I'm a believer

Mom and dad arrived after sunset to pick me up from college. My alevel papers start next week, so i'm going to spend a few days unwinding and relaxing in KL before. In the dark, i approached the familiar outline of our car and the family driver waiting outside with the boot open, ready to load my bags. Everything was so normal (the car was even parked on the road, not in the drain)...but it was an unusually dark night. I noticed that we had bought new sunshades for the car. I saw it through the rear window. Ones that had badawi's face on it and a 'undilah barisan nasional'. Very tasteful.Very odd.

The usual procedure is to sign out at the guardhouse before leaving college. When i got out, i suddenly realised that our mercedes had become blue!BLUE!...and a not very nice shade of BLUE!!!...we have had this car for over 10 years, since i was a toddler. It started of as a very pretty shade of ivory. A very unique colour. It was rare to see another car on the road with the same body paint. Then the driver decided to squeeze the car between a bus and divider, scraping the side of the bus in the process and getting random colours of advertisement from the bus stuck on the car. A repaint job was necessary. I chose something that i thought was ivory, but turned out to be more goldish, a real shocker. We got used to it. ...after a long time-nobody fancies gold much in my family.

But now it was blue. And done without telling me. They said that they just felt like a change. So they sprayed it blue. After 10 minutes in the car, sis decides to tell me it wasn't our car. Holy crap!...it was so damn identical, even the interior!..i practically grew up with our car and i couldnt even tell the diff. Well once i knew, i started to notice that there was no sunroof and the seats were a different type of leather. I guess thats why they say i'm blur.

Down memory lane

Sani bought a kite!!...and naqiah has a skipping rope!..ohh the sweet memories of childhood comes rushing back to me.

We spent the evening skipping to teddy bear teddy bear, turn around, teddy bear teddy bear touch the ground...and granny in the kitchen, doing a lil stitching, in comes the boogeyman and pushes her out. The little joys of the jump rope.

Then we ran the kite. Because of the lack of wind, it wouldn't fly unless i continuously run it. Trust me, it beats jogging hands down. I had fun..:)

why

I wonder why snake charmers play music to snakes that can't hear. I wonder why the spanish matadors wave red cloths at bulls that are colour-blind.hmmm...

Toe Woes

My little toe nail is almost totally detached from the nailbed. It can flip open. The sides are not sticking down but the end is. Like a trapdoor. But the good news is, my new nail is growing underneath!...can't wait for the trapdoor-like toe nail to fall off.

And hwee yin's big toe is acting up as well. It's a ghastly shade of green, blue and black. The whole toe..scary!

Baby steps

I just got a lesson in peeling oranges. Naval oranges. Well not really. Hwee yin says she feels too much pain watching me attempt to peel the fruit. So she does it for me. Who peels non-peeling oranges?hwee yin. Then she teaches me how to eat it. Insert two thumbs into the centre and part the orange, then consume bit by bit. I feel like such a child.

Horizontal Sundays

I have actually missed this term so much.

It's how we spend our sundays, week after week. Sprawled on the floor of my hall in front of the tv. Only to get up and transfer onto one of the beds. Lazing and lazing...and lazing after a sinfully late night out, or in...whichever. Hours would merge into one stretch of blissful nothingness. Then we'd all be snapped back to reality, packed into a car and sent right back to college. Only to say hello to monday morning.

Windfall

Happiness.Bliss.Joy.

All our holidays are planned. Tioman. Sun, sea and sand. We will be missing student dinner though, but oh well, i can deal with that. Then it's straight back to college for awards day rehearsal, and the awards day itself. Two years of KYUEM to be all wrapped up in one final ceremony. I can't believe we are approaching the end. Straight after that it's off to bali!!more sun,sea and sand. I might be overdosed by the end of all of this....i have to call up borneo ink and postpone my tattoo dates. Can't go to bali and stay out of the waters...and then its Scandinavia for me!!!...yipeeee!..The itenary for denmark, sweden and norway looks pretty good so far. All hand picked and drawn up by sis, she's done an amazing job. Now all i want to do is day dream, looking forward so so much.

Too bad exams are in the way. Darn. Such a spoiler.

Surprise!!?..not so

It's becoming impossible to outdo and outwit each other. But so far we have done quite a good job.

Sap and hwee yin's surprise celeb last night was not much of a surprise, thanks to our darling little blur jo. She had no idea that the party was for both hwee yin and sap, and goes right up to hwee yin, "you know right?later 9.30. Sap's party."

As the bunch arrive, we had no idea whether to hide or not. With the bonnet of the car ablaze, i think we could be spotted a mile away. So why hide? but we hid anyway.

