Darkschunt

2007-11-08T23:21:00.000+08:00

I was walking through David Jones the other day when a perfume caught my eye.

Kate Moss' first perfume is out!

Most of you who have read earlier posts would know that I'm a huge fan of Kate Moss. And I'm really happy to find out that she's got a perfume out now too and it's fantabulous! And I'm not saying that just because I like Kate Moss. I popped one of the sample sticks in my bag and later at work, I was wondering what that delicious smell was and realised it was wafting from the sample in my open bag next to me. Kate Moss perfume is definitely on my Christmas list now. :)

This is the perfume launch.

And this is the Kate Moss perfume ad.

I got this description of Kate's perfume from the website Fragrantica: The vibrant floral-spicy opening of forget me not, orange blossom and pink pepper, transforms into an opulent mix of rose, peony and lily of the valley. Base notes of sandal wood, patchouli and musk reveal Kate's darker side. The perfume creator is Nathalie Lorson of Firmenich.

2007-11-08T23:02:00.000+08:00

Okay, once again I've broken my promise to post regularly but I just haven't been in the mood to blog. I think I want to redefine what my blog is about but I'm not sure yet what that'll be. But anyway, while I'm pondering that, enjoy a couple of pics that my sister finally sent me from the Gwen Stefani concert. It's only a few but hopefully I'll get more from her later but probably not until after her wedding is over since she's gone completely psycho mad on plans for that at the moment.

This pic doesn't really show off her gorgeous kimono-ish outfit though...

Our Gwen paraphernalia!

2007-09-30T22:58:00.000+08:00

It's here, it's here, it's here!

Resident Evil: Extinction is coming to town!

I really liked the first two Resident Evils, especially the first one, and I'm a huge fan of Milla Jovovich, ever since Fifth Element. I like her long, it's a strong yet beautiful look. I think she's awesome.

I'm not so sure about Resident Evil: Extinction, though. From what I've seen of the trailers, it doesn't look like it'll be as good as the first two, definitely not the first one. But someone on the Internet said it was awesome, and since I'm not hyping up too much about it, maybe it would turn out good. I'll let you know more when the movie finally hits cinemas here and I'll go take a peek.

Watch out for Milla's shorts in the movie, they're from her clothing line Jovovich-Hawk.

Another thing which saddens me is when I was listening to the radio the other day. They have this woman in Germany who gets to interview all the latest stars come on every week and she plays clips of her interviews with people like Jessica Alba, Shia LaBeouf and others. She had interviewed Milla and she didn't have many nice things to say about her, adding that she felt Milla was beautiful but cold and that she heard a rumour that Bruce Willis's nickname for Milla is Milla Bitch.

:O

That's not nice to hear. I hope it's not true. Also, that is probably the first bad thing I have ever heard said about Milla. And I'm not much of a big fan of the German woman myself, Nina Liebold, so I'm reserving opinion on this.

2007-09-30T21:46:00.000+08:00

I've also established new goals, one of which is to take care of my hair as well as I can now, especially now I will be occasionally subjecting it to hair tongs. I used to have this salon conditioner (nothing pricey, it was on sale, and the salon itself was one of those $15 for a haircut type places, which I am now no longer going to anymore, much to the relief of my hair). I bought the salon conditioner because it was going cheap, as part of a serum, shampoo and hair rejuvenating booster set and the thing is, you only use a little at a time because it is so strong, so it's supposed to last you a really long time. The thing is, the shampoo was way too strong for my hair so I never used it after the first few washes. The conditioner wasn't too bad, though, but I got really sick of it after a while. No more of that for me. Anyway, it finally finished up last week so this week I got a Garnier conditioner and have been using it religiously on my hair. By the second wash, my hair was looking really pretty and smelling nice and fruity too. I really like Garnier conditioner and hair mask products, they really do work wonders for your hair.

I also need to take care of my feet because my poor feet are cracked from all the walking in heels that I do all the time. But I am being really lazy about this. Oh well. Maybe sometime soon. Niv and I are also setting workout goals. Our aim is to be supermodel-fit by the end of two months. People tell me that I don't need to work out because I am skinny, but I am what they call 'skinny fat'. I want to be toned, toned, toned without a hint of jiggly on all the bad bits, like thighs, tummy and upper arms. Bikini-bod ready by the time summer is here (which, in this country, comes around when the rest of the world is heading into winter).

2007-09-30T21:35:00.000+08:00

It's been busy, busy, busy. And even though it's a public holiday tomorrow, I've been rostered for work. Not fair! At least I'll get double pay.

I've been studying feverishly for my theory test in driving because I'm transferring my license. I'm not taking any chances this time, remembering how I failed at least three times the last time, because I couldn't be bothered to study. This time, I have to nail at the first time. I have to. Then I'll do a couple of hours of practice driving, get someone to teach me how to parallel park (because I never do that) and then sit my practical test and finally, I will be able to drive over here! At last. My mother's agreed to give me a loan on getting a car, so once I get my license, I'll get my car and then there will be no more endless hours waiting for buses and trains, sitting on buses and trains, looking up buses and train times. No more public transport! Hooray!!!

So, I've been trying to eat more healthily. Last week, I had the brilliant idea of making salads every day of olives, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, feta cheese, roast chicken (by buying a whole roast chicken from the supermarket, easy-peasy) and marinated artichokes. It was really yummy, if not rather oily, since most of these are marinated pre-packaged stuff and it also turned out to be rather expensive. The whole point of preparing home-cooked food for work was to save money and eat more healthily, but it turned out to be pretty pricey stuff. No more of this salad for a while. Back to the frozen vegetables and a roast chicken for a week thing, unless I can bother to come up with something exciting and cheap. At least, I've managed to stick with my new weekly budget, just barely. I have five dollars to spare from this week!

This week has hardly been memorable. Things just went wrong for me at work. Minor stuff, but enough to make me wish I had just stayed at home. Destressed with a bottle of sparkling wine at the Gutter Philosopher's on Friday, ended up drinking almost three quarters of the bottle (Niv had a glass and a half with me, but then she had to go for a romantic weekend with the bf and the Gutter Philosopher wasn't drinking, sparkling wine being not manly enough for him). Apparently, I was a real pain in the ass to him when I was drunk but I didn't really remember this the next morning when I woke up with a headache. It was worth it though. I really needed to de-stress. The rest of the weekend was spent mostly at home, other than some yummy gin and tonics on Saturday afternoon at K's place, because, as mentioned earlier, I am doing my best to stick to my budget. No more buying unnecessary goods for a while.

2007-09-18T01:28:00.001+08:00

Essential Beauty.
Dame Anita Roddick, the founder of Body Shop has died! That is really shocking. I love Body Shop products, although half the time they're out of my price range. They're also my favourite as gifts for girl friends.

I read on StyleBytes that Body Shop brushes were pretty good so I went to check those out the other day. They were too pricy, though, $30 per brush, so I just went to a pharmacy and got an ordinary make up brush. I need to get another one as well but not yet because I've been spending way too much money. But actually, someone just told me the other day it is probably a good idea to spend a bit more on brushes as you will have them for a long time. Mascara, for example, I wouldn't spend so much since it tends to dry out and need replacing every few months.
The priciest thing I bought was a curling iron. I got the cheapest one in the shop so that made me feel a lot better, it was about $50 or so, while the others were in the $100-200 range. It's pretty good too. It's the BaByliss Professional Ceramic Curling Iron. I'm not sure if it is the one pictured to the right but it's similar enough. Mine is in a funky yellow car though. I haven't had much time to experiment with it yet but I plan to curl my hair for Friday night. I notice that I need to put it in for a certain amount of time otherwise I'll just get an ordinary wave that my hair already has, probably because my hair is so long. I also learnt never to use it with damp hair, after I had done so. Oops. Won't do it again.

After much experimenting, I've found my make-up basics essential. I thought I'd lay it down because I wish someone had told me all this. I had to experiment to find what's right for me and you'll probably have to do that too. I'm not too much into wearing lots of heavy make-up so mine is really simple and fast as well.

FACE AND LIPS.
For day time, I just apply a moisturizer with SPF 15, dust on a light layer of Bobbi Brown Face Powder in Sunny Beige 2, putting a light dusting on my neck to keep the colour even. If I really wanted to keep it simple, this is all I would bother with and a bit of lip balm. My favourite is the Body Shop Vitamin E lip balm (pictured). A lot of people would want to apply bronzer or foundation or a make up base, but that is really up to you and whether you really need it. I don't do any of these three, I think the powder is enough for me, but if you really want to, make sure you have the right shade for you because I see people all the time looking orange-y with bronzer and so on. And it's also probably best to apply a light shade if you do want to put any of these on for daytime. Also, I just remember, you might want concealer. I don't really use concealer myself either.

BLUSH.
If I'm looking pale, I'll use a small fluffy brush to pop on some blusher on the apples of my cheeks. The blush I'm using is Clinique Honey Blush which my mother gave me, it was part of her free pack, she's always using Clinique skin care products. I may start looking for blushers of other shades when I have the money to spare. I used to apply blusher with my fingers but I won't advise that to anyone - use a brush, always! To apply blush, smile and brush on the apples of your cheeks. My friend also taught me a tip, she made me suck my cheeks in, like I was making a fish face, than applied the blusher to where the apples of my cheeks are. It's a pretty handy trick as well. If I think I'm looking particularly pale, which happens when I am sick or in the middle of winter, I lightly brush some blusher on the forehead and along the jawline, but only minimally, just enough for a touch of colour.

EYES.
Then, that's basically it for the make-up, unless I want to apply some mascara or a light touch of beige or gold eye shadow. I was watching the Tyra Banks teaching how to apply make up on her Tyra Banks Show on YouTube and what she says about applying make up along the crease of your eyelids works beautifully. Beauty experts also say to apply a light or white eye shadow or eye cream to the inner corners of your cheeks to create an instant eye-popping celeb look. I have done this before but I haven't really seen much difference.

EYELINER.
I used to wear a lot of eye liner before as well, even in the day, but I've kind of gone off that since I got semi-perm false eyelashes done. They're really the best because I could wear moisturiser and lip balm and with those lashes, I really don't need anything else. But they're a bit too expensive to keep up so I've let that go for the moment. If I feel my eyes really need definition, then I'll put a thin line of eye liner along the bottom of my eyes with a little flick at the outer corner. Leave a little space between the inner corner and the start of the line when you apply eyeliner so your eyes would look bigger. If I'm still not happy with that, I'll put a little on the top too, depending on how heavy I want to go. When it's night time, I often go heavy with the eyeliner, especially if I want a smoky eye but lately I've been going for the natural look. I love MAC eye pencils. The one I'm using now, though, is an Estee Lauder eye pencil which is pretty good as well.

And you're done! It looks like a lot because I tend to go on and on, but basically it's just moisturiser, face powder and lip balm. Blusher is optional, depending on whether your face needs colour on the day (my face sometimes does and sometimes doesn't, depending on how much sleep and sun I've gotten, etc). Then, also optional, add a bit of colour on the eyes using mascara, eyeshadow and/or eyeliner and if you want, slick on a lip gloss or lip stick and then you're done!

NIGHT TIME.
I would probably do do the moisturiser, face powder, blusher and lip balm for night as well. But I might go a little heavier on the blush and also blend it upwards towards the temples for a bit of contouring. Mind you, I have not tried that yet but I read it and it sounds good and I will try it this Friday night and let you know of the results.

Then I'll probably go a little heavier on the eyeshadow and maybe do both eyeliner and mascara as well, depending on what look I am going for for the night. At the moment, all my lip glosses are really nude, which annoys me but I haven't had time or money to buy one that I really like yet. Right now, my night looks are almost the same as my day looks because I usually go out on Friday nights now and it's usually straight from office to work, with me spending a rushed five minutes in the bathroom on makeup. And then you're ready to go!

2007-09-18T01:16:00.000+08:00

I've been sick for the past three weeks and it has been a real drag. Coughing all day and night, going to work with a touch of the flu, feeling completely worn out. I haven't had the energy to cook so I've just been eating junk food and instant food all the while. I've also had no energy to exercise and my body is just crying out for vegetables and exercise this week. Seriously. So it's vegetables, chicken and salmon this week. I can't even eat chocolate or junk food, which I usually love, just looking at it makes me sick, that's how sick I am of junk food right now. I don't even want to look at bread.

I'm still sick, as well, which is a drag, though I'm not coughing all the time as I have been over the past few weeks. Just occasionally. And I think I must have slept wrongly or something because I woke up yesterday with the back and the left side of my head aching. The pain was really killing at my left temple and my left cheekbone, as if I had bashed myself in the face while I was sleeping or something. I haven't figured out what I did to myself yet, but the pain is still there, although sometimes it lingers. I could barely sleep last night for the bloody pain. I'm wondering if it is a toothache, because a couple of my left teeth are aching too, or if the toothache is the result of sleeping wrongly. Urgh.

Well, I'm done complaining about that. :) I've been watching music videos to cheer myself up. I love Nelly Furtado's No Hay Igual and, especially, her Explode video. I'm wondering if it is a new song or a song she recorded in the past that I just haven't had of. It's mind-blowing! And so is the video. You should check it out on YouTube. I've also noticed on all Nelly's videos that there is usually a shaven-head hot guy on her video. I'm not complaining ... :)

Speaking of hot guys, I saw the Bourne Ultimatum this weekend and I must say all the professional killers that were sent after Bourne were pretty hot and fit too. Yum yum.

Spring is here, although it feels more like it's winter most of the time. What I love is coming out in the sunshine to find flowers have sprouted up all over the neighborhood. I walk through a carpet of green grass, yellow flowers and little purple ones everyday to get to my bus stop. But by the time night comes, they'd have all either died or closed up to survive the cold. But when the sun comes out again the next day, they'll be back in full force.

2007-08-31T02:37:00.000+08:00

Oh my gosh I am on facebook and everyone is asking me to add a million applications. I'm getting dizzy and most of these applications require me to check my page for statuses, etc. That's an awful lot of stuff!

By the way, you know what's cool? As in really, literally cool as well? Glacier surfing, that's what. I was listening on the radio a couple of weeks back at work and one of these guys was on the program. I just had to go onto Youtube and check it out. Here's one of the videos below.

2007-08-31T02:08:00.001+08:00

Some things have happened since the last time I've blogged, not least of all the fact that I have turned 23!

Ick. That is so old.

But the girl who washed my hair at the hair salon thought I was like 18 or 19. Still young...

Oh yes, I have also cut my hair, well not really, mostly trimmed and re-shaped so it looks much better now, and I have dyed it too, a warm chocolate brown with golden streaks running through. It's really nice. I wanted it to be a more obvious brown, maybe lighter and warmer. This shade looks more black when it's not under lights but I guess I will have to deal with it until the next time I colour my hair. It's still really lovely. I love my hairdresser.

Anyway, for my birthday, we had a party with the theme of pirates and gangsters. But hardly anyone came dressed up except for a few fun people! But it was really good - my pina coladas were a big hit with all the girls except one who had an allergy to pineapples - whoops, it's a good thing I told her what was going into the drink before I gave it to her! But it was really fun. When everybody gathered round and sang happy birthday and I had the cake, I felt like crying. It was awesome!

And it was definitely a good birthday, mostly because for most of this year I didn't think I would have a good birthday at all. I always put so much stock - way too much stock, the Gutter Philosopher says - in things like new year's and christmas and birthdays so I often end up disappointed. I'm trying not to do that now. But this birthday was definitely a good one. When else do I start the day off with a present of a free pole-dancing class and end by falling onto the ground with a lesbian on top of me? Ha ha, no, it's not as bad as it sounds! The class was a gift from the Gutter Philosopher because I had said I won't mind trying pole dancing classes but I am a bit miffed since I will have to go to the class by myself whereas these are the kind of things you should go to with your girl friends and have a laugh at. Boys never understand girls. And the lesbian thing was just Cindy being drunk and leaning on top of me like I was an umbrella stand and my high heels giving way. I was up again in less than two seconds because I had on a new dress and the ground was wet, wet, wet! (We were all outside then smoking and drinking and waiting for taxis and sorting out cars to go clubbing). Still, it's a good way to tell people how the night was when they ask about it, ha ha !

Speking of presents ... Last year, most of my presents consisted of perfume. This year, it's alcohol. Lots of yummy girly wine. I can't wait to crack open a bottle. I'm making spaghetti with a creamy egg bacon sauce (out of a jar, naturally, since I'm certainly not motivated enough to actually make a sauce from scratch) with chicken and mushrooms plus garlic bread for the Gutter Philosopher and myself on Saturday night and I am going to have the Brown Brothers white wine with it. Yum yum yum ...

But back to the night of the party, we decided to go clubbing after that and had all kinds of adventurous plans to go all the way to the other side of town or to the casino but then fell back on good old dodgy Varga instead. But when we arrived, I got tired and the Gutter Philosopher got horny (or so he says) and we decided to go on home. What do you now but there was absolutely NO cabs around so we had to get into line at the taxi stand that had wound all the way down the block. And worse of all it started raining. It was a good thing I still had my gangsta gurl fedora hat on. But I was also just wearing a little black dress and heels so I practically froze to death. Swore several times and made friends with the couple behind us. Nothing like rain to bring strangers together.

Well, the rain and the fact that most of my party was also spent outside in the evening between drizzles (not good weataher for a birthday party) because everyone was drinking and smoking and thought they were warm when in fact, it was probably below ten degrees outside, it was not good for the cough that I had been developing. Now it is an official full-blown cough and I can barely talk. I cough so much, I sound like I have that horse flu that is taking over the whole country and sending horses in a tizzy at the moment. My colleagues probably hate me because I can't stop coughing and I think I have more or less passed it around because everyone else around me is coughing and sneezing though not as badly as I am. Urgh. I hope I get better soon. So this weekend, I'm probably staying home and resting as much as I can. Oh no, I have to work at the art gallery this weekend! I'm probably going to infect everyone there too.

2007-08-24T02:09:00.000+08:00

Nest-building

Another nice idea I had about home decoration was to have a jigsaw puzzle displayed on a coffee table instead of your usual bowl of fruit, vase of flowers or coffee table books. It doesn't have to be complete right away, but just scatter the pieces across the table and work your way through the puzzle in your own time so it means your coffee table has a new look every time you complete a part of the puzzle. Chose a nice jigsaw puzzle. I also remember reading somewhere once that Kate Moss liked jigsaw puzzles, although that was a long time ago.

I used to love jigsaw puzzles when I was a kid. I remember I had the children's ones, the really easy ones that have maybe five to fifteen pieces. I had one really adorabe one of a kitten and a puppy and I used to take it apart and put it together over and over again. We used to do big ones as a family too. We had one of Lake Tahoe and it was really hard because there was so much green in it and it was all the same.

There was also this shop back home when I was in high school that sold jigsaw puzzles. You'd walk in and there was a dark room at the back where the glow-in-the-dark jigsaw puzzles were put up. It was gorgeous and we used to go in just to admire the room. The pictures were really great too, a lot of them were the horoscope ones. I was really pissed that the Virgo one was so crap when the others were so gorgeous. Honestly. Virgo is a sign that some artists paint really gorgeous and others paint it really crappily. Some Virgo pictures are so awful, I just cringe when I see them.

2007-08-24T01:40:00.000+08:00

Eeeek, it's been such a busy two weeks. I keep wanting to blog but there's no time to blog!

Most of it was taken up by work. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Sunday when we went to watch Die Hard, we also went to the museum and the art gallery. The museum, to check out the National Treasures exhibition, and the gallery to check out the Egyptian antiquities exhibition. I think I must have gotten too hyped up about both exhibitions that it didn't seem as awesome as I expected it to be. The National Treasures one was full of old papers and maps which were pretty cool because you could actually see the old faded handwriting and all that...some of it too faded to be read. Plus the lighting wasn't that great, probably to protect all that old paper, so you couldn't really read what was there anyway. I strained my eyes so badly, they hurt when we left.

The Egyptian Exhibition was pretty cool but there were so many people there, that was a bit of a bother. We had to hurry too, because we had to go watch Die Hard later. Not that that movie was that awesome - see review below. I'll probably go back later to check it out again at my own time.

Then the rest of the week was mainly work. I kept meaning to go online when I got back from work, but it's just too tempting to curl up in bed and read instead...

Then Friday night was girls' night! It's been just way too long since we had a girls' night so it was great. First, we went to this bar where Carine's friend worked as a bartender so we got free yummy cocktails. The bar was mainly full of middle-aged divorcee-types. There were actually some pretty well-done-up women, and there was one who reminded me of those 40-something women in the Age of Love, she definitely did not look like she was having a good time and she kept glaring at us, like 'what the hell are these young bitches doing here? trying to steal my men?' I don't think she had anything to worry about, all of us had boyfriends and none of the men were really that enticing! The only hot, young guys in that place were behind the counter. Haha! But the band that they had was good and the drinks were yummy. And, hey, we're on a girls' night, we're not out to pull...

But actually I had given the Gutter Philosopher a call to come out that night too so he and his group of guys were down at another club so we went over to see them. Then everyone got really drunk and the girls left at three-ish except me 'cuz I was getting a ride home with the Gutter Philosopher and the guys just kept going on and on until the club closed. We went to have pizza and chips after that, yum yum, well the guys had kebabs, I had pizza because I'm not really a fan of kebabs. But give me a chip and bacon roll! yum yum! Then we stumbled home and I downed lots of water because I had to get up early and get over my hangover because ...

My sister was getting her wedding dress the next day and I had to go with her. I wasn't so sure about the dress when we first saw it because it was practically falling off her but now that it's been altered and fits her perfectly, it looks really good. She'll have to practice walking in it though, otherwise she's going to trip over the hem. Really, that's a good question. How do brides make it down the altar without lifting their long skirts in their hands or keeping their eyes on the floor? After all, she's got to have her eyes on the groom, smiling beautifically and all that. And you can't just, like, shuffle down the altar - you have to glide! Must take a lot of practice. It's like Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, during that big ball scene when she had to meet the Queen. When she came down some steps with the prince to dance with him, she was not looking down at all. Back straight, eyes forward, all regal and graceful. Down. Steps. In. A. Long. Gown. Now if it was me, I'd trip. But then I'd trip even if I was barefoot in shorts. That's how clumsy I am. Ah, well...

After the dress, we went to some paper shops. They sell the most gorgeous papers ever. I might call it stationary but it was more than that - it was paper! You can actually use the squares to wallpaper rooms, though it would probably be very expensive wallpapering. Or make a cover for candle lamps or for scrapbooks and photo albums and journals. They were so gorgeous. I didn't get any because I don't have any use for them or time to put them to use but my sister bought quite a few, because she's making the invitations for her wedding. Me, I was just glad to get home later and collapse in front of the sofa with pasta and some good TV shows. I saw this really horrible episode of Law and Order SVU the other day and it really got to me like no other episode ever has. I mean, I used to be a big Law and Order SVU fan (although not so much lately because I have been watching it a bit too often on cable tv with the Gutter Philosopher and it was starting to wear off on me) but this just put me off crime shows completely. And all sad movies, TV shows, books, stories, etc. It just made me feel so sad and horrified. I had to scour the library to find a book that didn't have any sad scenes in it. Do you know how hard it is to find a good book without any sad scenes? And unfortunately, the night that I had collapsed at home to just rest up on the couch was the night where the only shows on were crime shows, sad shows and, um, Forrest Gump. Which is pretty sad itself. But I had to make do with it because I didn't have any happy DVDs either. Bleh. But, my, how thin was Tom Hanks back then? Now he's all successful and old and stout. Well, stoutish anyway. You can see he wears a certain jadedness about him now, not as fresh as he was back then. Or maybe that's just my imagination.

