The week leading up to ChocOlympics was hectic. Let’s see…

Having the Easter egg hunt on all week means getting up early to hide the eggs. I went in to help on Monday morning. Monday is really my “societies day”. I have a lecture from 10 to 11, and yet, this Monday I went to uni at 8 to help with random tasks like cutting out coupons and holding stuff while the others put up posters, then headed off to a lecture at 10 only to leave it half an hour early for the “conga line”. Even though it’s about MATLAB, the lecture wasn’t really that bad, and then the whole conga line thing didn’t even work out so well.

Here we were, standing around not knowing what to do.

Yay for Avari having yellow nails though. It’s ChocSoc-yellow!

Well, conga line or not, we still set up a stall outside Manning for people to sign up for the Easter egg hunt. After staying at the stall for about an hour, I went to LingSoc’s meeting. There I go again at the whole “piling on the societies” thing. xD That is, I went to LingSoc’s meeting in a ChocSoc t-shirt selling EWB’s trivia night tickets. xD Of course, I was supposed to go help EWB with an actual ticket stall after that, except that didn’t work out either. I went back to ChocSoc after the EWB meeting, so at the end of the day I was with ChocSoc again.

Tuesday being the day where I have the most classes, I didn’t do much with ChocSoc. I finished my labwork early again. (Yay for working with someone who’s done the subject before. xD) I actually went out for dinner at Ashfield. Now, my friend suggested going to Ashfield by train, which made sense considering that the restaurant where we planned to have dinner is near the station, but obviously riding to Ashfield seemed like a better idea to me. It seems like a challenge, but it’s only about 6 km away from uni so it’s not difficult. Conveniently, there was a “bus lane 3 – 7 pm” sign on the westbound side of Parramatta Road. Not so conveniently, there was actually a bus in front of me right after I went out of the uni, and there were a lot of bus stops close together at that area. The bus stopped so often that I could keep up with it. (How slow was that bus? On this trip I probably had an average speed of around 18 km/h.) In fact, there were a few times when it was actually getting in my way, but I can’t overtake it because the cars in the next lane are moving at around 60 km/h. Soon enough, the bus went away, and I had the bus lane all to myself. When I got there, I realised that going by train wouldn’t really have saved me any time, because the time it takes to go to the station and then to wait for the train add up. Of course, it was the least convoluted way anyway, since the alternatives would be either to take the bike on the train at peak hour, or to leave it at the uni, go to Ashfield by train, and then going back to the uni to pick it up.

Well, maybe riding to Ashfield on Tuesday wasn’t such a good idea. I was really tired on Wednesday. The 9 – 3 non-stop classes weren’t so fun. I had to eat my lunch during a lecture. I ended up going to visit ChocSoc’s stall after the classes anyway.

Of course, today is where all the fun is, because it’s ChocOlympics! I was lucky that the physics lecture in the morning was cancelled, so I could sleep in, and the only classes that I had were the COMP2129 lab and the physics tute. So many awkward things happened in the lab that it was funny in a way. xD Out of all the times, Firefox just had to crash when the tutor came to mark my homework. Worse still, it crashed so badly that I had to log off and log back on before I could reopen it. The other awkward thing was that the program I wrote somehow worked on mono but not on the computer in the lab, and it took a long time to find out what was wrong. (After knowing what was wrong, maybe the question should be why it worked on mono. xD) Actually, as if that wasn’t enough awkwardness for a day, right at the end, after I’ve logged off, it turns out that my homework hasn’t been marked yet. I ended up being late for my physics tute, and then I couldn’t find the group that I worked with last week and got stuck with a group of people who don’t actually want to do anything. (They might as well not turn up at all.)

