My Job

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Carmen Chua

Ohai, tis’ a picture of me eating a cup of yogurt at work.

Yes, I’m working right now. I’m an intern for Nuffnang, Asia Pacific’s leading blog advertising agency. Sorry, just had to add that in 😛

I’ve been working here for almost a month now and to be honest, I really enjoy my job. Even though I’m an intern and interns hardly get paid, the hours are long, workload can be heavy, it’s so emotionally fulfilling. I guess it’s mostly because of my interest in bloggers. So all’s good, I love my job and all the perks it gives 🙂 Ask me about it & I’ll make you jeles 😛

Anyway, like I said, my job keeps me very busy, and whenever I tell myself to blog at night, I eventually get too tired to do so. So, this is basically a short update to tell everyone I’m still around! 🙂

Have a great weekend! I know I’ll be, because I’ll be heading up to Penang for some awesome bonding & food! ❤

A Story of Six Girls

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Carmen Chua

Guess where were we? 🙂

Rockafella Street Boys (I think)

Elmo in a bus!

Steps of the MET, New York :p

Puss in Boots *meow

Far Far Away

Dinosaurs (My captions are obviously very creative)

Egyptian land & a very handsome dude. no seriously, he was so good looking.

Random yellow car (only because we couldn’t take a pic with the real Transformer)

Slutty Betty Boop

penguins *boring documentary tone

Hippopotamus

Castle!! (ok i’m excited because i’m a sucker for castles)

hunky men from WaterWorld

Slutty Marilyn

with Ernie. I hate this pic of me btw, because I look like a freaking pear.

Po from kungfu panda! ❤

friendly neighbourhood Frankie

blur shot, but the lights are pretty! :p

In case you haven’t figured out where we went, it’s Universal Studios Singapore :p Took a short trip down there with Ai, Vic, Jiez, Suyin & Lup! This was our second day of the trip, and we spent 12 whole hours in the theme park. Attractions I would recommend: Transformers ride, Mummy ride, Battlestar Galactica, WaterWorld show. We had a firework show that night and it was so pretty, so check whether they have it on the day you go!

obligatory pic with the globe!

That wraps up our day at USS. I may or may not blog about the rest of our trip :p Have a good one ya’ll!

Broken up

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Carmen Chua

This is a very emotional post. If you hate this kind of thing, scoot away.

It’s been what, 3 days? And to think I was naive enough to believe we were going to grow up together and get married and have a daughter named Sophie?

So someone asked, you’re handling this quite well aren’t you? I gave a small smile but in actual fact, I’m not handling this well at all. I’d like to think I hide my emotions very well, that is all. Every time I want to say how much this is killing me, I stop myself. Honestly, I don’t like people comforting me about this at all. If anything, it makes me feel worse. I prefer to act all nonchalant, like this is nothing at all. I try to hang out with people as much as possible so I stop thinking, stop hurting. This pain hits the hardest at night. I can hardly sleep. I close my eyes and all I see is us, in your car and you uttering what possibly could be the most painful three words I have ever heard in my life.

How could you? You’re such a coward. You see our problems and you run away. sometimes I think you’re too rational for your own good. You think too much, you overanalyse, and you put all these thoughts way above me. I hate you so much for doing this to me. I’m so broken now I don’t even know how to put back the pieces. I’m so bitter that if someone handed me a picture of us, I will rip and shred it and burn it to pieces.

I don’t think I have the capacity to ever forgive you, and I don’t know if I can find it in me to ever feel something for someone ever again. Not the way I felt about you, anyway. You were perfect to me, all I wanted and I sincerely thought you know what, this is THE guy. And as I write this, stupid tears have started welling in my eyes. I detest how WEAK I am. I wake up every morning and it hits me freshly again. We’re not together anymore. You dumped me because you had no faith in us at all. All those sweet things about our future you told me before? Were they all lies? Did you even think before you said them?

I’m glad I threw your letter in the drain. I can already predict what you’d say anyway. A flurry of apologies, how much you still love me and how you don’t want to do this but you have no choice, shitloads of excuses about why you’re doing this, mostly revolving around your religion and your family. I never thought you could be this cruel at all.

I refuse to remain friends with you. I don’t want to talk to you, to see you ever again, to hear your voice. Because I know that if I do, the same heart-stabbing pain will occur again. Even when the pain numbs and subsides, I will always remember you as my worst memory and how I got burnt, badly. Hate is a strong word, and that’s exactly why I’m saying this. I hate you.