Anyway, on Sunday night, we had great pizza, albeit a dodgy prawn one from Domino's which tasted great but left a funny feeling in your stomach after. Then the week just passed by in a mad rush and here we are, on Thursday! And that's the up-to-date.

Oh, I tried calculating my carbon footprint on the internet. Just search for carbon footprint on the Internet and you'll find lots of quizzes to help you calculate your carbon footprint. But I couldn't really do mine because I had no idea about lots of things like how many kilowatts are my light bulbs and how many miles I travel a day. Lots, I imagine. Should really start planting trees to offfset these things.

2007-08-13T00:59:00.000+08:00

We went to watch Die Hard 4 tonight. First of all, I am not impressed. It was pretty much a case of the trailer being better than the actual movie - again. Sometimes, I think they need to tone it down with the trailer.

Someone also said the previous Die Hard movies were much better than this one. I'm not sure - I haven't seen any of the old ones or if I had, I had forgotten them.

Secondly, I thought Bruce Willis's character was actually kind of an arse. Like, it was really unnecessary continuously taunting the bad guy about his girlfriend's death - I'm really not surprised his daughter got kidnapped after that - Bruce Willis a.k.a. John McKlein was really just asking for it. When the bad guy had kidnapped his daughter, he was less of an arse to her as well than you would expect for a bad guy. Not to mention Bruce Willis was kind of being racist about the bad guy's dead girlfriend being Asian and all that, did he have to keep referring to her as Asian? I mean once is fine, but over and over again? What point was he trying to drive home? And what was that thing about an 'Asian hooker'? Are you insinuating if you're Asian and good-looking, you're a hooker? Please, Bruce. Also, you had to admit, it did seem like the bad guy was kind of hard done by by the US Govt itself. Really, I sympathised with the villain. I did.

It could have been better written. I give it a pretty low rating. If you want to watch it, just watch the trailer, it basically has all the best parts in it. Trust me. Even the special effects and lots of action didn't do it for me. I've seen better action and suspense. And with all the special effects going on in most movies, I think having special effects just does not cut it anymore, no matter how awesome they are. You gotta pair it with a good movie and use it judiciously. Action, too. Like the first Lara Croft was fun but the second one, although they went to a million different countries and there was lots of action, seemed to just have something missing. Like you keep thinking you should be excited about it but you're not.

Oh, I was just telling the Duchess that I was criticising Die Hard 4 pretty badly and she commented about sequels for movies that happen 20 years later. Like with Rocky. Now, the last Rocky movie was pretty good, I thought, it did the previous Rocky's justice. But not Die Hard 4. Sorry. No. That one crashed hard in my book.

Also, we got La Premiere tickets for that movie and we are also not very impressed with the La Premiere. For such a high price, it's just not worth it. We'll stick to normal movie seats.

2007-08-11T12:21:00.000+08:00

Nights Out
I keep wanting to write posts but there never seems to be time over these two weeks. When I get home at night from work, all I want to do is just sit back and read a book and do nothing that requires effort. But that means there are plenty of book reviews coming up ... :)

Last night was a bender. Went out with Baby Bro and his twenty other friends that I have never met before to a masala mix! Met loads of people that I hadn't met in ages which was so fun and nice, I forget how much I miss them. It was so nice that everyone just decided to show up so it was a little like a reunion but without the Duchess and SweetRhapsody. Guys, I needed you there!

So the main of what happened that night was that Baby Bro and I downed an illusion shaker (for old times) in less than five and I had too much champagne and may have insulted my friend's pretentious friend, which I am delighted about because he was really too up himself, but didn't insult anyone else, not at least as far as I recall, which is also good because my mouth tends to get a bit out of control when I get drunk *blush* and sat on a staircase with A for a really long time, talking about what I don't remember, and danced with David *yay! the most fun dancing partner a girl could ask for*, kept losing Carine in the crowd, won the disapproval of K, which is nothing new, and for some reason I was avoiding someone else. Also lost Baby Bro, probably about 100 times. Saw the Boombox, missed you, dude! Then we went to eat but I didn't get to eat much because all the food was gone by the time I made it to the restaurant, then we went to Baby Bro's friend's flat and I found a bag of cheetos but before I got one or two down my throat, Baby Bro hustled me home and I tried to stay the hunger pangs with a bowl of instant noodles which were deceivingly spicy and collapsed into bed.

All in all, a pretty good night!

And water did nothing for my hangover but made it worse.

But in a few minutes I have to take a shower and go meet Louise for breakfast/lunch and make everything better with lots of carbs. Yay!

Will be back with more later!

* * *

All right, now I am back, two days later. Carine and I have rehashed the night and decided it was a horribly drunken and terribly fun night.

I'm knackered from the week. Before Friday night, there was Tuesday night, which was the night of the Gwen Stefani concert! It was really fun. I was disappointed with the Gym Class Heroes' opening act, though, which I had been looking forward to. First, because the sound during their performance was kinda shitty (thank goodness it got better when Gwen came out). And secondly, because it was bad enough that we had seats from far away, but worse still, for some reason, the camera guy would NOT focus on them as a close-up on the big screen. They were smaller on the big screen than they were in real life playing down there on the stage! So unfortunately, although Travis and I were in the same room, he was miles away and I didn't even get to see his face. Sniff.

But Gwen was awesome. It wasn't a fantastic all-out-there performance like a Pink concert or a Sarah Brightman concert but it was great because, well, it was Gwen. She's really cute! And has really great stage presence. And her Harajuku girls are awesome, my favourite is Music(I think. Well, the one from Okinawa anyway). Gwen had a bigger Japanese theme than I had expected, seeing that her new album had less of a Japanese touch than her first one - she wore a really cute Japanese outfit with a gorgeous obi and a short bunchy skirt that's kind of like a mini kimono all bunched up around her hips and thighs. At one point, for the song Luxurious, her male dancers dressed like Japanese businessmen back in, um, I think around the 1970s or 1980s, you know, kind of like Dick Tracey, the noir-ish comic detective, in a suit with boxy shoulder pads and fedora hats, while her female dancers dressed in kimonos and danced around them like geishas. And another time, they played the dance scene from Memoirs of a Geisha. It wasn't like a short concert or anything either, so it was pretty worth it. After the concert, my sister and I got Gwen T-shirts which were pricey at the cost of $45 but are real nice. Merchandise, yay!

Her costumes were really cute too. There weren't as many costume changes as you would expect for someone as reknown as style as Gwen, though. My sister spent half her time taking pictures, so I'll put up a few when I get them off her. Also, she didn't wear really skimpy clothes but she looked fantastic and really fashionable (except for a pair of glittery red shorts which I wasn't really a fan of) so more the power to her.

Hmmm. That now occurs to me. I should put up my list of Most Stylish People soon.

And poor Gretch didn't even make it to the concert - she got into an accident on the way, which thankfully she was not hurt badly in, and happily she is feeling better now.

Then there was Wednesday night, when everyone was supposed to come out and have drinks near my workplace, only due to rain and illness and the fact that most of us have work the next day, only Mystery Wolf and her friend made it, which I was actually quite relieved about because I had forgot my ID and they wouldn't let us ito the bar without it because there were cops everywhere. I say luckily because that would mean finding cabs for everyone to go somewhere else and I'd probably have a mass mob on my heels because of that. But because there were only three of us, Mystery Wolf's friend squashed us into his tiny car and drove us somewhere else instead. We went to a bar, then to the base, which had some decent songs but also some really old rnb songs which made me feel like I was back in high school. That was also a fun night but combined with the night of gwen's concert, I was pretty knackered after that. Beer has been my main drink for a while now but I think it's time to drink something new - maybe champagne, like what I was drinking on Friday night! Let's cut down on those alcohol calories for a bit. :)

2007-08-06T12:00:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, you meet the grumpiest bus drivers in the world and sometimes u meet the nicest.

Example one:
Last week, I got on the bus and said hello to the driver, who suddenly leaned towards me and said in a conspiratorial kind of tone: "Did you remember to bring some sunshine with you?" I was taken aback for a second, then I leaned forward and said in the same kind of tone, "Yes, I did!" "Good girl!" he said.

It's people like that that make you remember to bring the sunshine.

Example two:
This morning, as I was getting home from the Gutter Philosopher's, it started raining. At first it was a light drizzle which I didn't mind so much because the morning air was so cool and fresh and all I had to do was put my hood up. I was wearing my long white skirt and it made me feel like a bride/medieval princess as I ran down the street. The bus came and I got on and it started pouring like mad as we neared our stop. When I was getting off at the back door, the driver called me to come up to the front, and I went, thinking there must be something wrong with the back door. Instead, he handed me an umbrella, announcing "from a king to his princess." I protested that I'll never be able to return it to him but he said "just share it with someone else." It was really sweet!

Then there was the cab driver that I discussed psychology with on the way home the other night. Sometimes, you meet the most interesting people taking buses and cabs.

All the same, I can't wait for when I'm finally able to save up enough cash for a car!

2007-07-31T01:50:00.000+08:00

Yummy
I was buying food in one of the city food courts yesterday and this is something I have been noticing - a lot of healthy food restaurants have been sprouting up and they attract a LOT of office workers. I can understand this as when you've been sitting and working all day, you want something quick and something healthy and yummy too, not just a MacDonalds burger that's going to add flab to your thighs or a cold limp salad. Most of these places serve baguettes, salads and wraps. Anyway, I've tried a number of them and so far, Sumo Salad serves the best salads, in my opinion. And they let you have as many different combinations as you can cram into your small, regular or large container. That's a pretty good deal, compared with most places that only let you have one or two choices in the combinations. Today I had a mix of their Malaysian beef salad, baby potatoes in basil mayo and pesto pasta. It was really so good I wished I had gotten more. And it made me feel good and refreshed, the way I do after eating a good salad. When I have Aroma's pasta salad, I don't get that kind of feeling. I wish I could get more different combinations for meals for the next few days but I have been spending money on eating out a lot so I am cooking for the next few days. I've already made a slice of roast chicken breast in lemon juice, coriander and thyme with some steamed vegies for tomorrow, which is yummy.

Oh, speaking of great food, we went to Little Creatures on Sunday and I had the harissa(I think it is called the harissa) spiced lamb and feta pizza and it was sooo good and so great with their famous pale ale. The others had steak and potatoes or fish and potatoes and we all ordered fries with dips. We were completely stuffed at the end of it.

2007-07-31T01:25:00.000+08:00

I got a really nice pair of black leggings the other day. They are footless and made of this really nice material which is super-comfy and bound to last long, and they have little white dash-lines running up each outer side of the legs and around the waistband to look like belt loops and a waist lining for pants. It is really cool and is also my first ever pair of leggings - I keep refraining from buying leggings because I didn't really like the look until recently, and then I thought leggings might be over soon so I didn't want to waste money on a trend that was going out. But leggings don't seem to be going out anytime soon and these leggings were of really good material and only cost $14.95 from Valley Girl Fashions so I thought what the heck, I'll buy it! I've only worn them once but they felt really good and comfortable and were really easy to move around. They made me feel full of energy and really flexible, like the girl in the Vogue Get Happy! Fashion spread photographed by David Sims with her ponytail flying one way and her arms and legs in constant motion.

I am wearing them currently with dresses but I really don't see how everyone can wear leggings with little minidresses in winter when it is so cold. I need to figure out the right accessories and winter clothes to wear with these leggings.

2007-07-31T01:21:00.001+08:00

A bowl of stones or a bowl of feathers or even a bowl filled with both feathers and stones is a great way to decorate your home. It's also kind of zen so you can add that with some pretty scented candles to make a little stress-relief corner. I have candles and a couple of pretty candle-holders (that I think need some dusting now arranged on a pretty red bamboo mat in one corner of my room. I want to get said bowl of stones and some feathers and some aromatherapy stuff as well, and also put my meditation kit next to it, but my room is really small now so I can't crowd any more stuff in that corner. Lighting candles isn't too practical either in such a small room especially now that it is winter and I have to keep the windows closed most of the time except when I want some fresh air, so I will wait to get new candles when I have a bigger room.

2007-07-27T11:40:00.000+08:00

The other day, while I was monitoring the news, there was this thing about a police sting operation to catch 'graffiti vandals'. And they were going on and on about graffiti vandalism and how it's not art, and I was like, "excuse me, but I beg to differ!" Some graffiti artists are really talented and it's so much prettier to see their work on a building wall rather than plain old gray or peeling white. Of course, we're talking about like really pretty works rather than just random scrawlings. And sometimes, their work actually sends messages out.

I had a scout around to see what kind of graffiti is being painted around the world and here are some pics:

Some graffiti links:
FabioAcme107 is Italian graffiti and it is where I got the second picture above from.
Iran Graffiti and Urban Art Report.
Graffiti TV where you get to see streamed live videos of graffiti artists creating their art.

2007-07-25T02:01:00.000+08:00

Shine Shine

I got two new lip glosses from Supre - their mega shine lipgloss in strawberry and toffee. They're really cheap - four bucks each. As you can see, the colour looks good in the tube but it really is all shine and no colour. You get plenty of gloss but it takes ages and lots of application to get just a subtle shade of colour but by that time, your lips are so slick you just want to wipe it off and the colour disappears in seconds. So it's not really that worth it - you might as well just get lip balm or something. It's a shame I didn't know about the lack of colour as they don't have any samples in the stores. I think next time I'll buy Revlon's Super Lustrous Lip Gloss as I tried those the other day and the colour, texture and gloss were all quite good.

2007-07-21T02:44:00.000+08:00

I just looked at my blog and realized that I wrote an awful lot about moisturizer.

2007-07-21T01:17:00.000+08:00

These are some of the songs I can't get enough of lately:

Kelly Rowland - Bump Like this

Great party song. But does anyone notice how Kelly kind of looks like Oprah Winfrey with her hair and golden top in her final look towards the end of the video?

Sean Paul - Never Gonna be the Same Again
Listening to this song reminds me of all the good times of the old days ... the Saturday Night Crew, the Flat 11 times, the Flat 28 times, and the Flat 17 crazy days and nights, times at the "Bentley Palace"... and it's true, it's all never going to be the same again, most of us have scattered now to different parts of the world and it'll be hard to all be together again in the same time and place, and even then things might not be the same. Miss those times!

Also, watching the video made me realize the sadder meaning of this song and made me think of my grandmother and grandfather, whom i know are together again and have sent me a sign that they are watching over me

On a happier note, I love listening to Sunshine Reggae by Laidback in the sun on the way to work.

And on the way home from work at night, Armin Van Buuren's Shivers

The other two songs I can't get enough of are Aerosmith's Crazy and Amy Winehouse's In My Bed, you can find the two videos in a recent post below.

2007-07-20T00:03:00.000+08:00

Beauty Products

It's been a busy week so I haven't had time to blog. Most days, I just come home tired from work since it's my second week and my first week of real work on the new job. It's crazy, I just type like mad and listen on my headphones (I swear, I'm going to have an ear infection or go deaf one day) and try to make out what the news anchors are saying because half the time the bloody people mispronounce their words. Not to mention the fact that I have just noticed half the things on TV News are misspelt. It's so bad I keep having to go back on Google and check to make sure it's not just me mispelling. Oh, in case you're wondering, I'm working with a media monitoring company, monitoring the news.) But it's been really fun and I like it, everyone is so friendly and nice.

Anyway, when I get home, I usually chill out for an hour or two and then fall asleep - not such a bad thing as I work the evening shift. Then I'm busy in the mornings, doing laundry, cooking, working out or shopping before headng off to work. So it's been a pretty busy week, but a pretty awesome week at the same time.

But let's talk about beauty products.

I ran out of moisturizer the other day - both day and night moisturizer - and had to go looking for a new moisturizer. But it was so hard to find a really good one! I'm really addicted to moisturizing these days, especially since I use both a day and a night moisturizer, and if I go one or two days without moisturizing, like if I'm really busy or if I'm sleeping over at someone's house, I could actually feel the difference.

I used to use L'Oreal White Perfect Deep Whitening Moisturizing Cream and the night version of it as well. And no, I'm not using the whitening cream to whiten my skin, I think I pretty much cancelled that out because I stay in the sun whenever I can, I love the sun so much, I even make sure I sit in the sun when I'm on the bus, but because the cream has melano to block out brown spots, helps lighten my freckles a little and gives me clear coverage so it's really good that way. It's also great because it has SPF 15 and has these little light reflectors. I really love this moisturizer and I can use it without having to put on foundation or make up base so that's a real plus. The bad thing is that I don't think you can get this outside of Asia - none of the stores stock it and I couldn't find it on Strawberry.net either but I think my sister could get it for me online if I asked her - only I hadn't time because my moisturizers were well and truly over and I needed a new one ASAP!

So I had to find a new one in the pharmacies and honestly, how hard is it to find a good moisturizer with at least an SPF15 from your ordinary chemist? Pretty hard, it seems. I checked out L'Oreal since that was what I used and they had these ranges for different ages and the only thing they had for people in their 20s was their Happyderm range and I tell you, they must think young people don't care what goes in their moisturizer. All it says is "it's for happy skin!" All well and good that my skin is happy but I'd like a little more information to decide if the product is worth buying. It doesn't even tell you if it contains at least an SPF15. Garnier skincare products are also mostly products for women in their 50s, etc., and the products for girls my age didn't look that promising. Their hair products are really awesome, though, especially the frizz-control serum (SweetRhapsody used to own Garnier's frizz-control serum and it smelt really nice) and their conditioners and shampoos are really good as well and have lovely scents. But I think they're a little lacking in the skincare section, though I've always meant to try their cleansing wipes. I think this is because Garnier started out as a haircare range (I think). Dove had some nice tinted moisturizers but I didn't want those.

Speaking of tinted moisturizers, I thought of giving that a try so I went to check out the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer because when I did my research online, everyone seems to swear by this one. And it has an SPF of 20!!! The saleswoman sat me down and slapped on some of the Moisturizer, using the Sand shade. It looked all right in the mirrors under the lights of the department store - then I went into the bathroom and saw that I looked kind of orange. I thought the whole point of Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer being so great was that it was because it was NOT supposed to give you an orange look! I checked it out in sunlight and under the lights of two different public bathrooms in two different department stores - NOT good. I washed it off at once and it's left me with a red pimple on my nose where I have never gotten red pimples since I was in high school. I am not pleased. No tinted moisturizer for me. Anyway, apparently, you're supposed to use your usual moisturizer under your tinted moisturizer as well. There's no point having a tinted moisturizer unless you're really dying for a tan on your face and I advise you to try as many different brand samples as you can first - you can get samples or a saleswoman to help you with trying it out at department stores and you can try the testers in pharmacies - and check it all out under all sorts of different lighting, especially under sunlight, to make sure you have the shade that really suits you.

But for those interested in trying tinted moisturizers, I think Laura Mercier and Clinique have gotten the best votes in tinted moisturizers. You probably should not go with my distaste of Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer since I seem to be the only one who hates it - everyone else seems to love it and it's been voted as In Style's number one beauty buy. My advice is just to try it before you buy it - and don't buy it until a day later, so you can have a whole day to admire or hate your look and see if you are willing to shell out big bucks for it. For those who want a cheaper bargain, I hear Dove's Tinted Moisturizers are pretty good.

Anyway, back to the moisturizer search. I was running out of time before I had to catch the train to work so I just decided to go with Oil of Olay Complete All Day Moisture Cream with SPF15. As you can guess, the SPF bit is essential, since I'm always out in the sun and can't be bothered putting on sunblock all the time. It's not too bad, it feels a little heavy and it hasn't got those wonderful light reflectors of L'Oreal's ... sigh ... I guess I will have to just wait until I get to Malaysia again when my sister gets married and bulk buy then!

Oh, and while I was at the pharmacy, I checked out Red Earth's newest range. I particuarly liked their bronzing potions. I really like the shades they have but I'll probably used it more as blusher or cheek stain than as a proper bronzer so I don't know if I will get that. I might get a cream blush soon because I've never had one and I'm dying to try it. Or maybe a cheek illuminator. Which is better, do you think, cream blush or cheek illuminator? My cheeks get naturally flushed most of the time anyway, but I'd like something for days when I just feel kind of pale and dowdy or when I haven't had enough sleep, because that's when my face gets really pale. I don't want something that makes me look like a clown either, something that's natural yet makes a difference at the same time. I'll check out some ranges and let you know soon!

2007-07-14T02:57:00.000+08:00

Rest and Relax

This is the end of my first week on the new job! So far so good :)
Went out for dinner and drinks at the Moon with Justine after work to celebrate - my first week at the new job and Justine, who has just gotten a new job and is set to start work next week! I had salmon spaghetti and she had carbonara pasta. I also discovered I don't like gin martinis. I have never had one before but now I think I'm sticking to gin and tonics, cosmos and bloody mary(s). That's probably the only cocktail that I met that I didn't like, except for creamy cocktails and cocktails with baileys and kahlua. Everyone else seems to like baileys though.

Anyway, sitting in a computer, typing as fast as I could while straining to listen through my headphones can often strain my back and I haven't gotten the hang of fixing my chair to suit my posture either so I am well in need of a back rub. I promised the Gutter Philosopher I'd give him a back massage this weekend since he's been out on construction sites all week, hammering nails into planks and pouring bitumen over who-knows-what and so on but he'd better give me one too! I've scoured the Net once or twice in the past to find good how-to massage courses and I've been thinking of going for a massage course one day. I found some good sites recently so I've just put them down here so everyone can take a look and find what's good and also so I can remember where these sites are!

So take some baby or scented oil, light a few scented candles or incense sticks, turn down the lights or close the shutters just that bit so the sunlight falls in muted shades across the room, and turn on some soothing music. (Tunes I recommend include Gabriel by Lamb, The River, Say Hello and Fragile Wind by Nitin Sawhney, Lovers Rock by Sade, Silence by Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan and The Sweetest by Nightmares on Wax).

Then take your pick of the following:
Massage 1 (comes with pictures)
Massage 2 (Comes with a video and other links to articles like How to Massage a Headache Away)
Massage 3

Happy Kneading!

2007-07-11T23:00:00.000+08:00

I thought I'd share some WTF? tidbits of news around the world this week.

1) A boy was refused enrollment in a Catholic school in Australia because his last name was Hell.

His father said it was an Austrian name.

Hmmm.

