Echo in my brain

Ending of January with a BANG!

2012-01-31T23:17:00.001+08:00

Amazing.

Two series of awestruck and grand firework showcase lit by the neighbour. The view from my window looked gorgeous. All those coloured sparks shoot up to then dissolve into an array of sprinkled glitters across the whole sky. Even the stars and the moon came out to witness such lighted flowers dance across the black sky like fireflies!

Okay, my neighbour is officially crazy. Or he has way too much money. He just lit up another two more majestic fireworks!

Not that I am complaining.

Seeing the fireworks got me thinking about the book I finished off this morning. Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes. How was it for the students in Sterling High when Peter walked in and started shooting everyone. Did the bullet that rocketed off the shotgun sounded exactly like the fireworks? Or did it sound like the soft pop of a champagne bottle? Human beings are fragile. And fickle minded. Complicated to the very least. To live the life of Peter must be a really frustrating one. To live the life of Josie must be a cumbersome one. How can you put up with everything so fake and attempt to live it through day by day. Insanity surely will flock down at one point like the Grim Reaper right?

And why do I sound so pensive today?

Anyway, my point is. Sydney's fireworks for 2012 cost about 6 million. So you know they did put up a pretty good show.

And I know that one day, I'll be there to see it right before my eyes.

One day.

Sunnyside Ups - January

2012-01-31T15:32:00.003+08:00

Originally I was going to call this '5 Sunnyside Ups of the Month'. Then I thought, why limit myself to just 5 things that brightened up the month? Why 5? That's when I knew what they meant by to count your blessings, not your problems. Never limit yourself to happiness. Drink it all in and remember them while you can. I shall then abide by this principle and post up as many sunnyside ups as I want to remind me that even though the month has been bumpy, there were good things that came out of it too. Do not cast aside and belittle every moments, no matter how small they are.

So here's my January sunnyside ups!

Don't worry, some of them doesn't make any absolute sense. It's meant to be just like that. Happiness frozen in a picture just to remind us and trigger the faint yet fond memory with just a glimpse.

Throw some glitter, make it rain!

So how was your first month of the year?

30 Day Photo Challenge - Part 2

2012-01-31T00:55:00.005+08:00

Day 6 - To commemorate the festive Chinese New Year, many red lanterns hang proudly in the porch, beckoning the warm and happy mood of a brand new year! My Dad's random knickknacks purchase moments. He even bought us girls shirts for the new year b/c I said I wasn't done w/ my clothes spree yet! Full of unpredictable quirks, he is!

Day 7 - A comparison of an apple family. Papa apple, Mama apple and the Baby apple! :D The toddler apple is the focus here b/c it's too tiny and cute! Originally I wanted to capture the labor of the passion fruit tree my Dad planted which took two years to grow and then produce yummylicious fruits for us! Unfortunately, the fruit season is starting to end and the fruits went back to sleep. :(

Day 8 - This is my ultimate shame nook in my bedroom. This is where I chuck all the worn clothes in vain hopes that I will wear them at least for another time before I send them off to the laundry. Which often they completely slip off my mind and accumulate to the size of Mount. Fuji. The thing is, I have this mindset that the more you wash your clothes frequently, the faster it goes outta shape. Which is true right! Legit! :P

Day 9 - Someone. I see my parents as one. A lot of people seem to have this perception that I have a very cool set of parents. Which is true, they are awesome! They give us the most freedom ever but never too much. They will go far and beyond to move the Earth for us. They are the ones I know that will never stop caring and fussing and loving us til the end of the universe. That, my friends, is unconditional love. I love my parents. And I'm not afraid to say it out loud. ;'D

Day 10 - Now this is a very funny story. I've grown up with illustrated books and this set of Little Books is the one series I can strongly recall reading and reading over and over again when I was young. Flipping through it this morning brought me back to my childhood and surprisingly enough, I knew what the next page would offer, the images and the words. Back to the story, can you see the grading and the animal names on the books? My sister and I, one afternoon, gathered all of our soft toys, big and small, and played teacher and students! The soft toys were our students and the books were their homework and we graded them using the simple system of A, B, C and percentage. Ahh, those were the days. I find myself smiling an ear-splitting grin! Why were we so cute back then! #Conceited

Day 11 starts! Watch out for this continuation in 5 days! (;

Peekaboo Peacock

2012-01-30T17:43:00.002+08:00

Hello all, today I would love to let my fingers pour all over the keyboard, letting the words roll off loquaciously. The neighbour two doors away is having a very festive lion dance performance in their porch and there goes the firecrackers, popping loudly as equivalent to the sound of a champagne bottle's cork being opened. My whole house now reek of the aftermath odor of the firecrackers. Perfect. All is well. (Y)

A reflection to an article. I'm part introvert and extrovert. Don't judge me off too fast. I like some quiet time to myself, but I do enjoy lively moments too. Being reserved really is one of the traits of the middle child. But it is with certain people that I tend to crawl deeper into or outta my shell. It's just hard to explain, but the feeling just comes naturally. When it feels right, my introversion and extroversion take turn and run its course. So, don't jump into conclusions too fast. I'm complicated. But who isn't? My point is, from the start and my beliefs, I feel that being an introvert is never a fatal disease. It really isn't. Great things come within yourself when you know how to maximize you yourself for who you are. (;

After what it seems like centuries, I stepped into college today! Here's the thing about me, if you know me very well enough, college is my life. I have this undying and unconditional love towards college. Many a times, I like to sit back and marvel on just how fortunate I am being able to be where I am at now. Almost three years into my tertiary chapter, I still love that liberated and bubbly feeling of bumping into everyone at once, seconds after seconds, and we shower each other with How are yous and hugs. Meeting new people and just randomly striking up a conversation? That's the best feeling ever. And of course, this goes w/o saying, but my course is the bomb! Whoever said Mass Comm is for idiots are like pots calling the kettle black. I can launched into a full debate about Mass Comm, but this isn't the topic for today teehee.

Back on track.

I supposed being somewhat people oriented has made the whole college experience even better. So the big question now is, will I be able to start all over again? In a different place and culture? Where I will be the new kid on the block and I will practically have to watch my every step as if am treading on eggs. To be alert 24/7/365 so I won't fall short to avoid descending into a downward spiral.

Why, I can do the job now can I? It should be a piece of cake. My life motto practically is: Dot the i's and cross the t's. That's how I churned out to be all along, being soberly aware of every single decision and to make sure nothing ever falls short. In retrospect, maybe being the new kid wouldn't be a problem right? To further stress a point, am a Communications student. That surely seals the deal right?

Most people I've met would go abroad and study in a heartbeat. Even it's for a duration of a year or 6 months, it's a life changing experience and when you have the opportunity, grab it. I'm left with about a few months to decide. And I'm right smacked in the middle of a crossroad. The path of continuation on my left; A threshold of new beginnings on my right. I feel like Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken - in deciding which road should I pick in the yellow woods.

I need to think things through real anally.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Part 1

2012-01-27T17:47:00.000+08:00

My challenge flagged off on the 21st Jan and don't mind the conceited pictures b/c they're part of the challenge! First and foremost, lemme just clarify that no editing whatsoever will be implemented to all the pictures for this challenge! Avoiding this tempting vice of editing just for this challenge! Day 1 to Day 5 in this post and more to come! (;

Day 1 - Off to KL for some last minute shopping. Also enlarged my circle of beau's friends by meeting them in Mid V. Hello, you all! We had Tony Roma's for our late lunch and it was yums! My two feet suffered tho, from too much walking. It was our 18th too!

Day 2 - Second time transforming this floral dress into a top! :D Was out in this for grocery shopping for Reunion Dinner that night. This was also the day I got the autobiography and made ddeokbokki myself! Happy happy productive day!

Day 3 - First day of Chinese New Year! Gong Hei Fatt Choi! ;D Water Dragon brought in dark clouds and this was taken after visiting the second temple of the day in the vicinity of KL. Walk along Jalan Ampang and you'll see the Twin Towers beaming down upon you. (:

Day 4 - After an arduous day trip to Malacca, I totally forgot about the challenge! Managed to fish this lil green hero outta my sister's car and snap it up with the CNY mode! It's a baby crocodile but let's just imagine it's a green dragon for the new year! (;

Day 5 - Another grocery shopping trip for guests coming over for dinner! The beau accompanied me for this grocery shopping as he ever so kindly held on to the heavy grocery basket and running around asking for tomatoes, spring onions, ham... He brought over the new Nikes he bought for us too! This one is the Sweet Classic edition! Yipee!

Okay that's all for now! Stay tune for more! (;

The Boyfriend Tag - Part 1

2012-01-26T00:29:00.002+08:00

Hello all! I know normally they do the Boyfriend Tag in video forms but I think my beau and I are rather camera shy and it would take long to edit everything and all. So this tag will be in a blog post! Have fun reading! ;)

My comments would be the ones in bold!

.

QUESTIONS:

1. She's sitting in front of the tv what is on the screen?
She seldom watches tv, but if she does, it'll be some random show. - Passable

2. You're out to eat what kind of dressing does she get on her salad?
She doesn't order salad. - Bingo!

3. What's one food she doesnt like?
MINT! - Cowabunga bingo!

4. You go out to eat and have a drink what does she order?
Sprite, 7up - Most of the time, yes!

5. What size shoe does she wear?
US9, UK8, EUR 40.5,26cm - !@$#^! SPOT ON!

6. If she was collecting anything what would it be?
A series of books? - Teehee, you got me there!

7. What is her favorite type of sandwich?
Cheese & ham! - Correct!

8. What would this person eat everyday if she could?
KIMCHI! - DUH!

9. What is her favorite cereal?
She doesn't eat cereal, unless mum or dad force to. - Passable, b/c I eat cereal only whenever there is in the pantry heh!

10. What's her favorite music?
KOREAN lah! - Uh huh!

11. What's her favorite sports team?
Sports? What sports? - .... HAHAHAHA. Totally right!

12. What's her eye color?
Black! Common but she still look the prettiest to me! - Passable only b/c you didn't know most people have dark brown and not black. (:

13. Who's her best friend?
Me? She doesn't have one in specific because she has a few. - I don't have a specific one, I have a few! :D

14. What is something you do that she wishes you wouldn't?
Go on a diet, starve, skip a meal. - Damn right you are!

15. What's her heritage/where is she from?
A mixture of Baba Nyonya, Dad from Penang, Mum from Malacca. - You should know this! (:

16. You bake her a cake for her birthday what kind of cake is it?
Chocolate cheese cake! She loves choc and cheese. - Passable. I wouldn't mind chocolate! But am not a big fan of cheese cake. I mean I love the idea of cheese but not when it revolves with cake!

17. Did she play any sports?
Cheerleading! Co-captain kay don't play play! - Woohoo!

18. What could she spend hours doing?
Sims, allkpop.com, staring at me! :P - Teehee!

19. What is one unique talent she has?
Dance! - Why thank you, mister!

20. Where did we meet?
In college level 3 in front of discussion room. - Bingo!

21. Where was our first date?
PD! 21st July 2011 - (;

22. Did you know I was the one?
I dare not clarify that but I have a feeling and imagined that you're my other half. - :"D

23. What was your first impression?
Tall, friendly, happy go lucky! Love to look at you. :) - Don't lahh I shy! :P

24. When did you meet the family?
I'm sorry I forgot. :( - ):

25. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
Both of us, we just need to compromise and give and take. - :D Yes, we both do don't we!

<3 YOU! Yes you! :)

.

What do you think!

I think he did fairly well! He looked at the big picture instead of just answering the questions as it is. For example, Q2. Instead of trying to fish an answer out, he got the right answer. I do not in fact eat salad, at least when there isn't any choice left. Kudos Adrian, you did well!

Note, those comments after his answers were purely written by him! Betcha you didn't know how he's like with me eh! Don't kill me Adrian! :P I think we'll do another Boyfriend Tag pretty soon b/c it's really fun! Hence, I tag anyone who wants to do this! :D

We went grocery shopping @ Empire, Underworld: Awakening - 5.5/10 - and then headed back to my house for some chilling and scrumptious dinner with the family! I hope you didn't fall asleep otw home, love.

I've got my 30 Day Photo Challenge shots to post up soon, but in the meantime, ciao bella!