Loud and heated discussion of the havoc going on on lis's blog took centre stage. Bloated from all the pizza,cake and choc balls, it was another great night with the gang. Happy 20th kiddos! I'm starting to lose count of the candles. :P

Paradise beckons

Tioman....here we come!!!

Ooh lala i can't wait

i was searching for tattoo patterns online. this is what i came across

Freedom of speech??

She says what she believes in. Let her be. 'You' have your opinions, she never said you were wrong. She just begs to differ. Whoever 'you' are, her words must have hit a really sore spot. but she has acknowledged your feedback, let the issue rest.

Divine Intervention

Adopting a vegetarian diet for the past few days, we went to the temple in Batu Caves. In conjunction with Lord Muruga's (the golden deity in the background) birthday, the family carried pots of milk up the 272 steps as an offering. It so happens to be Wesak Day as well today.

The number of resident monkeys there have really dwindled. I was actually looking forward to having the monkeys all around as we descended from the caves after prayers. Mum ended up wrestling with one once when it lunged for her plastic bag of bananas and flowers. My little cuzzy, jeevan, was chased round and round by a monkey a few years back because he was clutching a packet of nuts. Screaming at the top of his lungs in fear, he ran as fast as his little legs could carry him while the rest of could only laugh helplessly. The monkeys always win in the end.

Surprisingly quite a number of people were up and about early in the morning (7am!!). Most were there for a morning jog. Quite popular among the locals for exercise.

This was thaipusam a year ago. Its PACKED during festivities. Like REALLLYYY packed.

High Rise Living

Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. I can’t pick up the bloody wireless. The sweet spot before this was on the washing machine. Now I find that I can ‘curi’ my neighbour’s connection from the corner of my bed. Well, technically it is not stealing, just erm….sharing. Since this is only a weekend place, there is no need to fix our own connection. Being innovative, we even made our own device to focus random broadband signals from other units. An amateur one from a Pringles tin. Well it works. But it has been impossible to connect for the past god knows how long. Oh neighbour, whoever you are, wherever you live, wake up and turn your wireless on. Its past noon. I need you.

Oh, I didn’t manage to get tickets to watch equus :(…Bummer..but i did get my new body bar!finally..i thought my pierced hole would close up before i did.

comedy turned tragedy

She does it again.

I was waiting for my sis to pick me up from college. Driving down from Ipoh, she was due to arrive half past noon. On the dot my phone rings. She's reached. Giggling hysterically, she exclaims to me, "Anu! Disaster, disaster!!" She had managed to park half the car in the drain....and i thought i treated the crv badly by slamming it into a tree.

The sight of half a crv in the college drain by the warden's office drew quite abit of attention. College staff who were heading home for friday prayers stopped their motorcycles to inspect the damage and offer assistance. I called upon Sani and the boys to help lift the car out and back onto the road. Thank god Hanad has been gyming furiously lately. It was time for him to flex those muscles.

However before the boys reached, our abang-abang (college staff ) had already put all four wheels onto levelled road. They gave one massive heave and sis stepped on the accelerator. Voila! That did the trick.

But suddenly i realised that abang hashim (he's our chef) was on the ground, unable to stand. "Aduh, kaki aku. Terkena batu." Upon closer inspection, he parted his toes, and i could almost see the bone of his little toe, as though it near to being severed off his foot. I felt faint. It was bad. Panic and guilt rose within me like a tidal wave, and i ran off helter-skelter in search for a first aid kit. None was within close reach.

Sis & i then drove abang hashim with abang khairul accompanying straight to the tanjung malim clinic. To make matters worse, we drove that 20 minutes on a close to empty tank. The petrol indicator was below E! I have never prayed so hard for fuel to last forever.

Abang hashim received 4 stitches and 3 injections. He will probably be on medical leave for the next few days.

In the car (on the way to tg malim)

Sis : Abang, sangat sakit ke?
Abg Hashim : Takde la dik. Macam semut gigit je. Mana ade sakit semua.
the epitome of strength, bravery and courage-not even a groan of pain

At the clinic ( me, sis & abang khairul sit outside the A&E waiting )

Sis : Hari ini, saya sudah susahkan ramai orang. Maaf bang.
Abg Khairul : Eh, tak susah pun. Ni semua tak boleh kata. Memang berlaku. Lagipun, kita semua orang malaysia, mestilah tolong.
such a sweetheart, in the true malaysian spirit

In the car ( on the way back )

Abg Hashim : Dik, sekarang semua sudah ok. Jangan susah hati lagi ye. Nanti bila pandu balik, bolehla menyanyi dan bergembira. Lagu hindustan ke apa. Abang ok dah.
wow, all this after telling a friend "kaki i terkoyak" on the phone

I can't express enough my gratitude to everyone. Everyone who was so selfless. Everyone who didn't 'point fingers' when the mishap happened. Everyone who acted so quickly, so much so abg hashim still has the usage of his little toe. Thank you!

