O Christmas Tree (parody ni)

O Singapore O Singapore!

How could you be so crowded

O Singapore O Singapore!

How could you be so crowded?

Not everyday I visit thee

But you are there for shopping spree

O Singapore O Singapore

I wish you weren't so crowded!

O Singapore O Singapore

Much longing doth thou bring me

O Singapore O Singapore

Much temptation thou bring me

For not annually i go to thee

But this year i do with joy and glee

O Singapore O Singapore

Your economy will be booming

O Singapore O Singapore

Please welcome me with more SALES

O Singapore O Singapore

Nary a moment of bore

Each day there will be spent well

Shopping, swimming and studying,

O Singapore O Singapoooore..

Wait for me now, i'm coming!

haha ok, i'm going off to Sg tomorrow.

So I'm going to wish allll of my darling friends a very very

Merry Christmas!!!

&

Have a wonderful week. :)

wallowing in ice cendol.

don't mind me.

i think it's unnatural to feel this stressed in the middle of the semester, right before Christmas with New Year looming.

Quote from senior (so i wont forget in the future): ''Sem 5 is as busy as Semester 3 and as difficult as Semester 4.

yippie.

Bibliobibuli rejoice!

Who says Malaysians don't read should eat their words. (pun completely intended)

today had not one moment of tedium. woke up early, potter about, and got ready for shoppinggg.

there's this big bad book sale in amcorpMall that put out 200 000 books with superbly reasonable prices. heck, reasonable to the point of unreasonable. outrageous.

they start at 10am. i went yesterday at about 11am but one look at the place had me paling and turning around. was supposed to just get something for my cousin in singapore and go to MidValley for New Moon at 11.40am.
the crowd was horrible terrible vegetable.
the cashiers were frantic.
bookworms were clutching boxes of all shapes and sizes that were rapidly filling with books.

i was crushed i couldnt join them.
and it wasnt even a public holiday (i wailed on the inside).

but TODAY, i knew what to expect. my friends and i reached just shy of 10am. and *gasp*


the queue went all the way from the entrance to the other end of the floor and made a U. undaunted, we joined the wait.
when they let us in, i browsed and browsed and browsed until i swear i wont even know if my eyes fell out.
sooo many books.
stacks and stacks of em..
carts upon carts of em just waiting for bibliophiles to pick some up and take them home.

so finally satisfied (sort of) i had something for my cousins in singapore, my dad, and myself, i paid and went off. RM 128 for 14 fiction and 2 non-fiction isn't too shabby. :D
that much cash will probably get you 1/3 of decent pair of Aldo.
one-third of a pair of heels vs. 16 books. hmm

free bookmarks!

when i exit the place however, i had another shock.

in effort for some amount of crowd control, the book authorities limit the number of people entering the place.
so the queue went on and on around the entire floor.
the. entire. floor.
one round.
the tail is right back at the entrance.
oh my god.

let me reinforce my point.

Why is the place so packed?

one. Malaysians do read.

two. It's nearing christmas (yayyyyyy). a good book is a handy present.

three. two words : tax deductions :D :D

four. Malaysians are catching up with Singaporeans' kiasuism.

five. it's RM8 a book for goodness sake! that's enough for a crowd-pull to rival a preview/members-only/clearance/endseason sale from any designer boutiques.

my (tiny) beef was that there weren't any real bestsellers in there (or maybe others snatched them all up in the first day). i was looking forward to get jodi picoult & cecelia ahern's work. none of kinsella to be seen either.
oh well. i'm still happy.

Anyway, after that was the Pyramid stop. their xmas deco is quite fascinating. a nice change from the usual glitzy stuff. but me thinks Pavilion's one looks fabulous (from Cher's blog a log log)..


we had lunch at Pasta Zanmai. i give a thumbs up for the food, while fingering the hole in my pocket for the price.

ooh

it's going to be an intriguing semester, this one.

although admittedly, the coming workload makes me want to stretch my fingers determinedly and tie a swath of cloth across my forehead going heeyaah.. bring it on!

but not yet la haha. it's only been the first week. if my coursemates see this, they'll probably grimace and think i'm crazy.. but i guess i want to take the semester seriously. technically 2nd year already, core subjects are finally in play.

no more fooling around.

study consistently!

a friend said it's my motto every time i start a semester but somehow fail to maintain.

hyuk hyuk hyuk

wont stop me from trying anyway.

anyway, i have Pharmaceutical Microbiology this time around. the introduction lecture was given on Friday by this homely Indian lady with melodious singsong voice one can't help relate to story-tellers. She spieled off all sorts of microorgs names and nomenclature - some i recognise, most i don't - with the true passion of a microbiologist.

at the end of the lecture, she perked our interest all right. just goes to show that first impressions are always important.

then there's Malaysian Studies. i think about 70% of the class did the subject before in their SAM so i've heard non stop complaints about having to take it again to fulfill our credit hours. it had been a downright boring experience from what i've heard so i thought it would be like the usual tedious combo of Sejarah + Pengajian Am + whatnot..

instead, what we got in our first lecture blew all our preconceived (mis)conception to Antartica and back. first of all, it's no tok haji that was delivering the talk. it was a chinese lady who strode in and took charge of the hall, giving us no time to adjust to the barrage of things she was telling us. in English. The introduction lecture was .. different. i don't know how to put it in other words.