2) A 51-yr-old Parish Councillor from Cheshire is marrying Osama bin Laden's 27-yr-old son!

The only word I have for this? Awwwwww.

3) And best of all ... forget crazed US and Al-Qaeda soldiers tossing bombs and machine-gunning one another to death. You know what Iraq's problem is? Giant badgers! Yes, rumours are floating around Basra that giant badgers have been seen roaming the streets at night. It is suspected they are none other than a weapon of the British forces.

Give a hand to Brown. Less than a month in charge of England and he's already releasing the UK's deadliest forces - those pesky giant badgers.

I swear, this is a true story, heard on a news report on the radio. Yes. An actual news report.

2007-07-11T00:58:00.000+08:00

YES! I've managed to solve that pesky sidebar problem, thanks to the aid of CircleySquare and Stevo. Thanks to you guys, I can sleep well tonight knowing that my blog sidebar is beautiful again. ;)

2007-07-10T23:19:00.000+08:00

I'm a little peeved because I have finally found where my tagboard vanished to - all the way to the bottom of the page. I hate it when the sidebar acts up like this. I think it's because the tagboard may be larger than the sidebar, although I have not had this problem in a long time, but when I changed the size of the tagboard, it didn't really help matters. Does anyone have any suggestions? Help!

2007-07-09T23:32:00.000+08:00

Book Review

Another book I got out of the library was The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke. I couldn't believe my luck when I found it in the shelves. Obviously, the library just got it in and it just so happened to be in a rare moment between loans when I discovered it. Naturally I grabbed it at once.

Now I'm wondering if I can steal it from the library without getting my membership revoked. I must say, I love, love, love the cover. It is so soft and lovely and has these beautiful pink foxglove flowers on a gray background and the prettiest lavender-grey ribbon to keep your place in the book. And the stories themselves are all great. My only complaint is that there weren't enough stories. It was over too quickly.

These stories are all based on the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Clarke's bestselling debut novel about an England where magic and fairies are part of the world's past and present. For those of you who haven't read it, I absolutely recommend it. Read it before reading The Ladies of Grace Adieu. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, in particular, brings me back to the days of good old-fashion English fairytales, told in the style of Enid Blyton and all her English-ness, but without the racial and gender prejudices of Blyton's day, and with a zesty adult tang to the stories.

2007-07-09T22:35:00.000+08:00

But here I am talking about my first day of the week and I hadn't even talked about the weekend! Saturday had been really bright and sunny and a barbeque was planned which did not take off until the sun was almost gone, but still it was great. We also watched Stranger than Fiction, which is just like Prime, that movie starring Uma Thurman - promises lots of funny scenes in the trailer but is actually more of a sad, thoughtful movie than a comedy. Now, I like sad, thoughtful movies just as much as anyone but not when I was hoping for a comedy. When you're in a comedy mood, you just can't get into a sad, thoughtful movie kind of mood.

Oooh and Sunday was also another first for me as I began my first day of volunteer work at the art gallery. Like I said, it was mainly work as a glorified coat and bag check girl but it was still fun, because I got to hang out behind the main desk, watch them set up the Egyptian exhibition and hear about the sorts of nutters they get in the gallery.

And then it was raining and I went to the Gutter Philosopher's friend's apartment and watch said friend's wife gut a huge red snapper. It was actually kind of horrifying to see her go to work on it with a knife and the poor thing with its glassy eyes plus the smell of the raw fish filling up the apartment and me on my second glass of red wine, let's just say I had to step out to the small balcony for a breath of fresh air before I passed out.

But it was delicious fish, though, once it had been seasoned with, um, well I forgot what it was seasoned with but there was cumin. And then grilled and served with rice and mango chutney (which was hell awesome). Then the Gutter Philosopher and his friend got drunk and decided to sing Charlotte the Harlot at the top of their voices in a booming neighborhood serenade.

2007-07-09T22:20:00.000+08:00

It's the start of a new week and the start of my first day on my new job!

It wasn't too bad, as first days go. Everytime I start something new I think about all those stories and movies about people who have extremely bad first days - they get splashed with rainwater and mud before they even make it to the office, realize their supervisor is the very same grouch they had a run-in with the day before and had cursed most eloquently and then proceed to wreck the printer, trip over in front of a board meeting full of sophisticated disdainful aloof co-workers who don't bother to help them up, spill coffee over rain-water-stained clothes, ruin a few important projects and finally humiliate themselves in front of the hot guy at work.

But, luckily and happily, my first days have never been like that before! In fact, today was pretty good. My training buddy, who's supposed to show me the ins and outs of the workplace, turned out to be an ex-uni-classmate. Never mind that I didn't recognize him at first and that we barely spoke a word to one another the whole time we were at uni, it was nice to have a friendly, slightly familiar face (hey, people can look very different with a new hairstyle). And the boss and everyone else seems pretty nice too.

And it wasn't really hectic or anything for a first day; mainly they just kept throwing introductory welcome-to-the-team info at me, which kind of went into overload and left me dazed for the rest of the day. Things like occupational safety and health and company values, that sort of thing. Basic stuff.

So, the first day is over and we are on to the second day tomorrow! Wish me luck. Ooh, and thanks to everyone who wished me luck on my first day, really appreciated that!

2007-07-07T01:18:00.000+08:00

Book Review

I got The Nanny Diaries by Nicola Kraus and Emaa McLaughlin out of the library the other day. It's pretty good, it's funny and sad at the same time. You'll get picked up and carried along with Nan's frantic life as she tries to graduate from NYU, get to know the Harvard Hottie from the 1th floor and keep up with her employee's crazy demands all at the same time. Not to mention, pay for rent and sustain a living in expensive New York.

I wonder if it's possible to get anxiety from reading books? Because I do get anxious and feel I should be rushing from place to place too whenever I read books about people running around like this, the same as when I read Everyone Worth Knowing, the second book by Lauren Weisberger, author of the Devil Wears Prada (which I am longing to get my hands on). That, folks, by the way, is also a great book.

I notice there's a trend in books lately concerning employees with crazy, out-of-their-mind, unreasonable bosses that work them like sweat shop slaves. I don't know if it's because of the success that the Devil Wears Prada had, or whether it's because that really is just the way working life is now? Everyone rush rush, everything go go, no excuses as there's cell phones and faxes and the Internet and all that now. And you find yourself having to work all the harder even if you don't have to, even if you've already clocked in all your prerequisite hours because the guy in the next cubicle is overworking himself like mad and you feel like a lazy cur next to him. That is so unfair, I say. I think right now there needs to be a limit to the hours too so that people don't get away with overworking and making their colleagues look bad, even though said colleagues had been perfectly responsible and hardworking as well.

I mean, honestly. I remember this article about CEOs and their daily schedules. Most of them get up at some crazy time in the morning, 4am seems to be the average waking time. They launch themselves into the gym and at their e-mails right away. Then breakfast and getting the kids off to school before heading off to work before coming home to check more e-mails, etc. Oh and they don't have lunch. They work out or do yoga or whatever. Anything but relax and have lunch.

So when do they have time to sleep and relax? I guess they must go to bed pretty damn early. But honestly, now, what kind of a life is this? There's hardworking and motivated and passionate but there's also a boundary too. I've done my fair share of slave labour and overworked hours, at my now-ex-job, i used to work nights and weekends all the time, and the result was that I was always haggard, always tired and always very stressed and snappish at everyone. Of course, that might have to do with the fact that I got paid peanuts for working my ass off. But still. The point is, is that really the kind of life that you will look back on and say, 'ah! i have truly lived in this life.'?

I guess it depends too on the kind of the job you have. Some people have a job they love and it gets them out and about in the kind of world they want to be in, so in that case, maybe that's not so bad because what you do doesn't feel like work at all. But a lot of people are just in the job for the money which isn't a good thing because it's not good for the soul, spending hours doing something you don't actually enjoy just because the pay is good. And some people think they NEED that house in the burbs with the kids going to fancy schools and fancy dinner parties with way too much designer goods and they don't actually want any of those things but even they don't know that. It's just society that told them they want those things.

Hmm. I don't know how I got to this. But to conclude, overworking is stressful and not healthy and I guess I hope the corporate world decides to slow down. France and Australia, it seems, are actually doing a pretty good job of putting up boundaries for work and time-off-to-make-sure-you-get-a-life. But America and a lot of Asian countries are overworking and I hear so many horror stories about that. In the end, it's just not productive.

Anyway, enough! Back to Nanny Diaries. When I was looking for a picture of the book cover, I found out the movie based on the book is coming out soon too. Scarlett Johansson is staring, looking very un-Scarlet with brown hair and dressed in casual everyday clothes. But they glammed her up for the poster, though, in a very nice, Audrey Hepburn-ish classic black dress that I don't think her character ever wore in the book.

2007-07-07T00:40:00.000+08:00

Training Days

Today was induction day for volunteers at the art gallery for the Egyptian exhibition. All this training ... first I had to train the new guy to take my old job, then today's training for my volunteer work, and finally next week I will have five days of training for my new job! I really hope all goes well ...

But today was pretty exciting. There were four of us girls and we were all excited at being able to work at the art gallery. My first day begins this week, actually, on Sunday. I was a bit surprised that I was starting so fast, as the exhibition isn't up yet, but I guess they wanted us all to come in and familiarize ourselves while it's still quiet. Don't expect there to be much happening this week, though, as they haven't got much happening at the gallery at the moment, they're mostly busy with getting ready for the Egyptian exhibition. But that's good too cuz I get the chance to settle in before things start getting crazy. This exhibition looks set to be a big thing and weekends are sure to be really busy.

This here below is going to be part of the exhibition: apparently, they are the Ushabti troupe of Nefer-ib-Ra-em-heb'faience and the photo is by Georges Poncet of the Louvre. It kind of reminds me of the terracotta soldiers of China. I can't wait to be able to see it in real life. And also the mummified cat - yes, there is a mummified cat! But it is mainly the cat's mummified remains wrapped in painted linen and looks more like a stuffed cat toy than anything else, which perhaps is a good thing, because I have seen dead cats on the streets and those are not a pretty sight.

2007-07-05T01:03:00.000+08:00

I stayed up a little later than I really should have last night and so I had to pay for it today! I'm exhausted. And I could have just slept in this morning instead of coming in for work because all our computers had gone down and we couldn't get them to work until way after noon. So we all had to stay late for work today and we kept getting these irky problems and everyone was tired and not pleased and wanted to go home. Even our IT guy, who came in shortly after five to fix our Outlook, which suddenly decided to shut itself off as well, could be heard sighing and cursing in fustration.

Really, what a way for my last day at this job to end.

But I will be back tomorrow, anyway, to train up the new guy.

And one of my colleagues started handing around these almond and spice flavoured cookies to calm everyone down. They were delicious! The spice made it taste like curry in a cookie. It sounds weird but was really good. Now it's making me crave proper curry though.

Anyway, to chill out before I go to bed, I'm watching some music videos on YouTube. I love this song I just found that was on Amy Winehouse's old album - it's called In My Bed. I love the song, I love the video set in an old hotel, it reminds me of all those stories and shows about the going-ons and people-interactions in a hotel. The music is so chilled too, it makes me think of those warm summer starry nights under the trees and bougainvilleas in full bloom in the backyard of the Gutter Philosopher and Pharrell's old house. Those were the days!

And this is another song which I just can't stop from continuously playing in my head these days. Aerosmith's Crazy! Now this one really brings back old memories. I've made this song my ringtone now.

This is the director's cut, though I actually prefer the original.

As you can see, all music videos were stolen from YouTube.

2007-07-03T23:01:00.000+08:00

It's been cold and wet and windy this week. Not great weather for catching the bus.

I was reading the BBC's James Rodgers's Moscow Diary - he was just writing about how shops in Moscow now stay open practically 24-7 and how it stays light until about 11pm everyday. Imagine! In Perth, I have lost all hopes of getting home before it's pitch-black, even if I leave work at 5pm on the dot. That's how fast it gets dark here in winter.

Over the past month, I've been complaining to the Lost Smoker about how boring it is and now everything's just suddenly starting to happen all at once. I'm not complaining, though, I'm loving it. I've gotten an awesome new job (in a great neighborhood!), been busy training someone to take over my old job, just been called in for training for my volunteer work at the egyptian exhibition, not to mention it's my turn to clean the house. Bleh. Which I haven't gotten around to doing because I've just only gotten back from having to cover a not-too-exciting function in east perth. And still have a million things left to do.

:) i like being busy.

Now I have to go download pictures of curtain material which my mother and sister are insisting I check out - I think it's for the house for when my sister gets married. It's actually kind of cool how my sister's wedding is going to be such a big-family-reunion thing, which I actually find myself missing these days. It's a whole production and it's only July now.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. I saw Transformers.

It was so awesome.

The Gutter Philosopher doesn't believe that, as a little girl, I used to like Transformers. "Only boys like it!" he insisted. (And that, we all know, is true, the packed cinema we were in was exploding with Transformers-fueled testosterone). I explained that it used to come on every week after My Little Pony, MoonDreamers and Glo Worms.

Speaking of my childhood, I got really excited when I heard they were making a movie on Nancy Drew. Then I saw the trailer and all my excitement vanished.

I know the movie is aimed at kids but why is Nancy so young? From what I remember, she was in high school in the books, drove a car and Ned was an eighteen-year-old college guy! Plus, it's true that Nancy is all about common sense and blahblah, but I don't remember her being as prim and proper as what she is in the movie. I mean, come on, she modeled in a few of the books and was described as a gorgeous redhead with good taste in clothes and practically every guy she met lusted after her. Sometimes, I found Nancy Drew in the books annoying but that's nothing compared to the Nancy Drew in this upcoming movie! Speaking of which, in the books, I always felt she and George were kind of mean to Bess. Especially George. Sometimes, I just wanted to kick that dyke's ass. :p

But seriously. If they wanted to make a movie on Nancy, I think it'll be better if they kept her the same age, made her stylish but sensible (maybe something like Anne Hathaway in the Devil Wears Prada or Jennifer Garner in Alias) and, to make it suitable for all ages, just keep the movie away from any overly-sexed scenes. The Devil Wears Prada was stylish and hot and an adult movie and practically the only non-family rated bits was when Anne showed her (gorgeous) bra to her (gorgeous) boyfriend and spent one night with another guy, and I'd hardly call those scenes racy. So you can make a stylish hit movie about a bright, beautiful woman that's family-rated.

Now that I've mentioned it, I really think Jennifer Garner in Alias is exactly what Nancy Drew would most likely have been like if she ever grew up and got out of high school and River Heights. *Pause*. Exactly. Sydney Bristow is the new modern-day, all-grown-up-as-an-adult Nancy Drew!

Hollywood, please take note.

2007-07-02T23:42:00.000+08:00

Easy Peasy Sandwich Recipe
This was basically what I ate most of last week before the Gutter Philosopher came home bearing macadamia chocolates and making me his gorgeous gamey steak. But what I made was pretty good too, if I say so myself, and is one of my scrumptious but extremely simple recipes, because you all know I can't really be bothered with cooking.

It's basically, take a baguette/bagel/long bun and slice it in the middle like you would a hot dog bun. Then stuff it with slices of tomatoes and brie cheese, some pre-cooked shrimp, then spread on some pesto and sprinkle some pepper and salt before toasting in an oven until cheese has melted and the bread is nice and toasty and crisp. So easy. I got the inspiration from a recipe in the early archives of StyleBytes. Her recipe was basically the same except she also had butter on hers. I didn't put any butter but I added on the shrimp. :)

Also, like StyleBytes, my picture of the sandwich, as you can see below, doesn't look that great but trust me, it was yummy. The Gutter Philosopher scowled and told me the recipe was weird and looked at the sandwich with obvious distrust but he ate every bite and conceded it was pretty good. If anything gets his vote, it's definitely edible! I vote that this be served with chips (thick fries like those that you get with your club sandwiches, not potato chips or thin french fries) and salad. Mmmm. Also, if you don't like shrimp, you can always substitute with steak pieces or chicken or ham or bacon or if you're a vegetarian, um, well, just do without the shrimp or meat.

2007-06-28T13:49:00.000+08:00

My sister came over the other night and helped me take some really nice pictures of the jewelry that I had made. I've already shown pictures of some of the jewelry but she is a much better photographer than I am so here and taught me some tricks about takig pics of stills and accessories so hopefully I wll be taking better pictures soon. A good trick she showed me when taking pics of jewelry is to put the jewelry against a white background in plenty of good lighting - try putting the jewelry on white A4-sized paper if you don't have any white backgrounds available and take pictures in daytime (morning light is best, I find). We also draped the coin bracelet I made over a perfume bottle and the result is really cool and fashion-y. So here are the pictures below: enjoy!

Above are the chinoiserie earrings I made my sister, taken in a much more flattering shot here.

And this is the coin bracelet that I made. I really wanted a coin bracelet and some coin jewelry, you know, something very ancient Roman-like although as you can see here I could only find Chinese and English psuedo coin charms. I wasn't too sure about it after I made it, though, but the more I wear it the more I like it. It's a good thing I can slip it over my hand because I didn't realize until after I made it that it was really hard to do the clasp without someone helping. That's one thing to always keep in mind while making jewelry.

This is another picture of the coin bracelet, draped over the Davidoff Echo perfume that Sheryl got for me last year for my birthday pressie.

And once again, here is another picture of my dragon earrings, or in this case, one of the earrings.

Here is the turquoise bracelet that I made for my sister out of turquoise beads and pale green crystals. The heart-shaped toggle clasp is really cute but I'm not too sure about it as I have a feeling it's really easy to undo by itself while you're wearing it.

This bracelet of white turquoise beads and small transparent glass beads is as yet unfinished because we need more beads for it. I'll wait for my sister to chose what she likes to add on as this bracelet is for her too.

2007-06-28T00:34:00.000+08:00

Today was such a windy day. I got two really cute new skirts on Monday - a high-waist black skirt and the prettiest green skirt ever - which are really awesome for all occasions - office, party or just hanging out - which I will post pictures of soon if I manage to get good pictures and if they will load properly on my computer! Anyway, yesterday was warm enough to wear the high-waist skirt but when I looked out the window this morning, I just knew the green skirt, though the material is a little thick, just won't be enough to stand against the cold. Everything was flapping today in the wind, not to mention the rain. Brrr!

Back to shopping on Monday: I also went to check out the Supre store in the city, the first time I ever set foot in that store since it opened this year and practically caused a frenzy amongst all female shoppers. I wasn't too impressed, though, nothing much caught my fancy and everything looked way expensive. I think they hacked up the prices because I don't ever remember the Supre store in Belmont ever being that pricy. Just as well, I really shouldn't be shopping! :p

2007-06-27T22:23:00.000+08:00

I just found out that Belgian supermodel Anouck Lepere will be marrying British Dazed and Confused magazine co-founder and editor Jefferson Hack!

I didn't even know they were a couple!

One thing I must say for Jefferson is he certainly can pick 'em. He used to date Kate Moss and is the father of her child, Lila Grace. And Anouck is another one of my favourite models - I love her, especially after seeing her in the Hugo Boss Deep Red perfune ad. Granted, that was partly because I love the colour red but I really like that she has a strong, beautiful look.

Can't say that much for the actual smell of the perfume, though. When I tried it at the store, it just reminded me of the fever medicine that I had to take as a child and which I really hated, so no go there.

2007-06-25T23:15:00.000+08:00

Out of Africa Controversy

I bought the June issue of Vogue because of Keira Knightley on the front cover (and also the Best Dressed Girls of Summer thing but that didn't live up so much to my expectations). But love Keira! She's just so gorgeous I can't get tired of looking at her. She really lights up the screen. And there's not so much media overkill on her so I don't get tired of her the way I got tired of Mischa Barton.

I did think though, while flipping through Vogue on the bus home, that the whole African photo spread was, well, how do I put it? I was a little disturbed by the photoshoot, not to mention that photo of the poor baby elephant that had to endure getting a Louis Vuitton blanket on its back! (cry of a million fashionistas going "I envy that baby elephant getting an LV blanket on its back!" Yes, very well, but from what I read of Keira's account of everyone having to run to catch the poor thing to tie a blanket around it, the baby elephant wasn't very enthusiastic about its brush with designer fashion). I soon found out on the Internet that quite a few people weren't very happy about the whole Africa shoot either. I got the picture above from Ghanaian designer G. Kofi Annan of the Annansi Chronicles website and I think he puts it into words best the way I felt about the photospread. To read his opinion on the spread go to his website and just scroll down and click on fashion, then you'll see it further down the page. His blog is pretty interesting in itself - I might put up a link to it in my sidebar when I have the time.

Are we being too harsh on Anna Wintour (the editor of Vogue in America, for those of you who don't know)and Keira Knightley? I doubt very much Keira had a lot of say on how the photo shoot was planned, we can look to Anna and her fashion editors for that. And when you look at the way they got the Maasai herdsmen to stand around Keira for an "Out of Africa" type photo shoot, it kind of reminded me of the way they did a Vogue bikini on the beach photo shoot a few years back where leggy models (I think Karolina Kurkova was one of the them) in bikinis were surrounded by a lot of surfer-type boys who basically did the same thing the Maasai herdsmen did - stand around the models like live props. I do agree very much with what G. Kofi Annan said in his post on this shoot - "...you’d think that with all the resources they have the editors can find a creative way to tie in the Africa theme ... But it just goes to prove how the perspective of Africa in popular culture is so limited."

2007-06-25T22:30:00.000+08:00

Book Review

I've just finished reading two books that I've been wanting to read for some time: Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. Well, actually I got through perhaps halfway through both books and then I did something I usually never do - skip right through to the end to find out what happened.

I don't know why I didn't really enjoy both books - maybe it was just because I didn't feel like reading those kind of books at the moment but decided to borrow them from the library anyway because, well, I've always wanted to read them. Lol! Silly, no? Perhaps it was because in both books, all the women kept getting put down and beaten by the men. I really didn't enjoy it even though it highlighted how brave, courageous, indomitable, etc. the women were in spite of all their trials. What I really wanted was a heroine who would just stand up and kick some ass and teach those silly men what's what. And the one woman who got a man to listen to her (Guinevere in Mists of Avalon) had been dishing out bad advice. What bad luck!

Sidenote: This is the exact same reason why I don't enjoy certain romances. I really hate reading about men breaking women's spirits, even if I know the women are going to bound right back and the men will probably end up getting broken in the end (unless it's the hero and then he will bounce right back too). Thank goodness for those romances where the heroine is super-fiesty and doesn't required getting embarassed and dominated by the man to fall in love with him!

Nevertheless, for those looking for plenty of plot - these two aforementioned books definitely had it. There was plot everywhere, dozens of intrigues (mostly in Mists) and plenty of obstacles (abound in Clan of the Cave Bear). But I just couldn't get into either of these books. Oh, well. The first time I picked up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, I couldn't get into it either. I put it down, then picked it up later and got way hooked. Same for Glenna McReynolds's Chalice of the Blade. And they're both interesting for their own ways - as a lot of people probably know, Mists of Avalon is the retelling of the King Arthur story and Clan of the Cave Bear has a lot of interesting stuff about prehistoric time and the ways of the Neanderthals. It says in the book, that Auel impressed a lot of anthropologists and the like with the extent of her research on prehistoric times, although I read on Amazon that the book, being written around 1980 isn't so accurate anymore since further research has disproved/proved lots of theories about those times. Still, I like the book for its information on botany - very interesting.