What a morning… and then it’s time to go meet the other ChocSoc execs to set up ChocOlympics. While waiting for everyone to arrive, I waved at someone who actually thought I was Donna! xD That wasn’t even awkward. It was just silly. With the way I dress, I don’t know how I can ever be mistaken for anyone else. I even had my bike with me. I was the one with the box of cakes tied to the carry rack on the bike last week. (Actually, that’s funny. Donna was the one who arrived with the leftover cakes. I was the one who went away with the second-time-leftover cakes.) Donna doesn’t even ride to uni! (Come to think of it, Donna’s the one who “should” ride to uni, but that’s a different story. xD)

We took our time to get started with the ChocOlympics. Once again, the conga line attempt didn’t work, but we did have people gathered at the lawns for the games.

Look how hard-working Avari is. Our first game was the Maltesers relay, and she was busy setting it up.

The other execs were busy too. Many people participated in the Easter egg hunt, and they were there to claim their eggs.

When we finally got started, the games were exciting.

Don’t drop the Maltesers! (Someone (not in this picture) actually picked up Maltesers from the grass. Eww… To unhygienic practices, ChocSoc says no! xD)

I didn’t get any action shots of the Wagon Wheels discus, but here’s everyone showing off their discuses. This game was actually quite difficult. Most people either throw it too far or not far enough. Quite a few people had their wheel bounce out of the marked area.

Taking photos of the Peppero sword fight wasn’t easy either, and the Peppero sticks broke really easily.

The marshmallow eating competition was cool. I got an action shot of someone trying to catch a marshmallow!

Everyone gathered around for the chocolate eating competition, but it wasn’t as exciting as I expected it to be.

Look at this contestant with his cheeks puffed up with chocolate!

Here’s our winner with his prize.

At the end, we were taking turns hitting the piñata. I broke off the part that hangs it to the string, so that was the end.

Zinah caught the smashed piñata at the end. Aww… look at her.

ChocOlympics was tiring. Look at Zinah. She was so tired she slept on the grass!

ChocOlympics is over, so we don’t need the banner any more. There was talk about destroying it, and Jen did some posing of destroying it, but it was only posing.

The others who were still around were helping Donna carry the remaining stuff to her house, so I followed with that banner… tied to my carry rack. xD I know, way to be dangerous, but it worked out fine. I actually left the campus a lot later than the rest of the group, but being on the bike I caught up with the group quickly.

After that, I actually rode to the bike shop, because I think there’s actually something wrong with my bike. It still moves normally, but I think it’s rattling a lot. The person at the workshop said that my bike was “in desperate need for a service”. Oops. Well, luckily I got it there without anything actually going wrong then. I’m actually so tired that for once I don’t really mind going home by train. It’s good that it’s Good Friday tomorrow.

Actually, even though it means that there’ll be 10 weeks of class with no holidays in between, I’m glad to have the “mid-semester” break now. After going out so much in the past three weeks or so, I definitely need the break.

What happened to the whole “Lemon Tree” thing? (Yes, that’s right, Leighann. It doesn’t really make a good theme song for me any more. xD) I used to be the one who’s always at home and never go anywhere, and now I’m so busy that I only get to post here on Sunday evening.

Let’s see… ChocSoc’s March birthday party was a good start to the week. Look at all the birthday girls and boys! Those cakes were yummy. We had a lot left over too. That’s probably because most people already ordered something before the cakes came out. Yes, this is ChocSoc. Everyone spends their money on chocolate, so it really wasn’t such a good idea to try to sell EWB trivia night tickets at this party. I couldn’t sell any.

We had so much cake left that we decided to give the cake to the Secular Humanist Society, which had their event right after our party. (Good timing!) It looked as if ChocSoc was crashing the event, but what kind of party crashers bring you cake? xD I tried to sell tickets there too. It was actually a funny image. I was wearing my ChocSoc t-shirt and trying to sell EWB’s trivia night tickets to people at the Secular Humanist Society event. (Way to pile on societies. xD) Too bad that I couldn’t sell any tickets there either. Somehow, I actually stuck around for long enough to have followed some of the people in the society to dinner. So few people stayed that it pretty much became an exec meeting. I guess this just continued from the “invading” thing. xD

On Tuesday, I went on a twilight ride after uni. My last class finished at around 15:30, so that gave me enough time to go home and put away all the extra stuff that I was carrying.