after five minutes, i opined that she's a competent and experienced speaker who said things without prettying them up first. She practically bulldozed through social taboos and stuff that we cant actually talk about in public, while warning us intermittently that we should take everything with an open mind. She put us at ease when she said the module was designed in such a way so we wont have to sit for exam *pause for effect* unless we want to. (who in their right mind would, right right)

Actually how she put it was something like, ''If you want to sit for exam, i can prepare the notes and everything. the hard part then is that you all will have to memorise the facts and stuff. Aaand during exam, you'll vomit vomit out everything then i have to sift through the vomit which is actually what i have given you in the first place.'' so what's the point?

therefore of course, we pretty much agreed unanimously that we do not want exam thank you very much.

admirably, she could talk and talk till the cows come home for nearly the entire two hours allotted for Malaysian Studies.

i honestly can say that this is probably the most liberating subject i have to undertake since... ever.

don't have to worry about tests, not humdrum lectures where attendance is compulsory so you'll look at your watch every 5minutes willing the time to go faster while thinking of all the other work you can get done in this wasted one hour, your eyelids wont droop when you hear the droning of lecturer's voice because your lachrymal glands are too busy working up tears of laughter.

so basically what i did was sit back, and enjoy the talk.

and the wonder of all wonders is... i wonder if she'll be able to plant the seed of patriotism and let it bercambah before the end of the semester. can she? can she reveal the vivid colours, make it brilliant when everything has progressively dulled to black and white? Something that all the years of cursing and mugging for sejarah and pengajian am as mandated by our education system had failed and failed badly at achieving. you make it compulsory, we have no choice but to study it and do well init to advance. but it doesnt mean you can make us like it.

but somehow, this lecturer, without qualms of having propriety and tiptoeing around shaky grounds, manages it, or nearly will i think. she showed us by assimilating what we already know through textbooks that we slaved over but never really understood its true point, that yes we have flaws. this place has its flaws but look at its other beautiful aspects as well.

*curtain close*

Footprints.

i'm unwontedly sad.

there are people in life who are just... there.

i never really given much thought about them.

you could even say i take them for granted

to be where they've always been

just there.

these familiar faces i meet in daily life.

this familiarity that grew, unwittingly, to fondness.

the figures who wriggle into our hearts, our memories.

until one day

decides to leave.

it's funny how it'd never strike me

even though i know

here is not a place belonging to him

and yet

unconscionably so,

sorrow is a bittersweet taste

for another face

just passing by.

*heaves a sigh*

i dont mean to wax poetic, sometimes what i spout in writing comes out that way.

and i know you'll think it is silly. when i tell you who i have in mind right now as all this verbal penning is tucked in a little corner of the infinite cyberspace.

but i'm not writing it for one individual, although it started out that way. this is a dedication to all the people who fleeted, lingered and journeyed on in my life. some not enough to make a lasting impression, others whom i may recall evocatively from time to time.

but the fact remains, we are all passers-by in the life of others.

okay by now you're probably dying of curiosity. try not to chortle when you read this..

my favorite naan-making macha is going back to India soon.

yes i suspected, and my suspicions were confirmed during my family's yam cha session just now.

it's odd. but he has been there for years.

from the first day he appeared, ever-present from then on at the naan corner of the restaurant, from the first time i ordered my leavened bread, we formed a tacit bond, out of familiar affection.

he knows me and my preference.

all i have to do is gesture ''one'' with my finger and he'll nod knowingly.

In less than ten minutes (usually), my garlic naan - no planta, with dhal, will arrive crisp and mouth-wateringly fragrant.

For a while then, anything weighing on my mind dissipates. I am an amateur epicurean enjoying a gastronomic delight. And as far as i'm concerned, he makes The best garlic naan i've ever tasted.

So yes, i'll bid him good journey to return to his family and I wonder if the naan will ever taste the same after. I know it won't.

I came across this phrase that seems apt at the moment:

You don't lose sleep over it, the memories don't consume you, but for some reason, that person stays with you until the end. Ms Wislawa Szymborska

That, folks, sums it all in a nutshell.

out of free time and high speed internet.

Study comrades.

People who flashes around. ;)

Soph, the amazingly skinny big-eater. @Sushi Zanmai

Dessert restaurant, Snowflake @SS15 Subang.

cancer awareness day.

hence the bright yellow

look who's rockin` IMU's library

pained looks from people studying in the library

crap, i'm such a city girl.

we took a family trip to PD. rented two bungalows there, just enough for 16 people. upon reaching, i explored the place. only the most basic of amenities were available (read: no wifi), but i *thought* i didn't mind.

i really liked the copper-coloured sand on the beach.

spent a small part of late afternoon walking on the beach from one end to the other.

relaxing. windy. salty. peaceful. too bad i was alone. ;)

monkeys were more abundant than humans.

thank god they're not the aggressive steal-your-foodies type

no this is not one. but a closely related species probably.

as night fell however, all kinds of insects appeared. i tried to ignore a millipede having fun catching it's dinner, and the darn lotta flying insects when it started to pour heavily.

huddled under the covers with a good book.. ah bliss.

then

the electricity went out after a particularly loud thunder clap.

the room plunged into inky blackness.

honestly. i wouldve been scared half stupid if it weren't for the fact that my daddie was snoozing in the bed next to me. on account of my phobia and all. phew

cuteness factor one squillion

lookie who was there to wave us farewell..with its geli-fying snake-like tongue

*shudder*

it's good to be back. i think i've shopped enough. time to get to work on my foundation pharm draft. Semester starts next week. i'm probably the only one who looks forward to it. *grins*