PS. I'm sorry I forgot too. Q 24, HAHAHHA! :P

Everyone knows the feeling, it's a cloud nine thing

2012-01-24T00:10:00.000+08:00

It’s tulips and it’s daisies
Your favorite flowers lately
You think that I ain’t listening, but you know I do
With your two lips on me baby
My head starts getting dazey
Don’t give me a flower
What I want is you

It happened on the day you put your hand in mine
You went up to my head just like a glass of wine
Girl, you spark my attention like a firefly
And make me happy to be alive

You move into a room like
Summer breeze at noon time
Baby, out of nine, I’d give you ten
Your love is like an ocean
Surf and spray in motion
Baby, I’m a diver and I love to swim

It’d take a thousand colors just to paint your eyes
Like saving grace, they raise me up to paradise
This ain’t opinion, it’s consensus from my heart and mind
You make me happy to be alive

Jimmy Needham - Firefly

The Undiscovered Writer - My Dad

2012-01-21T00:45:00.001+08:00

My dad is a very quirky kinda guy. Maybe that's where I got my genes from. He likes to do extraordinary things and wouldn't mind even though some of them might involve raised eyebrows from people. He believes in doing something not for impressing others but just for the good of it. To him, it's the thoughts and the sincere actions that are important. As I was saying, he has gone a lil too happy on buying a lot of Chinese New Year stuff - lanterns, dim sum steamer basket, red fruit bowls etc - and also not forgetting, Chinese New Year cards! He loves cards. Like really adore. He likes to jot down a random message and pop it into neighbours' post boxes. If you see any parcel or package outside your house, you'll know who it is from! And in many ways, you start to see this thoughtful trait rubbing off his friends and next thing you know, all of his friends are doing the same! Which meant lots of goodies for us! Heh heh! But the story is not this. He was writing on a Chinese New Year card to be delivered to another Uncle in the area and he was telling us about the phrase he wrote on it.

Firm friends are formed through mutual adversities. Iron is strongly united by the fiercest flames.

I was like whoa, this is deep! And I just casually asked him, Did you create this yourself?

I'm actually a philosopher, he replied.

Disbelief. I know right. Who knew my dad has a way with words! I'm so not on par with my dad hahahaha.

I asked him whether I could use the words and whether he could jot it down for me as a reminder b/c I wanted to frame these meaningful words in my mind.

Oh, that one you have to pay one! He laughed and he said.

And strangely, I think he meant it.

But the bottom line is my dad rocks socks!

The Belated Post

2012-01-19T22:09:00.002+08:00

It's 18 days after my birthday and how could I have not jotted down the tales of my special day! I owe a really belated birthday post so here it is! (:

So I followed the Malaysian timing of the New Year despite Japan being 2012 an hour earlier, b/c I Malaysian mahh! Osaka did not have fireworks so spending New Year in a foreign city made it a very different and interesting one. My plan as the clock strikes 12am was to Onzen. The reason being is b/c who celebrates their birthday and the New Year Onzen-ing? Exactly.

All in all, I loved my 2012 birthday b/c I thought the whole day itself was a fantastic present. We started off with breakfast and then took the train to Himeiji and then to Kobe and to walk around the Universal Studio area at night and then back home.

The day begin as such,

Breakfast complimentary by the hotel. You can choose a Japanese breakfast or a Western one. I have been sticking to Western for a few days when I realized the Japanese one, albeit it being good, it doesn't keep your tummy full for a long time. ):

We then took the train and it's usually in the train that we tend to doze off b/c it's the only time we're not walking around a lot. I was fishing and dozing but managed to spot a really gorgeous and gargantuan bridge!

Reached Himeiji! So, in different places in Japan, they have their own mascot. And the Himeiji's mascot is the cute lil white puffy thing at the top. And also the different designs of manholes you can find on the sidewalk!

I saw this really extraordinary looking leave and I just couldn't resist to take a picture even though I was left behind heh! Spotted some really, how do I put this, unique statues posing by the sidewalk too.

There was a circus going on with a huge Coca-Cola tent in the vicinity. We popped by to take a look but did not went in as it wasn't the agenda of the day and frankly, the tickets were pretty pricey. /: But the cotton candy machine was cute! Looks like a lil red rocket!

We are here! Himeiji Castle! This castle is my favourite attraction of the whole trip! I guess it has a lot to do with the history and the story of the whole castle. On New Year's Day, you can enter the castle for free. But in my opinion, whether it's free or not, I would definitely go in for a visit. Recommended!

This is actually a well and wait for the story behind it. Basically someone wanted to kill the Lord and Okiku found out about it. She told the Lord and when the villain heard about it, he falsely accused Okiku for losing one of the family's valuable dish. Her body was then thrown into this well and every night you could hear a voice counting and finding for the missing dish. Later the Lord found out about the truth and they took Okiku's body out and she was recognized with a monument in the castle's shrine. Since then Okiku no longer haunts the well and they call this well, Okiku's Well.

We climbed to the peak and the building with the majestic backdrop of the entire Himeiji Castle is where you will queue up to overlook the entire landscape. We wanted to have the Eagle's view of the place but there were just too many people and the lady told us we have to wait for an hour, so we reluctantly parted. We could actually use this lil blue binoculars here but it's 100 yen for a minute only so we left the area to explore more.

These are crests of Lords who have lived in the castle and you can find the crests implemented to several parts of the architecture in signifying the Lord's achievement and development of the castle respectively. Teehee, of course I like the butterfly one. :D

The bokeh picture above would definitely look nicer with sakuras blooming but maybe next time hee. And below of the bokeh is a man dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes just hanging around the place quietly. He was really nice to us. (:

Ngam ngam her height heehee!

We then took a long walk along the corridor in Princess Sen's chambers. I found her story absolutely tragic and the place where she stayed seemed to be lonely and never ending. But it was here in the chamber in Himeiji Castle that were her happiest times of her life. Our hearts go out to her!

This was all in Kobe where we stopped by the harbour port to feel the evening air! Managed to admire the Ferris Wheel from the 18th floor! Walked around the place, pondered on whether to have Kobe beef as the last fine dinner in Japan and for my birthday dinner but then nah, it was affordable but still... pricey. Sister and cousin bought two fukubukuro/ lucky bags each! Contrary to popular belief, the goodies in the bag were not bad! :D

We went to another city for dinner around the European town - which the name has slipped off my mind - and this was really yummy! Chewy, fresh and salty!

We visited our very last stop at the Universal Studio. We did not go in but we just merely cruise along the wonderland. About 10.30pm, we headed back to Namba!

Now, I've always had this belief that during my birthdays, there's bound to be some bad luck. And, not to my surprise, something happened. So we were not familiar with the trains the area we were in. My cousin walked into a train hoping she could ask for a quick direction. Deep in my guts, I knew the inevitable was just about to be evitable. The train closed and went off with my cousin in it.

It was just my sister and I, with no phones, no map, no full knowledge of Japanese. We were stranded. In the cold. The good thing was, we knew how to go back and which train to take. But we didn't know to stay put and wait for my cousin to come right back to the station or to just go ahead. We were handicapped. We couldn't communicate the plans b/c we all three didn't have any phones with us!

But to be honest, when you're on trips, these kinda things just tend to happen. It's like it wouldn't be a trip if incidents like these doesn't crop up. We were helpless and stranded but the whole situation was pretty funny I have to say! We got home safely and all ended well!

So that's the story of the day I turned 20!

It was definitely one of a kind and it's something that will be imprinted in my mind for centuries! :D

Jump In With Your Two Feet

2012-01-19T00:51:00.002+08:00

Safety was the option she almost always chose. Safe investments, safe cars, safe travel.

"But you - you were so focused, Maura. You knew exactly what you wanted to be."

She thought about the Christmas party where she'd so responsibly limited herself to a single flute of champagne while everyone else grew raucous.

Tess Gerritsen, Ice Cold

Those words hit me hard. In many ways, I feel like the woman Maura Isles always were. Boring, predictable, safe. That made me feel so... robot like. Like I don't have any life at all. I mean I don't say am just a goody two-shoes all the time, just most of the time. And sometimes I irk myself. Always playing by the rules, going the safe path, always doing the right thing. Never giving in to the chance of letting loose or just sitting back and letting the wind blow through my hair. I mean, I have nothing against being focused and ambitious, never once had a problem with it. It's just that I feel I often take things too seriously as if the world is ending tomorrow. I just have this thing against being boring, and in retrospect, I feel pretty lifeless. I dunno where am trying to go here, leading myself into this public predicament. Am I trying to hard? Where exactly is the culprit?

How to cure ah? Can someone tell me ah?

Well some would say, "Just don't be too serious lahh!"

I know that but exactly how to?

The beau said to unleash the inner child innocence. Hahaha, cute!

Anyone going through the same thing or have some thoughts? Save a damsel in distress here why don't you? Sighhhh. );

Maybe sometimes you have to jump in and trust the universe. Just have a lil more fun in everything you do and still reach that destination. Let go of that chignon and go absolute delirious and bonkers.

But bloody hell how?

Guess It's Just A Silly Song About You & Your Brown Eyes

2012-01-17T20:00:00.000+08:00

The last 30 Day Challenge was for Harry Potter in conjunction for their last installment - to get myself into the hype for Deathly Hallows! - so here we go, another 30 Day Challenge!

Tadaaaaaaaaaaaa!

I Get Butterflies In My Stomach

2012-01-16T16:09:00.001+08:00

Just to see that smile on your pretty face

I'll do everything I have to,

Won't let anything in my wayyeah

I'll admit itI get butterflies in my stomach

when I'm with you

cause you know we're fresh in love

Underneath Your Love is where I wanna be

Oh I never ever felt this good and I can't get enough

Oh what'd you do to me I can't fall asleep

You put a spell on me and now I'm Underneath Your Love

The feeling is simple like the words I sing

Everybody knows the feeling, it's a cloud nine thing

24 hours in a day is not enough for you and me

For you and me

Underneath Your Love is where I wanna be

Oh I never ever felt this good and I can't get enough

Oh what'd you do to me I can't fall asleep

You put a spell on me and now I'm Underneath Your Love

I don't wanna feel anything else but this

I don't wanna be anywhere else but here

Underneath Your Love is where I wanna be

Oh I never ever felt this good and I can't get enough

Oh what'd you do to me I can't fall asleep

You put a spell on me and now I'm Underneath Your Love

It's so funny how I haven't even done a full post on Japan. But to my defense! I tried editing my travelog but something came up.

So yeah.

He Only Rocks To My Music, He Loves The Way I Do It All Night

2012-01-16T14:35:00.001+08:00

Hi! I'm back from Malacca! Weather was straight up sunny - a welcoming sign to all that CNY awaits! - and unfortunately it made working very uncomfortable at times. Fret not, good people and good company made it worthwhile! So where shall I start?

On Friday - just realized it was Friday the 13th LOL - rainy otw to Malcca. We had a fetish for Tom Yam since our Penang trip, so we ordered Tom Yam soup for dinner. Alas, it didn't have the kick like the ones in Penang! Declined pool invitation afterwards so I chilled while catching the last remaining hour of Australia on the telly.

Saturday, work. Made so many friends, met one of the best dancer ever, Eric! He is really gooooood! Got off work and we decided to have a Saturday Night Fever. Confirmed for a night out at a Malacca club, Mixx, where Kevin and Eric were at. It was funnnnnnnnnnnn! Was fully alert and sober throughout the night and I had a ball! It was a good experience! Thanks all for the awesome night! (;

Sunday, work. Balik! Good conversation otw back which confirms with what I've always believed in that there's always two sides to a story.

Anywayyyyy, I'm taking the next week off b/c, smacks head, I just realized Sunday is booked for Reunion Dinner and Mumsy and I will be churning up Korean dishes woohoo! ;D And also, I have exactly one week to get my CNY shopping done b/c next Monday is already CNY! Frantic shopping for clothes week!

Okay I'm blabbing away!

Here's a picture! Backdated, during Mumsy's dinner!

On an even happier note, my bad episode of rashes is getting better! Damn, I hope I did not just jinx myself!