On the way, we passed a tree house. I tried swinging on the rope hanging off it. Some of the others said that they lacked upper arm strength so they didn’t try. I probably had enough upper arm strength, but I still don’t have the full strength in my wrist after that fall in January. At this rate, I wonder if I’ll have the strength back by the end of this year.

The destination was Callan Park, and there are all these “Save Callan Park” signs up. I wonder how long the park will be around for.

I still rode to and from uni (10 km each way), and then I rode to the meetup place from home, so that’s another 5 km. The whole trip was about 11 km, so that’s 36 km in a day for me. I think that’s about as much as I’ve done in a day so far. xD Surprisingly, I wasn’t even that tired at the end of the day, and I still rode to uni as usual on the next day.

Nothing much really happened on Wednesday except for that I changed my timetable at the last minute so that I finish at 3 instead of 5.

Thursday was a relatively short day, but my trip to the Asylum Seekers Centre for CFR in the afternoon wasn’t such a good one. A car came close enough to nudge at my bike handle. I could feel the car coming up next to me, and it was really scary. Luckily, I didn’t fall off my bike, but I still panicked and screamed so loudly that all the pedestrians on the street were staring at me. The car just kept going after that, and I stopped for a while to calm down.

Friday was the day to work on the ChocSoc temporary banner. As we quickly found out, my home isn’t the best place for working on anything, because everyone gets distracted here. The painting process itself took about 15 minutes, but we played around for hours before that without actually getting anything done. Well, while it’s not the best place for working, it’s definitely a good place for partying. It was funny how Mei suggested having a party here, and it’ll be happening. xD

Here’s Avari hiding behind cushions. See what I mean when I say that we can’t get anything done here? xD

What a busy week… I think I’m in for another busy week this week too. xD

So, I’ve actually decided to go to World Naked Bike Ride. Didn’t quite have the courage to take my clothes off, but it was still fun.

We actually went to the USyd campus to paint ourselves first. What a surprise… five days a week there for classes, and then I end up going there on Saturday as well. The people who did want to take their clothes off had their underpants on when painting, so it’s technically legal, and yet the security guards came to hassle them anyway. They asked if anyone there is a student at USyd, and they hassled the girl who did admit to be one. Luckily, I didn’t say anything. (Actually, I did, but they didn’t hear me. xD) Some security guards we have there. We ended up going to Victoria Park for more painting.

Look at me painted with rainbow stripes! Being so colourful already, I might as well have rainbow stripes as well.

As with Critical Mass, at events like this we like to make a lot of noise. I decided to have a go at playing music from my iPod and portable speakers. Tying the iPod and speakers onto the bike proved to be quite tricky, but with the balloon ribbons we managed to get that done. The songs that I played included “Laissez-nous respirer” (“Let us breathe”) and “Kid’s [sic] of the Universe”, which are both somewhat appropriate.

We got lots of cheers going through Newtown. Even the motorists who honked their horn at us didn’t seem to be too angry (except for one, I think).

At the end, when we reached Sydney Park, a photographer was taking group photos for us. We had the typical “camera overload” situation. Here’s the group photo from my camera:

What a great day! I’m so glad I went. This is a great end to the week. I’ve actually been out a lot this week already, but this had to be the best!

I tried to take a video, but it didn’t come out right. Half the time it was pointing at the sky. I know, I need to learn how to use that video camera properly. Sorry to those who expected to see the video. Once again, I’ve got everyone’s hopes up only to let them down. Then again… as if anyone there will actually see this?

Wow, I’ve been out so much during the past few days that I haven’t been on IRC for four days!

This week being ChocSoc’s first O-week, I’ve been busy. Let’s see…

This is ChocSoc’s stall on Tuesday, before actual O-week started. Look how clean and dry it was. It didn’t stay this dry all week…

Donna and I were waiting for the library to open on the first day, and then I somehow followed the EWB people away. (Sorry, Donna.) xD I even helped put up the EWB banner.

I forgot why, but JieLei and Lucy seemed to be very happy.

Now, back to helping ChocSoc. Donna and I went to buy balloons. Helium balloons are fun!

