Sunny Monday

Woke up this morning with the radiant glow of sunshine permeating through my curtains. Spent an hour reading my latest Jeffery Archer acquisition until I felt too hungry to go and strolled down the corridor to do the toothbrushing business and make some breakfast. No cereal and milk this time – soup noodles with mince beef, veggies and egg! Lovely and warm even if it was a bit too dilute. Didn’t really care, I was too hungry.

Telly time in the living room so while scarfing away at my home-made bowl of flavoured water and noodles, I watched Criminal Intent and Privileged. Currently in the process of watching SVU which I think is far more interesting that the previous two, although am a bit saddened to discover that there is only one season of Privileged. I quite like the character development but I can see how it can get quite annoying.

Rafie came and bought my home phone which I bought from the antiques shop. I got a nicer one on ebay for about the same price and anyway, I can’t return the one off ebay can I...

Thinking of what else I have to do for the rest of the day: watch the remaining recorded episodes of whatever is on the Sky+ box, return pan scourers to Tesco Express and… I’m out of ideas.

* * *

Call the Boy – but he’s busy/I’ve got nothing interesting to say.

Don’t call the Boy – but I miss his voice.

There’s a catch 22 if I ever saw one. Damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.

* * *

Ah yes, buy new batteries for my wireless mouse. Tho I may have some spare, I can’t find them…

Certain Things

Il ya certaines choses que je ne le comprendrai jamais.

Saying things in French gives it a certain mystique to that the English language cannot afford to it. With French, every phrase is said with emotion, with a gesture, with a deeper meaning and story behind it. It makes you wonder why.

* * *

It’s funny how people can get so attached to things that to others are of no consequence. A smelly old doll could be someone’s precious childhood keepsake. A threadbare stretched out t-shirt is a memoir of a long forgotten past when times were simpler and perhaps happier. We assign our emotions and memories to these objects to materialise the events, traumatic or delightful, in a separate body to distance ourselves from the past; to stop us dwelling on it.

In essence, no-one is a walking video recorder of memories, ready to recall every last detail at a flick of a switch. It can’t and won’t be done. Sometimes you may think that you don’t horde, you don’t have to keep things to remember but it can’t be escaped. The mere action and emotion is iterated in the English language: “sentimental”, to attach memories of the past to objects of no consequence to the event. There is no logic. A sentimental old fool is not an oxymoron but a description of what it is versus the harsh logic of reality. It cannot answer the question why with words but rather with deep emotion and longing glance into the past.

What if you become sentimental about a living being? Merging the past and the present where past emotions and present physicality battle to take precedence in the beholders eyes. Is there a right and wrong victor? A battered wife weeps at the better past, an unfaithful lover prays for blindness. How can you choose?

* * *

If you’re stranded on a snow-covered mountain top should you scream for help? Avalanche or ambulance?

Summer’s here!

But so far no parties. I went for Hui Teng’s (Hui Ann’s sister) birthday dinner courtesy of an invitation from Dominic. Went to Cosmo in Cardiff Bay, a Chinese, Asian, Oriental Buffet thing which turned out just as I thought it might – huge variety of food but a little pricy at 12 pounds a head. Saved a bit on transport cos a couple of the group had cars so we all drove down. Xiu Mei got a little food drunk and we were singing away walking back from Cosmo to the car. Funny times.

Anyway, there’s not much left for me to busy myself with these days. There’s the occasional trip down to Keylet to remind them that the flat is not going to fix itself. There are the odd trips to Tesco and grocery stores that ensure that I don’t starve from laziness. Other than that, now that I’ve got internet (yay! Since the 7th Aug) the vast quantities of rubbish on the web can entertain me to the point where I don’t know what else is going on outside and don’t really care to find out.

I have to force myself to stick to the rule that I instilled way back in Swansea: Must go outside at least once a day. Doesn’t matter where to or what I’m doing, there’s no substitute for fresh air. And once I’m outside, I find that I might as well walk around. I managed to walk down to Cardiff Bay from the City Centre with Julie last week. First time ever that I’ve led the way and it feels goooooood hehe.

Today however, I went down to the City Centre via Keylet for the above mentioned reason. My flat is 80% fixed up and clean but there are things like broken and non-existent blinds and missing desk chairs that I want sorted out. Walked down Salisbury Road past The Boy’s favourite hairdresser; contemplated whether I should take a picture of his “fave” hair style and send it to him but thought better of it. He can cut his hair where and when he wants however he wants.