Unconditional Love

2012-01-11T04:35:00.002+08:00

Now what I classify as an unconditional love is definitely my family. Hands down. Mumsy is generally not the type who likes a big hoohah for a birthday celebration so we had a nice, quiet dinner @ Serai, Empire.

Didn't had to wait long to be seated, food was good, worthy of the price, place was crowded but it was a good dinner. (: Family dinners in my family rarely happens, everyone either are too busy or we have our own eating schedule. Which, in retrospect, is a really sad and shameful thing. I will make it a point to have more meals and chit chat with my family from now onwards! No excuses!

Photos didn't turn out nicely b/c I didn't wanna stall everyone's eating time teehee! The food is an experience and if these pictures doesn't do any justice, head on over to Serai and try the food! ;) Might be a universal experience to you, you never know!

Happy Birthday again, Mama! We love you and we'll be around for as long as the world is spinning! <3 Have a good year ahead and we promise we will be as obedient and good as angels! We love you! ;")

Happy Birthday, Mumsy!

2012-01-10T17:08:00.002+08:00

I just got the news from my younger sister last night.

This!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, who's up! :DDDD

Dinner with family @ Serai, Empire later. Pavlova, it's been a long long time eh?

Now, how are you people?!

9th Day Into 2012

2012-01-09T13:59:00.000+08:00

Afternoon, folks!

Completely recuperated from two days of work and just settled in for 'It's A Wonderful Afterlife' directed by Gurinder Chadha. Managed to score this on YouTube so three cheers there! Only watched her famous 'Bend It Like Beckham' and 'Angus, Thongs, And Perfect Snogging' - which I enjoyed - so when I saw the trailer for this 2010 movie, I knew instantly I had to watch this.

Other than that, came home around 3am. Woke up to the fridge full of chocolates and strawberries and the porch decorated with huge red lanterns. I'm loving the colour red. :D

Just a quick one! (;

Preparing For The Dragon Year

2012-01-05T22:13:00.000+08:00

Preparations for the Chinese New Year officially begins! This is gonna be Mumsy's year b/c she's born in the year of the Dragon! During my 6+ hours back to KL, I enjoyed myself thoroughly with an article about the Dragon zodiac. Dragons are usually associated to be powerful and bold creatures, but the Water Dragon gives an even more gentle and benevolent touch. (:

Now even though I took a sneak peek at the Feng Shui book for Sheep in 2012 - which the verdict isn't that good, I'll be having loads of conflicts with other zodiacs HAHAHAH! Crap - but I am determined to see how well I can outrun the predictions. Let's see, shall we?

Following the CNY will be the love period of Valentine's Day. This year I intend to have a go at making chocolates with a good friend so that's gonna be something different! Also, the beau has conjured up this plan to get each other things we want. We'll be coming up with three things we've been eyeing for and then we'll swap each other the lists. I'm so excited! :D

Just got my invitation to Pinterest! Hello there, my pins are here! Feel free to drop by! (;

I've got much plans brewing and I can't wait to get my hands on them! But first, Penang! Will be heading up to Penang for work and then I'll be back all ready with my red planner! 2012 will be a good year despite anything bad b/c it's you yourself who will be making it a good one. It's just how we're gonna go about every incident to make it an experience. Gotta start keeping this mindset up!

Tuning into JK Rowling's speech at the Harvard Commencement! Imagine all the people...

Have a lovely first weekend of the year folks! <3

My Red Planner

2012-01-04T18:20:00.002+08:00

GPOYW - A break from the famous Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto.

We were walking along this popular and pleasant cherry tree lined path beside a stream. Even though it's winter and there isn't any flowers blooming prettily but it was still pretty in its winter way. A quiet little shop with three teddy bears placed on a mini bench fishing by the stream. We entered its neighbour shop and exited with three Kimonos packaged nicely in our hands.

The First of 2012

2012-01-04T00:49:00.000+08:00

6+ hours of flight, sandwiched between strangers who we then became friends. Landed at 10.50pm. Already the heat and sweat were slowly accumulating beneath my four layers of winter clothes - don't ask why four layers. Picked up luggage. Cold chocolate, coffee and smoothies ftw! Hauled luggage into the trunk. Headed on home. Home sweet home. Unpacked our stories and luggage. Laundry basket deluged with clothes. Spent half an hour on the phone. Crashed around 3+am.

Awoke at 10am with two series of raps on my door, the former firm and loud, the latter softer. Pondered between the choices of getting the door or ignoring it. Stumbled outta bed. And there was my surprise! He greeted me in my pajamas and my messy morning hair and my sleepyhead. Hello there, love. (;

Got home early from an afternoon movie. Caught up with civilization. Finally done with my appreciation and thanks for the birthday well wishes. Whether it's an advance greeting or a late one, it doesn't matter. It's the thoughts that counts, so thank you all! ;'D I'm 20, yet I don't feel any older. Age don't matter, it's just a number and a perception. Right? (;

Just a short that I couldn't believe I did not know about until now! Almost a year of its existence! Here you go! I thought it was just beautiful, a lil hero in a big foreign city, Italy.

Dare to explore a world that is bigger than you know. There are a lot of reasons to not do something or not feel something. Those boundaries and walls are put up by ourselves. Once we're able to step outside of them, we can truly realize the endless possibilities the world has to offer. - WongFu Productions

I still need sleep. Much more of it. Have a good Wednesday people! It's back to school and work. Oh the blues! But make the best outta it! It's the new year, keep that spirits up and that contagious positivity will spread warmly within you and then to others. Chin up guys!

Yawn. Book. Music. Bed.

Day 1 Begins

2011-12-25T01:14:00.000+08:00

Just a quick one! Merry Christmas! :D My well wishes are all splattered on Facebook so I will say no more. :P But also, a very Happy New Year, in advance! 2011 is coming to an end - how fast! - and 2012 is the time to start anew. Have you completed your 2011 resolutions? I personally don't have resolution lists, but imma start keeping just a few resolutions just b/c it's really for the better. ;)

2011 has been the best year ever! B/c of everything that happened. Challenges, depressions, anger, happiness, fruitful experiences etc, you name it. It is indeed bittersweet and it really taught me a lot, some rather painful experiences as I recall. But I'm ready to close this chapter up and I just can't wait to welcome the new year!

It's like a brand new book - parchment paper if you will hee - and it's just inviting me to start inking out more adventures and happenings! I know no matter how tough the year is gonna be, no matter how many times I will be thrown to the ground, no matter how tiresome and cumbersome it will get, but I know I will definitely pick myself back up, brush off the dirt, and try again. I've got my ink pen all ready and I can't wait to set off and go!

Thank you, 2011, you've been such a tough and challenging year but you made me grow up so much more. And in return you gave me much more happiness and blessings. Thank you.

2012, hello there, let's map out our adventure across the universe shall we? (;

That's it! The last post of the year for me! Gosh, can't believe it! But yeap, this is my epilogue for 2011! This is my annual summary end-of-the-year-post and I shall blog again when I get back!

8am flight. Luggage packed. Camera charged. Tearful exchange. And what more? Beauty sleep? (;

To my dear beau, I hope you have fun and end the year off with a bang! I will be back very soon with presents for you and I know you will be enjoying yourself and keeping yourself occupied instead of texting or calling me b/c you're a big lad now aren't you? :D I will be back sooner than you know it and I'm gonna miss you! <3

PS. The year is really coming to an end! Ahh, still can't believe it but that's it for me. Michelle, out!

PPS. Have a good one again! ;)

PPPS. I love you. :") <3

A True Story

2011-12-23T14:37:00.000+08:00

The story, by Carol Morley, Guardian.co.uk

On 25 January 2006, officials from a north London housing association repossessing a bedsit in Wood Green owing to rent arrears made a grim discovery. Lying on the sofa was the skeleton of a 38-year-old woman who had been dead for almost three years. In a corner of the room the television set was still on, tuned to BBC1, and a small pile of unopened Christmas presents lay on the floor. Washing up was heaped in the kitchen sink and a mountain of post lay behind the front door. Food in the refrigerator was marked with 2003 expiry dates. The dead woman's body was so badly decomposed it could only be identified by comparing dental records with an old holiday photograph of her smiling. Her name was revealed to be Joyce Carol Vincent.

I first heard about Joyce when I picked up a discarded copy of the Sun on a London underground train. The paper reported the gothic circumstances of her death – "Woman dead in flat for three years: skeleton of Joyce found on sofa with telly still on" – but revealed almost nothing about her life. There was not even a photograph of her.

The image of the television flickering over her decomposing body haunted me as I got off the train on to the crowded platform. In a city such as London, home to 8 million people, how could someone's absence go unnoticed for so long? Who was Joyce Vincent? What was she like? How could she have been forgotten?

News of Joyce's death quickly made it into the global media, which registered shock at the lack of community spirit in the UK. The story ran on in the British press, but still no photograph of Joyce appeared and little personal information.

Soon Joyce dropped out of the news. I watched as people discussed her in internet chatrooms, wondering if she was an urban myth, or talking about her as though she never mattered, calling her a couch potato, and posting comments such as: "What's really sad is no one noticed she was missing – must have been one miserable bitch." And then even that kind of commentary vanished.

But I couldn't let go. I didn't want her to be forgotten. I decided I must make a film about her.

At this point all that had been revealed in the press was that Joyce Vincent was 38 when she died, had been born in west London to parents who were from the Caribbean, and that some of her family had attended her inquest. Some reports suggested Joyce was, or had been, engaged to be married, and that before living in the bedsit she had been in a refuge for victims of domestic violence. But she didn't fit the typical profile of someone who might die and be forgotten: she wasn't old without family; she wasn't a loner, or an overdosed drug addict; nor was she an isolated heavy drinker. Who she was and the circumstances of her death were a mystery.

I placed adverts with various publications and internet sites. On a poster on the side of a black cab I asked: Did you know Joyce Vincent? Meanwhile, as I waited for any response, I contacted people who were involved with bringing Joyce's story to light.

I met Alison Campsie, news editor for the Tottenham & Wood Green Journal, whose journalist David Gibbs had reported on Joyce Vincent's inquest. She told me that while the paper would have liked to have pursued the background to the story, they didn't have the time or money, and that even the BBC with all its resources had tried and failed to run an item on Joyce.

In the Three Compasses pub below her office, I talked to Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, Joyce's constituency. Lynne had urged the police to reopen their investigation into Joyce's death but they decided there was nothing to answer to in terms of foul play. The coroner recorded an open verdict, with the cause of Joyce's death "unascertained". "We don't know how big a part Joyce played in her own isolation or whether it was more down to society neglecting her," Lynne told me.

Lynne wrote to the local council, the utility companies, and the housing association about Joyce's unpaid bills, questioning why alarm bells didn't ring earlier – but she either received no reply or little insight. "The point is, Joyce Vincent is dead, no one murdered her, and no one seems to care that much. I gather she was very beautiful, which for reasons totally spurious makes it more poignant because we always think beautiful people have everything go their way."

On the way to her next appointment Lynne drove me to Wood Green, to the back of Shopping City, where lorries rumbled in and out of a delivery depot. She pointed to the housing estate above the mall known locally as Sky City, where Joyce had lived and died. I looked at the red brick walkways and tiers of water-stained grey concrete, interspersed with metal grilles, indistinguishable from the car park or the shopping centre below. "I suppose, in a way, we all walked by," Lynne said. As I stepped out of her car she wished me luck.

Dominating the skyline was a round blue sign for Shopping City – a beacon to commercialism. In one of the flats I saw an open window with a billowing net curtain and I thought of the window in Joyce's bedsit that had been open for the two years she lay dead, insects crawling along the windowsill, the escaping smell of her decomposing body attributed to the rubbish bins below. I walked around to the other side of the complex – to the high street, hectic with shopping activity and traffic. The main door Joyce used to access her part of the estate is here, sandwiched between the usual chain of shops.

Inside the entrance I avoided the lift and climbed the empty grey concrete stairs. I walked along a walkway, meeting nobody. In contrast to the hordes of people below, it was desolate. I found Joyce's bedsit, with its glossy green door, at the end of the walkway. With only one neighbouring flat, and no flat above or below, it felt architecturally cut off. I knocked on the doors of other flats in the block, but no one answered. I wondered if I would ever meet anyone who actually knew Joyce.