So - while I didn't feel very enthusiastic about these two books (which probably has more to do with just my particular reading mood at the present than the quality of these two books, which are highly-acclaimed bestsellers) I still recommend them to others. Read and tell me what you think!

2007-06-22T14:32:00.000+08:00

One singer whom I am really liking these days is Amy Winehouse, a British soul and jazz singer. I love her voice, her songs, her style. I also like the fact that she's so fiesty! Her new album, Back to Black, is really awesome too and you should check out her music videos.

2007-06-22T13:52:00.000+08:00

Winter Wear

The weather is getting much, much, much colder these days and I have actually finally turned my heater on and even got out the electric blanket (which is more like one long strip that goes in the middle of the bed than a proper blanket). I thought of heading out today to do a little shopping for warm clothes now that it's so cold but it's gray and gloomy today and also raining so I doubt if I will.

I've been going through fashion blogs again, looking for inspiration for winter, since I haven't yet gotten the knack of styling it up for winter, I always feel it's so boring! Most of the time everything's hidden under the same old jackets. But I did come up with some stuff I like and I found this - the cutest fox jacket ever!

I really love how the fox goes around the collar and drapes down at one side like that. I doubt very much if I could find something like that in stores here or even afford it though! And I love how her hair matches the fox. I hope it's faux, that's all I'm saying!

Another type of winter wear that I'm loving at the moment is billowing sleeves. It looks really comfy and can be worn over other layers of long sleeves without causing that constricted rumpled-sleeved look. I haven't found anything like that yet but then again I've been avoiding the shops lately because I didn't want to spend money! I'm in the mood to shop a little now though. But I really shouldn't buy more jackets - I've got plenty of good jackets from the last couple of years and it's only a matter of mixing and matching with other clothes and accessories to give 'em a fresh look.

Both pictures above are from The Sartorialist blog (link on sidebar).

2007-06-17T13:35:00.000+08:00

The Darkschunt Top Ten Book List

I can't remember if I've ever put up a Top Ten Book list which I've been meaning to for ages but has been putting off. I've thought about it so often that I can't remember if I really had done it before or whether it's just been in my head. Anyway, I went through some of the archives and it doesn't look like I have, but anyway this Top Ten list comes with book cover pictures so enjoy!

These are by no means the only books I love or will ever love but they are the ones which I really love now and that I think I will always love. They are the books that I keep thinking of in my mind and that are or were really huge influences on me. They run to all kinds of genres, because I don't think that there can be only one good genre in books, all genres have their amazing points, yes, even romance. So here we go, my top ten favourite books at the moment, not in any particular order...

1. Dangerous Love by Ben Okri

I think Okri will forever be one of my favourite writers. The Porn Star first recommended me to read Famished Road, another of Okri's books. Hesitant at first, I came to really love this book. I picked up Dangerous Love later, in a secondhand book shop and I love it just as much as Famished Road, they're both special in their own ways (come to think of it, I also picked up Famished Road from a secondhand book stall). This book in particular that I have is incredibly special to me as there is a message written in one of the first few pages, it was a gift to someone else, from someone who obviously loved it dearly as well and was deeply influenced by it. So I know this book had once been very cherished by someone and that made it all the more special. So, I can't wait to read more Ben Okri.

*Note: I listened to Angel Gabriel by Lamb over and over again while reading Dangerous Love, which I recommend to everyone too!

2. Water Touching Stone by Eliot Pattison

I cried when I read this book, that was how sad and touching and poignant it was. I can't really say enough for this book but that you should all read it too. This is actually the second in a line of books featuring Pattison's hero, Shan, after The Skull Mantra. I've only read The Skull Mantra and Water Touching Stone so far, but I suspect Water Touching Stone will always be my favourite.

3. Sunshine by Robin McKinley

This is for those who like a good vampire story. I only wish I had this particular book cover. My copy has a boring old cover of the side of a house with branch shadows flickering over it. Not as cool as this one.

For more on vampires, read on.

4. Dreamstone by Glenna McReynolds

Like I said, all genres count and romance is one of them. But I think that everyone should read Dreamstone just for her amazing descriptions and vivid imagination (and no, I am not just referring to the romance and sexual parts. Although those scenes were pretty damn good too). Dreamstone is the second book in a trilogy, actually, with The Chalice and the Blade being the first book and Prince of Time being the third. Everyone I know who has read the book seems to love The Chalice and the Blade the best but I myself preferred Dreamstone. Maybe it's because I really like the characters of Llynya and Mychael and the fact that Llynya is a really strong woman who fights well.

5. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel by Susanna Clarke

I think this book speaks for itself. Once again, I wish I had this particular book cover. My copy is the red cover with the silver raven in the front, it was the only one they had at the bookstore.

6. Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery

I read L.M. Montgomery when I was a kid. That was after the Anne of Green Gables TV series came out and my sister and I were nuts about it. I think Pat of Silver Bush is my all-time favourite, though, along with the sequel Mistress Pat. Magic for Marigold comes a close third. And until today, I still enjoy reading those books, so yeah, they're really awesome.

7. Night World by L.J. Smith

Oh, wow, these books of L.J. Smith's were a major influence on my high school days! Night World is actually a series of books that Smith wrote, they were my absolutely favourite of her books, followed by the Forbidden Game trilogy. I wasn't too fond of The Vampire Chronicles, maybe because I thought Elena was kind of a snobby bitch. Smith doesn't seem to have stopped writing books shortly after the Night World series. Does anyone know what's happened or if she plans to release any more books? If so, I want to know!

8. Agatha Christie

I just can't name which is my favourite book by Agatha Christie since I love them all, though some more than others. So I just decided to put a picture of the cover of one of her more famous books: Murder on the Orient Express, which was also made into a move with a lot of famous old movie stars in it.

9. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson.

"We can't stop here! This is bat country!!"

10. The Magus by John Fowles

I think I've mentioned this before that it took a while for the Lost Smoker to get me to read his copy of The Magus, mainly because it had a hell scary front cover (to me, anyway) and I did not want that book in my room at night when the thing in front might come to life and, I don't know, sit at the foot of my bed and bare its fangs at me and laugh like a hyena. I had enough to deal with the TV at the foot of my bed, where the thing from the Grudge or the Ring or one of those Japanese horror movies might come crawling out of any day. Anyway, after some time, I grew brave and borrowed the copy and always placed the book front-cover face-down during non-reading periods and ... I was really glad I read it. THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. It sure as hell changed the protagonist's life anyway. (the guy in the book, not me). It may have changed my life but I'm still not sure in what way. Anyway, the cover you see on my blog is still not the creepy cover of the Lost Smoker's copy but still I've come to conclusion after searching through Yahoo images for a relatively benign picture of the book that all book covers for this book are creepy. Don't let it deter you from reading this book though, wrap the cover in brown paper if you must. This is one of the most interesting books ever.

Has anyone noticed there is a theme with book covers running through this particular post?

2007-06-17T13:18:00.000+08:00

Jeans, jeans, jeans

I am supposed to be writing letters and stuff today, but I am doing what I do best: procrastinating. So instead of doing what I should be doing, I'm flipping through various fashion sites (I'm so into fashion blogs now, especially streetwear, because these are the best: people are always at their most creative in real life, not in photoshopped magazines, and when I do have the time, which may be today since I am procrastinating, I will put up the links to some of my favourite fashion blogs) and working several nonsense quizzes and so on.

And then I came upon this site which gives you a quiz to determine your perfect jeans. They came up with 71 pairs of jeans which are supposed to be my perfect fit - which is really more than a girl can ask for, since it's always so hard for me to find jeans that fit me perfectly (or fit me perfectly for more than a day without suddenly growing baggy on me). Unfortunately, I'm not really in a jeans-buying mood lately, since I'm swaying towards the soft feel of pants these days, so I won't buy any of these jeans at the moment and thus will not be able to tell any of you if these jeans really are my perfect fit. But if I ever do want to buy jeans again, I will definitely look up this quiz again.

Here are three of the 71 pairs of jeans that are my fit: From Top to Bottom: DKNY Stretch So-Low-Lita Jeans, Calvin Klein Stretch Straight-Leg Jeans, Baby Phat Rhinestone Belt Jeans.

Take the test at Zafu.

2007-06-16T17:44:00.000+08:00

Here's a little announcement for Circley Square, she has two new websites up now, called Super Couch Potato and Tone Deaf Critic, which offers TV and music reviews and news. I'm having a little trouble putting the links in this post but I have put them up on my sidebar, along with the other links so go visit her and support her and link on to her too! Muah!

2007-06-15T19:59:00.000+08:00

Birthday Babes
Happy birthday to Potatoes whose birthday was yesterday! Hope you had a great time at Sky Bar. I wished I was there to celebrate with you and CircleySquare and everyone else! And to gossip about how you-know-who lost his shopkeeper!

It's also my housemate's birthday today. A friend of hers brought a cake over at midnight from Michel's Patisserie. I have to say I'm not too impressed with the cake, I thought it was rather tasteless but then again I think it was a sponge cake masquerading as some kind of chocolate cake so maybe that's why.

It's not Sheryl's birthday but she's over in Canada right now and trying to get used to the big city life and find an apartment and scour for hot guys (of which, so far, she reports there are none) so let's hope she settles in soon and prepare the way for us to come and visit her and paaaarty!!!

2007-06-13T22:44:00.001+08:00

The Duchess got me to join Facebook because Sheryl had pics of us from our last time together in Perth. Going through Facebook reminded me of Friendster and I logged in today and added some new pics and stuff. Then I went through my friends' profiles and gosh! Look at y'all. You're all so beautiful! Everyone's grown up and gotten even more gorgeous than ever and it's so amazing how we've all matured and become these amazing people. I am so proud of you, guys! Hugz!

2007-06-12T23:12:00.000+08:00

I got Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors out of the library this weekend and read it in two days. I would have tried to space it out over a few more days but I just couldn't put it down. It's a collection of short stories and I really enjoyed them. The innocent be warned, though - there's quite a bit of sex in these stories, which you wouldn't have expected after seeing that innocent-seeming picture of his on the inside of the book cover. Then again, he was a "young journalist" when I was barely one years old so I imagine he probably isn't as young as his picture makes him out to be now.

One of the things I liked best was that he had so many stories in this book - everytime I finish one, I was pleased to find out there were more. Now the book I really want to get my hands on is American Gods but since the library doesn't have it, I'll probably have to get one of the bookshops to order it in for me.

2007-06-12T22:56:00.001+08:00

Meanwhile, back in the Treasure Workshop ...
I finally uploaded my pictures! So this is a picture of my brand-new bracelet...but I'm not completely pleased with it because the last green stone at the left end has fallen apart - just sawed itself into two on the wire. I think it was the way they punctured the hole in the stone but all the same I am very peeved. It's supposed to be a semi-precious stone and I don't know all that much about stones but aren't they supposed to be pretty tough? So there is one stone less and the crimp is visible but other than that it's still all right. The colours don't show up as well as they do in real life but it's a nice shiny stoney bracelet. :)

And this is a picture of the butterfly necklace that I made for my sister ... as you can see, it's similar to mine because we both got the same butterfly pendants but she has requested a leather cord for hers.

And these are the earrings I made for her:

They are selling something like these in the malls ... I saw it the other day, we must all be buying from the same bead-sellers. But they had nice wire wrap loops connecting the beads to the ear-hooks whereas mine are clumsily done loops because I haven't got the hang of it yet! Oh well, practice, practice, practice ...

2007-06-08T17:04:00.001+08:00

Had a nightmare last night. I didn't want to clean the house. Don't make me clean the house!

2007-06-08T01:01:00.000+08:00

It's been cold lately but I'm still refraining from turning on my heater. Yesterday was REALLY windy and I was glad I wore my little black gatsby cap that I only got for about $4.95 or something. I bought it when I was going through a time where I was thinking maybe I shouldn't get any more of these because I have a Kangol one from England like years ago when Kangol was really popular and a cute pink checkered one from Hong Kong recently but I still wasn't too happy with either both of those and thought that maybe my face shape doesn't suit those kind of hats or something.

But I couldn't pass up this little black one because it was so exactly like what I always wanted and it was so CHEAP so I thought "what the hell" and bought it and wore it a couple of times before putting it back on the cupboard. (It's kind of like the one above which Keira Knightley is wearing, except mine doesn't have the stripes and not so stiff.) Anyway, after I got my hair trimmed and shaped recently, I put it back on and hey, it looked pretty fine after all. So I've been wearing it a bit lately and it's great when it's windy and cold so hooray!

Speaking of fashion and the like, the other day I saw this old woman, a real elegant woman, wearing a long red coat. I don't know what the material is so I can't describe but it was like something you usually only see grande dames in New York or something wear, and it was a bright red. Anyway, it looked good on her, made her look elegant, and she stood out amongst the crowd. I wished I had a camera and dared to ask her for her picture.

Another classy woman in red too: I was on the bus, maybe on the same day or the day before. And this woman got on the bus with her two little kids. From where she got on the bus and the way she was dressed and certain things like that, you can tell she's not rich or anything but she caught my eye because she had class. She had red lipstick and just the way she had of pinning up her gorgeous dark hair and the way she was dressed, you could tell she was one of those rare women who just has that innate sense of class and style, you know? They are born with it. You can tell no matter where this woman goes, into a Prada shop or a thrift shop, she'll know just what to pick that will suit her exactly. She was wearing this red dress and I think a red coat too, though not bright red like the old woman in the paragraph above. And she was really beautiful too. She wasn't totally made up or anything, except for the red lipstick and you could tell she was a woman who took the time to take care of herself. But she was really beautiful, like beauty that you are born with. Like she could be model or actress beautiful. I couldn't take my eyes off her in the bus.

I've been reading Agatha Christie novels - again, I had the good luck to find a story of hers that I haven't read yet! And the people in her book, particularly the girls and how they are "smartly dressed" reminds me of Emma Peel from The Avengers (the British TV show, not the Marvel comics!) and how I loved her clothes - plus, she's got beauty, brains and can kick some ass! I saw the series when Diana Rigg was acting in it and she's my favourite of the actresses who played Emma Peel. She was also in that James Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but I don't like her character there so much. Emma Peel and John Steed (played by Patrick MacNee)- one of my favourite TV couples! I got the picture above from the website Mrs Peel...We're Needed! on www.dissolute.com.au/avweb/

2007-05-31T23:28:00.000+08:00

Visitor Service Officer for the Journey to the Afterlife
I've volunteered as a Visitor Service Officer for the Egyptian exhibition at the Art Gallery of WA. Not too sure what I'll be doing, I suspect mostly welcoming people and offering them brochures on the gallery or something like that. But I'll get to learn all about Egyptian art and things like that so it'll be really cool. They're going to have Egyptian antiquities from the Louvre on the Afterlife and it's going to be the first time in two decades that the Louvre is sending stuff to Australia so it's going to be so hell awesome (ahem, excuse the pun). I'm excited, I can't wait!

Lashes like Cleopatra's
Guess where I've been this week? At a beauty salon, getting lash extensions. Yep. They're one of the companies advertising with us, so I was sent down there to have lash extensions and then write up about it in the paper afterwards. The rooms were pretty cool, they were designed to look like spas with frangipanis and all those piles of neatly rolled white towels and rattan wall decorations. But I think the worst part of it for me is having to lie there without opening my eyes for 45 minutes while the artist applied each individual artificial lash one by one to my eyelashes! I thought it was going to be, like, maybe fifteen minutes or something. After I had closed my eyes, I asked "so how long does this take?" and she went "oh, about an hour or so." And i was like "WHAT?" and she added, "Probably about 45 minutes." And during this time, I can't open my eyes at all? "Nope."

When someone tells you you can't do something, you just wanna do it. I was DYING to open my eyes, I felt as if I might go mad if I didn't. I had to keep talking to her to keep myself from opening my eyes and then after that I shut up and started thinking about other things to try and distract myself. It wasn't too bad after a while but I don't think I'd be patient enough to sit through that again.

The lashes aren't too bad either - they're long, black and curly so they're really gorgeous. And I don't have to curl them or put mascara on them! (Not that I've ever curled my lashes myself anyway). And they last for about a month or so and fall out with your natural lashes so that's no problem. The only gripe I have is that they irritate me when I'm taking a shower or washing my face because my eyes get a little stingy. Also, they're supposed to be made of silk but they actually feel kind of hard. I get poked with my lashes everytime I dry my face with a towel or try to rub my eyes. In a way, it's kind of good - my lashes stop me from rubbing my eyes.

Opinion? It's really cool but I don't know if I'll ever get them done again. We'll see if I miss them too much when they're gone.

2007-05-31T22:58:00.000+08:00

Bead Me Up, Scottie, I'm Coming Through.
Last weekend I went to an arts and crafts and bead fair with my sister. It was pretty fun ... I decided it was time for me to start making my own jewelry because I've always wanted to, sometimes there are just some things you want but you can't get because no one else has designed it yet! It was pretty pricey getting started though, all those little things and the pliers and all that can add up to quite a bit. And I probably spent more than I should. Actually, I've spent way more than I should have over the past five days. That's it - no more shopping for me!

Anyway, these are the first items I made.

I love my new dragon earrings. I like the way the dragons are shaped, curling so, as if they're alive, as if they're moving. They're cool.

I might change the chain on the butterfly necklace though because if you look closely, you can see the little hole at the bottom of the pendant, so I can actually make a more creative necklace using that extra hole as well. But, hey, I'm a beginner, so I'll take it slow now and make changes later. The best part about all this is that I can also now repair some other jewelry that I have which has been damaged in some way or other.

2007-05-22T21:05:00.000+08:00

As of the moment, I am loving the Gym Class Heroes.

How great are their songs? The first I ever heard of them was when I saw their Cupid's Chokehold video. How cute are those two little cupids? Then I heard some of their other songs and I liked most of them just as much. And how hot is Travis? Hot, hot, hot. Rawr! That's kind of like what the Gutter Philosopher's hair would look like if it grew out some more.

Cool hair, awesome jacket.

And they're coming heeere! On Gwen Stefani's tour! Now, this is a concert I won't mind shelling cash out for. Problem is, I can't think of anyone who'd be willing to come with me to see Gym Class Heroes and Gwen. Maybe GCH, but not Gwen. Sigh. If anyone would be willing to accompany me, message me ASAP!

I'm just listening to Mazzy Star's Sweet Jane and that reminds me of Natural Born Killers because the song was featured there, and that reminds me of Woody Harrelson. And that reminded me of how I recently found on he was in Cheers. I nearly fell over when I found that out. From the pub where everybody knows your name to a Natural Born Killer! I bet that's the kind of transformation Justin Timberlake is searching very hard for. :)

2007-05-21T18:08:00.000+08:00

I just saw an article on Mars bars and how they were going to include animal parts (apparently rennet, which comes from the stomachs of calves) in ther chocolate, only lots of vegetarians protested and now they're not going to anymore.

I love Mars bars. They're my favourite chocolate bar, I prefer them to Snickers. Yum yum. I should really grab one to much on tomorrow in support of Mars. I haven't really eaten much chocolate since Lent, when I decided to abstain from chocolate. I know people who fast, quit drinking and abstained from meat and all that so I thought I'd better put in my two cents worth of sacrifice too. Although, I did end up eating chocolate two or three times during Lent. Oops. But, hey, at least I didn't have at least one a week which was what I was on before Lent came along! Although after Lent came Easter when that darling Gutter Philosopher got me a giant chocolate Easter egg. There's still tons of it in the fridge and everyone's sick of me giving them boxes of oddly-shaped milk chocolate pieces that came from said egg. But I'm well pleased anyway. Thank you, Gutter Philosopher! *Muah*

And speaking of food companies in the media, poor old Ribena has gotten its vitamin C claims completely whacked when two NZ teenage girls doing a science project or something found that the Ribena ready-drink didn't have the amount of Vitamin C it claimed it contained. Now we're getting all these really apologetic Ribena ads on TV. Don't worry, Ribena, I love you still because I loved you when I was a kid and I drank you for the taste and for those cute little Ribena berries and not so much for the health issues. But I have to admit it's a little hard to trust Ribena now because if their tests haven't been measuring up all this while, you really don't want to know what else they haven't yet discovered lurking in their drink. Cue Jaws theme. Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum. DUM-DUM.

2007-05-21T17:51:00.000+08:00

We watched Acccepted and 16 Blocks this weekend. Both turned out to be pretty good movies, actually! Mos Def's character in 16 Blocks is the best. And I ate lots of chips. I have discovered this totally addictive French Onion chips in the Spud Market in Baldivis which are the BEST. They're so salty and yummy, Niv and I have been attacking them without stopping. The Gutter Philosopher rolled his eyes when I bought two bags this weekend and threw them into his trolley of healthy fresh fruit and vegetables but he ended up eating some as well - like usual!

I am also looking for chamomile tea. Now that winter is here, I am looking for yummy teas, maybe caramel lattes, which are the only kind of hot coffee I will touch because it's sweet and doesn't taste like coffee. I'm always reading about herbal teas and I want to try them to see if they're any good. I'm a bit doubtful about the taste but I've read that chamomile tea has a nice apple taste to it so maybe I'll try that first.

2007-05-21T17:30:00.001+08:00

So my company has moved us all to a big old drafty building that apparently used to be a very famous brothel. I am almost afraid to touch anything in that place. The bathrooms are horrible. I haven't dared to use the bathroom yet, prefering to make a mad dash for the train station restrooms, but I know someday I will be forced to and I am very much dreading that day. When it comes, you bet your ass I'll be lining them seats with loads of toilet paper and spraying disinfectant everywhere because I really have my doubts anyone else has gotten around to doing any proper cleaning before we all moved in. And I have already heard one horror story about the bathroom from Justine. Trust me. Not good. Or hygienic.

Second of all, the kitchen is just as bad. Thank goodness we are surrounded by all kinds of bakeries and restaurants and cafes now, so there's a definite improvement in variety restaurant-wise then when we were back in our old offices surrounding by nothing but fast food. Oh, yes, you can get pretty sick of fast food when you're surrounded by it 24-7. Especially when you sit at a desk all day and realize you need to start eating healthy in order to avoid qualifying for the next Biggest Loser!

Next, all the floors slant. And I mean SLANT. It's really obvious, especially when the door at the head office is closed and you can see the really superhuge gap where the floor slants under it. The wall-pillar in our office also has a very noticable slant to it so the walls aren't straight either. And our offices are located on the second floor so I really don't want to think about how stable these walls and floors are. No one had better walk heavy on these floors!