A splashing 20th!

Hwee Yin turned 20, only to find everyone asleep at midnight. Poor kiddo. Well, nobody forgot, if that's what you thought.

7.45 am May 16 2008

Josephine and Sapna walk into my room and shake me awake. Hair tousled, half dazed, looking terribly disheveled we creep out of my chalet. Nobody wakes up earlier than 9. It's just too ungodly. I hurry to drag alissa's butt out of bed. Jo and Sap fill little containers with water. Back to my chalet.

Padding in softly like four little thieves, i twist the knob of Hwee Yin's door. She's sleeping so peacefully. Short lived peace. Splash!~..she awakens with a start. We start belting out the birthday song. Happy 20th dear!

The Intruder

I had a visitor today. An unwelcome guest. For the first time in almost two years he decided to pay me a visit. I greeted him with a can of mosquito spray. He was a tough one. He had me jumping from chair to bed, bed to chair (my room is only so big) as he scurried around trying avoid the jet of killer spray that tailed him everywhere. Twitching till the very end, he clung to life. But finally died. Good riddance!

What lies ahead?

I am torn between choices, endless choices once my exams end.

Should i put myself down for the Raleigh International project in the interiors of Sabah?

Or maybe i should just busy myself with planning my holidays and getaways...?

Should i get myself a job?

....choices+me=dizzyfying effect.

Raleigh has had a magnetic effect, drawing me towards it. But 5 weeks away, that is a large chunk of my break. Maybe i should do Raleigh next summer. Oh i have to decide soon.

MyRedDressWeekEnd

I walked into Blook in Bangsar, knowing that i would definitely find something red and nice there. 3 boys were in tow, my shopping companions for the day. Each dress i tried on had to be modelled publicly as Blook does not have mirrors in the fitting rooms. Finally, torn between a few choices, i called upon the boys (who were busy snapping photos of random girls passing by outside) for help, refusing to take the owner's advice-the owner and a bunch of salesgirls were trying to help me pick by then.

My shopping companions cam-whoring

Owner : You must really trust these boys' preferences.
Me : Yeah, they have good taste (brimming with confidence)

Just as those words escaped my lips, Joel picks up the skimpiest thing around, a brown tube. Hey anu, this will loook good. I think this is hot. Buy this!...gosh, boys will be boys!-the owner gave me a funny smile.

It so happens that a whole bunch of us are May babies. In conjunction with all the birthdays, we had dinner at Souled Out in hartamas at night. Dinner was yummy and i especially loved the Dragonfly signature drink. Paradise in a glass. I think it was a combination of dragonfruit, lemon, lime, mint leaves and dashes of this and that. This was followed by a cards and shisha session at Borneo Rainforest in Sunway, supper at William's corner in Kelana Jaya and drinks back at my place.

I woke up with a start sometime mid afternoon on Sunday. Stomach churning and head heavy, laden down by a hangover. Vague memories of dancing, laughing, dancing, laughing played in my head. Must have been a good night i had. It better have been. I spent my whole Sunday in bed, recovering. Everything i consumed, including water, came right back out 5 minutes later. My final bout of puking was at college's entrance in front of all the security guards.Ooopsie.

i welcomed a new member to my family.His name is Roofus. My first puppy, adding to my collection of bears, a green snake and an oversized Nemo-thanks b!

Snakes&Firebreathers

This sleepy little valley came alive today. Evening with Topaz was like a real carnival!

When i walked into the foyer area, i saw a backdrop that looked realllyyy familiar. It looked like something i helped paint for Sapphire last year. So i went nearer for an up-close inspection. A man came running...hey hey careful girl. You nearly stepped on my snakes!yikes!!~

The snake charmer takes out an albino python for an exclusive sneak peak. He starts kissing it and Sap who couldn't resist (hmmm...Hanad tak cukup?;), gave the snake a peck on its cheek.Cheek?ermm...whatever u call the side of the snakes head.

And Sani, our very own rockstar opened the whole Arabic Night themed event alongside local rapper Irfan. A fire-eater was spitting out huge flames in the middle of what used to be a Japanese Garden, but now looks like a construction site. It's supposedly going to be transformed into a 'contemporary zen garden'...whatever that means. He then proceeded to gobble up the flames!

They even had a cobra show. Whoa...when the hood raised the crowd freaked out. It was very impressive with the snake charmer giving the kiss of death. A mouth to mouth kiss with the longest and most poisonous snake.

squash court...or zoo?