Actually, delivering them to the stall was fun too. Well, I know that riding back to the stall with the balloons tied to the handlebars on my bike wasn’t the most sensible way to deliver them, but it was definitely a lot faster than walking back. This also makes random people (such as those who were doing the roadwork on Glebe Point Road) stare and cheer, but I don’t care. (Never mind that this is dangerous.)

It’s been raining on and off all week. It actually rained a little in the morning so that I had to decide whether to ride my bike or not (I obviously did). The weather did clear up for a while, but the rain soon returned. With all the people in the ChocSoc stall, we decided to do an “umbrella service” for people who come past the stall. This definitely gets their attention.

Later in the day, when the rain stopped and the stall was less busy, Zinah decided to sign up herself. Here’s the dramatic moment when she paid her membership fee.

ChocSoc was also in charge of selling cakes at Swing Play in the evening. The cakes were free to ChocSoc members though. They were yummy.

The stall was outside, but there were still a lot of people who went there. I took one and went inside, and I had someone ask me where I got the cake first thing after I sat down. More people signed up.
 

Here’s a random action shot of Peng’s magic show at Swing Play.

Later on in the evening, there was a circus performance outside. Look at those rings of fire!

After selling all the cakes, Richard and David decided to have a tray of Farah instead.

All that, and it was just the first day. ChocSoc apparently had more than 300 members in that one day. Yay!

The Red Cross bear came to visit ChocSoc on the second day.

However, the weather wasn’t so good later on in the day. It was very awkward when everyone had to hide from the rain while also keeping everything dry. The stalls didn’t really offer that much protection from the rain. It was also important to get rid of the water that accumulates on the top of the stall. The worst thing was that we had to postpone ChocOlympics.

Later on in the day, the rain stopped, and I saw the bear hugging a penguin (which I think was a SPOC, since I saw another SPOC dressed as a penguin later in the day).

The good weather didn’t last though. The rain became really heavy, and it was really muddy behind the ChocSoc stall. The Quad actually looked quite pretty in the rain though.

Well, despite all that rain, ChocSoc got another 100 members or so on the second day.

Friday’s event didn’t go so well either. Quite a lot of people turned up, but most of them left before we could sort everything out, so we didn’t even show the movie. We got more members though. In fact, we were so popular that we still had more people coming at 4 o’clock when we were supposed to pack up. We ended up arriving “fashionably late” for the wrap party an hour after it started.

Being the last Friday of the month, there was of course Critical Mass. I left the wrap party early to go, and even then, I was worried that I would be late when I was going through the heavy traffic. I got there on time at the end though. Even though originally I was quite looking forward to going to Balmoral Beach as someone suggested to the list, I’m glad that we ended up going to St. Peters instead. The graffiti at May Lane was interesting.

Look at Helen and her doll dressed up for a party!

Being bad with directions, I lost track of where I was after just a few turns. I only knew that we ended up at St. Peters, and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find my way back to San Churro for the late-night party. Tim actually drew me a map of how to get there. Now, that was a map that I really shouldn’t need, because it’s pretty much one straight road all the way. xD

The way back was much more straight forward than the way there. I went through Newtown, where the traffic was so bad that I could beat it. xD There was a gap between the parked cars in the left lane and the traffic jam in the middle lane, and it was just wide enough for me. Poor car drivers. Then again, it serves them right for driving. xD The party at San Churro started early, so I ended up being late, but I’m still glad I went to Critical Mass. This month, there’s no dizzying “Mass with Mousy” video because my video camera ran out of batteries. This is the first time I got to use my membership card at San Churro. Yay!

And that’s a week. Yay for ChocSoc now having more than 500 members. I also added an extra subject for this semester. Even though summer units don’t count towards the year’s limit, the online system counts them towards that limit anyway, and so I needed to get the extra subject manually added. That was annoying. What’s more, now the timetabling page won’t give me a timetable that I want, not even with the “customise your timetable” thing. I’ll just go to the classes I want from the information on the central timetable though. I’ve made myself a much better one. xD