It is now the beginning of winter and that's not a great time to be moving in because it's so drafty and we have no heating. Everyone is freezing now, especially poor Dana because she is right next to the door of the office and everyone leaves it open when they come in so she kind of freezes there. And she's tiny and skinny and gets cold easily (even in our old offices which are like heaven compare to this new building) and has loads of work to do so it can't be easy for her.
Next, we have this glorious backyard, which we can view from a door on the second floor, where our offices are, leading down a very scary and shaky looking flight of steps to what looks like a jungle with a couple of huge satellites (for the radio station whom we are sharing this wonderful office space with) and lots of boxes and junk. I can only wonder when the giant rats would start to move in. But the back stairs will be a great place to push down anyone you don't like. "I don't know what happened, he must have tripped and fallen down the stairs, breaking his neck! Poor old dude." We already had one casualty during lunchtime last week: Dana's fork.

Oh, I shouldn't be so negative. After all, everything has its good points. The place is kind of Gothic-like, with curliques and stuff all over the ceiling and walls, and it's got plenty of mirrors in the most unlike places, which makes you wonder what kind of random activities they got up to when this place was reveling in its whorehouse glory, there's even a cupboard with mirrors all over it in one room. And a shower in the bathroom upstairs that nobody dares use because you don't want to know what happened in that shower either! And I finally have a window in my office, after working under sickly floruscent lights for the past several months. The window has not been washed for ages so everything looks a little hazy and gray, like LA or KL, but hey, I have a view. Of lots of shophouses. And my bank's main headquarters in the distance. It brings a whole new meaning to keeping an eye on my money at all times!

But when I go to work tomorrow I will be sure to dress warmly. I will also try not to drink too much water. And I will definitely keep an eye out for any Giant Rats.

2007-05-21T17:22:00.000+08:00

Letter to my Joy (oh how I think of you as I toil! / in the soil).

Circley Square, first of all, I went to look at your website and I love it with that adorable cow with its teats hanging out and all those white loopy writing on the top. You should definitely get a job as one of those people who design websites for other people - I don't know what they call them these days. A WebMistress. Very dominatrax-y and sadomasochistic, which we all know will suit you! And I hear that these website designers charge shitloads for making just one webpage - so there could very well be lots of money in this for you!

Second of all, if you ever do the live-fish-preservation thing, yeah, tell me what happens!

Third of all, I would be posting all this in a comment on your blog but now it's a battle between me and the comment part of people's blogs. I've been trying to read thousands of comments on other people's blogs but for some reason they will never load on my computer, so that sucks ass, and yours loaded but Blogger told me it was an e-mail, and I wasn't sure if I would be sending you an e-mail or a comment, and then it got all to much for me, and all the fearsome IT-ness of it all scared me so I just went quietly back to my own blog and am now writing this post just for you. :)

2007-05-12T02:09:00.000+08:00

Today I was researching on ancient methods of preserving fish (don't ask why) and came across this interesting bit of information.

Apparently, according to Keeping Hearth & Home in Old Massachusetts, a great way to preserve a live fish is to grab the fish out of water, pour a little brandy down its throat, stuff its mouth with brandy-soaked breadcrumbs and pack it in straw. The fish will remain in a torpid state for 12-15 days and when you put it back in water, it will come alive again in 3-4 hours.

Yep, that's one of the golden facts that every woman in the 19th century was expected to know.

I guess it would have come in useful if you were moving house and wanted a more convenient way of carting your goldfish along on the trip without transporting it in a cumbersome bowl of water.

Plus, if this really does work (which I am tempted to try but I'm so squeamish I probably won't even be able to hang on to a slippery live fish that's fighting for its life long enough to pour brandy down its throat), I want to know what the exact science is behind this method. Will getting a fish drunk enough and feeding it breadcrumbs really keep it alive? Will it work with tequila? Maybe a little Hanh's beer?

If anyone does try this, tell me if it works!

2007-05-10T13:30:00.000+08:00

Hooray!!!

I've finally managed to sign onto blogger. FINALLY. For the past couple of nights, I don't know why but everything on the Blogger homepage loaded except for that one crucial little square where I'm supposed to sign on. It was really annoying.

I was talking with the Lost Smoker the other day, getting updates on his life, and told him that for a guy who hates soap operas and TV dramas like the O.C., Melrose Place, the Bold and the Beautiful, etc., his life was awfully a lot like a soap opera. It's practically the stuff that TV scriptwriters dream about. I don't know why it's like that, all these things just keep happening to him. It's not as if he even goes out and looks for them. He's like a magnet or something. A soap opera magnet. Haha! That's damn ironic for him.

Anyway, it was so funny what happened to him the other day. He was supposed to film a documentary with his group for film class and they took off into the wilds of WA - okay, to one of those towns outside Perth - to film this guy who charms snakes or plays around with snakes or something. A snake guy. Anyway, what happened was that the snake guy ended up getting bitten by a snake while they were there. I said something along the lines of "That would really make great footage for your documentary" but unfortunately they didn't get it on film.

Hmm. It just occured to me that I forgot to ask whether the snake guy was all right. At that time, I was really just laughing my head off. Hmm. That doesn't say much for my caring human nature.

I'll ask the Lost Smoker the next time I see him. Better late than never, no?

Speaking of better late than never, I just realized I forgot everyone's birthdays that happened in March. Sorry, all you Pisceans!

I really need to get one of those birthday calendar things otherwise I'm going to keep forgetting everyone's birthdays. I also assumed I had forgotten my dad's birthday but luckily that's just coming up and my sister just reminded me so we are going to send a French blueberry cheesecake to him through this delivery company along with flowers for my mom on Mother's Day. Because men are so incredibly difficult to buy presents for. Honestly.

Let's see. I wished Circley Square a happy birthday a few days ... or maybe a week ... after her birthday. Apple's and the Lost Smoker's aren't until June or July-ish ... everyone else's isn't until the end of the year I think ... I feel really guilty about missing my brother's birthday. But I know what I will do - I will buy him the hardcover copy of Frank Miller's 300 and post it to him along with a card begging for forgiveness.

There!

If you were a 15-year-old male, you'd like this won't you? I hope. Or maybe he's 16. Crap. Maybe I'll send him a Sin City book too. That'd get his blood racing. I think my brother needs to incorporate some badass into his character. It'd be cool to give him one of those adrenaline presents, like a day of rock climbing or white water rafting or something but that'd be wasted on him, he won't even go.

Maybe I'll get him a tattoo. If mom doesn't kill me first. Or try to kill me later.

2007-05-02T14:25:00.000+08:00

Poor old Alan Johnston. Let's hope he's okay.

2007-05-02T14:17:00.000+08:00

I just remembered: last week, Yahoo had a big headline on its "featured" section and it said "Did USA torture?", referring to after the 9/11 event and the lead-up to the Iraq war.

Did the USA torture?

Like, is that a question?

2007-05-01T20:44:00.000+08:00

Oh, check out the effect of the picture I put on the post below.

This is the very first time I have ever posted a picture using Picasa on Blogger. The first time Picasa came onto Blogger, I got scared of it because it just looks unbelievably complicated, well to me anyway. Technology always scares me. But either they've made it easier to use since or it's just me taking the effort to press the little image button in the tools section and realizing it was easy to use after all - so voila! I'm excited. More images should be coming up soon.

I am also putting spaces between my paragraphs. That might help to make things easier to read. Everyone complains that there are too many little red words on a black background but I like my layout and just can't be bothered to change it right now. The fact that I'm actually updating my blogs is effort enough right now.

2007-05-01T20:17:00.000+08:00

Kate Moss has launched her new and eagerly awaited Top Shop range today, which is causing serious fashion frenzy in London.
It's causing a little frenzy over here too, in my little fashion-hungry heart. If I was in London, I would be one of those fans queuing up and getting giddy over how I was going to lay my hands on something designed/inspired by Kate Moss.
In case you haven't noticed, I looove Kate Moss. When I was a kid, there was this little quiz in, I think it was Clotheshow, and it was called 'What Supermodel are You Most Like?' Anyway, I was apparently most like Kate Moss. At that time it annoyed me because I didn't really know who she was then and would rather be more like Claudia Schiffer or someone else. Then I saw her in that famous Calvin Klein ad. Then I saw more pictures of her.
God, does that woman have style! It's a fact: Kate Moss has style like no other woman. It's completely effortless. Sienna Miller is nothing compared to her - in fact, I never was taken with Sienna's style because I've always suspected Sienna is more of a trend-follower rather than a trendsetter. That's always a little *a little!!!* try-hard effect about her that Kate Moss so does not have. I mean, come on. When Kate puts on a pair of boots, people rush to buy them so that (I think it was Vivienne Westwood), who had initially taken those boots off the line, had to put them out again because just so many people want them. And it's not just boots but tops, dresses, sunnies, etc. I don't remember Sienna ever inspiring that kind of fashion craze, at least not in the way Kate has.
Sadly, though, I have to admit that I don't enjoy seeing fashion shots in magazines of Kate as much as I used to. I love those old pics of her back in the nineties, especially those that Corinne Grant took of her. The new ones aren't so awesome. I can't put my finger on what it is exactly but I do suspect that it may be because she doesn't have that dewy-fresh quality she used to have as a teenager. I also suspect it might have a lot to do with her party-heavy lifestyle. I've seen pictures of Claudia Schiffer that were taken just last year and Claudia looks exactly as she used to back in the old supermodel days, her skin looks awesome, and let's admit it, Claudie doesn't smoke, drink, stay up late or party hard. Or maybe it's the tan, I'm not too fond of how tanned Kate is these days. But despite all this, I do still like the papparazzi candid shots of Kate. It's true what they say, you can never make Kate look as good as she does in real life.
Anyway, back to Kate Moss's Top Shop range. The Brits love it though the Americans are apparently not so into it. But I have to agree with Telegraph writer Hilary Alexander who says they're just missing the point. Also, British and American cultures prompt different opinions sometimes. Elizabeth Jagger, in an article on her wardobe with Vogue, once said she could put together a little pelt mini she had with leggings and high heels (or something to that effect, it was a while since I read that article and I don't have it with me right now, so please mind the inaccuracies) and walk down London and it would be okay whereas if she wore it in New York, they'd think it was a trashy look. Of course, as I said, the article was written a few years ago and now the leggings look is everywhere so that may not be the case but my point is: there are cultural differences.
So what's great about Kate Moss's new Top Shop range? From what I've read, there's a floral print dress that everyone is snapping up. I've scrolled through the offerings on the Top Shop website and I like the bias cut satin skirts and the waistcoats. The waistcoat would be so great for winter over here in Perth.
Here's to Kate Moss!

2007-05-01T11:02:00.000+08:00

I was scrolling through ninemsn.com.au's celebrity gossip when I came upon this little piece below:

'Also involved in a culture clash is rapper Snoop Dogg, who yesterday was barred from entering Australia for Sunday's MTV Australia Video Music Awards. His LA lawyer spoke out today, saying he poses no threat to the country. "It's really too bad," said Donald Etra, who represented Snoop Dogg in a gun and drugs case in a Los Angeles court earlier this month.
Too bad — because he's a celebrity. At least we know immigration has a policy against letting people in whose criminal records are a mile long.'

That's really funny considering that it was criminals from England who are the foundation of Australia's society. And the fact that criminals are some of their national heroes, like Ned Kelly, the Bra Boys and the guy from Waltzing Matilda.

2007-03-15T17:59:00.000+08:00

What rough luck.
I tried to log onto my old e-mail account, the one that everyone keeps sending so much junk to that I practically have a phobia of checking it now. And guess what? It's been so long since I've checked on it that I've forgotten my password.
Damn!
It used to be such a bloody familiar password too. I think it was a pretty nice password too. And the worst part of it is, when Yahoo was trying to confirm my identity to give me a new password, I realized I had entered rubbish for my address and postcode and date of birth and all that. Oops. Stuff I won't remember now. Why didn't I enter the correct birth of date when I had first signed up for the e-mail?
Crap. I sent Yahoo an e-mail but I'm dying at the thought that the technicians or whoever are probably sniggering when they read my e-mail. Crap.

2007-03-15T17:35:00.000+08:00

I've been looking at Jon's website and it's so bloody nice and professional and I think I should really make a nice professional website and a nice professional-ish MySpace and Friendster page and also make some changes to this blog. Do I want to? It's not as if I'll continue to update since I hardly ever visit all these sites. But it'll be nice to have them refreshed for a while. I love this blog though. I'm sorry, I know the black with all the red words can be pretty messy and daunting to read but I just like the colour scheme. I know a white background with black words or something will be a hell of a lot easier on the eye but I don't know...I don't know if I can bring myself to go for that. What do you guys think? Anyone who's still reading my blog after countless failures to continuously update it, what do you think?
By the way, Joy, I had to change your nick because you changed your blog name. Couldn't very well call you ScreamingSour after you've become a Circley Square, eh?
Jeez, maybe I should just call everyone by their proper names and let the nicks lie. By now, everyone's probably confused about who they are. Haha!

2007-03-15T17:25:00.000+08:00

Oh, well.
I remembered my password after all.
I don't think Yahoo's technicians will be too happy with me, though.
eep.
As usual, there were a million e-mails in there waiting for me to delete all of them. Why doesn't the spamming filter block out all that spam???
And I've only just been forced to update my blog into a google account. Now I'm so confused by the state of my blog. It all seems so terribly complicated. Technology never ceases to confuse me.
Help!
I am a Luddite, that I am.

2007-02-13T08:30:00.000+08:00

I'm such a bad blogger, aren't I? I hardly ever update my blog these days!
And I hardly ever go on msn anymore but I just took a quick trip there the other night and guess who I meet? ScreamingSour aka CirclesforSquare! I miss ya! and a big shout out (does this sound like the radio?) to everyone else too! I miss ya guys so much! And i'm so sorry i'm so bad at keeping in touch! I'm still alive, I promise!
Well I am now that I'm working my way to get out of this Asian slave labour. I swear, guys, never ever will I work for an Asian person and especially not someone who hails from China. From the mentality of my bosses, I swear they think they're still running sweatshops or something. Believe me. The shittiest bosses I have ever known. I wouldn't trust them with my life, let alone five cents.
Oh, I suppose there are some pretty fair and decent ones out there, but the ones I know are just rude and irresponsible and completely unfair. I'll be sorry to leave the work but I won't be sorry to leave them and these horrible working conditions.
Anyway, enough work gripes. Bundles, if you come across this, I am so sorry for leaving the country without calling you and I plan to call you once I get long-distance minutes again or e-mail you the minute I'm done with this week! I swear, the past three weeks have been like Meet the Parent Weeks. I've met the Gutter Philosopher's mum (who is way cool, we kill plenty of bottles of wine together), I've done dinner with Sheryl's parents and now my own parents will be floating into town on, of all days, Valentine's Day. (Like, could the timing be worse?)
And, OMGOMGOMG, CONGRATULATIONS to Circleyforsquares and Sydneyboy who have gotten *eep* married!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I know you keep saying it's not really marriage but it IS. According to the law and the rest of it. OMGOMGOMG! I am still in shock. *faints*
And this post is also for the Lost Smoker who complains that my site is boring. Hmph. Yah fool.
I was just going through all my junk mail and there was this one with the subject title: Caught Another Father Today, That Makes Seven.
Jeez. Like, what the hell was that about? Is this some guy that goes around murdering fathers and he's done a total of seven or something? Creepy but I didn't bother opening it to find out if there's anything up with it; I'm too scared of viruses.
Anyway, I'm at work and really should be getting back to finishing everything up so I can get the rest of the week off free so ciao, guys!
All right, I'm at work now and really shouldn't be doing this so ciao guys!

2006-12-11T06:53:00.000+08:00

I was crossing a highway the other day, and was stuck in the island in the middle and this couple came up behind me. And I heard the funniest conversation ever.
Girl: (sneezes)
Guy: Bless you
Girl (in super-indignant tone): Don't fucking bless me!
Guy: I'll fucking bless you when I want to ... (rest of sentence gets drowned out by a passing truck).
Oh, it was hilarious. I was trying not to laugh.

2006-11-18T21:01:00.000+08:00

After having not even looked at my own blog in ages, I realized that there's something wrong with my tagboard.
I don't know what, I'm kind of lazy about finding out, but if I do, I will fix it. :)
On other news, I was scanning through an article about keeping a diary the other day. A REAL diary. Not a blog or a livejournal or a myspace blog or any other Internet diary or diary for all to read, but a private, good old-fashion, pen-on-paper kind of diary. The kind of diary you keep locked up with an ornate little key and carry around with you to record your deepest, most secret feelings (and not just random rants like most of us bloggers are fond of boring other people on the Internet with) and, um, the kind that Lindsay Lohan lost at the Maritime Hotel in New York and caused a huge tabloid flurry over?
(Speaking of which, I just typed Lindsay Lohan's Diary in Yahoo Search to find out the exact name of the place where she lost her diary and got 23,700 returns. Who knew?)
Anyway, back to the diary. Not Lindsay's, just diaries in general. I love the idea of having a diary. To have something tangible in your hand, nothing you type on a keyboard. Something you can smell, something you can hold, something you can make personal with your own handwriting (in contrast to using, say, Helvetica or New Times Roman font), and flip back through in later days.
I've just done a lot of flipping through magazines and found the article on diary-keeping. It's actually one of William Norwich's Talking Fashion - Norwich Notes columns in this month's edition of American Vogue. Here, he writes about how certain people - a Greek princess, an art dealer, a biographer and a a fashion designer - records their personal observations and reflections in their diaries. This is the sort of thing I'm talking about - that personal touch, that quality of realness that comes with keeping a diary rather than, say, a public blog.
I've always tried keeping a diary when I was younger but it just doesn't work with me. I have too much to write, I get long-winded, I try to write down every single thing and I just don't have the time in the day to write all that down. Besides, my hand gets cramped with writing so much. And then, there's the same problem I have with blogging - every so often, I get lazy and forget to write for ages before coming back to it again. And then there's the worry that if I do write regularly in a journal, I would run out of pages before long and buy a new journal and then another one and then I'll have piles of journals gathering dust in a cupboard or somewhere and I wouldn't know what to do with them. Shall I burn the incriminating pages or keep them for memories and my children? But if I keep them for my children, what do I do with them in the meantime? They're gathering dust. They're taking up too much space! When/If I move to another house, they're going to be another extra-heavy item(s) to cart around!
Who knows? In spite of all this, maybe I might try to keep an actual diary. If I do, I know what I want. There's a journal in Borders. It's gorgeous - red and gold faux leather-bound cover that wraps around the soft creamy pages half-over the front, supposedly with a crimson ribbon page marker which I didn't find when I gave the pages a cursory flip and inhaled the fragrance of crisp notebook paper. It's also frighteningly expensive for a notebook of some hundred-odd pages.
Maybe I'll just stick to starting a personal journal on my laptop (not a blog, but something in a password-safe Microsoft Word Document). But although a keyboard will make things go faster when it comes to making my super-long entries, it will also take away some of that special personal touch that keeping a journal should come with. It will lose something, take away a bit of pleasure that I have in keeping a journal. And no, I don't want any create-a-font-that-will-resemble-your-handwriting technology. I like cream pages, my own messy handwriting, the soft scent of crushed flowers pressed between the pages. So until I figure something out - keeping a personal diary is something that probably won't happen for a while more. Of course, there is always hope for the computer diary - According to Norwich, Isaac Mizrahi keeps a Hermes diary plus entries on his computer. So there's hope for all. Hope for all.

2006-11-18T20:32:00.000+08:00

The Joys of House Cleaning and 'Particular' Housemates.
The other day, my housemate tried to put it to me in the nicest - and which came off as most annoying - terms that she is a very particular person when it comes to the bathroom and in short, my cleaning is not up to standards with her, um, standards. We all take turns cleaning the house and bathroom each week and my turn was this week. She didn't pick a good day to explain this to me either because I had come home from one of the crappiest days of my life and was in no mood to hear things about bathrooms.
Now, I will happily admit I am a slob. I often have much more better things to do than housework and I can usually live happily in a mess. Now, though I am a much tidier person than I was in high school (room was always in a disaster zone, anyone prone to asthma should not walk in there, Mom was always in distress over it as she is a neat freak). Thanks to the joys of independent living, I do my best to keep my room in relatively good shape. Now that my new rented room is tinier than Marlene's kitchen in her 50-square-feet city apartment, I am a master of minimal-space interior decorating and am forced to keep things neat due to tiny space and a beige carpet that shows every speck of dust that falls on it. Not to mention that my new landlords are clean freaks as well. Well, the girl-half anyway. I don't think I fall into slob category anymore and the unfair bit was that I have been doing my fair share of the housework and didn't really appreciate what my housemate was trying to tell me. Besides, she (or the other one, I don't know) doesn't really clean the mirror and the sink counter properly when it's her turn and one of them has been leaving icky little hairs in the shower which are really gross, all of which I have not said one word because I am, in a word, tolerant, and in seven words, not a very 'particular' sort of person.
Well, no matter. She wants clean? I'll give her clean. Last night, I grabbed three different kinds of chemicals, two used toothbrushes, a rag (which later turned out to be another housemate's face cloth, which happened to be hanging on the same rack as the correct rag and looking kind of icky and like a rag itself. Oops. Note: must buy her new face cloth) and a sponge and set to work scrubbing down every tile and every grout line in the bathroom and toilet. I think I nearly died from chemical inhalation. (Note: must also buy rubber gloves). Then I mopped everything down with a fourth chemical. The floors are so clean now that I nearly slipped on them this morning. If she tells me they're still not clean, I might - I don't know, throw all four of those chemicals in her face or something.

2006-11-18T19:59:00.000+08:00

Things I enjoy about my very first real-life permanent job:
1) The great position (who lands the role of editor straight after graduation?
2) The challenge (how on earth can I do a good job of being an editor, being a completely fresh graduate?)
3) The clothes (Yes, as you all know, clothes will always play a big part and it's completely fantastic figuring a working wardrobe that's chic and professional and creatively unique. Mmm)
4) The learning (being thrown into the role of editor right after graduating from university is like being thrown head-first into a pool of icy-cold water without being taught how to swim - and mind you, I still don't know how to. Swim, that is. - but it was fantastic because I had to learn so much in so short a time.
5) The social life. (Well, basically I have no social life now, since nearly every second of my free time is spent reporting on this, covering on that and writing up the stories plus editing and laying out, but you do get to go out to all kinds of events and meet all kinds of people that you'd otherwise never see or meet. I've been places to Perth over these few months that I've never been in the past two and a half, almost three, years I've lived here.
6) Did I mention the wardrobe yet?