The first response to my adverts was from Karen, but it turned out she never knew Joyce. "I was a neighbour. I lived on her doorstep. I got my old diaries out. Had I seen her? Had I written about her? All the neighbours – where were we? Why didn't we talk to her?" Karen said she had always liked living in Sky City but that as she lives alone, and is the same age as Joyce was when she died, she now worries whether anyone would notice if anything happened to her.

Months passed. I spent time in libraries and public records offices, piecing together some of Joyce's history through official records, locating previous addresses and relatives. I managed to track down people who knew Joyce, but they wouldn't talk to me. Then I received an email from Martin Lister, who had seen my advertisement. He wrote to me in the hope that the Joyce in question was not the same Joyce he went out with in his twenties. We quickly established that it was. On the phone he said it just didn't add up – "she never drank much, she never took drugs" – but the thing that most surprised him, he said, was that she ended up in social housing.

I arranged to meet Martin outside Shepherd's Bush underground station. In his late 40s, he wore a green Brazil baseball cap, and was all friendly smiles. In his local pub I thanked him for seeing me. "Well I want to thank you," he said, his pale complexion flushing pink. "Therapy, is how I feel about it."

While he had confided the news of the circumstances of Joyce's death to friends, he was glad to have the opportunity to discuss her at length. They had met in 1985, when he worked negotiating client renewals for a shipping company in the City. Joyce was 20 years old and secretary to his boss. "She was always asking me to go for a drink, but it never occurred to me that she was asking me out. I thought, what a shame she doesn't have any friends. I didn't read anything into it."

Eventually Martin went for a drink with Joyce and they subsequently dated for about three years. Afterwards they kept in touch, on and off, until 2002. Looking back, Martin was unsure if he ever knew exactly what was going on in Joyce's life. "You look back and think, I wish I'd asked more, wish I'd understood more."

They had good times together. "We were always doing something," Martin reminisced, "racing at Goodwood, tennis at Wimbledon, classical music, opera. We liked restaurants too." Martin shook his head, baffled at Joyce's outcome. "She always wanted to improve her mind. Actually, she told me she'd had elocution lessons and she sounded – I wouldn't say posh, but you wouldn't know she was from London, she just sounded very well-spoken, almost BBC really. In reality she grew up off the Fulham Palace Road in west London and she used to say, 'I don't know why people say it's so lovely round there because it certainly wasn't when I was growing up.'"

Pulling some photographs from a carrier bag, Martin looked at one wistfully before handing it to me. It was the first photograph of Joyce I had seen. I held it carefully, trying to take in every detail. "People used to say she looked like Whitney Houston," Martin said proudly. He sipped his wine and looked at another photo. "Her hair came from her mother's side. Her mother was Indian, she died when Joyce was young, 11, I think. She had a real bond with her mum, especially as she was the youngest. She had four sisters, but I think she was the only one to be born over here – the sisters brought her up really. Her dad was a carpenter. I never met her family, which I thought was a bit odd.

"I don't understand. She worked her way up, had really good jobs. She earned excellent money." His voice was tinged with sadness as he said: "Apparently she wanted to marry me, but being a typical bloke I was like – no, no, don't be ridiculous. I didn't want to settle down."

Martin opened a sizeable old Filofax to find Joyce's name. Her contact details had been TippExed over a number of times. "It was alarming really, how often she moved – at least once a year."

I asked Martin to appear in my film. I stressed how Joyce's story was a very modern one. She was born in 1965, the year the Post Office Tower opened, which Tony Benn later referred to as a symbol of our age – an age in which we worship the internet, television, mobile phones. I told him how ironic I thought it that Joyce should be forgotten and unreachable in this so-called period of communication.

Martin listened politely, thought for a while, and then said, "We'll see". It was not until a few years later, sitting in the same pub, that he finally agreed. "I can't say no, I've got to do it for her," he said then.

A few weeks after meeting Martin, I went to the Horn Pub in St Albans with John Ioannou, who was once friendly with both Martin and Joyce. Known as John the Greek, he was exuberant and talkative. He recalled reading the story about Joyce in a newspaper, but didn't connect it to the Joyce with whom he had once shared a house for a while. He told me he felt an enormous amount of guilt because he spoke to her on the phone in 2002, but never found the time to meet her.

He described his gang of home-counties friends whom Joyce had hung out with in the 80s. "We were a bunch of blaggers. We did things way above our class. A few of us came from money, but most of us didn't. We used to mix with proper posh people and go sailing, go to glitzy nightclubs. Right poseurs we were. We used to make up names. Joyce called herself Rachel Prejudice."

I showed him the photographs I'd gathered of Joyce. "The trouble with Joyce was she was very fanciable," he said. "Wherever she went and whatever she did, there were people trying to get her into bed. It was a burden that she was so beautiful and she was very clever, a lot more intelligent than she let on. I think she had several lives."

John asked what had attracted me to Joyce. I replied that I couldn't leave her to be forgotten – and that I had discovered there were a lot of things that connected us: we were exactly the same age, we shared a name – Carol, her middle name – and at one point we even lived on the same street. Joyce lost her mother when she was 11 and I was 11 when my father died, so I felt I understood something of the loss she had suffered. I told John that the title of the film,Dreams of a Life, captured what I was trying to do – dream up Joyce's life and ambitions through the information I gathered and the people who knew her.

John said: "I want to know Joyce's story myself, and that sounds ridiculous coming from someone who knew her. There must have been signs she would end this way, but if there were she covered them up with this happy-go-lucky, having-a-great-time act." John shook his head and sighed. "She died of neglect. We all loved her, but not enough to stop her dying."

On the train back to London, I reflected on how nobody she knew really worried about Joyce when she fell out of touch with them, as she often did – they just thought she was off somewhere having a better life than they were. Her aspirations and desires, her immaculate way of presenting herself, masked any deeper troubles she may have had.

As I continued my research I tracked down some of Joyce's former colleagues who were willing to appear in the film. Kim Bacon and Dan Roberts worked with Joyce at Ernst & Young, one of the biggest accountancy firms in the world. They told me Joyce worked for the company for four years and had a very responsible job in the treasury department, "moving the company's money around". It was during this period that Joyce was engaged for two years to someone I tracked down but who wishes to remain anonymous.

Her colleagues were surprised when she decided to quit in 2001. Kim said: "There do seem to be conflicting stories about what she did when she left." Joyce told some people she was going travelling with 20 people, and others that she had been headhunted. All that is known for sure about what happened to her in the time between her departure from the firm and her death is that she spent some time in a refuge for victims of domestic violence in Haringey.

Dan said: "I know it sounds odd, but it seems like we're talking about two different people. I just can't connect the Joyce who died to the Joyce that we knew." Kim nodded in agreement: "I mean she gave this impression of being a happy, bubbly person but it does make you wonder what was really going on."

I showed them the Sun article that started my quest. Kim studied the accompanying photograph of the bedsit. "The place she ended up living in doesn't tie up with her persona. I always imagined she lived in a really nice Victorian house, lovely furniture, nice things around her, everything immaculate and perfect. Not somewhere like that."

They looked at the photos of Joyce I'd gathered. "This is the sort of thing you'd imagine being on Facebook," Kim said. Dan agreed – "but we didn't have Facebook then. It's different now, you can keep in touch with people very easily." Dan looked around the pub we were in, where they used to socialise with Joyce. "It's shocking to think that two years after she left work she was dead," he said. Kim put the photos down. "I really don't understand," she said. "She was a very popular girl and I don't know why we didn't keep in touch. I feel a bit guilty about that."

As time went on I received a lot of messages via Friends Reunited from Joyce's old schoolfriends. All concurred that she was beautiful, well turned out, funny, down to earth, and all mentioned that she loved to sing – one message even urged me to tell the world about Joyce's fantastic singing voice.

It was two more years before I found Kirk Thorne, a musician, and a friend and landlord of Joyce's in the late 80s. Kirk had once recorded Joyce in his studio.

I sat with him in the garden of the same modern house in Wapping that Joyce had once occupied. He told me that since he received my message about Joyce he had spent hours speculating on how she ended up as she did. "I can't understand. She had a lot of friends and a good social life. She was not a girl that came in and sat in front of the telly. If she was white she could have been a debutante – she was upwardly mobile, a high flyer."

Kirk was especially surprised that by the age of 38, Joyce was living without a man. "Joyce was the kind of person that would worry most women. She was a threat. Good-looking, intelligent, successful and on a mission for the type of man all women are after."

He showed me around the studio he had built at the bottom of his garden. It was here that Joyce once dressed up as a maid and served tea to Captain Sensible, the punk legend. It was also here that she first fulfilled her dream of being a recording artist. Kirk had lost the tape, though at my insistence he promised me he would have another hunt for it. He wondered if Joyce might have been happier if she had pursued her singing and taken a different path in life. "She had a clique with all these City bankers – they didn't suit her, but she liked it," Kirk said. "I think she was on a search for something she wasn't going to find. I used to think that what she needed was a good black man. She was my flatmate, not my family, so I didn't tell her."

Catherine Clarke became good friends with Joyce while renting a room in Kirk's house. I tracked her down in Florida, where she recalled that Joyce only had one other close female friend. "Mostly it was men. Men who had crushes on her, men who followed her – there was always a story about a guy that had the hots for her. It was just unbelievable how intense guys would get with her."

Catherine said she was not surprised that Joyce ended up in a refuge for victims of domestic violence. "Guys would come on so heavy and not let go. I can only think she became isolated from her family because of a guy that she chose. Maybe she was ashamed of the situation she got herself into. To go into a women's refuge, for Joyce, would have been a big thing."

I tracked down another of Joyce's friend's – the American disco singer Judy Cheeks, who once took Joyce out to dinner with Stevie Wonder. On the phone from the States, Judy said she last spoke to Joyce in the late 90s and found her still looking for Mr Right. "I had no idea where she was heading. It appears no one did. I often thought of her and always assumed she had finally found her ideal husband, had a few kids and was happy."

Over time I received a number of phone calls from Joyce's former boyfriends. Mostly they were calling me for information, so disturbed were they that the Joyce they went out with could have ended up being so overlooked. Most of them didn't want to appear in the film, but were willing to give me snippets of information. Jason, for example, told me that when he met Joyce he was a working-class boy from a sink estate, and Joyce was five years older than him and wanted to be a pop star. "I used to resent her for that. I used to resent her for having dreams… what a fall from grace." Jason told me that before he went out with her, Joyce went out with a baronet and an MP, but he couldn't recall their names. He also thought that Joyce once knew the American soul singer Betty Wright.

So I wrote to Betty in Miami. A couple of months later I received a phone call from Alistair Abrahams, Betty's one-time tour manager and Joyce's former boyfriend. Betty had told him about my letter. Stunned by the news, he invited me over to see him in London the following day.

In his early 50s, with long dreadlocks swept back behind his shoulders, Alistair showed me into his living room. Originally from Zimbabwe, he delivered his accented words slowly and cautiously as he described Joyce and the two years they lived together in the early 90s. "There were a lot of exciting things happening to me and her arrival coincided with a lot of that change, so I used to call her my lucky charm. She was always immaculately attired down to the bows on her underwear. But she wasn't just physically beautiful, she had an aura about her."

Alistair explained that Joyce never really talked about her life before she met him. "Have you ever seen the movie The Man with No Name? That's how she was – she came with no past."

While Joyce lived with Alistair she came into contact with many of the musicians he knew and worked with. "We had great times. We had Jimmy Cliff to stay at the house, Gil Scott-Heron and Isaac Hayes came for dinner. For her it was exciting, vibrant, thrilling. It was a good time."

He asked me if I had found out how Joyce had died but I told him that not even the pathologist came to a conclusion. "Perhaps she suffered a fatal asthma attack, or do you think it was something more sinister?" he asked. I replied that Joyce's death would always be shrouded in mystery and open to speculation, but what was more important then dwelling on how she died was to remember her life.

"I was so committed to Joyce almost in a paternal way. I think that's what she wanted out of a relationship, someone she could rely and depend on. She was a chameleon in many ways – she adapted to the environment she was in. I introduced her to Ben E King and the next day she bought his album. After I'd introduced her to Gil Scott-Heron, when she met him again, she had this wonderful knowledge of him, she was asking him questions about the civil-rights movement and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

Alistair recalled the time he surprised Joyce by taking her to Wembley in 1990 to see a Nelson Mandela tribute concert. "Something very momentous happened – she met Nelson Mandela, she shook his hand. In fact I spoke to my brother yesterday and he thinks he may have seen her at the concert, when it was on the TV."