Headed down to HSBC first to ask about the parents opening a UK joint bank account. I don’t know why but I’ve got the time, why not. I’ve got no complaints about HSBC, their customer service is very good and staff are very friendly BUT, it takes FOREVER to actually speak to someone who knows anything. Good thing I had time to kill and my new phone cum mp3 player with me or blood would have been shed (More on the new phone later).

With HSBC questions asked and answered, I hopped next door to Scope which has a special place in my heart. It’s a charity shop which benefits those with cerebral palsy. Chern and I discovered it together and it’s always got some long lost treasured gems at the back. I was feeling lovely and warm (cos of the sun) so I bought a book for my dad as a bday present and a top from River Island for £3.50.

With book and top in hand I decided to head over to the Cardiff International Arena to check out the ticket prices for Russell Howard who is going to perform in Cardiff on the 12th December. I’ve seen him on Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo and I love him to bits! He’s adorable, cute, funny and well fit! Haha! He’s seriously funny tho, he’s got the very British self-depreciating humour combined with a mildly cross-eyed puppy dog look that just draws you in. Ariff Azlan might be joining be to watch it so Yay for company!

On my way out of the box office (no tickets, I didn’t have enough cash, and besides there’s no rush) I saw above the construction boards that bordered the demolition of the NCP Carpark that used to face the Cineworld/Gala Casino/Venue Club building and I stopped to watch. What I saw was really amazing. Not to say that it was anything glamorous but the three massive deconstruction machines were mesmerising to look at. In the middle of the bordered area was a large pile of grey rubble – lots of dust so I’m guessing it was crushed concrete – and with any concrete structure, it was reinforced with steel rebars. As with everything in the UK, they try and recycle as much of it as possible, not only because it’s good to save resources but also because it’ll save them money in the long run. But I’ll get to that part.

There were three huge machines. One ripped apart the original building – floor by floor, pillar by pillar – until it was only big chunks of reinforced concrete. Another machine scooped and pushed the rubble made by the first machine into the centre pile. I have to point out that when the first machine ‘dismantles’ the original building, it does so in big hulking chunks, many of the chunks still have whole steel rebars in them, and you can’t recycle reinforced chunks. The third machine was the one I really admire the most. It had a beak-like mechanism in the front which it used to pick up big chunks of concrete and crush in-between its jaws, freeing the steel rebar. It would then manoeuvre the steel rebars into a pile and pick it up and drop it into a separate pile for the rebars. What really fascinated me about the last machine was the delicacy in which the driver manipulated the machine to separate and pick up the steel rebars and sheet metal from the rubble. Imagine a small dog nosing thru its food for its favourite bit and picking it up in its teeth and you’ll have some semblance of what the mechanical creature was like. It “nosed” the metal into position, it shook side to side to loosen the metal from its jaws, it even dropped and re-grabbed small piles of metal if it “felt” it didn’t have a good enough grip.

If anything, watching the deconstruction site has given me a new appreciation into demolition. Anyone can tear down a building, but to do it with style is a whole new art form.

* * *

New Phone!

Nokia 6600 Slide! I like it! It’s black! It’s got 3G!

And I want to get an Invisible Shield for it.

* * *

Oh yes, Last post was so optimistic. What I didn’t count on was the flat being left like a tip by the previous tenants. I returned to Swansea the same day and spent a couple of day fuming about the injustice etc etc. The flat is nice and clean and liveable now and I don’t want to relive the horror and disgust that I first experienced when I stepped in. Thank god for Aziah and her Mum and the wonders of disinfectant.

* * *

Julie bought me a little sunflower in a pot which I have named Maximillian (Max for short). He's not doing too well at the moment but when he's feeling better and looking perkier I'll take some pictures to share.

Good News!

1. I GRADUATED!! Fk yeah!
2. I'm moving into my new flat TOMORROW! Fk Yeah!
3. I'm in Swansea and the weather is good! Fk Yeah!

Ok, so the last one isn't that great but it's still good.

I got a Second Class honours Lower division. I'm quite pleased with it tho. A Second Class is still a second class. Onwards to the BVC!

The New Flat will be awesome! I am SUPER looking forward to staying in a flat with less than 12 other people and having a comfortable double bed and my own shower! No internet tho as far as I can tell unforch, so no updates for a while I reckon. Enjoy yourselves cyber people! I know I will be!