:) Yes, it's been a long hiatus from the World of Darkschunt but I'm baack again! (One ventures to wonder how long, since I always have a bad habit of never keeping up to date with my blog, but never mind that, I will TRY to blog as much as my work and dying social life will allow me).
Cons of my job? Oh, there are quite a few too. I won't mention some of them (this being a public blog and all, and keeping in mind the history of career-killing blogs like Queen of the Sky and Jolie in New York, although Jolie in New York actually quit her job before the news broke as to who she really was) but as you can guess, the long hours, stagnant social life and pushed-to-the-point-of-breaking-down-and-burning-out bit is all a part of the cons. But, hey, journalism is never easy, right? I know my facts and figures (well, kind of, since numbers always fly out of my head the moment the subject's changed) and journalists can pretty much never hope for an ordinary nine-to-five, five-days-a-week kind of job. We're like real estate agents, our weekends are more often than not solidly booked. It can be exhausting but hey, if I'm going to spend long hours at work, at least I do it at events where I meet people and take photographs rather than at the office, doing filing or accounting or whatever.
I saw The Devil Wears Prada the other day - the first movie I've seen in ages. (SweetRhapsody, the Duchess, whatever happened to our never-missed Tuesday movie afternoons? I miss those!) I feel just like Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt, only they lead much more glamorous workaholic lives than I do.
Mom is proud of me. This hardly ever happens. The daughter that she feared she would lose to laziness and procrastination has become a workaholic! Tell everyone in the family, including the workaholic cousins! This is a cause for celebration!
But now she fears I work too much and may commit suicide like some other workaholic daughter of a friend of hers. I'm always being compared to daughters of Mom's friends - although being compared to a suicidal one is a new one. Yay for me.
"If I'm too lazy, she is worried. If I work too hard, she also worries," I told the Gutter Philosopher. This is why I should not have children - I will probably worry too much over them. Or, more likely, I will not worry about them at all and worry about the fact that I don't worry over them as I should.
Speaking of family, Mom and Dad and my little brother are probably landing in Italy right now as I type. How groovy is that? Since I've left home, they've been to Spain and Italy. It's not fair! Both me and older sister are jealous. Well, I think she is. She should be if they're going to Italy. She'd be dying to shop there.
Speaking of which, I took her out to the Oyster Bar a few weels ago. The food was fantastic, all except the swordfish which wasn't up to grade. My first time in the Oyster Bar, and also as the One Who Pays For The Dinner. The bill came to over a hundred *gulp*. But it's okay, she's taken me out tons of times for dinner and this is my first time taking her out now that I've got a job and regular paychecks and all that. I tried to take the Gutter Philosopher out for dinner as well but, being an old-fashion male and all, he was having none of that.

2006-07-14T12:30:00.000+08:00

Yes, I think I am falling sick. :( The cold is finally wearing off although now it feels as if I'm developing a slight sore throat. Oh, come on! I haven't even smoked anything in ages!!! Ah well, guess I should stay home and laze by the heater until I get over this. I've stocked up on soup and bread and tuna and oven-baked fruit bars so I'm all set! Yay!
And I've finally gotten Limewire so hooray, hooray. Ricardo said to get Azeurus but I went on the website, got frightened by the amount of computer-speak that I couldn't recognize/understand, left asap and went straight to nice old user-friendly Limewire. It's slowed down my PC considerably though. I got some cool Nightmares on Wax songs and the Xhibit songs from the Domino soundtrack.
The Lost Smoker is also on a pirating rampage! He's busy ripping dozens of CDs of music and movies on some new software that he got a while back. Pirate L.S.: He doesn't have a wooden leg but he does have a broken leg!
Tomorrow I'm going vintage shopping with my sistah, which is a good/bad thing, depending on how you look at it. Good thing - clothes, clothes, clothes! Bad thing - I'm not suppose to buy anymore!
Speaking of which, I finally got that storage bin and shelf. I'm actually totally unpacked right now, except for some of my clothes, which are still waiting for my landlord to put together that shelf. The room is finally coming together and I'm so enjoying it right now. Yay!
It's a pretty gloomy day today though. I think the afternoon is set for showers. All the more reason to just curl up at home and chill out. Maybe watch a movie. I'm actually in the mood for shisha but it's just way too cold for that at the mo (although I think today is considerably warmer than the past few days) and anyway all my charcoal is at the Gutter Philosopher's house and my tobacco has gone missing. And I'm having that sore throat anyway. Sigh.
My sistah has suggested tea with lemon in it. But do I really want to slice up a whole lemon just for a couple of slices in my cup? What will I do with the rest of the lemon? Do I really have the energy to slice up a lemon now? Ah, the life of a lazy-dee.
I just checked a map which displays the locations in Israel and Lebanon which have been bombed. It looks like Israel is getting hammered more than Lebanon is but a lot of Lebanon's civil structures, like bridges and the highway and the airport, are getting destroyed. You know all those pictures in the news recently of kids with horrific injuries from the bombings and gunfire? I had a brilliant idea the other day. To sort out this fight, we should take all the Israeli kids and put them in front of the Israelites. Then we take all the Lebanese kids (or all the Muslim kids, if you want to be general about this and put a stop to all Israeli-Muslim warfare and not just the current one between Israel and Lebanon) and put them in front of the Lebanese soldiers. Then we tell them: since the majority of those who seem to be getting hurt are the KIDS, we might as well save them the trouble of having the Muslims kill the Jewish kids and vice versa. Instead, the Israelis can gun down their own kids and the Muslims can gun down theirs. See how they like it when it's their own children they have to shoot down. Then, we hire a platoon of tough old women to spank them hard and put them all in isolation for the next ten years with only a crust of bread and a cup of water each day. THEN that's when we'll finally have peace.
Men and their guns. Pfft. What they're really crying out for is not peace or power but a good hard spanking that'll leave them unable to sit down for weeks. Children, really.

2006-07-11T22:30:00.000+08:00

The Lost Smoker has just sent me a picture of a hand wanking an invisible dick.
:(
Am very distraught.
And he got that picture off the Mystery Wolf.
*faints*

2006-07-11T21:51:00.000+08:00

It's a cold night and I am tired and warming my feet with the heater and thinking I should do something productive but I just want to relax and do mindless things...
And I think I may be catching Pui Li's flu bug because I was with her all day yesterday and she was pretty sick as well. Nevertheless, we managed to have sushi, ate ice-creams, ran around in the freezing cold and saw Superman. Does Brandon Routh look like a mannequin or what??? He looks positively plastic! Kate Bosworth, on the other hand, looked absolutely gorgeous. (All right, to give him credit, Brandon Routh looked pretty good too. If only he looked human. But then, he can't, he's playing an alien! haha!) Back to Kate: loved her clothes, loved her hair, loved her make-up. Loved those shoes!!!
Anyway, I've been running around in freezing 11 C weather today and am now sneezing nonstop. And this house isn't exactly insulated either. Correction: it's plain not. My landlord hasn't gotten around to that yet. And my fluffy bed socks are at the Gutter Philosopher's! Sigh...
So that leaves me sitting at my desk, continuously blowing my nose and aiming crumpled-up tissues into my wastebasket aka a plastic bag full of junk pretending to be a wastebasket. And I have been making perfect shots all night long! Oops, that one lodged in the (not working) printer. There goes my perfect record.
Oh yes, and I've managed to buy a bookshelf! Well, a small one, with just about three shelves to its name, four counting the top of it. And that is NOT enough for all my stuff. I plan on getting one of those big plastic storage bins to stuff all my books and papers and files and random junk and various electrical cables which I have no idea how I managed to have accumulated and no idea what uses they can possible be for, and another small shelf and then I'll be set! And, by the way, I went into Crazy Clark's Discount Store to see if I could get any other cheap shelves/bins, and they were all pretty darn pricy. Discount, I think not. Pffft.
Oh my goodness, this is the funniest thing ever! I can't believe I never saw this before but the Lost Smoker's initials actually spell G.A.G. This is hilarious! This has made my night! God bless middle names. Ahahaha!
:)
I don't think he's too pleased with me right now.
Oh, by the way, I finally brought out the meditation kit that Baby Bro's dad bought me last year when I accompanied his mom to a meditation seminar. I've been reading the booklets in that kit every now and then and finally decided now was the time to play the meditation CD and actually try...meditating. It was very soothing, very nice and it did sort of refresh me. But I also fell asleep in the middle of the third meditation and woke up during the fourth. But it was a refreshing sleep. That was fun.

2006-07-11T16:40:00.000+08:00

Today must be one of the coldest days ever since winter started. A high of 15 C, it was freezing. And I ventured out in the cold for a job interview...only to find that this was for a non-paying position. Bah. Still, it'll be good to get more experience and all...
Anyway, am back home now with a hot cup of Milo and an oven-baked blueberry bar...which has already been consumed. Sigh. What am I going to do with myself?

2006-07-06T15:22:00.000+08:00

Oh my goodness, I just glanced up across the computer lab and some girl sitting at a computer with her back to me is reading something entitled 'The Pleninodal Sinus of the Penis'. At least I think it says Pleninodal or something like that because she scrolled down before I could make out the letters. I wonder what that is all about.
Anyway, I'm just trying to lull the hours away before going home because home is currently boring since there's no Internet and I'm not in the mood for anything productive. My productivity is spent through errands and all today. I had a major health scare this week when the Health Office called me up and asked me to return for a second test. What was wrong? No one else I know gets called in for a second test! But when I got to the office, all shaking with trepidation, they told me there had been a mistake, there was no need for a second test, and my health results were good and all ready for me to pick up today. Whew.
The Pirates of the Carribean 2 is out today!!! Note: Must make Gutter Philosopher take me to watch this. He's already squirmed his way out of several movie dates. Grrr. If he repeats this mistake, his loss will become some other guy's gain! Mark my words, GP!
Oh, that reminds me. Scary thing. As GP and I were heading to the bus stop this Tuesday, we passed by a creepy guy coming from the opposite direction and staring at us in a very aggressive kind of way. As we walked past him, he very obviously and purposely closed in on me and bumped my shoulder. Extremely hard. I got pissed and said, "He bumped me! Did you notice that?" to GP. The guy then turned around and walked straight back to us, obviously spoiling for a fight. GP moved away (to protect the girly girl aka moi) and they both started talking/arguing. I was rooting for GP to punch his face out because creepy guy is half the size of GP but the convo ended with creepy guy walking away, which I was kind of glad of because if anything had happened to GP, I'd feel dead guilty. Even though it is all creepy guy's fault. I still feel pissed off thinking about it. I hope the creepy guy gets run over by a truck. Jerk. Ricardo and Pharrell were very amused by the story and Columbian Dude started wafting on about these slum kids and their messed up lives (he's doing social studies and we had picked him up from his stint as a social studies teacher when we told him the story). So now I feel sorry for creepy guy because he's obviously from a messed up place but nonetheless I won't mind punching his face out. Just once. Before he gets sent off to rehab or whatever.

2006-07-06T14:54:00.000+08:00

Happy belated birthday to the Lost Smoker :) Sorry about the lack of good presents (oh well, I think the ones that Mystery Wolf and I gave you that entitled you to an hour and half's worth of free porn was a pretty good gift!) you'll get a better gift from me in a short while, I promise!
Everyone's been leaving lately *sniff* This Sunday Morgan and Paul left as well - the Gutter Philosopher, Sheryl, the Tall One, Elyssa and me went to the airport with them to see them off. At least Morgan will be coming back! And Sheryl left today as well...on a cruise or something but they'll all be back in three weeks except Paul so yay...
The Gutter Philosopher and Pharrell have been busy cleaning up their house yesterday for the rental agency's inspection today. Haha! Naturally, Ricardo and I beat a fast retreat in the early stages of cleaning...me to unpack in my new place and R to college. I did offer to help out but they told me not to bother...
Today while I was in the city it was so hard not going into any shops. Everything was having a massive sale! Why, oh, why must everything be on sale just when I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more clothes. Oh, cruel life...
Oops...Pui Li just rang me. She's in Perth right now and I was suppose to...
Wait, stop right here. My sister has just rang me to go shopping with her tonight. Damnit! Everyone is trying to get me to spend! Must...restrain...
Anyway, yes, I was suppose to call Pui Li to meet up with her while she's down here but I totally forgot about it...oops...my bad...but it's all sorted now and we're having lunch on Monday. Mmm...yum...lunch...

2006-07-06T14:21:00.000+08:00

It's been a busy weekend/week! I've been packing and moving and then unpacking again all week. SOB, EUH, I miss you so much already! My new home is a rather nice place in a rather slummy area, my housemates are rather nice and rather quiet people, and my room is rather small but I like it anyway. With the exception of wardrobe space (where are all my hangers going to go??? I need a walk-in wardrobe) and shelf space (half my things, mainly my books and magazines and papers and odds and ends have yet to be unpacked because there is nowhere to put them. I need new shelves!!!), it's not bad. It's a corner room so it makes the space look bigger than it really is. The full-length mirror (hooray!) is coming this weekend. I'm also going shopping for a couple of cheap shelves and one of those multipowerpoint things and with luck, my sister will give me one of the six heaters that she and her boyfriend have. Six! It must be like a sauna in their house. In great contrast to the icebox my room was last night, on my very first night sleeping in the house. Even with the window closed and the blinds drawn, I could feel an icy draft wafting in. With my blankets pulled snugly over me, my body was partly warm but my head was freezing! My nose was frozen; it was like sleeping outdoors. Believe me, I've slept in my share of drafty houses and usually a good couple of blankets help to ward off the cold. Not this one. I kept waking up and freezing and in the end I pulled out the good old electric blanket. This is the first time I have had need of it in two years.
Then, my neighbor's yard light constantly goes on and off. Once, I thought I heard a buzz saw and freaked, imagining psychos with saws creeping through the neighborhood (I'd just seen Hostel the other day with Ricardo and the Gutter Philosopher) but then convinced myself it must have been a distant motorbike engine. But nonetheless, not exactly the best of nights for a first night in my new home.
Ah, well. We can only try again tonight. This time, I plan on plugging in the electric blanket right away before I even get into bed. And on Saturday, it's off we go furniture shopping!

2006-06-28T18:13:00.000+08:00

It's been freezing this week. Yesterday it was pouring and pouring, effectively stranding myself, Ricardo and the Gutter Philosopher at the Gutter Philosopher's house. We spent most of the day wrapped up on the sofa watching Ricardo play God of War, as we had been doing for the past two or three days. It was very exciting - like watching an animated action movie only we shout a lot more than when we actually watch a movie.
We also saw V for Vendetta last night! It was all right... and I saw Tokyo Drift with Sheryl over the weekend...okay, that's enough groans from you all right now. *grins*
It was a weekend of cooking... P and F left to Sweden this Sunday so we farewelled them with brownies *ahem* on Friday night while GP had a barbeque on his brand new black bbq grill that he's so proud of on Saturday. It was all very yummy and spacey :)
And the Duchess has left to KL after a final night of us (the Duchess, me and the Lost Smoker) playing pranks on Mystery Wolf and Pill that involved yellow rope, Vaseline and locked doors. Lol.
Speaking of which, all kinds of exciting things have been happening to the Lost Smoker which he's been annoyed that I haven't gotten around to putting up on my blog(hehe). A couple of weeks ago, he had an epilepsy fit in his flat which sizzled the wires in his brain, sent him walking around like a lost maniac and jumping a wall (which caused him to fracture his foot or something) before his brain snapped together again and he found himself at the campus library. It was all very exciting and he now has a cast on his leg, which sadly is not signable. So now we have to break the other leg and make sure he gets a proper cast that can be signed with all kinds of pretty pink permanent markers *grins* The poor soul is now stuck at home with his cast for a month ("oh, it'll come off in a week, I'll be up in no time at all," he said at first) and you can always tell when he's coming because he'll be on crutches that make a lot of noise and causes him to slip all over the supermarket and become a complete annoyance when he pokes at all of us with his crutches. But it's fun to push him a little and watch him almost trip hehe. Oh well, get well soon, LS!
Now it's time for dinner so farewell!

2006-06-20T18:17:00.000+08:00

Hair, hair, hair
Today was another busy day running all across campus and the city! But I managed to get home before the sun sets *whew*, which is a lucky thing especially after the flyers that have been circulating campus about the poor girl who was at the campus bus stop late one night, was forced into a car by a guy and driven away and assaulted before she was released.
"Assaulted?" said Aik when he saw the flyer. "That's really ambiguous! What do they mean by that? Was she raped or molested or beaten up?"
No one knows! But we'll believe that it's not in our best interests to find out firsthand. So we will all stay indoors when the dark comes! And I'm reaching for my trusty penknife to carry around in my bag again.
I got my hair trimmed today! Like all my other cuts, everyone's probably going to say there's no difference. But I see the difference - no more split ends! My poor hair has been completely destroyed by all the blowdrying I've inflicted on it lately - not wanting to walk around with waist-length wet hair in winter has driven me to be one of those terrible people who practically microwave their hair every morning. The hairdresser lectured me severely as she snipped at the ends today: "You have such beautiful long hair! You need to take better care of it! It doesn't take much, you know!" Then she gave me a well-practised speech promoting the hair salon's products. Like usual, I, ever-gullible, got excited and agreed to buy all their products. Well, it's not as bad as it sounds: I had been planning to buy a leave-in moisturiser for my hair, which will definitely be much needed if my prediction that I'm going to be blowdrying my hair practically everyday for the rest of the winter does come true, which it probably would. And I get three products, which will last me ages apparently, for eleven bucks each, so that's a pretty good price, if I do say so myself. I also got a shampoo (which would be used after my current Dove shampoo runs out) and a conditioner. The hairdresser berated me about using Garnier conditioner: "It's not good enough for your hair! You need to get a better conditioner! Something stronger and more professional!" Result: I left the salon with beautiful new trimmed hair and a bottle of shampoo, conditioner, and moisturiser. The moisturiser (which the hairdresser used on me before I left) is already working wonders, my hair feels a ton healthy and is thanking me and sending roses to my hairdresser for making me buy all these things. That's a good omen of what the conditioner and shampoo will hold for me. Healthy hair, here I come!
Likewise, I've got an appointment with a colorist this Thursday. My roots have grown out several inches, so not good. One of these days I'm going to stop spending so much money dying my poor hair and go back to black. Or do braids. Now that'll be awesome. :)

2006-06-19T19:17:00.000+08:00

Hey, hey, hey.
Like I said on my last entry, I've been running around on errands and the like. Also, a lot of shopping. There's a city-wide sale going on right now!!! Portmans is selling stuff for twenty bucks or less, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than their usual prices! I'm losing weight just running from shop to shop, mall to mall, bus stop to bus stop. My wallet has also lost a lot of weight.
I have also lost a LOT of blood. Because I have three piercings, the health experts have deemed that I must have a blood test. This is the second time my blood will be taken from me (the first was to determine if I had chicken pox earlier this year, when good old Aik contracted the damn virus and very nearly spread it to me, subsequently forcing me to obtain vaccines which are very expensive and not covered by my health insurance). In the Malaysian national anthem, there's one line that, when roughly translated, goes "The land my blood spills on". Australia has seen way more of my blood than Malaysia ever has, what with all these blood tests and the constant scraping of myself against the cave walls that pass for proper walls in my flat.
It was exciting, though (the blood test). This time, I actually watched as the nurse stuck the needle into my vein and the thick crimson liquid filled up in the needle. I was most fascinated. Drawing blood, I find, hurts much less than injecting things into yourself. I was also summoned into the doctor's for a proper health examination, which was more like doing calisthenics. You know those gentle warm-up exercises that you're forced to do in high school gym classes? Roll your head, roll your eyes in every which way, lift your arms, lift your legs one by one, bend and touch your toes? That was what my health examination basically consisted of. And it's tough in its own way - try bending over and touching your toes while keeping your robe - a white flimsy thing that the clinic has forced on you which only has ties at the back - from exposing your butt. Hrmphh.
I also had X-rays taken! From what the doctor says, all seems to be in good health. Whew! I wish they would let me see the X-rays, but they were sealed in a big red and white folder which I had to cart around the city with me, appearing to all and sundry as if I was some seriously ill chica who had escaped from the hospital to go shopping. They didn't even offer to let me take a peak. Hmph again.
Also went to Hillarys (yup, that's how it's spelled, with no apostrophe before the s) Harbor for seafood with the Duchess and a couple of other peeps, including this one cool chica who has a really nice house that's filled with every cow motif imaginable. We then went to Subi, to the Llama Bar and Sapphire. It's been ages since I've been to Subi! Sapphire wasn't much, but I appreciated it for the warmth (I was freezing in my dress and heels). Llama Bar was pretty nice, though. Subi is fun for people-watching, eyeing hot guys, and hanging around, just listening to the music and chilling out and having a few drinks, but if you really want to get down and dance, it's probably better to go to NB for that, however sleazy NB is. Anyway, there are a couple of sleazes hanging out in Subi as well too, so that makes no difference! But it was a nice change from the usual.
I've also made use of the campus library by attacking their fiction shelves. Every semester, I ignore the library completely (except for necessary research books) until the end of the sem when I actually hunt through their shelves and realize they have some really great books and wonder, why didn't I check out these books earlier? They have some awesome books there minus the horrific prices that all book stores usually charge these days. I got Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende, Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I've been dying to read The Blind Assassin for ages and now this is my chance! I've finished Of Love and Shadows now, and am on page 64 of The Blind Assassin right now.
Speaking of books and all things cultural (ho, ho, ho) and entertainment, the Duchess and I also decided to indulge in movies last week. We saw the Break-Up, which was like sitting through therapy for Jennifer Aniston after her own breakup with Brad Pitt. You know how singers like Justin Timberlake and Eamon churned out songs like "Cry Me a River" and "(Fuck It) I Don't Want You Back" after they've had break-ups? Well, this was the movie/actor equivalent of Cry Me a River. And Vince Vaughn co-wrote the story, so it was kind of like his gift to Jennifer Aniston, like it was written with her and her recent break-up in mind. Now, as we all know, Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn are said to be dating. So...put two and two together. But I did like the movie, even though it was Jennifer Aniston therapy. It was a pretty nice movie, though it's not the romantic comedy that the trailers made it out to be.
We also saw X-Men 3. Now that was a pretty good movie! I loved Jean Grey's hair and clothes there - and I bet any Goth chica who saw the movie would too. I didn't like so much the fact that so many people died/lost their powers. Oops, spoiler! Hehehe. But hey it ended in such a way that there'd be room for an XM4 - even though the director did say he didn't think there would be one. So, you never know. Mutants could be resurrected. Their powers can be restored. Rouge might actually regain the strong personality she displayed in the first X-Men movie instead of being such a wuss as she was in the XM3. They might finally decide to put Gambit (yummy!) in the movie too, which would delight any chica.

2006-06-12T09:16:00.000+08:00

Morning all!
Am waking up early to get errands done today and head to uni and the city with the Duchess...
So right now I'm just enjoying the early morning sunshine and checking the news online over yummy toast and a cup of hot Milo...ah...convenience...
It says in the news that detainees in Guantanamo Bay may kill themselves because of the depression caused by the isolation. Three guys have already killed themselves and the Australian guy, David Hicks, his lawyer's worried for him, thinks he may off himself because of the isolation too.
Well, the three guys who killed themselves were all Middle Easterns so you never know...they may have hopped the twig because they were Middle Easterns stuck in a camp run by piss-mad, hell-abusive, baton-twirling Americans who might fancy themselves the next Abu Ghraib.
On the other hand, it's true that isolation is really a tough thing and triggers depression really well.
But then, better the isolation or the daily contact of a bunch of roughhouse prisoners who are looking forward to raping your ass and calling you Shirley as they push your face into the mud?
You decide...