I ordered up the film of the concert, Nelson Mandela, International Tribute for a Free South Africa, from the BFI National Archive. I trawled through it, ever hopeful, constantly pausing when I spotted anyone remotely resembling Joyce. After a few fruitless hours I began to prepare myself for disappointment when the programme cut from the stadium crowds to Nelson Mandela backstage, addressing the musicians who had taken part in the show. As he ended his passionate speech they cheered in appreciation, and there was a cut to a wide shot from the rear of the room – featuring an array of backs of heads.

And then I saw her. It was Joyce, unarguably. She turned and smiled at someone behind her. Catching the light, her earrings gleamed. She turned back and I panicked, I had lost her.

But she turned around once more. It was Joyce – moving and alive. I had found her. The power of the moving image hit me, the power to resurrect.

I rewound the tape and timed Joyce's appearance. Four seconds. I slowed the footage down and watched. One hundred frames, hundreds of dancing pixels.

Joyce, who died alone in her bedsit, anonymous and seemingly forgotten, had once had her image transmitted live to millions of living rooms in the 61 countries where the show was broadcast.

The video cut away from Joyce to the Wembley crowd and I thought of her, backstage, in her element, on a high, talking to Anita Baker and Denzel Washington, shaking hands with Nelson Mandela, in a room with verifiable stars. She was 26 years old, ambitious, beautiful, full of hope for the future. She had her whole life ahead of her but in 13 years she would die and nobody would know and nobody would notice.

I resumed the tape and carried on watching the show, eager to experience what Joyce once had. Nelson Mandela arrived on stage to rapturous applause and the crowd sang, louder and louder, "You'll never walk alone".

Fascinating isn't it, what a documentary! Another must watch on my list. What's your verdict?

Off to meet Mr. Homles! ;)

That Fcking Bitter Phase Again

2011-12-22T13:33:00.002+08:00

Yesterday.

Colin: Sow how old are you, Michelle?

Me: Can you guess?

Colin: 19?

Me: Yeap!

Colin: Jesus Christ!

.

Today.

Yes, it's amazing how things can be as happy and light like marshmallows floating on hot chocolate; and the next, you wake up already knowing your eyes are gonna puffed up swollen like a bloated fish.

Fck today.

Hello tomorrow.

Cross Fingers

2011-12-21T21:56:00.003+08:00

What I loved about today? I made so many friends today! :D Seems silly, but the idea of making friends tingles me to my feet. I love meeting new people, it reminds me that not everyone is snobbish or arrogant. The reminder that, hey, the world ain't so bad after all. It all started with a random conversation at 8am at the bus stop with a Japanese lady on a business trip here in Malaysia. And then to colleagues, emcee, beatboxers, dancers and the list goes on.

The funny thing is that, everyone seem to have something in common with me. The world really is that small. Coincidence or not, I feel like everyone are mutual friends. It's only that we haven't met all of them just yet. (:

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you... *Whistles the King & I tune*

In the meantime, found this online and lemme just confide in you, proposals never seem to fail to pool large glistening tears in my eyes. :"""D No joke, put me on a seat, open up a marriage proposal video, and pass me the tissue box. I'll go emotionally crazy and all hell breaks lose, so what's gonna happen when it's my turn?

HAHAHAHA. I probably won't be able to see the ring and everyone in the room b/c I'll be bawling my eyes out. Teehee.

Or maybe not.

But Happy Anni, love. <3

Don't tell me you didn't cry lorh!

365 Days Ago

2011-12-20T23:06:00.004+08:00

Today is the one day I can recall fondly.

After a long day of driving (4 hours), we reached the hotel, unpacked, refreshed and started the food adventure. Back to the hotel, tummy satisfied and all ready for a good sleep and cuddle. The bed was just too divine. Big and comfortable, just swallowing you up into a land of dreams, slipping into reverie.

It was everything I could ask for after a long day and a good vacation. And so were you. All I needed for a good breakaway. A sweet disposition.

Then, when midnight came, so did the waterworks. Unpredictable and unexpected. Him and hers. Apologies and melancholy filled the room. But barely into the hour, everything was back to normal. Just like that.

Bittersweet.

That December was such a long time ago. Do you remember what happened?

A year ago.

Kiss Last Year Goodbye

2011-12-19T21:02:00.003+08:00

My Monday was wrapped in fabric prints, jumpsuits, shared lunch, and long talks about everything and nothing. A lot of oggling and gasping at pretty clothes - which am definitely going back to grab some while it's selling like hotcakes. And a nice treat of New Year's Eve.

Now, New Year's Eve is just about the kinda movies critics would love to gobble it up and then spit it out with disgust and disappointment. The kinda of story with a lot of characters interweaved into a main plot, you know those kind don't you? And it doesn't help when it's full of A-lists stars. A-lists are like dessert for critics, if it's good then bravo, but if they don't help in the movie, well, there's a field trip.

IMHO, I watch it, I savored it, I enjoyed it. Really, I did. And I thought it was a worth it romcom which I'd pay to watch. As you know, this movie is just like Valentine's Day b/c Garry Marshall is the same director. And the reasons why I wanted to catch this movie was b/c,

I watched V's Day despite several actors whom I don't quite fancy - namely, the two Taylors, I just have an aversion towards them somehow *shrugs* - so I wanted to see how NYE fair to that.
I saw the line up and I was like *gasp!* You've got Sarah Jessica Parker, Josh Duhamel, Robert De Niro, Lea Michele, Katherine Heigl, Halle Berry and most of all, Abigail Breslin! I have watched a lot of Abigail Breslin movies which I love so I wanted to see how she was in NYE. Plus, she's all grown up and she looks really different!
I was curious.
My beau didn't wanna watch it with me. );

What's your take?

Also, I added two more to my collection! Tadaaaaaaaaaa!

And finally, my first birthday (postage) present! Thank you Jia Min, I had a great day with you and many more to come as planned! :D <3

Ramen time! :D

PS. I think it's the Mass Comm in me but I found a lot of glitches in NYE. Whoops, did anybody catch them? :P

Stained Popsicle Lips

2011-12-18T17:59:00.000+08:00

Evening folks, hang in there, just a week and then it's time to plan your days right up to the new year and to end it off with a bang! With Christmas productions to attend, new year resolutions to list down, tummy beckoning good food, and the joy of just appreciating and living life. (;

I hope you do have a really good one. :D

In a week, I'll be on an adventure onto a foreign land. Couple of nerves, but good ones I assure you. (: It's a blessing to even have this opportunity and I can't even believe my own luck. Thank you, Mum and Dad for my birthday present. <3 :')

Speaking of birthday, I'll be turning 20! :( No more eighteen, or nineteen, but twenty. Two big O! There's two things about this, I'm getting older! :D And, I'm getting older. :( In two more weeks, I welcome you, birthday, with much bittersweet joy!

I hope you have something good in store for your 31st! Baskin Robins maybe? ;)

More purchase of books which is slowly turning my room into a mini library! ;D A must have in my future house, a built in bookcase. Anyone wants some reading materials? Ring me up! I'm more than happy to share the joy. Of course, provided you do return them, too many books have gone missing. :'(

Apart from books as birthday presents *hint hint*, I do have a fetish for sweet smelling and pretty things! Latest and current addiction, Cranberry Joy. Here's the thing, I've always loved Body Shop products, they're just so omgoshineedmoreofthis joyful that just brings a little sunshine everyday when I leave my house trailing a scent of Body Shop. *Hint hint* :P

I'm just kidding. It's the thoughts that counts, Michelle! Teehee.

Possible a 2012 To Do? I really love the prospects of earrings. So many designs and beauty to marvel at just like any other jewelry. But will piercing ears hurt? What do you think? Nay or yay?

I've always been the shorts kinda girl and I only have a few dresses in my wardrobe. I'm kinda thinking on going all out and different this upcoming Chinese New Year haul with different sets of outfits with that matching attitude. Shopping haul in January when am back! I can't wait! #ILoveNewClothes. <3

Out and about in awhile. Catch you in a bit! (;

Get your Chanel skirt on & dance!

2011-12-17T20:15:00.001+08:00

#1 Cinemagraphs I Love - Crystal Renn, From Me, To You. (:

Watch me

2011-12-17T20:05:00.000+08:00

I'm gonna run and slip into a comfortable trance and be in my own little world as the miles melt away beneath my feet.

Destination?

Why, forward and up, of course.

So, watch me.

(;

I need to grow up. Presto.

2011-12-16T21:00:00.004+08:00

Happy Hour is reinvented again by Kronenbourg at the L'APERITIF FASHION!

Spent my night @ View Rooftop Bar, G Tower on the 29th floor over the horizon of a brightly lit KL on a Thursday night. To the right, the magnificent Twin Towers. To the left, friends. To the front, more newly found friends and a pulsing party. In my hand? Kronenbourg.

A night that showcase a brilliant association of brewery and fashion. Uniquely done by Kronenbourg with a twist in showcasing French influence in Malaysian fashion. Twas was a good night, I definitely learnt a lot in relevance to what my future career would be. :D

"Do not confuse your career with your personal life. Do not ever do that."

One of the earliest and most memorable advice from my new friend, Ammar, who has been in the PR line for several years. What I really appreciated from the whole night, aside from the great event, was all the tips and pointers given by Ammar. I have learnt so much from just a night. Thanks Ammar, owe you truckloads and all the best for your undertakings!

Also bumped into some familiar faces, the peeps from Ogilvy PR. They were the ones handling the account, such a small world indeed! Good job, I think all of us had a good time at the event. Kudos! (;

More from the night!

Got back home flushed with a lil headache. Too much to drink? :P But it was worth the experience!

Something called Art

2011-12-14T17:19:00.002+08:00

Da Capo

More Than Bread

Big Trouble In Little Bistro

Be Individual

All by JuBaFilms.

I loved the cinematography, the concept, the precision, the moves, and yeah, pretty much everything. :D An art fusion w/ dance and film. What couldn't be any better? Awesome stuff you should check out b/c this is the bomb. Literally.

Gong Bao reminds me awfully a lot like a few people I know! Doppelgangers, they must be.

What are you up to today?

(;

Me? Aww nothing much, just "dirty dancing in the moonlight"!

Rainbow Lids

2011-12-13T19:01:00.001+08:00

Hello there folks!

Today started off differently w/ me being out of the bed the earliest during this holidays which was at 8.30am. Dropped by where I used to intern, had a quick chat, and my! What huge changes took place after I left internship.

Of course, I was craving the 'Curry Laksa' and 'Pork Noodles' I used to have all the time during lunch hours w/ my two other sidekicks, Su Wern and Ivan. But alas! The Pork Noodle stall wasn't open. :'( But I satisfied my 'Curry Laksa' crave but it could have been better if my taste buds could savor the 'Pork Noodles' again. Oh well!

Also, we haven't stepped foot into Sunway Pyramid in ages and TGV greeted us w/ vast changes! It's now IMAX and TGV together and the whole place looks so different yet familiar! The changes were good, I like the seats, much more spacious. Which gave me an overall feel of (Y)! :D Not to mention, my salted popcorn! I love anything that's salted teehee, thank you very much!

Hunted for more Tess Gerritsen books again and @#!#$@#!%! once again, all the bookstores disappointed me. All I see is John Grisham and Dean Koontz. Don't get me wrong, they are good authors too but... TESS GERRITSEN! :'(( She has amazing books, even Stephan King said her books are a must have in his house! The hunt continues...

Okay, I rambled too much. Here's some piccahs!

Cheerios!

Cuz I need a higher heels for my long legs

2011-12-11T13:58:00.001+08:00

Tiesto @ Sepang F1 Circuit.

Well, there seems to be good reviews on FB. But imma stick to my own prerogative. The event was only a so-so experience to me. Don't get me wrong, the music pumping the bass into your bloodstream was superb, the stage awesome, the on off fireworks from Tiesto was cool. But the people? Not so.