I am convinced. sani is a lightning bolt. hwee yin is newly-born bambi. And anusha is a baby elephant.

sani zips around the squash court whooping ass. hwee yin slips and slides all over the place barely making contact with the moving target. And anusha stomps boom boom boom her way to the ball, only to miss.

The circus is in town folks.

Sweet Sweet 19

I was sitting on the floor in my room trying to tear myself away from the movie playing on my laptop. I needed to get cracking on my 3 hour maths paper when hwee yin barges in. " You are being kidnapped she screams!"- a t-shirt in her hand - my blindfold and gag to be. She tries to wrap it around my head, sandwiching my headphones together with it on her first attempt. Alissa was laughing hysterically in the background.

Finally after throwing a black jacket over my head (i looked like a total terrorist!~), she led me out of the chalet, across drains, up and down stairs, across ledges and imaginary holes-they had a good time watching me trying to take bigggg steps over nothing. Dini was guiding blindfolded naqiah. Elegantly blindfolded naqiah in a matching purple tie. Suddenly we felt the cool air of the cafe (yes i felt it even beneath the layers of jackets they threw onto me) and a band strikes up 'happy birthday'....ooOoooh!~

They transformed the music room..the rather drab and plain music room into a cocktail party area. It was beauuuutifullll! A warm glow fell over the whole place (they brought in pretty lamps from the boy's chalets), illuminating all our friends who sat there waiting for us, the blindfolded birthday girls. I couldn't have been any more surprised. It was perfection. Flowers stolen from the warden's area was arranged in vases. Sap's homemade apple crumble held 19 candles waiting to be blown out, there was a scrumptious spread on the table. Cocktail sausages, garlic deviled eggs, nachos with tuna on the side and lots and lots sparkling juice.Yumyum. The night was complete with a live band, courtesy of Sani,Loh,Ju Vern and everyone else. We camwhored tonnes, played alot of music...and it was just fun.perfect fun.

Thanx a bunch guys..the originality was amazing..
Nobody could have put it better than Johan when he told me "I wish this was my party."

Cheers to another great year ahead!

it's true...places can grow on you

I never thought that one day, i would be rid of that heavy feeling of dread and despair as i approach KYUEM. The trees that line the road, the palm-ish trees, that I see as we near Lembah Valley evokes memories of Kuantan.

All the good times at the beach.

the rock climbing, swimming, lazing

the long nights as we stretch out on the seaside chairs of Hyatt

(illegally-while we wait for the hotel guards to chase us off)

the nonsense conversations.

the endless yamcha sessions.

Just the good old times.

The thought of returning to college after blissful time spent at home is awful. But now, these trees, they don't make me long for the car to be turned around in the opposite direction anymore. I actually look forward to college. The very college that i once fondly termed as the 'hellhole'. Well, it has been almost two years since i came here. It's hard to hate anything that long. Plus, i can actually say with conviction that i will never trade these two years for anything, anything at all.

Breaking news:The MOST happening place

We were all in the car. Our red 'ferrari'. The red 'ferrari' that once carried 11 people. Destination: The East Coast Mall. The newest thing around Kuantan. On our way we have a few pitstops. This takes us past Megamall. The previous hotspot to hang out at.

Anusha : Why is the megamall repainted a combination of blue and cirit-birit colour?

Sangeetha : People in Kuantan have just no taste. What colour are the malls in KL?

All three of us in the car go silent. Nobody knows. Conclusion: If you can't remember the colour, it's good. It doesn't scream out ugliness at the top of its voice.

Sangeetha : What colour is the East Coast Mall?

(after awhile)

Sujaen : Hmmm...i can't recall. That's a good sign, i guess.

So we drive on. And then we see the new mall. A ghastly combination of cirit-birit and yellow. Wow. To make things worse, at the entrance of it in bright cheerful letters, a sign reads

EAST COAST MALL, THE MOST HAPPENING PLACE...

.....even having Big Apple and Baskin Robbins can never ever, ever justify such a bold statement.

The Malaysian Hand

Yesteday, sis and i dropped alissa off in a gated and guarded housing area. Of course she couldn't recall the address of her aunt's place. As we approached the guardhouse, we decide to test the power of 'The Hand.' Sis sticks out her hand, in a rather feeble and unsure manner (it has been awhile since she's been home to Msia and can't really remember how things work), sure enough we are waved through. So much so for paying a bomb to live in an area with security.

i have had to show 'hand' quite abit lately to appease the other drivers on the road as sis weaves in and out of kl traffic, often drawing disgruntled looks. Appeased they are. No malaysian can hold a grudge against another when the 'hand' comes into play.