2006-06-12T00:55:00.000+08:00

Isn't it amazing how everyone is progressing in their lives and getting jobs and actually becoming Real Life Adults and all? I'm just so overwhelmed and excited by the fact that, once again, we are all at the crossroads of our lives. Last time it was us trying to figure out which college to apply for, what course to take. Then, it was some of us moving overseas to study, and some of us getting jobs and some of us deciding what course to take after foundation year. And now, most of us are getting jobs or already working in jobs and doing Real Life Adult stuff!
I was just talking to Bundles just now (I miss ya so much, gurl!) and she was telling me about how she's getting her very own car! Like, paying for it and taking out a loan and everything all by herself! And I was just thinking about it...about how we're actually doing all the things we've always talked about and dreamt of in high school and college. Bundles is buying her very own car, Potatoes is of course one step ahead of us and has already bought her own apartment and is just only waiting for it to be built so that she can move in with Bobby and Carrots and furnish it just the way she likes and everything, CircleySquare is working in Channel V, the Duchess has a job and an apartment all ready and waiting for her (along with boyfriend, dear Porn Star) in KL, which also signifies quite a brand new start for her since KL isn't her home country and all, the the Lost Smoker is working on all those music projects of his, Mystery Wolf has graduated as well, Refugee is still working along on his band and his job and getting that new CD of his out, the Dancing Queen is graduating too, and getting her PR and settling into her new job and new home here, Backstabbed is, um, well I'm not sure what he is doing but I assume he is getting or has gotten a job or taking care of those kindergarden children! Constantly is getting a job and standing up for herself to her boyfriend and his family (you go, gurl!), BananaGal is lounging around at her cushy office job ;), the hunnypox is still flying the skies, MandyKelly is gaining new opportunities for herself as well, not to mention making and selling yummy pineapple tarts! SweetRhapsody has a great boyfriend and an awesome job, the Ninja Crisis is with her boyfriend in Brisbane, the Curly Pumpkin and CC have gotten jobs as well, Tom Thumb Hairdryer has finished, or is almost finishing, his thesis, and various other people are going to London, America, South America, etc., and I'm trying to get a PR, a new home to rent, a job and a book published (oh, dream of all dreams)!
We're all at that one major crossroads in our lives, where we are starting to do Real Life Adult Stuff and, you know, the part that comes after our studies are over, and we have to really look out for ourselves now. This is it, the real part of living life, where there are no more safety straps, no more seat belts, no more mum and dad holding onto you to make sure you don't fall over. This is where we experience real problems, the question of living, how to live, how do we want to live? The real money problems, the real question of what kind of job do we want and whether we can get it, of experiencing life. Some of us already know what we want and are grabbing it with one hand, the rest of us are still testing the waters, trying everything and seeing what we can do. Whatever it is we're doing, it's something that will really, truly allow us to be ourselves or, at least, take us another step down that path which would lead us to finding out what we want and what we can become. It's exciting, wonderful and scary.
Please wish us all the best of luck! Hugz!

2006-06-10T17:06:00.000+08:00

Oh, and friends, guess what has happened! Something which I am so excited about. A literary agency is considering my novel for representation! I am thrilled to bits. Well, they are only reading a few chapters now and will get back to me in about eight to ten weeks to tell me if they like it or if they want to stomp it into the dust until it tears to many pieces with their feet, but I still find it very exciting. After all, I am only a NOVICE. Still, it's awesome because they have actually answered my query letter and agreed to let me submit something to them. Let's all cross our fingers and hope for the best!
In the meanwhile, if you want to, do go to Darkschunt (enter the portal on the right) and read a few chapters of the fiction I've put up there many centuries ago. It's been a long while since I've updated anything and I just noticed a few spelling and grammar mistakes around which I really should get around to fixing (hey, this one was just a for-pleasure thing, unlike my novel which I promise I have spent hours and days and weeks proofreading) but it's a fun read (I hope) so do go check it out!

2006-06-10T17:02:00.000+08:00

When I am on the computer at home, I noticed with much annoyance that the pictures on all my blogs and websites never come up. They become irritating squares of white or squares of black with a small white box with a red x in the middle at the upper left-hand corner. But when I check it on, say, the Duchess's or the Lost Smoker's computers or the pcs at uni, they come out perfectly fine. Why are my pictures not loading for me? Is anyone else having this problem with pictures on my website? Well, let's hope you're not because I have absolutely no idea how to fix this problem. Blast html. Blast.
Well, anyway, at least I have finally recalled my tagboard password and have deleted those annoying spammers from my tagboard. Hooray! I spit on thee, blasted spammers!

2006-06-10T16:47:00.000+08:00

Ah, the Life of Convenience.
Last night was spent at analakshmi's, this Indian restaurant where you just pay whatever you want for a buffet of, you guess it, Indian food. It's vegetarian and it's pretty good - the Duchess and I and Amr and Amr's friend and a whole bunch of DESI boys (plus one very pretty DESI girl) who just seem to resemble every other DESI boy I know (I swear, DESI must be turning out clones everywhere, their mannerisms and hairstyles and clothes are sooo similar, I feel like I already know everything about them) just stuffed ourselves with dal and rice and shredded cabbage and potatoes and lots of other spicy vegetables. As usual, with winter here, everyone is eating as if they are bears planning to hibernate. I myself have been buying waaay too much food from Coles.
I have bought - get this! Milo! Lovely, yummy Milo that comes in convenient little packets that you just empty into a cup of Microwaved hot milk. I could have saved a dollar eighty and bought a small tin and just count out four or five heaping spoonfuls of Milo powder into each cup but nooo. I must have these wonderful novelty packets that promise to make life a hairbreadth easier and more convenient for me. Yummy, lovely Milo. Needs more condensed milk, though, which, luckily I have bought! Again, this is condensed milk in a tube, looking like a tube of canvas oil pant and promising to be more convenient than ordinary condensed milk in a tin. Only...now I have just noticed a tube of condensed milk in the fridge as well and wondered, is that mine? Was that the old tube of condensed milk which I bought months ago and never used again and thought I had probably gave to the Duchess who is a lover of condensed milk in a tube? Or is that just one of my flatmate's condensed milk? One of my many flatmates who keeps tons of plastic containers filled with leftover rice and pasta in the fridge, to be warmed up at any time for their convenience? Or one of my many other flatmates (or possible the very same one) who keeps packs of KFC and KFC chips in our fridge for eons and eons, also to be warmed up at any time for their convenience? There is too much convenience going on around here for my liking. We should all be sent back to the old days, back out to the country where we will be made to plant, grow, harvest, wash and cook our own cabbages and carrots, where we will be made to look after our own cows and chickens and goats before fattening them up and slaying them for a good meal of meat. Ah, it's good to be in the country.

2006-06-10T13:46:00.000+08:00

I've just checked my Friendster page (the first time in months) and felt an overwhelming rush of guilt come over me at the number of messages I've left unread and unanswered for countless months. I'm so bad at answering my messages and checking Friendster and all this! Everybody I know has new pictures of themselves preening into the camera lenses and countless blog updates and testimonials and whatever...I should do my best to update my page too...hahaha...
So, anyway, the big news now is that I have...GRADUATED!!! Yes, I have!!! That's the end of my entire life of education...well, not really, as they say life is a continuous path of learning experiences, though that does sound terribly cliche, innit? Anyway, that's the end of my life of educational institutes. From kindergarden to primary school to high school to college to university, I can hardly believe it - I. Have. Truly. Acheived. It.
Congratulations me, I've accomplished the one of the basic major achievements which is highly regarded by our modern society. A degree!
It's kind of like having a bar mitzvah or being a debutante or one of those coming of age birthdays, isn't it? But it feels pretty unreal to me. Like, I don't really feel like I think I should when I graduate. I still keep thinking I'm going to have to go to class next semester again.
I did feel something on Friday last week when I finally printed out and handed in my very last assignment, my very last essay ever. When I handed it in to Les, my tutor and internship boss, and we stood there chatting about what was coming next for me, I really did feel a wave of sadness come over me. This was it, the very last! And when I said goodbye to Les and left the radio newsroom and walked back to the journalism newsroom, I felt even sadder. I didn't want to graduate! I want to keep on being a student! Life's such a blast in university.
Then, after that, I headed to the Sparrow restaurant in NB with a bunch of the people from the journalism print production class. Half of us were graduating as well, and it was so sad but it was fun too. We really got to know each other only over the boozy lunch - and I think a lot of people were really surprised when I was yakking my mouth off because I hardly ever spoke much in the newsroom, I was always concentrating so hard on the work. But it was fun, we got to know a lot about each other that we never really found out during all those weeks we spent together!
After lunch, we headed over to the Brisbane Hotel bar (again! I seem to keep coming back to this place now!) and we drank loads; our lecturers were drinking loads too and were really funny and they were all so nice, offering us lots of support in whatever we did next and encouragement. And then I found out Nick, the British guy, had seen the Smashing Pumpkins life before and I was totally jealous of him.
Later, me, Jonathan, Lily, Adam and Jessica took off to Lily's friend's house. It's a cute place, with a windchime and a big cat and looked a little bit like a cute witch's house! She had turntables too, which were awesome, I played around with them a bit but I didn't really know what to do, I was probably pretty crap, hehe. We hung around, drinking a bottle of wine and exchanging the funniest, grossest stories before heading to another restaurant for dinner (John made me have vegetarian with him, which turned out pretty well actually, for a carnivore like myself!). Then, Sheryl called and asked me to go clubbing with her. We dropped Jess off (Adam had already staggered drunkenly off home, let's hope he made it!) and Lily took me and Jon to meet her boyfriend before dropping us off.
I was pretty much exhausted but that didn't stop me from putting my dancing shoes on and heading out with the Filipino girls! ;) Meet some nice people that night...and this guy who has declared that his old dance club at another college was the greatest accomplishment in his life, hehe, he was a fun guy.
Yup, that was pretty much my graduation ceremony - until the real one next year with fireworks! Both the Duchess and I are postponing our ceremonies so we get fireworks! That's what we want! Fireworks!

2006-06-08T17:31:00.000+08:00

The Ministry of Sound was fantastic. We spent most of our time in Old Berlin, this big warehouse with graffiti all over the exterior walls that we have always walked by plenty of times but had never wondered before what it was. The doors were wide open most of the time and it was freezing cold so most of my time was spent on this absolutely lovely and most comfortable white sofa with a bunch of other people, chilling out and listening to the music and making conversation with a bunch of other strangers who were also enjoying the comfy sofa. The same crowd of people kept coming back to the sofa - we all loved it! I wanted to take it home by the end of the night. The Duchess spent most of her time racing about and coming to vist moi on my sofa every now and then. But the temperature! *shudder* So terribly cold. Right across from my sofa was this huge white mask of a goblin-like creature looking down over the crowd from above, it was pretty cool.
The next day was spent recuperating from MOS. We spent most of it slouching around, eating KFC and watching the 25th Hour, Scrubs and a bunch of weird late-night TV shows while having hot soup and garlic bread.
Oooh, that reminds me. Tonight is Thursday aka TV night! There's going to be the Amazing Race, Scrubs, Family Guy, and American Dad. Hooray!
I made brownies yesterday for the Gutter Philosopher and Pharrell because they were studying. There was a whole pan of them and only a slice left today. *Beams* I'm so proud that my first try at making brownies was a success. Next week, we'll have some more, and when the guys' exams are over, we'll make proper happy brownies to celebrate!!! Well, I want to anyway.

2006-06-08T17:19:00.000+08:00

The people who invented the virus ctxe.pk are very determined that my e-mail receives it.
They've sent no less than eight e-mails with nine different names on it, all describing the joys of ctxe.pk on the subject line.

Judy Crandall - the information is in the letter ctxe.pk a downright must see
Allie Hartley - Urgent statement ctxe.pk for you to have it
Lilia Hill - Urgent letter ctxe.pk enter now
Jamel Cotton - pay attention to the announcement ctxe.pk for you to see
Norberto Terrell - pay attention to the announcement ctxe.pk you won't regret seeing this
Barbra Crain - Urgent letter ctxe.pk a breathtaking boom
Antwan - overwhelming important announcement C T X E for you to stare at (this guy was obviously a little more creative and perhaps just the tiniest bit subtle *rolls eyes*)
Claire - pay attention to the letter CTXE.PK you'll fancy it inside

This list runs from the latest to the oldest pieces of mails I have received over the past few days. Obviously, they started out using only a first name and boldly capitalizing ctxe.pk before deciding to start getting creative with names and being lazy about using capitals for their virus's name.
Norberto Terrell? What kind of name is that?
How dumb do they think people are anyway? That entire list of e-mails staring me in the face was just a little more than twenty hundred miles over being obvious. Anyway, everyone pretty much deletes any suspicious e-mails in their mail, especially ones from people named Norberto Terrell that tell you this is a "breathtaking boom."
*snickers*

2006-06-04T21:44:00.000+08:00

Hello, my fellow bloggers! Am sitting in the Duchess's room right now as she blows her hair dry and gets ready for we are going to the Ministry of Sound! The Duchess is wearing an orange print dress that looks like it could be an Aboriginal dream-time painting as well and I have braided pigtails a la Fergie. The Duchess is also very hyped up, much like a child on Christmas morning, so Perth had better watch out for her tonight!

2006-06-02T01:18:00.000+08:00

It's been cold these past couple of weeks, as I mentioned in my last post. Yep, I'm writing two posts, to make up for the fact that it's been absolutely ages since I've blogged! On Monday, it was particularly freezing, everyone was tossed about by the wind.
One wonderful thing I've discovered is the hot chocolate dispensed by the vending machines by the humanities buildings on campus. It's yummy! I wonder that I never tried it before. The Duchess and I had three cups each the other day while we were in the newsroom - the Duchess was printing some stuff out for her report and I was working on my CV. Yep, I've made over my resume, it looks way more professional now and let's hope I impress someone and get myself a cushy job!
I've gotten hungrier as the cold sets in, it's to be expected but I've been absolutely ravenously hungry. It's terrible. I wish I wasn't, it's a pain having to cook and all, and I had been planning to save on grocery shopping. But now it's time again to stock up on hot soups and lots of meaty, yummy carbs to satisfy my monstrous appetite. I had better not gain any weight! The one good thing is that I'm in the mood for veges these days. How strange but how nice and healthy for me.

2006-06-02T00:13:00.000+08:00

The past two weeks have just been a haze of alcohol, really.
Last week, on Tuesday, the Duchess had a shoot to do for her wine documentary for her film and tv class. Her other flatmates are apparently a little flaky and didn't get enough actors for the shoot as they promised to so the Duchess asked moi and the Lost Smoker and Amr and Phill Pill if we would like to come along and dress classy and sip free wine for a shoot. Would we love to! So we all headed down to the Brisbane Hotel bar that evening. It's not a bad place...pretty nice, actually and a whole lot more classier than either the Waterford or Como, lol. It would have been a nice place to chill out. It was mostly working peeps who were relaxing after their day at the office. There were some really nice art prints on the walls, you know, like those Andy Warhol black-and-white prints of Marilyn Monroe, those kind of styles, and the usual low and comfy couches. All in all, it looks pretty much like any "classy" bar would look like, actually, with not much to differ it from one bar to the next. But a nice place, nonetheless. I would recommend the house wines because they were pretty nice...much better than the glass of white wine I had at first which wasn't exactly spectacular...
After the shoot, we were all starving so we headed to an Indian restaurant in Northbridge for dinner. I think it was the Golden Court or the Golden Century or something. Golden anyway! The food was pretty good, though rather heavy on the sauces, creamy like usual. I was a little disappointed with the desserts though. They had all these really delicious-looking tiny desserts - mocha chocolate balls and caramel surprises and yummy ice cream-y stuff and I had a really hard time choosing which to have. But when the caramel surprise came, it was frozen solid and well, not too appealing. Perhaps it was because we were the last ones in the restaurant and they were about to close, but nonetheless I expected something much better. Oh, well.
The next day, the Lost Smoker and I got a bottle of vodka and orange juice and made ourselves screwdrivers while playing Monopoly. How fun was that! It's been ages since I'd played monopoly and I couldn't remember the rules but the Lost Smoker explained everything to me again and soon we were busy buying up everything. The Lost Smoker bought just a few streets and put up lots of houses, and then hotels, bankrupting me when I landed on his streets! I bought up loads of streets but didn't have enough cash to buy many houses after that...ended up heavily mortgaged and lost. Hmph. Well, now I know enough of the game to understand how to strategize properly...just you wait, Lost Smoker. I thought he was supposed to be a socialist but as history has demonstrated, any socialist that falls into power with loads of cash turns corrupt, just like anyone else would! Hmph.
Anyway, we finished that entire bottle of vodka that night and I think the Duchess and Mystery Wolf were very amused by us, especially my ramblings that night! Oops. Went to bed with a book of the Lost Smoker's, Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos. It was interesting enough and Vonnegut is a good writer, but I was depressed enough as it is lately and it didn't help that Galapagos is extremely depressing, well, at least to me because Vonnegut's narrator in the book does not have much faith in humanity, rightly so when it comes to the other characters in the book. It's a nice book to read but don't do it if you're already feeling depressed!
Oh yes, why am I depressed? Well, I don't know. I guess we all have our ups and downs and that week was a particularly down week for me. It was any number of things, I supposed, I wasn't eating well or sleeping well (that damn insomnia has come back to haunt me again), was still trying to wind down from a stressful week of uni work and was still busy with personal projects. I also had a fight with the Gutter Philosopher that night, which didn't help things either. And winter is here and it is absolutely freezing cold. I swear it is much colder than it was last year. The Lost Smoker doesn't think so, but the Gutter Philosopher does, and everyone else is pretty much split on that issue. Anyway, I'm fairly sure my resistance to the cold has gone way down since I went home to Malaysia for Christmas. Also, I've been listening nonstop to Nitin Sawhney and certain choice songs from Faithless which, although they are absolutely fantastic tunes that I would definitely recommend to anyone, are not the happiest tunes around. Yes, well, it was not the best situation for me to be in while reading Galapagos. No, sir!
I like the ending though, the very last couple of pages. It was a sweet story. Sentimental.
Anyway, back to the alcohol week listing. Woke up the next day with an incredibly severe hangover, swearing to myself NEVER, EVER to drink so heavily again. Survived just barely. Just in time, in fact, for the Roaring Lion's birthday party on Friday night!
Yes, the Roaring Lion has turned 22! Happy birthday, boy ;) Oh, and that reminds me, a long-belated fact to note, LO has gone to Japan to be an English teacher! It's really cool, and that reminds me too, I have to write her an e-mail soon! Miss ya, LO, glad to hear you're having a great time in Japan! :)
Well, anyway, was planning to head to the Roaring Lion's party with the Duchess and Sheryl and DRINK IN MODERATION. But Sheryl pulls up, shouting "we're gonna get drunk tonight, girl!" and off we go to buy a bottle of whiskey. (Well, what's a girl to do? When her friends say "we're gonna get drunk", of course we're gonna get drunk! Talk about obliging happily, lol.)
The guy at the licquor store immediately sensed the impending danger of the night, saying to us, "Oh, man, three girls and a bottle of whiskey? That's going to be real dangerous..." Laughing, we drive off and get to the party and start drinking with Nicotine and Mike. Loads of hilarious things happened, lots of skulling, and then the bottle was over before we were getting started so we drove off, most of us tipsy but we were still able to drive - well, one of us was, anyway, while the rest sat in the back and drank beer. It was a good thing no cops stopped us that night! We got lost on the way and had to call out to some amused guy in the car next to us at a traffic light for directions to the bottle shop. Anyway, got the alcohol and headed back to the party. Halfway through the second bottle, Sheryl disappears with good old Tall One (who is bald! Apparently, he tried to give his hair a close shave, hit the wrong settings on the razor, and accidentally gave himself a bald stripe down one side of his head, so now he has totally shaved it all off. Lol. When we asked him what had happened, he grinned and said "don't ask" but I just got the story out of Sheryl last night). Anyway, that left me and the Duchess with the rest of the bottle. Allow me to tell you - three girls with two bottles of whiskey does a dangerous situation make. Definitely. Dancing Dude came to pick us up later and was totally amused with our situation.
Woke up early the next morning, as anticipated, with yet another severe hangover. (SUCH a familiar situation to be in). Groaned several times while asking myself, "Why, WHY do I get myself into such situations?" After much drinking of wonderful water, I managed to get back to bed and woke up much revived later. The Duchess did not fare well either. We had a big lunch to get ourselves back on our feet while swearing to do things in moderation from now on. Erm, let's hope that happens!
Well, anyway, I've been pretty good so far except for last night when I went over to the Swedish guys' house with Sheryl and Kat and a bottle of Chivas. The first one got broken by Finn so we had to go back and get another one! Poor Finn, he gave us the cash for another bottle, even though he doesn't drink himself. The Tall One said, "This is what happens when nonalcoholics hold alcohol." The bottle shop guy must have thought we were freaking alcoholics, coming back so soon for yet another bottle! We then settled down on the couches in the freezing cold outside to drink and smoke with Morgan and Finn and Elyssa, who also showed up. We girls ended up talking about waxes, which made the guys cringe and pretend not to hear, then moved on to Swedish swear words. The guys taught us how to say "I fuck well" and "You fuck well" and "Cunt!" in Swedish, it was a very useful lesson, hehehe. Cunt is fitta, it sounds like feta, as in feta cheese, lol. I would have to remember that one! The Swedes are leaving after this semester, it's sad. Will miss them! We also wondered what happened to good old German Boy. He took all our e-mail addresses down when he left earlier this year but we never heard a peep from him since then. We speculate that he is now trapped in some jail in Thailand for soliciting hookers and pot or something, lol.
Anyway, made it through that night without getting drunk. Was pleasantly tipsy - just the right level of drunkenness! Whew! Although I may have smoked one too many cigarettes. Got home around three-ish and went to bed around six - I couldn't sleep so thought I'd do some work.
Oh, and I saw the Da Vinci Code this week as well! As everyone told me(with the exception of Ryan who has no taste anyway, hehehe), it wasn't as great as I thought it'd be. For one thing, why did they dumb down Sophie? She was far more intelligent and sophisticated in the book and in the movie she was hanging around like a dead weight most of the time. And then they had to go and make Tom Hank's character much smarter and smoother than he was in the book, which didn't make him so likable in the movie. Guys, I thought this was a story about celebrating feminity! Why are you dumbing down the female and making the guy more intelligent, then? What's the point then? You're basically reversing the point of the book. Frankly, I'm surprised Dan Brown agreed to that. (Did he? I have no idea but he must have some say in how the screenplay was written). And why did they imbue Langdon with so much skepticism of the Mary Magdalene theory in the movie when he was practically rooting for it in the book? Were they afraid of upsetting the Christians? Well, for one thing, the Christians were already pretty much enraged by the movie anyway, and secondly, I'm Roman Catholic myself but I'd much rather watch a beautifully executed movie with a proper storyline and screenplay rather than the tripe I saw in the cinema this Tuesday. If you want to do something, do it properly. Go with the whole hog instead of just halves and halves, all hesitant and everything. And why did they make Bezu Fache so much dumber? He was more intelligent in the book, and I think the book was fairer on everyone - from the pagans to the Christians to Opus Dei. The movie was too one-sided. The only person I liked in the movie was Silas. Go, Paul Bethany! In fact, right before the movie we saw the new James Bond trailer with Daniel Craig in it. Now, I like Craig in Layer Cake but it was pretty odd watching him as the new James Bond. He's suppose to be Bond as a young agent but he looks way older than Pierce Brosnan or Roger Moore or the rest of those guys who played James Bond before! Still, we'll wait until the movie comes out before passing judgment. But the point is, when I was watching the Da Vinci Code and admiring Paul Bethany, I thought, hey now, we should have gotten him to play James Bond! With the white make up still on him and everything. Let's get an albino James Bond in the next movie. I think it'd be pretty cool!