The entire universe crowded the whole area, now it's no wonder why they chose Sepang as the venue. We just partied outside the zone, b/c we can't imagine going into that mass of humans. It's crazy! I feel nauseous and sick just thinking about getting into moshpit. Grooving outside the moshpit was nice, it was breezy, and it kinda felt we were partying beside a beach. :D

We entered at 11pm and left at 1am. Why so early? B/c we didn't wanna get caught up in the traffic. You have to see how everyone parked their cars. The highway immediately became parking lots, no joke seriously! The police would have untung if they plan to saman everyone. But I think they will run outta saman paper w/ the amount of cars hahaha!

Taffy & Andy

2011-12-10T01:16:00.001+08:00

So if you know me very well, you'll know one thing I hate a lot is losing something.

It really irks me to no end when I misplace or lose something. I have to literally eke good and positive thoughts to make everything seem alright again. Which often, of course, labors me to no avail.

But I guess when you gained something, you have to lose something. Give and take.

Which in these past few hours, I gained tremendously. A larger than life amount of laughter, all smiles, belonging and happiness.

Okay, so maybe am eking myself again. But so what? Suddenly losing that item seem like something I can live with.

Oh, and I also gained Taffy and Andy! More of this coming up! And it will put a smile on your face. ;)

& a thousand more

2011-12-07T21:46:00.001+08:00

GPOYW - The before. A snip snip trip to the salon!

Vast difference? Or not? My mouth was itching to ask for a shorter length teehee. Oh well, the next visit I suppose? :D

Anyway, since I was in the vicinity, we dropped by to help out my aunt to settle in her new crib. And! Went for a cuppa, and I got a lil sneak peek of my cousin's thesis while helping him out. And boy, does it look scary!

Also, my Visa is finally doneeeeeeeeeee!

PS. Alvin Kiang! Your thesis looks so complicating and hard! Just a matter of time since it's my turn heh heh!

Bitter gourd

2011-12-07T20:48:00.001+08:00

Everyday something in me dies a little.

To some, darkness might be suffocating, a place where evil lurks. Diabolical.

But to me, darkness is like an old pal you can count on. Where you can confide in with everything. Every single thing. It doesn't judge you. It keeps mum, just being there for you silently.

Although sometimes the silence can be deafening.

A sniff can pass off as two things: wallowing in misery and tears or the nose simply being runny. For this, I am grateful for its function of being ambiguous. Like an equivocal word, you just never know what it really means until you look closely.

Look closely.

Sweet Escape

2011-12-04T23:47:00.000+08:00

I have been doing a lot of YouTubing and subscribing and til today I am still amazed with the ever colossal and growing YouTube community. Convergence people, convergence. No wonder everyone is churning out a YouTube account and videos. Subscribed to several YouTubers and judging by the rate am spending my hours on YouTube, I'm gonna be getting a whole lotta channels on my feed.

Speaking of which, checked out the new YouTube layout yet?

Anyway, to tear myself away from the computer and my books, I think it's high time I really get my butt out for some fresh air. Which was fulfilled by the Patrick Alejandro Loh. Thank you, Patty! (;

[Edited]

Makeup slightly smudged, reeking of fag from head to toe, right ear muffled. All from a night. Superb!

Follow your heart. Follow your dreams. - Far East Movement

Just a few from the night!

I was on the East team with Prohgress! :D Beat going B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

The Queen of Swag - CL

2011-11-30T22:29:00.001+08:00

Tales from the past few days in point-forms & pictures!

Saturday -

Muffins for brekkie! Then KL beckons. In the vicinity of Pavilion. We saw the Happy Truck! Steamed vanilla from Coffee Bean. Drizzle. Home.

Sunday -

Chutney, oh yeahhhhh.

Monday -
Lasagna session! First hand baking lasagna for the first time. Wasn't perfect but many more perfect ones to come that's for sure. Note to self, get good lasagna sheets!

How it went! :)

Tuesday -
Monte @ Bangsar Shopping Center w/ Kok Han, Su Wern and the beau! Shell FuelSave Day appreciation dinner. Felt like Thanksgiving heehee. Food for ze eyes!

Today -

Just for fun since I'm rotting around doing nothing anyway this holiday pftt! *Blows fringe*
Hi, December. <3

I have to go

2011-11-28T11:29:00.001+08:00

Family and relatives plan to go to Jeju & Seoul next May.

$@$%$&$^&*&%$#@$^

I. Have. To. Go.

But it's _K!

FTS.

Within grasp

2011-11-26T17:51:00.001+08:00

Just a step to win a free Macbook.

#!$$#^$%&$^&(*$

Why is it always these streaks of bad luck. Always the 'so close, yet so far' situation. Why not the winner? For once?

Machut.

Post-exam adrenaline

2011-11-22T22:23:00.001+08:00

My finals ended yesterday. After a long, arduous year of academic, studies are over for 2011! School's definitely out and just 1 day after finals, I'm more than ready to run wild and free. Who's in for random trips!

If you asked any Malaysians what's up in Malaysia, I'll guarantee the trendy answer would be the Malaysian VS. Indonesian match. Malaysian won btw, and it was glorious just being with other Malaysians at the mamak, heart pumping, fists clenched, roars and shouts of suspense. The moment when we scored the last goal, it was overwhelming. A loud, proud chorus of our national anthem was sung by everyone in the mamak. No doubt a valuable experience.

Now, I admit I'm not a true fan. True fans are the ones who stuck around with the team through thick and thin. True fans aren't the ones who come together only when there's a victory. I know I'm not a true fan, but I'd like to congratulate and express my admiration to the team and those who were involved. Good job, guys. Malaysia owes it to you.

Oh hello, just the beau and family watching the first half of the game.

So that was the day my exam ended. Pretty satisfying and productive, I'd say. To top it off, a pleasant rendition awaited me right after exam.

Too beautiful and perfect to not tear. :"") One of my favourite songs ever, When You Believe.

.

As for today! It was still a little helping out with designing the website and then it was just lazing around happily. Having nothing on your plate hurrying you is just so fun and happy. (: Today, I stumbled upon the glory of Chrome Web Store! It's amazinggggggggggg! As mentioned on my FB status, it does feel like Christmas came early!

Here are just about some I have installed.

I have yet to go through all the apps, but am feeling so hyped up about it! :DDD ADD hyped up, no joke. It's great of Google do have their apps open sourced. They offer such a brilliant experience to the users. What's better than getting a loyal user/customer by dangling goodies in front of us? Google at its best, no doubt. *Thumbs up!*

Excuse for my rambling, but I did warn you at the title didn't I? Going bonkers in a good way, WOOHOO! *Ear-splitting Cheshire grin*

Current read.

Cheerios!

Lesson learnt

2011-11-18T23:39:00.001+08:00

Once you've managed to quit and get the hell out of something that depresses you til no end, do not ever go back.

I was just curious. But it beat the shite outta me. Again.

And I wonder, why the hell do I even care?

Petty things.

I hereby vow, that I will not ever go back and revisit the trauma. Once was enough, and it wasn't worthy at all. So, goodbye.

Lesson learnt, curiosity really kills.

Workout

2011-11-18T01:23:00.001+08:00

Emotional contagion. This term is where we catch others' emotions like a bug and it will alter our moods accordingly to the other person's emotion. Interesting phenomena isn't it?

I've been pure on a sugar rush adrenaline up til a few minutes ago.

Now I'm feeling upset and unhappy. Not cranky, but just upset.

Boy, emotions really are contagious.

A lunchbox affair

2011-11-16T19:35:00.001+08:00

GPOYW - Today I officially smell like Cranberries! :D

Cranberry

2011-11-16T00:27:00.001+08:00

It's me again! I've been blogging pretty much lately haven't I? And that's good, right? :D

Anyway, I'm down to doing nothing b/c my Facebook is acting really weird. I can't really explain how b/c I just can't be bothered but in one word - cuckoo. Hence, I'm back here again!

I'd like to share with you a vlog! From Paris! Absolutely gorgeous! The landscape, the culture, and of course, the vlogger! Jen - the vlogger - is a freelance makeup artist and a designer and check her videos out! I'm hooked on her tutorials, really good. It's great too that she's an Asian (Korean), so we can relate to her makeup tutorials. It's not easy learning from certain non-Asian artists b/c our face structure is so different! Check her YouTube out when you're free!

Her vlog as promised!

I like how many times she mentioned 'Amazing'. She's so adorable! Okay I think I have to stop gushing over her. Hee! Paris is really pretty as everyone says. It'll be really nice to just hop on a plane and just soak in everything in France. Maybe one day huh?
Her vlog is kinda getting me excited about my December trip! It's not often that I fly out of the country to somewhere foreign and new, so I'm really gonna make the best out of this trip! I'm still debating whether to bring my laptop along. It's either that or I have to bring lots of memory cards for the camera! So longing for a DSLR to accompany me on this trip!
The downside of this trip? Visa application robs your happiness.
But no pain no gain eh?
Just did some research on CSR campaigns. Made my day! Beams!
Learning never ends. Everyday w/o a doubt, we learn something. Belittle or not, it is still something valuable. And it will contribute and help us in impossible and unpredictable ways in the future. You might not know how relevant this lil piece of information is, but one day, you'll be thankful you paid attention to this small detail. Keep learning, folks!
Pretty pictures to wrap this up! Fashion fiesta!

Have a good Wednesday!

Sweet Dreams

2011-11-15T21:31:00.001+08:00

The screech of the tires against the gravel. I grabbed my navy blue bag and in a flurry I fumbled for my flops. Shouted goodbye to the parents and also mentioned I will be back in just a bit. Such a pandemonium process just getting out of the house.

My heart lifted in good spirits as I reach for the door.

The light came on as I got in. Then total darkness. Silence. The comfortable and happy kind.

Then we turned to face each other for what feels like the longest time even though it was just mere seconds. Then he said,

It was a long day for you huh?

And in that moment, I knew everything was going to be alright.

Bicycle prints

2011-11-14T22:58:00.001+08:00

One more paper to go! Today's paper was alright. It was do-able but what I'm always concerned as usual is my writing. The problem is I really try to make everything perfectly visible despite all the cursive going on. Gahhh, nothing much I can do about now!

Had lunch w/ the beau (something new!), head back home, read (now on Tony Parsons' Men From The Boys), had a glorious, glorious nap!, and then woke up for chess!

Yes, you heard me right. Chess. Now, as deprived as I am, I have not a clue on how to work the chessboard. But today, I can proudly say, bring it on! And I'm obsessed with chessssssssss!

Chess date anyone? ((;

Spot them red bicycles?

I'm lazy. But it's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things. - Lech Walesa

*Ring ring* Coming through!

On a last note, I realized, there are just people out there who you will try your best to approach but you just won't get the feedback you want. I guess, you can't always get what you want. I can't make any excuses to cover up how disappointed I feel everytime this happens. I can't be living in my own lies everyday. Had a talk about this with my junior, Henry, he's having a similar problem. And you know what? Just let it be, the approach was merely with good intentions, and if you don't seem to appreciate them, well, your lost. :) But bare in mind, sometimes the littlest things make up the big picture. We offer courtesy, you offer hostility. That's okay. Just another oddity of how the world works. Good day and good luck to you. Because you'll be needing them in the real world.

And we're all in for a friendly banter, aren't we?

That familiar feeling

2011-11-14T02:21:00.001+08:00

Okay, so I woke up at 10.30am on Sunday and the first thing that crossed my mind was:

Eff. It's Sunday?! Finals' tomorrow! What happened to study break!

Yeah, the usual heart attack, don't mind me.

Ho-hum.

Have mercy on me! ;(

Many have been giving me encouragement, well wishes and assured me that I can do it. In a way, they do help. But then back to reality, not everything is as it seems. You need more than just words of encouragement, you need to make everything possible. I feel in achieving great things is the best way to repay all these kind people who have been cheering me on by the bleachers.

Had Nandos for supper. And I swear it's gonna turn out to be a real habit having frequent dinner at Nandos, Taipan. Was meant for a family get together since the coming Saturday my Dad's going to India for 2 weeks!

I was gonna jump on the wagon to India too but ahhhh, well well well, finals overlapping the schedule. Doodadooda. Maybe next year? Thought it'd be kinda cool to revisit all that I have learnt in Sunday School.