Poetry

I'm scared. Confused.
Like I'm peering into the the darkness
and all I see is a light that blinds.

Shell shock. Mortar bombed.
The dust cloud rises up
and obscures what should be clear.

The radio crackles in silence.
Surrounded by a choking warmth
my skin shivers in fere.

How did it come to this?
A hatred of the soft
and the condemnation of the lost.

-Anon, 2009

FTS

i think i have become boring girlfriend.

Fk that Sht. Wht the hell is wrong with me? I gotta stop trying so hard.

Moar schopping

meaning MORE SHOPPING. well There are still things I want to buy but have not.

1. I went to Dorothy Perkins today and they HAVE the dress I wanted but not in my size. None in stock and none that they can order in. SHOOT.
2. I hit H&M a few days ago and was considering buying a nice light blue cardigan from them. Unforch its. £9.99 so a bit over my budget right now. Waiting till the parentals come...
3. Tried on the Red Next dress I was thinking of wearing to Grad but its not very flattering now that my middle has shrunk somewhat. I need a fitted, structured dress. Preferably red, preferably fitted.

Hmmm... So one is a size issue, one is a price issue and one is a "I-can't-find-anything-to-wear!" issue. I could always wear what I have in the closet. I have no problem with that looking between the price tags on the racks and my empty wallet. Oh why did my haircut have to cost so much!? Darnit...

Yeee ouch

Exams are over. Will it's been over since last Tuesday.

I was trying to be good and I went to a gym class on Friday. Legs, Bums & Tums. A good class and left feeling all worked out, tired but a bit sore. I was sore all day until i went to bed.

Come Saturday.

Getting up in the morning was such a pain. And I mean PAIN. From the waist down. Quads. Hamstrings. Calves. And all the tendons and ligaments were twitching and straining and refused to hold my body upright or move me around the room smoothly.

I walked down to the city to try and walk out the built up lactic acid in my legs. MISTAKE. After a relatively pleasant stroll around the city for a few hours, I was walking back past city hall when my left leg decided to seize up and stop working and decided to tell me by sending shooting pains every time i tried to put any pressure on my knee.

All I can say is OUCH. and still ouch.

Beware all ye who dare...

I am in the foulest of foul moods.

1. My period came today. Effing OUCH. It feels like there are callipers trying to pry my hips apart. And not mentioning the dull ache of the fat kid trying to dig his way out with a blunt spoon. And the eternal flow of blood. Disgusting I know but I have to live with it and I’m not happy about it EITHER.

2. I have my final exam on Tuesday and this is the LAST thing I needed. What next? A power cut?

3. One of my flatmates with which I share pots and pans with is hogging them by cooking and not cleaning up after herself. I’m sick and tired of having to clean up after her every time I want to eat so I’m not going to clean up anymore. It’s oven pies and milk and toast and waffles for me from now own. Suck it.

4. Why do I look like such a dork when I wear glasses and tie my hair up? Seriously, there cannot be a more unattractive look but yet it’s amazingly practical. I can’t win can I?

5. FYI, period pains are like having gastric pains, just lower down. Imagine the worst pressure on your gut like you haven’t eaten all day and your intestines are so full of “wind” that they feel like they are going to burst, and that’s what period pains are like. Except they aren’t constant. Oh no. They ebb between excruciatingly painful to achingly bearable like a indecisive fly trying to get out of a closed window.

Piss off, all of you happy people, and leave me to wallow in my fury.

Rethinking shapes...

Give me athletically toned over curvy tho. Muay Thai ftw!

Wasted waist?

I'm not obsessed with hair or food or clothes or my looks by my own admission. There is one thing i will admit being slightly obsessed with tho. And that's my waist. Mainly because I'm short and I was quite round at one point and I want that curvy cut-in waist but can never manage to get. That hip-to-waist ratio becomes uber important when you're only 5-foot-nothing.

So cue this morning (or rather "afternoon") when I got up and was feeling rather trim and lean. I lost my measuring tape a while back when I lost my sewing kit so I've resorted to using the AV cable from my Canon camera to measure round. Held the length and folded it in half and measured against the length of an A4 peice of paper which i know from Microsoft Word is 11.89 inches.

Saturday, 12.30pm Waist measurement: 24 inches

Score!