2006-05-20T02:15:00.000+08:00

She is able to love unconditionally. And that is the greatest gift of all.

2006-05-14T19:15:00.000+08:00

I'm typing this on the Lost Smoker's computer because Love Actually doesn't start for another hour and a half and I have nothing else to do in this flat and because the Lost Smoker is not in but he never locks his door so i basically just went in and turned on his pc. *smiles angelically*
Last weekend was *sexpo* weekend. Basically, there's this sex exhibition thing that happens every year. It has stuff like lingerie on sale, lingerie modelling shows, amateurs stripping, professional stripping, adultshop stuff for sale, porn mags and dvds, and, um, bidets, jacuzzis, fortune tellers and skydiving.
Anyway, it's come around again, so I went to see it on Friday night with the Duchess and Mystery Wolf and then on Saturday with the Gutter Philosopher, The Tall One, "Motherfucker!" and a couple of the Swedish Boys. The people who saw me there on both nights must think I'm a real perv *chuckles*
As it turns out anyway, the Gutter Philosopher and I ended up buying loads of things and leaving the exhibition with tons of bags, more than practically anyone else, and looking like total sex maniacs *heehee*. The Duchess bought quite a few things too!
Last night Mystery Wolf and I headed out to P & V for a night of clubbing. I met like a zillion people that night in the clubs! We were hanging around the lower bar, and I met people. We were hanging around the upper bar, and I met people. We went back down to the lower bar and I met some Jamaican guy who wanted to take "me and my friend back to his apartment to chill out". Uh, no thanks. Then I met a couple of girls, one of them was pretty much high and hiding under one of the bar tables from a guy, and she pulled me down there so I just crouched down and hid with her for a few minutes. And there was also this horribly sleazy old man who was trying to chat me up while I was having a drink and watching people dance. When I don't pay any attention to him, he tries to lick my ear! EWWWW! Needless to say, I was out of there pronto. Oh, it was so gross, so gross. Then I went outside to try and bum a cigarette off someone, and I met this quiet, unassuming guy who "doesn't dance but can play the drums and the guitar." It makes me wonder, if you had to choose between having the ability to dance and having the ability to play the drums and the guitar, but you couldn't have both, and you would be stuck with that choice for the rest of your life, which would you pick? We must introduce him to the Dancing Queen, she'd make a dancer out of him ;)
Then I went into the bathroom and met people - well, I met this really nice, albeit completely exhausted, chick and she introduced me to all her friends (who had really awesome clothes, like wide-bottom black pants and a silky sort of striped top, or big black boots with a knee-length black skirt and cool red top that has a band that goes around the neck) and I danced with them while Mystery Wolf was dancing with this Swiss guy that I had passed on to her (he was trying to get a hold of me until I revealed the fact that I had a boyfriend and I think he got kind of bitchy on me after that). We didn't head home until about sevenish and I'm telling you, we were wrecked. It's been ages since either of us have been out clubbing, and I keep wondering, am I getting old? I used to be able to club all night and still not be tired. Now, three or four is a good time for me to stop. Two is even okay at times. Oh, no! This can't be happening! Lol.
I climbed six flights of steps in the uni library the other day. Six. I was out of breath by the fifth. My legs were trembling. I walked down two flights to the fourth floor. Then I took the lift.
Yep, I pretty much had my exercise for the week. After this - glorious hours of sitting on the couch, watching Love Actually and X-Men 2. Beautiful.

2006-05-01T12:35:00.000+08:00

Today was Asshole Day
It was terrible...just this morning alone, I met so many assholes...it was like Asshole Day today and someone had let them all loose...
I'm features editor for the next issue of our uni paper so I had to wake up early today and get my ass over to uni and find out where all the feature writing classes were so I could get all the students to put down their story ideas and sources. Another guy was suppose to be doing this with me but I couldn't get hold of him over the weekend and by the time he got back to me today, my phone battery had conked out on me so we totally lost sight of one another. No, he's not the asshole, those are yet to come.
So anyway I was running back and forth between two feature writing classes. One of them was fine, nice people, really sweet, but the other one had these two GRADE-A ASSHOLES sitting at the back of the class. I'm going to each of the students, getting down their story ideas and sources, and all the girls are lovely, really nice and sweet. But these two guys absolutely refused to explain their story ideas to me or even write down their sources. One of them just writes "cyclones" and draws a little whirlwind while the other thinks he's being really artistic by writing his name down in big block letters. And there I am, trying to get them to write down their ideas and sources properly and they're just giving me so much shit and going "Why? Why do we have to do this? We've already handed our articles in today so why should we explain it to you?" And i'm just like, "Because i don't get your articles until tomorrow and i have to present your story ideas to my own class today! so just write down your damn sources, fool!"
And there was this other guy who also kept giving me shit and asking in aggressive tones why he should write down the story ideas. Well, buster, just do as you're told and keep your mouth shut.
Eurghhh. Anyway, I finally get the story ideas and sources, and go over to the newsroom to go through their articles and make some sense out of the crap they gave me.
On the way there, I pass this HORRIBLY UGLY MONKEY in the university parking lot. He was crass and ugly and had terrible gelled back hair and an earring and was driving what he obviously thought was a flashy cool convertible, but frankly, it was just too OTT and the ugliest shade of blue I've ever seen. And he was driving slowly and revving his engine as loudly as he could and he gives me this really smug "you think I'm hot, don't you" look and winks at me and I nearly screamed and tore my hair out but I just gave him this look of abject horror and disgust and walked off, while he continues revving his engine behind me.
And when I finally get to the newsroom and looked through the articles, what do you know, the Grade-A assholes who were sitting at the back of the class haven't even handed up their articles yet! They were definitely not in the pile in their assignment box. Biatches!
Really, there were just too many assholes today. This is what I get for waking up so early, or so the Lost Smoker aka Prince Valium tells me today as I complain to him. All I can say is, there better not be any more assholes when I venture out for my three o'clock class later or...I don't know...I might just get arrested on the six o'clock news for killing an asshole.
So if you see an article in tomorrow's paper with the headline "GIRL KILLS ASSHOLE" - you'll know that was me!
Right - off to lunch now! Ciao!

2006-04-27T00:28:00.000+08:00

It's been quite a while since I last blogged, due to the fact that I've been over at the Gutter Philosopher's house for most of the Easter two-week break. That place is like my summer home or something, lol. Pharrell and the Gutter Philosopher joke that people don't come over to their house, they live over. Hotel Gutter Pharrell.
Most of my time over there was spent watching DVDs from Blockbuster. Ah, there's nothing better then sitting mindlessly in front of the TV watching movie after movie! In the space of about a week and a half, I watched the movies Carlito's Way: Rise to Power, Domino, The Odd Couple II (Pharrell's choice), Sexy Beast (finally!), The Constant Gardener, State Property (no one in the movie was a nice guy! they were all meanies!), and Demon Hunter (gawd, what a terrible B-grade movie! The soundtrack was all over the place, as if someone had just decided to randomly fit it in between scenes, and, um, it was just not impressive at all. Bit of movie goof-ups trivia: in one scene, Sean Patrick Flannery is talking to the nun in the graveyard. the camera moves between shots of the nun's back as she faces SPF, and shots of the nun from the front. In certain shots of the nun's face, you can see that her hair has been brushed back over her shoulder, and in other shots you can see that her hair has fallen over her shoulder to the front).
Also watched Narnia for the fourth time, and My Name is Modesty, which is based on the comic series about Modesty Blaise. I was kind of disappointed watching the movie, after having read the comics every Sunday over the past years. But, to be fair, I didn't manage to finish the movie, falling sick with the flu halfway through, and spending one miserable day and night sick in bed and, according to the Gutter Philosopher, being very demanding.
Yup, everyone's coming down with a touch of the flu. It doesn't help that some days and nights are chilly, and others are a little more warm. Darwin up north has been hit by a cyclone, they say on the news, and the past couple of days have been rainy and chilly here because of it. Richard got some flu and cold medicine, and when we got home, he found out that it was made of natural herbs. Apparently, when you're sick, it's best to have a handful of dried elderberries and white willow bark to make you feel better.
The Swedish guys have made it back home from camping. Their car had broken down in the first few days of their trip, and they had to spend the next five days sitting around in small town pubs waiting for it to be fixed. The cars are falling apart around us. The Gutter Philosopher's car has also broken down, and is in the mechanic's right now as I type. Poor little Tina!
Today, I went to the city with the Duchess. We walked and walked and walked like Amish people walking over fields. My feet are tired. Bought a lovely soft green sweater for the coming winter days and got a new battery for my phone (the old one had conked out on me, leaving me phoneless for the past four or five days). It was actually awesome, being out of the phone circuit for a while. No phone ringing, no messages demanding your attention. Only the occasional panic anxiety moments where you go, "I know someone's trying to call me now! I just know it!" and the annoying prospect of being unable to make phone calls when you want to.
All right, 'tis late and tomorrow is another big day, running around getting a police clearance! Luckily for me, I know I have no police record. Or do I?!? We'll find that one out tomorrow!

2006-04-27T00:00:00.000+08:00

I hate my flatmate's bathmat.
See, it's like this. There's this white mat which one of my flatmates placed on the floor of the bathroom. Naturally, because water from the shower compartment constantly sloshes over onto the bathroom floor, the mat gets wet. So my flatmate eventually puts the mat in the middle of the bathroom floor, instead of next to the shower compartment where it originally was. She also leaves a note, telling us in no uncertain terms that she had placed the mat in the middle of the floor to prevent it from constantly getting drowned.
So far, all this is fine with me. But the very next day, I get home late night from clubbing and go to take a shower, accidentally spilling some stuff on the mat. Damn it! I hurry to wash out the mat, then squeeze it as dry as I can and leave it on the floor to dry up. But I kind of figured out my flatmate probably found it still wet the next day and was probably pretty pissed to find that it's still wet, despite the fact that she put it in the middle of the bathroom.
So I spend a few days at the Gutter Philosopher's house. Next time I come back, I take a shower and come out to find a corner of the mat is still wet. Let's face it, the bathroom is tiny. There is no way you can keep from causing that mat to be wet while taking a shower.
Anyway, off I go to the Gutter Philosopher's again for another few days. Today, I come back, and to prevent from wetting the mat, I shove it clear to the other side of the bathroom, scrunching it up against the wall, then take my shower. Success, the mat is dry. Triumphant, I head off to my room to do a quick facial.
Suddenly, I hear my flatmate coming home and going into the bathroom to take a shower. Horrors! I forgot to put the mat back where it was! It was still scrunched up against the wall! I go back after she's done with her shower; she's put it back in its proper place.
I imagine that she probably knows I'm the one who's doing all these things to her mat. I try, damnit, I try my darnedest to be kind to that mat and keep it clean and dry and in its place but damnit, nothing ever seems to work. Pah!
Anyway, any mat that lives in the bathroom is bound to more or less fall damp every now and then. I rest my case. That mat is evil!

2006-04-12T19:45:00.000+08:00

Last night was spent drinking a carton of Cintra beer with the Lost Smoker and playing blackjack and...um...something else that I can't remember which is sort of like Uno with both the Lost Smoker and Phil. Phil kept winning because he was the only sober one.
Anyway, at the end of the night, I made the Lost Smoker walk me home, then went straight to bed. Woke up around fourish in the morning, utterly and out-of-my-mind thirsty. Also was feeling very bad. "Never again," I swore to myself as I got out of bed and went into the dark kitchen to fill up a bottle of water. "Never again will I drink so much and inflict this unnecessary pain on myself!" Yes, of course, story of my life.
Anyway, I got back into bed, drank about half the bottle of water, then, because I couldn't sleep and because I was still feeling bad, opened Douglas Adam's The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, which the Lost Smoker had lent me along with Graham Greene's Quiet American. Oooh, British classics. I had just about reached the part where this woman is walking down a street at night, and all the street lamps are being extinguished one by one as she passes them by, and naturally have worked myself up in a very frightened state, when I suddenly heard a thump down the hallway outside my room.
Pause.
Another thump. Followed by another. Immediately, because of The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, I start imagining green-skinned goblins and giant green-eyed figures with scythes lurking outside my bedroom in the darkened hallway and lounge. I freeze immediately. There's something out there! What should I do? My room light was the only one turned on which makes it an instant attraction for whatever supernatural creature out there! I consider locking my door but the click might attract the creature. I consider turning off my light but that might attract it as well! But what should I do? What if it can come through walls? What should I do if something tries to open my door? I sit there in a half-frightened state for several minutes before just going back to my book, with one eye on my door, ready to shriek if the doorknob so much as moves a centimetre. I turn each page very quietly and slowly in case the faintest rustle reaches the ears of that horrible creature lurking outside. I barely dare to move, nestled in my bed as I was. Nothing would make me get out of bed and leave the safety of my room to look outside in that dark hallway. Finally, I got tired and fell asleep. When I woke up, it was daylight and all my other flatmates had probably already gotten up. What relief. I made it through another night.
A thought has just occured me. What should I do about tonight?!?

2006-04-11T12:47:00.000+08:00

It's a gorgeous day! There was a DJ playing on the lawn outside the library on campus, the market stalls are up, and the fat pigeons are roosting on the ivy-covered walls...

I've just decided I'm going to give top ten lists on my blog. Darkschunt's Top Ten. The first being... my top ten list of books to recommend! Bearing in mind that there is probably going to be more than just ten books being recommended here (they don't go in any order, but they're all fab):

1) Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen.
I love all her books so it was hard figuring out which one I preferred. They all give you such a nice feel-good feeling at the end, like how chick flicks do. My favourite used to be Northanger Abbey, with Emma coming in a strong second, but when I finally got around to reading Pride and Prejudice, it just toppled the rest. All I can say is...a good love story always wins the day! Hehe. Read it, then read the rest of the books, then read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler.

2) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson.
This book is so crazy, it's awesome. Read it, then watch the movie. It's all about Thompson as a journalist named Raoul Duke, who takes a trip to Las Vegas with his Samoan lawyer in a fire-red convertible with a trunkful of drugs to cover the fabulous Mint 400 biker race for Sports Illustrated, and end up rampaging through Vegas in a completely drug-addled state, and ending up in all kinds of places such as a police drug convention and various hotel rooms, bars, casinos and diners in Vegas. It's excessive drugs, wild happenings, terrifying the hotel help, all kinds of crazy things, and a fab read.

3) The Chalice & The Blade by Glenna McReynolds
This is a romance/fantasy book and it's actually part of a trilogy. I actually like the second book, Dreamstone, best. The story takes place in the late 1100s, in Wales, about Ceridwen and Mychael, twins and the children of a woman, Rhiannon, the last of the Magus Druid Priestesses. Their home is destroyed and their parents murdered. The first book, the Chalice and the Blade is about Ceridwen and a Danish sorcerer named Dain. The second is about Mychael and an aetheling named Llynya, while the third leaps waaay to the future, and is about a Welsh prince named Morgan, who also appeared in the first book as a friend of Dain's and a cousin of Ceridwen's, and a woman named Avalynn. The story combines magic, dragons, priestesses, lords and ladies, grove priests, and elves as well, and they're very beautiful stories. I love the way she writes, how her words flow, the way she describes events and places, and it's obvious that she did a great deal of research while writing these books, which makes them even more enjoyable to read.

4) The Skull Mantra by Elliot Pattison.
I actually prefer the second book, Water Touching Stone, which I had read first, but it's probably better to read The Skull Mantra first, if you want to go in order. But both are fantastic, anyhow. These two books are about Shan, a former investigator for the Chinese government, who got too close to the truth and was sent to a labour camp in Tibet. In the first book, he is taken out of the camp and forced to become a detective once more when a headless corpse is found on the mountainside where the labourers in his camp break rock to build a road. In the second, his detective skills are put to used once more to find out what the Chinese government is looking for. Both stories are set in Tibet and are filled with Tibetan and Buddhist myths and lore. They are really great mysteries to read, as Shan encounters more and more questions and uncover conspiracies and leaves you guessing at who the killer really is, what they really want to accomplish, all set against the background of Tibet, which is absolutely beautiful. Also, the novels really highlight the injustices which the Chinese government has committed in Tibet with their political policies. Pattison has also written other books where Shan continues to solve other cases in Tibet, and I can't wait to get my hands on those books as well. He won the Edgar award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America for Skull Mantra as well.

5) Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery.
These are actually more like children's books. Remember Anne of Green Gables? L.M. Montgomery is the very same author. But I would recommend Montgomery's books to any age group because they're such sweet, beautiful books. Mark Twain once called Anne of Green Gables "the sweetest creation of child life yet written".
I love all her books but my favourite is Pat of Silver Bush and the sequel, Mistress Pat. As with all her other books, Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat is set on Prince Edward Island, where Montgomery herself grew up, and of which she describes its beauty in haunting, memorable words. Pat of Silver Bush chronicles the life of a little girl named Pat who loves her home and family and P.E. Island greatly and could never imagine leaving it. She especially loves the farm on which she grows up, Silver Bush, the one place where that horrible, fearful thing "change" seems never to occur. But change does happen, from her first day in school to the arrival of a new baby sister, and keeps coming as she grows up, but with change there is also beauty and new people to love. I found Pat's story moving and beautiful and so sweet, the two books about her life are definitely two of the books in life which I can never get tired of reading over and over again.

6) Belgarath the Sorcerer by David and Leigh Eddings.
This is actually the follow-up to the Belgariad and Malloreon trilogies. It's a huge thick block of a book(which is good! because that means: more to read!), and chronicles the life of the immortal sorcerer Belgarath. It's terribly funny, at times I was just hooting and rolling with laughter, and there are some sad bits in it too, but sad bits are what makes a good story good, you know ;)
I prefer Belgarath the Sorcerer to the follow-up, Polgara the Sorceress, the second thick book which is about his daughter, the sorceress Polgara. Don't get me wrong, I love Polgara, she's really cool, but Belgarath's story is so much more compelling, probably because a lot of Polgara's story had also already been told in Belgarath's book. You should read the trilogies first, to make some sense out of some of the bits in the Belgarad, but that should be no problem at all because those other books are really good as well. :)

7) Geisha by Liza Dalby.
This is a kind of anthropological autobiography written by Liza Dalby, the only American woman ever to become a geisha. Back in the 1970s, Dalby had lived in Kyoto in the Pontocho geisha quarters while she studied geisha as part of her college thesis. The geisha had then invited Dalby to be a geisha as well to really get into the geisha experience for her thesis. This book covers a great deal on geishas, such as their history, the different kinds of geishas such as country geisha and city geisha, their rituals and ceremonies, their relationships with each other, men, and wives, and so on, which makes a really interesting read for anyone who wants to know all about geisha. I also like several of the evocative descriptions of Japan and the places that Dalby has written. Some of the reviewers on amazon.com said they found Dalby to be a little self-centred and too full of herself. Well, perhaps, but I found the book to be a really satisfyingly good read. Another reader said she found Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha struck her as a far more truer experience of a geisha's. I wonder how she figured that out, when Dalby's book was based on true experiences while Golden's was based on interviews with a geisha who later sued him for dishonesty. Maybe because it suited the reader (who probably has never met a geisha in her life)'s sense of what a geisha should be? Anyway, I've read Golden's book and it's a nice book too, but I prefer Dalby's. The book also gives you a view on traditional Japanese cultures and traditions and some of the country's history as well.

8) The Stone of Heaven by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark.
This is a sort of historical book in which journalists Levy and Scott-Clark trace the history of the jade. The amount of research which they have compiled for this book is amazing, with richly-woven, life-compelling stories of the rich, famous people in history who are obsessed with the jade stone (including millionaires like Sir Victor Sassoon, heiress Barbara Hutton, the Dowager Empress Cixi of China, and heiress Madame Wellington Koo), the stories of great excess and of love lost in which jade played a great role, the topple of kings and great dynasties and the sufferings of millions because of the beautiful green stone known as jade are amazing to read about. The tale takes place everywhere, from the imperial courts of China to Shanghai's 1930s gangster-land to London auction houses to the desperate jade-mining town of Hpakant that is filled with dying drug addicts. It's a great story and I definitely recommend it to everyone.

9) The Famished Road by Ben Okri.
This is one hell of an awesome book. As those of you who have been following this blog knows, it was the Porn Star recommended it to me. The story is a bit hard to get into at the beginning, but as you continue reading, you get drawn in further and further into the story. It's a story about Azaro, a spirit child. Spirit children are not supposed to live long in this world but Azaro decides to stay "to make happy the bruised face of the woman who would become my mother." But life isn't easy for Azaro and his parents, who are poor and live in a ghetto, especially with Azaro's spirit companions attempting to trick him into dying so he would return to the afterlife with them. There are all sorts of other characters, including a photographer and a captivating woman in charge of a palm-wine bar named Madame Koto. Because Azaro is a spirit child, he sees many things which other people cannot see, and so encounters and sees some of the most extraordinary things ever. In the middle of his wanderings and his visions, there are also occurences from the real world - the poverty which his mother and father are struggling to get through, the influence of politics in their lives, especially from the Party of the Rich who bully where they cannot influence, and their greedy landlord. It's a very beautiful book. At the back of the book is a line that says something like "Ben Okri is incapable of writing a single boring sentence" and I have to agree with that. Okri also won the 1991 Booker Prize for fiction for this book.

10) Timeline by Michael Crichton.
The same guy who wrote Jurassic Park and Congo. Congo was great, and his other book, The Great Train Robbery, was also fab. Timeline is one of my favourites though. It's about a group of historians working on a ruined French castle who are sent back in time to the very same spot they were excavating. There's a boy who turns out to be a girl, the usual bad guy, as well as the fact that they have a time limit to getting back and the quantum machine which transported them all to 17th century France has also been blown up. It's a fast-paced good adventure read.

There are tons of other good books that I can think of, but I'll save them all for more top ten book lists. In the meantime, happy reading!