Lumbini Park, Bodhi leaves, Dana...

Ahh, those times.

Back to fretting!

2011-11-12T13:42:00.001+08:00

You make me sad and cry again

You make me sad and cry

Every day, each minute, each second,

my heart changes

From your each word,

I cry and laugh

I stayed by your side for so long

Even I think that I became a loser

Your phone is turned off again

You say the obvious – that you fell asleep

I guess I’m just sensitive by myself

Oh your expressionless face,

your indifferent voice

I guess I’m anxious by myself

This is such a sad story – a story with an end

Please tell me your heart – do you even love me?

I’m tired of the push and pull now

Why can’t things be comfortable?

Why is it that the more I look toward you,

You look somewhere else?

My face that you see every day,

Our relationship that doesn’t have much conversation

I guess you don’t find it fun anymore

Oh my trust in you that always stays the same,

My interest in you that turned into nagging

I guess it made you frustrated

On the contrary, you don’t know my heart

We can’t go back to those times like this

Everything is an irony – you’re always a mystery

Please tell me your heart – do you even love me?

This is such a sad story – a story with an end

Please listen to my story – this isn’t love.

Big sigh.

Flutes of champagne

2011-11-11T00:13:00.001+08:00

Am freshly showered, makeup free, and a little sleepy.

Which is not good! I have a presentation later for Padini, and the designs are not done and we're nowhere close to the finish line! ;( Got another Prezi to work on too.

But I have to say, we did our best. We had the idea, we follow through it, we made it come to life. But perhaps others might not fancy or have the same thinking like we do?

Fashion is really subjective.

That being said, fashion is really how you yourself define it.

Everything on halt atm, I hope we sail through okay later on! So much to do, yet so little time.

Miss Universe Malaysia 2012 Gala Night was nice. But lemme get over with our current hurdle first!

Happy sleeping, guys. Please help me to pay my sleeping debt while you're at it.

My first ever...

2011-11-09T21:30:00.000+08:00

GPOYW! - 'The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn' was awesome!

Despite so, many seem to know who Tintin is, except for me! I think I had a really deprived childhood! ;( Hey at least I watched 'Babe', even though I have a vague memory of it. Pfft!

More GPOYW to come!

Be my babeh!

2011-11-08T20:05:00.000+08:00

So I managed to survive my assignments during the mini break without the Internet! I have no idea how but I think I managed play and work pretty okay these past few days. Beams! During the course of my lil vacation, I didn't had the chance to even step foot into the ocean. :'( How pathetic! To have the beach within walking distance but never the time for it! However, I did had great food, some brief time playing beach volleyball, and just lazying around with family and relatives. Twas nice, kinda feels like those long December holidays, except our December came early heh heh.

How's it for you guys? Everyone doing okay? It's the time where everyone stay up with their stained coffee mugs and lecture notes for finals. Today was my last day in my first semester in Degree. And I thought I just finished internship! Holy bazooka, I swear 2011 is the year where everything just zooms past so fast like a whirlpool!

Some thoughts about Degree. I can never stress how much I love my tertiary education. Diploma was superb and I'd have it the same way for Degree. Degree is no doubt tougher, but nothing we can't manage. It's just work with an extra mile. Journals were part of our weekend tabloid or magazine and to think of it as yuck, but it's actually pretty fulfilling and fun to read. Or is it just me? But nevertheless, I really do feel like I've learnt a lot in Degree. (: Which is of course, the whole point of studying. Bahahaha! Lame.

University of Wollongong or any other Degree programs isn't cheap hence there's more at stake for everyone. It's a pretty tiresome thing huh when it involves money doesn't it? Strange as it is, I don't want college to end. It's been a really good ride and I like being on this roller coaster ride, and after almost 3 years of studying, I'm pretty reluctant to get off this ride. Ironic isn't it?

Can you guess what I've got on?

Bingo! Earmuffs! Why earmuffs eh? Aha, stay tune! TEEHEE!

Was trying out the Orton-ish effect with the pictures. But! I look like I slapped on some white cream in vain to achieve the Edward Cullen skin tone. Just an experiment of different editing effects tho!

Hidden Mickey, find it! Clue: Fourth picture!

Tucking in for dinner and Tess Gerritsen's Bloodstream! Have a happy ~~Monday~~ Tuesday night, folks!

PS. It still feels like a bloody Monday.

Silly to think, I'm on the brink of falling right off my rocker.

2011-11-05T03:25:00.001+08:00

Okay! So here I am laughing my tummy off watching clips of 'The Ellen Show' on YouTube. Literally my tummy had seizures and spasms! It hurts! But it's so hilarious that I... have... no... more... breath... to... say... anythi-

ANYWAY! I'm doomed. Off to somewhere possibly without the Internet with deadlines due on Monday & Tuesday. HAHAHAHA Shite, how am I gonna manage this, I wonder. *Blows fringe*

This weekend's gonna be bittersweet! Boooo.

This was the night/day I stayed back in college lending a helping hand for a Mass Comm event up til 5am! Glorious schedule, but I loved every minute of it! :D

Okay, I'm just gonna wrap up and go to bed and ignore the hungry growls of my tummy.

Night night!

A little finesse, a sparkly dress, I could be Ginger Rogers.

2011-10-31T00:12:00.004+08:00

So! Tonight, I'd like to share some ads with you b/c they totally cracked me up and made my day! :D

Glam rockers!
Surfers
Guidos
Toddlers/ "Very Small Children" - I love Ella! She's so cute!
Senior Gentlemen
Models
Damn a firecracker just startled me off my chair! Anyhoo, shall I take up that mini break offer this weekend? Hmm! I suppose I still have the time to think. Happy Halloween peeps! Unfortunately, am not dressing up for college this year, due the beckoning of a major test later on.
The initial plan was to pay a tribute to Amy Winehouse! Jeng jeng jeng, but ah well. I mean don't get me wrong about being a spoil sport but it's just I don't think I can find the time to get ready and all. And trust me, the Amy Winehouse signature beehive is not that easy to pull off! Needs loads of back combing! And practice!
But I shall anticipate what the rest are dressing up as! Last year,

Am done w/ Tess Gerritsen's Keeper of the Bride! HOLLAAAAA!

Do the pretty girl rock!

2011-10-30T03:15:00.000+08:00

No question that this girl's a 10.

.

Some experiment. (:

Playing around with the settings! I'm no photog, but I just really like finding a good angle and listening to that shutter sound making music in that frozen moment. Don't you too? (:

Speaking about settings. Have you guys ever been in a situation where things turn out pretty badly and disappointing? Ahh, countless times eh? Unfortunately, I'm no good at those. Tough times ahead, but any hurdles or potholes now don't mean much. What it does mean is that I've made mistakes, missed some opportunities, took a stab at my esteem. But what it really means is when you look at it from a different angle, it happened for a reason, you just gotta have the faith and that gut feeling that in the future you'll be better, bolder and wiser. What's happening now's merely child's play, there are bigger toys in store for us, we just gotta wait. Mistakes, thank you.

A reminder to sail away!

Back in those days where I was a college rookie with that signature long wave.

Have a blessed Sunday folks! I'm waking up with Secret Recipe's Choc Indulgence for bfast! Teehee!

When your steps make that much noise

2011-10-27T01:45:00.000+08:00

In one way or other, I've grown up. Seems so self-proclaimed like but really. I may not be a 100% grown up and completely perfect and saint-like but knowing the changes I've accepted and lived healthily around my day to day life now has pretty much kept me in awe and happy. Measuring with my own yardstick, I know I've made some pretty darn good changes and I'm glad.

I recently read somewhere that we should surround ourselves with people that would keep us happy. Uplifting, liberated hot air ballooned people! It did dawn on me how true that statement was. The world isn't gonna be standing on the green grass at your side, the world really can be cruel at times, with intentions or otherwise. Life is unpredictable, really. But I think despite all that hoohah going on, when you've found a group of people that keeps you going, stick to them. They're gonna be the people who are gonna bring you around when times get hard.

Well, that my prerogative, at least.

Tonight I ought to give myself a pat on my back, I recovered from a shite of bitterness in mere seconds! Who needs petty nonsense. Face the crap, say your grace, then close that door.

Lastly, thank you for keeping me on my track. *Beams!*

Wo de mei ren! ('Watermelon', primary school slang hoho!)

PS. Call me a procrastinator or a Superwoman but in the midst of all work, I managed to find play! Officially finished a book from our (Mom, sisters & my) share of Big Bad Wolf purchases. And Nanny Returns was mehh! Just alright, I'd give it a 6 over 10? Or maybe a 5.5 hmm...

TESS GERRITSEN, I AWAIT YOUUUUUU!

Loving life!

2011-10-21T23:36:00.003+08:00

Ahhh I so wanna do this! :D Up for a trip anyone? Imma plan! *Pops around like a popcorn!*

Have a great weekend! 'Tis the time to sleep in fralalalalala!

Cassette.

2011-10-20T01:02:00.003+08:00

My attempt on being a (terrible) artist!

In the midst for a Padini project! Hope things sail well! Battle with Adobe Illustrator all night later! And to think, I'm no expert in the software. );

On leave from talking. Blame it on the sore throat. Must have got it from Saturday from shouting like a mad woman @ Shell FuelSave Day 2011! Not being able to talk for days just seems awkward. My fingers are literally doing the talking, am frigging hyper chatting to people on FB now! Gosh, shoot me. I'm losing my ground. Nut job on the loose!

Anywayyyy, bumblebee on the hunt for honey! Viola!

Hood up! It's gonna be a chilly night! ;)

My attempt at winking defeats the purpose. It looks cunning instead of cheeky. Bah humbug. Okay tuck in folks!

Tears. Why they are meant to be.

2011-10-19T00:07:00.002+08:00

A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?"

"Because I'm a woman," she told him.

"I don't understand," he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will."

Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?"

"All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say.

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.

Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, "God, why do women cry so easily?"

God said, "When I made the woman she had to be special.

I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world,

yet gentle enough to give comfort.

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly.

And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed."

"You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart - the place where love resides."

.

Am still in love with Lady Gaga's first record. (:

Woke up smelling the coffee.

2011-10-16T19:12:00.002+08:00

Yes, today I did. And waking up smelling the coffee is one of the best things ever. It's such an uplifting moment where you're so glad that veil of fog has finally been lifted away from your eyes. Sorta like the Eureka and epiphany moments, exhilarating.

The battle is over! What happened afterwards, Italiannies for dinner. Filling! Library. Slept for moments despite the band, fags and liquor aroma. Real Steel. Fell asleep for half an hour, but great movie! Saturday, you were bittersweet.

.

Today, I went for a pick me up. What else? Books! :D After 5 hours of searching and walking. Tadaaaaa!

Going to spend the rest of my weekend away! Hop in the wagon!

.

The coffee:

In times of hardships, let's look from another angle and see the positive endings instead of the conventional sad thoughts. October, you've been tough. But you've made me stronger. (: I officially welcome you.

Happy Monday all!

Risk Management

2011-10-13T11:38:00.005+08:00

I got into the car this morning with Dad behind the wheel.

He cruised forward and said to me, "Today's a beautiful day."

From the back seat, I went, "Today there's so many problems!"

He went, "But there are also so many solutions."

Don't take life too seriously. It's temporary after all.

2011-10-13T02:32:00.002+08:00

Yesterday. I saw. I learnt.

Whenever we have the opportunity and moments to be happy, be. Happiness is contagious. Happiness flocks around us, leaving traces of invisible glows. When I see a happy person, I am happy. When somebody sees me being so jovial, they laugh and join in the fun. Life is just a one way train ticket, there's no way we can go back. And one day, that train journey called life will halt, so where do you go from there then?

Eat a sundae. Play with your pets. Cuddle a baby. Roll around the field. Dance in the rain. Fling yourself off a cliff.

All in all, just be happy. Be free.

:)

Best wishes.

2011-10-11T17:46:00.001+08:00

Everyone thinks that if you have a problem, please do tell.

Thanks truckloads!

Of burnt food, balloons & a barrel of laughter.

2011-10-11T00:40:00.004+08:00

A few weeks back!