I was really pleased. The last times I measured round (not that often, only when I remember to) It's been 25 inches after I wake up.

I measured round a few times to check that I got it right (Yeah, it was right :)

Remeasured at night as well. 25 inches!

It sounds damn vain to be so happy about this but I'm glad to have a waist. It's amazing how easy it disappears when you're short and it takes all the will power in the world to try not to care when I want to binge out on briyani or something. I'm always going to have a thick waist, it's in the genes and I'm just not built to be skinny. Curvy is the best that I can aim for so that's the goal.

Now I need to hit the gym a bit more to tone up. I'd like to get some of that old gymnastic ab definition back. I used to have a six pack you know - back when I was six tho...

Numb Bum

Have you ever sat on your bum so long that it becomes uncomfortable and you have to keep shifting your weight to get some feeling into that area?

Have you ever sat on your bum so long that it begins to hurt when the bottom of the pelvis digs into the seat cushion?

Have you ever sat on your bum so long that it stops hurting and begins to go painfully numb?

Have you ever sat on your bum so long that you can semi-feel the blood pooling at the butt tissues?

Have you ever sat on your bum so long that it stops hurting altogether and your bum feels like a big squishy cushion because there's no more feeling down there?

I just have. It's weird.

Giddy up!

One for the road. A pony tail with a literal hair band. A little messy because I only have one bobby pin but I like it! a 9/10 for neatness and naturality but minus one for me not being able to tie a nice pony tail all the time. And from the front, I look a bit bald with a pony tail. Damn fine hair!

Note to self: remind mum to bring over bobby pins. They are expensive over here!

Au Natural

I like this :)

Air-dried.

9.5/10! Minus points cos my hair isn't shiny :(

I'm glad I can see myself in a messy unposed state and still think it looks better than chemicals and heat. I honestly believe that it looks nicer :)

Balance

Oh dear,

I have become what I hated the most. Too many cutesy posts and none with actual intellectual substance. Exams are not to blame for this drain of blog post uncreativeness. I've just been too happy with life and/or otherwise preoccupied with the Boy and work and so forth to dwell on the darker side of society and existance.

After reading some of my older posts and their comments, I feel like I have lost some good readers in favour of sunshine and sparkles.

I do promise to write something more thought-provoking after the Exams end.

Till then!

Productive procrastination?

My maternal granddad turned 80 over the weekend so

HAPPY 80th Gong Gong!

Yellow for added ong-ness.

* * *

I'm supposed to be writing down notes for Med Eths Exam but instead I found myself craving a dress that I saw on the internet while I was looking for a red dress for graduation. My mum asked me to at least think about what I was gonna wear so the train of thought is not entirely my own. However, I was going thru several online uk retailers (Topshop, Asos, Next etc) and I found this gorgeous 2-in-1 dress top/skirt combo which I really wanna get:

It's 20 pounds but I think it's abso fab cos its a tank top AND a skirt all in one! You may be thinking, but you could do that with a tank top and a skirt. WITHOUT actually buying that. One problem I have with skirts and tops are that the tops have to go down quite low on me cos I have rather a short torso (grrrr) so the skirts usually have to go down quite low too, to the point where they would practially slip off. I have my fair share of skirts but they all have to sit quite low on my hips, and they move upwards (as skirts do) when I walk. Oh, and there's a grey one too!

I couldn't buy either of them because they don't have my size in stock! Gutted!!

I have a little crush on dresses and I'm glad that recently, there are more casual dresses availiable so that it doesnt take a special occasion to pull a dress on and walk out of the house with it. The only casual dress that I have is a brown linen one - the brown is honestly the colour of mud. It's a nice dress but super super boring looking. Maybe over the summer I'll "Gok" it up with some beads or something. Gok's Fashion Fix ftw*!

*people keep asking me what does "ftw" mean? It means For The Win! Deriving from the slang terms that sports pundits use when asked who they think would win the match/race/etc.
e.g. "It's Manchester United for the win!"

* * *

Which is a nice segway to mentioning that Manchester United are the Barclays Premier League Champions 2008-2009! Awesome!

I am very pleased about that and I was watching the United-Arsenal match on justin.tv and I was looking forward to seeing them pick up the trophy and celebrate and all that but the stream that I was watching swiched over to the other Sky Sports Channel so I missed the celebrating! Gutted!!

