once did I put up a post. Tsk Tsk...

Soooo~ let's go back in time!

Jan 2013 - Australia Day! I was volunteering with RACV and took these in my spare time.

 Part of the Federation Vehicle Display..

Was feeling a little artistic and drew these when I was volunteering with Writers Vic. Probably one of my best sketches. xD

Nibbling all the tasties at the Night Noodle Markets

Got this buddy built. All so that I could play DayZ when it comes out onto Standalone...was super hyped. 5 months too early. LOLOL!!

And so, ever since then, I've been even more stuck into playing games. Nothing too complicated. I'm only a casual gamer. xP

Well, that's it for now!

Cheers,
 - eenh

Novel in a month challenge!

I am participating in the 2012 NaNoWriMo for the very first time!

November is the National Novel Writing Month so the aim is to turn out a manuscript of 50 000 words or more by the end of the month. Want to know more? Go here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/about

Giving this challenge a go and will be pushing myself to complete a first draft of a novel by the months end. Help me get through this challenge by giving me your support and help keep me motivated! Any thing will do! Some encouraging words or a pat on the back once in a while will do fine too!

Below is a synopsis of the novel I'll be writing from scratch. Hope you like it! If you want, tell me what you think! Any feedback would be wonderful!

Tentative Title: Born From The Ashes: Disgraced

Synopsis

The Ashes is the name given to the slums where the nobility and merchant classes have Fallen and now must reside, as decreed by the High King. Out of favour and out of time, the Forlael family gathered all of what was left of their wealth and courage to escape their fate. Disgraced, the once renowned merchant family were being forced to take a life of slavery or live as the lowliest commoner and they want no part of it. A betrayal disrupts their plans of escape, sending the majority to their deaths or imprisonment. Few who survived were driven into the slums where they live with other Disgraced families. The Forlael, rendered powerless, grit their teeth and quietly bide their time for the opportunity to exact revenge on their betrayers. While they hid in the shadows, strange events in the citadel gave cause for them to question the truth of their demise. 

I may post a little excerpt of the novel up a later, if everything goes well, so keep a look out! xD

Cheers,

- eenh

By the moonlight

Tonight, my family celebrated the Moon Festival!

We do this every year, in accordance with the Chinese calendar and keep with the tradition. It was a cold, blistery night, but I remember last year being far colder. The clouds covered the moon most of the time, but fortunately it did show its face.

We took out our stash of old and new candles, lanterns, lamps and such, lit them up and put them around the place in the back yard. Dad even scrounged up some old glass lamp shades from somewhere in the garage and used them for decoration too. Haha!

I even went around taking photos and videos with my phone!! Here are some of the pictures below:

Table with offerings, incense, tea, candles and lamps.

Taken by the light of a paper lantern. Sparklers and another lamp in background.

Pretty lights in the backyard.

We packed up when we had enough of the cold and ate moon cakes inside..by the heater. OM NOM NOM  xD

Love this time of the year!

- eenh

On the weekend I...

Phew~ what a busy couple of days! For me anyways. xP

I attended Stuart Zadel's Ultimate Business Opportunities Summit in Melbourne on the weekend. I couldn't make it to the following Pay It Forward session though. Shame.

All I have is praise for Stuart, his team and the other guest speakers. The seminars really got me thinking! Their explanations were so easy to follow, a simpleton like me, who knew next to nothing on the subject(s) could understand. Who would have thought?! Me actually get the gist of Forex, property management or even asset protection. I'm not professing that I know everything about what they talked about, but I got the gist. Good enough for me, at this stage. Now, if I ever wanted to, I can invest in learning and delve deeper into any of those subjects if I so choose. I'll definitely be back for more. Keep up the good work Stu!

Quite tired right now after all that, but it was worth the 2hr long trip back and forth, both days. I think my continued sleep deprivation is going to catch up with me soon....feeling a little burned..singed at the edges, if you like. :D

Anyways, that's all I'm prepared to say about that so...ta ta for now~~

- eenh

The ending of the arc

Time has come to reveal the final moments of the 'dream story'...

And so...

The king turns back around, a mad glint in his eyes and starts walking towards the boy.

In panic, the boy looks around, his eyes darting to and fro, looking for an escape. He sees the king's minions lurking in the shadows before him. The king steadily advances, his movements slow and measured and with each step, his features darken as his fury deepened. The boy cowers beneath the king's deathly stare and moves backwards, past the oaken doors which led out into the royal forest. 

The boy tripped and fell, his back slamming into a tree behind him, his hands becoming intertwined with the roots in the ground, but still the king and his entourage kept coming. With a snarl, the king bared his teeth and quickened his pace until he was almost upon the boy.

Unable to move any further, the boy covered his face, screwed his eyes shut and screamed with all his might.

'AAARGH!' He screeched. The cry echoed through the forest, its desperate note so piercing, that even those in the castle and surrounding vales could hear it loud and clear.


All who heard, shivered as their neck prickled and dropped what they were doing, or if they were thinking or talking, stopped midway through their thoughts or conversations and looked around. The less curious souls returned to their tasks and activities, and the braver, more nosy ones went out to investigate.

Word has it from those at the castle that a large grove in the royal forest is gone. Just gone. All that's left was turned earth, and some odd looking grubs and beetles where the trees had been. Of the king, his underlings and the boy, there was no sign. 

Some say that the boy killed them all with his magic and fled into the forest. Others say the king killed the boy and felled the trees, churned the earth, buried everything, the boy and all his useless minions and went on a trip. 

Yet there were also a selected few that believed that the trees and the Mother of Life had something to do with it and each was punished for their wrong doing - the boy included. It is said that the trees absorbed the boy and now his spirit is as one with the forest until his crimes are paid. What will become of the boy afterwards, no one really knows - but that's another story.

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Phew...well, I hope you all enjoyed this narrative and hopefully the ending is acceptable and not too cliche for your liking. This ending is quite open to interpretation and for all I know everyone turned into bugs and beetles, but hey. You can be the judge of that.

Thanks for your support!
- eenh

Back from hiatus

eenh is back in action!!

Apologies for the long dry spell. Will try to keep up more of a presence in future.

I'll just provide a brief update to what I've been doing since my last post:
I am now an Avon lady and a Herbalife distributor. I attended the 2012 Emerging Writers' Festival and after that, the Continuum 8: Craftonomicon. In my search for a work I also attended a 3 week training program with SETsolutions and got a Cert. III in Business Administration, then trained for another 4 weeks with Aegis to get 4 more Certificates and now I've just finished call centre work experience with them. Phew!

Well, that's where I am right now - much poorer and out of pocket too. :P

At some point, I'll put up posts about the various things I'd been fortunate enough to attend and other interesting pieces of jewellery and writing I've come up with so far.

I've also had some requests regarding a continuation of the 'dream story' I've posted here previously. I actually do have a bit of an ending to it, which serves to end the 'arc', in a sense. I will put that up too...when I do. xD

That's all I have for now. Keep me in your sights!!
Thanks for reading~
- eenh