A night of just joy, plain joy. Share the happiness!
Balloons are such fun things! :DD

Yo bloke, where's your EQ?

2011-10-10T11:42:00.001+08:00

We've got fucktards in the houseeeeeeeeee!

I need anger management classes! Sign me up!

Aww + Owl = Awl!

2011-10-08T22:31:00.002+08:00

Adobe Illustrator on impulse. :P

I'm not gonna lie here. I haven't been having a great October. Now, honestly this was a surprised to me b/c ever since the first of Oct, everything seemed to be going downhill. Hmm, I really wonder why. But bitter experiences lead to great heights of events I suppose? Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm keeping my chin up.

I've been thinking and frowning a lot these days. Scowling too.

Albeit these withering days, something drove me forward. Assurance and acknowledgement. Seems belittle but really, it was a lifesaver. Nasty things will only keep you going forward. No more dwelling and brooding, this is only the start of life. Sunflower moments, I'm anticipating you. (:

Sundate tomorrow!

Where did these moments disappear to? Me on the right! Taken on Jan 30th, 2010, 8.21am.

There's gotta be more to life. Bring it on.

Those who embraced me with warmth and assurance, thank you. Names need not to be mention! <3

Love motion

2011-10-07T23:58:00.003+08:00

Cheers.

A deserving pat on the back.

2011-10-07T17:29:00.001+08:00

Treading with caution with every step am taking. I really hate to tumble along that thorn, well worn road that's full of despair and suffering.

Keep smiling!

Go on, pull the trigger at me.

2011-10-06T23:39:00.002+08:00

I obliged. I took action. I made a effort.

But to what cost?

What do you want, really?

Fook this.

October, spare me some sufferings!

2011-10-02T23:33:00.000+08:00

Second day into October. Why, it doesn't seem promising. Had a bloody morning, no pun intended. To cut things short, it revolves around lips, teeth and a wall. Please don't ask me what happened when you see me tomorrow! Gahh, just a string of misfortune events. );

Roadshow is left with 2 more days! I really wish everything would be over soon. I think we are all pretty much tired and exhausted. But we'll march on like warriors now won't we?

Couple of unedited shots of good ol vintage cars! Ogle at the prettiness of retro!

I loved the colours with my flash. So pretty! :D Okay, maybe this shall cheer me up from my 2 consecutive bad October days!

When you look outside, look inside.

2011-10-02T01:40:00.001+08:00

A lot of things get twisted and misinterpreted. It's hard to avoid this. We all are afraid of stepping on others' toes. Who wants to be in the shoes of drama? I really don't want to. But when it comes to something we have worked hard for, why would you want to jeopardize everything? You don't have a catch at the end of the rainbow is that just it? It's burdensome when extra issues knock on the door. We are all trying, it's a short term notice, but we're trying. Albeit we're imperfect, but the effort is there, the attempt is there. The least you could have done was to understand and lend a hand. We are grateful to all to those who have helped out, our hearts and admiration goes out to all of them and that includes you too. But if helping is not your cup of tea and drama is, then I wish you all the best! Sincerely.

Speaking about rainbow, I saw one the other day otw to college. It was comforting. (";

2ne1 - Hate You

2011-10-01T13:31:00.004+08:00

October is here!

It sucked today.

Fxck you, seriously.

.

I tried. I tried ways to approach. If you aren't happy. Well, bring on a shouting match might as well looking at the way things are now. I tried my best. Just sayin'.

I just wanna go home. I wanna go home, so badly. I feel the goosebumps, I feel the welling coming over.

Young girl, don't cry.

2011-09-26T00:39:00.004+08:00

This marks the 701th post! Unfortunately, here's no bubble champagne post.

Life isn't easy. Nothing is easy. In this crucial time for me, what I need is more assurance after assurance. I need a shoulder, an ear, some comfort. Times ahead is gonna be tough, I, we need to breathe. We need to take it slow. We need to hold on.

Trust is slowly eroding. Shame isn't it. I can't wait to leave to go off to a foreign land for a week. For a brief period, I need to get away from everything and everyone. It's times like this where you can only trust your oldest friend, yourself.

Young girl it's alright,

Your tears will dry, you'll soon be free to fly.

No one ever wants or bothers to explain,

Of the heartache life can bring and what it means.

Young girl don't hide,

You'll never change if you just run away.

Young girl just hold tight,

Soon you're gonna see your brighter day.

You'll break it,

You'll make it.

I'll soon be able to fly. It's just around the corner.

You will see

2011-09-23T02:47:00.001+08:00

Putting up a front. It's not easy and it's not okay when pretending to be strong.

If it's gonna take me to smile, I will walk a thousand miles.

So you can cry.

2011-09-19T01:16:00.001+08:00

I've never felt this sluggish. There's a pile of work. There's a flurry of time passing by. There's a mountain of uncertainties. There's the workload that I'm afraid I can't handle. I'm not a bright kid. I was brought up with much love and blessing, never the force or discipline to achieve a 100% in Maths or be No. 1 in class. I'm thankful for that, many have gone through deep suffering inflicting themselves mentally and physically. Laid back and steady pace, that was how my parents encouraged us, or rather me. I suppose my being in primary school really messed me up. The people were a different level. Beyond my league in every ways. I suppose that was when I started not giving a care about the world b/c I just couldn't keep up. No matter how much I tried, how much I wanted to fit in, how much I wanted to affiliate with others, I just couldn't. Harsh reality at such young age, is it a good exposure? I've always wondered. In a way, I suppose the bad side is where it leads you to do nasty, evil things. I went disarray. Sadly, my primary years of brood, melancholy, being a lone ranger, somehow shaped me up into my secondary chapter. In a bad way but lesser way as I let go of all evil doings. But studies was something I wasn't motivated to as I explored into the second part of school life. In a way, I started off feeling socially awkward in my teen years at school. I left school 5 years later still feeling awkward albeit better. I regret on a lot of things that has happened in the past. I hated my primary years, I hated from those experiences, I became somebody I'm ashamed of. Capable of doing evil things, what the heck was I thinking?! I think during those times of terror, I actually was just blindly carrying out those cruel deeds, not realizing or reflecting on my actions. I hated my primary years, it's a diary I'd never wish to open, I'd rather fling it to the back of my closet and leave it to rot there. But, unfortunately, the mind works superiorly. Those taunting vivid memories are stuck with me til the end. Here I am, I measure myself from where I was. Honestly, I think I deserved a big pat on the back. As I look upon from vantage point, I'm amazed on how the tables turned. The degree of change is just so contradicting from the view up here. How did I even change so much? Here I am, being so much better off from where I was. Don't judge a book by its cover. I am not that smart or the Ivy League student in class. I have never gotten straight As in my life. My results were terrible. My life was screwed up. But that was then. What matters is now. I look at where I am now. Albeit I'm flawed in many more ways than ever, but I'm just relieved that my pattern in primary school did not follow me right up to tertiary life. Here I am, working hard. I don't have that much of the confidence I exude out. I'm not as strong as I look. Under everybody's skin, there's a point of vulnerability. Isn't it? If you're lucky, you'll see my public meltdowns. But mostly, those chaotic episodes happen behind close doors. I'm not that strong, I never tell anything to people. That is why I've been private all along. It's not you, it's me. All the dirty occurrences I rather keep it to myself. I suppose I will never wear my heart on my sleeve. You probably would be rolling your eyes as you read this or feel nothing at all, but that's okay. Maybe there's a niche of people sharing the same problem. It's good to know you're not alone, that feeling is rather warm even though you're strangers. I know what I've been through and I just feel like lettering out everything so one day, maybe one day, I'd stumbled upon this post and I'll recall this moment. Yeah, like a time capsule. This marks my first public display snippet. It's a lot of words, but it's still vague. I guess I will never truly master the art of personal ranting. And again, it's not you. It's just me.

What I can say is this. I'm at the stage where things are at its best for me. I happy at where I am now. I've abandoned the diabolical path, what's left is only the road towards greater things.

I started typing this at 12.20am. 45 minutes of pouring out sentences after sentences, I feel somewhat liberated. Like after one big good cry. That's a nice feeling, right?

.

I don't know much about break ups. What I do know is that one day you'll look back and take it as a lesson, and probably you'll laugh about what happened. Well, maybe. I'm no expert. But I do hope you're feeling better. Here's a song for you. Since you have an attachment to music. Keep smiling, love.

So it's over

He's with someone else and you know her

And you just can't get any lower

You sit in the dark alone,

and won't answer your phone

Well, I'm sorryI won't attend your pity party

I'd rather go have calamari, and maybe a drink

And yes I think, you should come with me

Life is long

There will be pain but life goes on

with everyday a brand new song

But if you'd rather stay at home

let me do you a favor

I'll ask the sun to shine away from you today

so you can cry (If that's what you want alright)

I'll ask the clouds to bring the rain for you today

so you can cry

Ooooo (If that's what you want alright)

Mmmmm if that's what you want alright

I'm a loverin the pain of a heart from another

Can be difficult to recover, yes this I know

but difficult, isn't impossible

And you shiver (shiver ha)

He was your warmth, you cry lips quiver (quiver ha)

Well honey go on and cry me a river

You wanna be down (wanna be down)

Well fine let me help you out

How 'boutI'll ask the sun to shine away from you today

so you can cry

I'll ask the clouds to bring the rain (rain rain rain rain rain rain) for you today

so you can cry

Ooo wooo uh(If that's what you want alright)

Ooooooo! If that's what if that's what you want alright

Then if that's what you want alright

And your tears won't bring him back

I know you wish that it didbut it just don't work like that

I know that healing takes time, hey!

Even your heart has a pace, hooo!

but how much time are you gonna take?

Too much would be a mistake

Oh wo wo woah!

I'll ask the sun to shine away from you today

so you can cry

Ohh woah wooo! (If that's what you want alright)

I'll ask the clouds to bring the rain (bring the rain, bring the rain!) for you today

so you can cry

Ooo wooo uh(If that's what you want alright)

Ooooooo! If that's what if that's what you want alright

Then if that's what you want alright

I'll ask the sun to shine away from you today

so you can cry

If that's what you want, alright

Goodnight folks. And take care.

I've got big dreams.

2011-09-16T02:13:00.002+08:00

This gotta be a good life. Good, good life.

Blue eyes, blue eyes, what's the matter, matter?

2011-09-13T16:49:00.002+08:00

This is my eyes ~~calling~~ screaming for sleep.

Yesterday, in months since I last saw her, a friend gasped at the sight of me. "Why are your eyebags so serious?! Are you okay?"

I guess, maybe it's just me but my eyebags has always been somewhat exaggerated. Sometimes, I freak myself out LOL. I need to change my sleeping lifestyle. But there's just no time. Dammit.

I'm tired. Just really tired. We all are, I'm sure.

But at the end of the day, I know I've fully maximize myself. The world is my oyster, and I intend to drink it all in while I can. :)

Hamsters in circles.

2011-09-10T23:39:00.006+08:00

It was a Saturday morning. At 3am, we stumbled onto the cold bed. We did nothing. We just held hands. A faint smile tugged on my lips. We held hands facing each other and drifted off to sleep under cover.

It was sublime.

A dollop of happiness!

2011-09-06T21:21:00.002+08:00

At the end of the day, you are responsible for your own happiness.

So take charge. And smile a little more. The world is your own oyster. The world is yours for the taking; whatever you make of it.

(:

Yawns

2011-09-03T00:04:00.003+08:00

Feeling the comfy of the cold, chilled bed. The shouts and shrieks as cards are slammed down on the coffee table. Panic utters from 'Frozen' on the telly. Food wandering around somewhere in my head...

Why, wouldn't retirement be something nice like this? Or even better! Working hard to treat parents for a NZ trip - or wherever they want to travel to! Hard work will definitely take long, but I don't find it of any annoyance or inconvenience at all. I love my family. (";

Yes, indeed, I brought my lappy, as you've guessed it. And of course, I didn't do any of my assignments. Again. As expected... *Rejected sigh* I shall learn from my lesson. Again.

Mac & Cheese anyone? I'm thinking of a midnight supper!

Ending the holidays off w/ a bang, I'm pretty sure! Enjoying all the way until Sunday to bounce back to work again on Monday! Hope this is the case for you folks too!