So I've been trying to find a clear video of the trophy lifting bit in Old Trafford but no luck yet.

* * *

The Boy is nose deep in exams so boa sorte meu amor.

Lea is done with her exams *jealous* hehe Well done Miss Tan!

Full har har

A Full hair braid but with a slight twist. I took half hair first and did 4 turns of a plait and used it as the center braid in the full hair plait. It doenst show but it looks quite smooth I guess. It's not a centre braid as it slants off over the right shoulder. 6/10 for being pretty but boring. Useful in studying situations. Now if only my hair was a little longer then it wouldnt prickle my collarbone so much...

Half Eh?

A pleasant half-hair plait. Straight hair is remnants of the blow-dry a few days ago. Score: 6/10 cos Even tho it loks nice, Taking half hair is tought for me cos my hair is quite thin so it looks even thinner when half is tied up.

* * *

This is wilso serve as a hair diary so that I know what I can and cannot do with my hair. There are weird things that I do to it late late at night which look alright but I quickly forget what I did and how I did it.

Straight Away

Blow-drying your hair is a necessity in the UK. I don't particularly enjoy it, I am fully aware of heat damage and I try not to use the hair dryer but when the weather is damp and cold, a head full of wet hair is the worse thing to have. I use a spray on heat protection + straightener (2-in-1) so my hair comes out (un)naturally straight. I still find it quite eerie even after a couple of years of using this product. I'm used to having air-dried messy hair.

This is blow dried straightness. I need a hair cut. The ends are getting feathery and not behaving.

I reckon a reasonable 7.5/10. Its neat. It feels tidy. It's great for doing pony tails and getting hair out of the face and I like that I can run my fingers (slowly) down from root to tip if I dry it properly. I don't like the look however. Too poker straight and boring. And it never lasts long. One good gust and it's back to hair-all-over-the-face.

The orangey streaks are the remnants of highlights I had in over last July. I got lighter brown highlights and black lowlights which is why you may see an array of orange-brown-black colours in there. The orange is the result of the light brown getting washed out. I had dark purple streaks put in a couple of years ago and they washed out orange too! My hair doesn't hold colours like it holds curls...
The dark mahogany brown in-between the orange streaks is my natural colour. I swear. And I'm quite pleased that it shows up in the sun and in pictures because I can't really see it for myself.

* * *

I'm not that hair obsessed. I just wanted to fill my blog with something that I could talk about that I can talk about with substance. Not necessarily interesting to read but mainly to at least bulk out my Blog entry list.

Oh and I made cheese on toast today! The cheese has gone a bit off I think...

Sleep and Specs

So I slept on the curls and voila! Lovely bouncy waves! They are a little looser than they look in the picture but they feel nice and soft and give my hair a bit of much-needed volume.

I love this hairstyle! 9/10 for gorgeous bouncy waves! The only bad thing is that when windy, the waves will go haywire. And since I also like being messy and running around, they won't last very long. So minus 1 mark for relatively high maintainence.

Also, I highly recommend watching BBC's 10 Things You Need To Know About Sleep. Really informative and really helpful, especially if you're highly strung out on exam stress and have early mornings to wake up too.

* * *

I've also recently remembered that I bought these. No, they are not defective sunglasses, they are Natural Vision specs which I bought from Guardian in Malaysia.

The small open dots allow the eye to focus naturally on a point and they work for any visual impairment from long-sightedness (as tested on my parents), short-sightedness and astigmatism (as tested on me) and a few others which are mentioned on the box but I don't remember what they are. They are my little triumph of retail pioneering because they are about 60 Ringgit and at that price my parents were not happy about me buying them but once I brought them home and made them try it, they were sold. Apparently after wearing it for about 10 minutes, my dad's long-sightedness wasn't so bad. Technically they are better than specs because they force your eyes to focus instead of relying on glasses to do the work. They claim to reverse astigmatism and so on because of this. Unforch at 60 Ringgit a pop, they are a little too pricey for everyone in the family to have one. Since I bought the XS size, thinking I was the only one in the family to ever wear it, I have them here. In Cardiff. Where I haven't worn them in quite a while. I don't know if the claim to reverse visual impairments is true but they are a good and less tiring alternative to specs. Especially if you don't have multifocal lenses for reading. The only trick to it is that you can do more than 20 mins near-point focusing at a time (i.e. reading) because you will strain your eyes. Not a bad downside I reckon.