10 Step Guide to Krabi

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Carmen Chua

Hi guys! Over the course of two weeks, much has happened and it’s been mainly good things 🙂 The first and most obvious one is the end of A-Levels! *kneels down and cries out of joy* Then came Prom, which to be honest was just alright, but I had an awesome date so all was fine! I did my hair at Number76 for the first time and I wasn’t disappointed! Quite happy when people came up to me saying my hair looks great too :p Just realised I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked to, and I look like a retarded goldfish O_O in most of them, so here are some of the alright ones compiled in a collage. I totally regret not taking a back view of my hair, because that’s obviously the nicest part with the braids and all 😥

But anyway, back to the topic of today’s post, I just came back from a college class trip to Krabi, Thailand and I have to say, it’s a very beautiful place. Krabi itself isn’t an island, but it’s a town by the beach and it’s very tourist-y. Locals in the tourism industry all speak English fairly, so communication isn’t hard. The standard rate for tuktuk (local open air motorcycle taxi) along the Ao Nang stretch is 20 baht per person, so refuse anything more than that. I’m going to do a nice proper picture post illustrating our trip and the pretty cool things we did, so if you ever visit Krabi you’ll get a heads-up before going! 🙂

1. Visit Ao Nang Beach & the stretch of shops across it (like all tourists do)

This is the conventional thing for tourists to do, but that’s not to say it isn’t fun. The beach is not the nicest you’ll ever see, but it has an amazing sunset view and it beats Penang’s beaches anytime. Across the beach is the tourist street, filled with tuktuk drivers, restaurants, bars, massage parlours that may or may not be dodgy and many shops selling swimwear, tshirts with catchy slogans, and rip off souvenirs. Everything can be bargained for, I repeat, EVERYTHING CAN BE CHEAPER AS LONG AS YOU BARGAIN. So put on that thick tourist skin of yours and ask for a ridiculously low price, and slowly work your way from there. This is how I got my bikini for RM25, much thanks to JieSze ❤ #successkid

One of the many shops along the street

I have to warn you guys about something though. There are many restaurants along the street claiming to serve Italian/Western and Thai cuisine, and oddly enough most of these places are manned by Indian servers. We were really famished on the first night and decided to settle for one of these restaurants called La Casa. And goodness, I cannot begin to emphasise how wrong a decision that was. The so-called Thai food was non spicy Tomyum (travesty, I tell you!), Tom Kha that tasted like buburchacha, and everything else was just weird. We should have known it was coming. The Western food however, didn’t taste too bad. Pizzas were alright, not great, but edible at least. So be careful when choosing a restaurant around Ao Nang.

2. Visit islands, but not excessively

Our entourage was booked on a 4 island tour on our second day of the trip. We visited Tup Island, Chicken Island (no chickens sighted), Poda Island and one more I can’t remember. The islands were gorgeous, to say the least. The waters were a clear turquoise, skies were baby blue, sand was soft and fine, rock formations were breathtaking.

Obligatory jump shot on a beautiful island

See what I mean by clear water? :O

The next day, the girls opted to visit Phi Phi Island, while the boys went kayaking. The PhiPhi Island tour was basically just more island visits, and while the bays and beaches were still beautiful, they were too crowded with people. Phi Phi Island attracts tourists from both Krabi and Phuket, and perhaps even other places. Instead of having a serene time relaxing and sunbathing, we were mostly overwhelmed by the congestion. We had a terribly bumpy boat ride as well, to add on to the unpleasantness. To those keen on visiting Phi Phi, I’d say just skip it and go for something else more distinctly Krabi, like the Emerald Pool. But since I went to Phi Phi anyway, I guess the prettiest part of the tour is Pileh Bay, which is a bay enclosed with giant cave-like formations.

Pileh Bay with the girls 🙂

Sooner or later, all these islands will start to look and feel the same, so like I said, don’t island hop excessively. One day should be ideal. 🙂

3. Make friends with the locals

Be it your local tour guide, or your tuktuk driver, or coconut vendors, always be nice and friendly. I think most of the locals are very willing to help with places to eat or see. Tian Xi got our island guide on the first day to introduce the most fantastic place (in the whole of Krabi, I dare say) to have dinner at. On our second night, we met a very nice tuktuk driver by the name of Lek, who made a very cheap arrangement for 19 of us to visit Krabi town the next evening. A few of us stopped by a truck selling cold coconut by the roadside for only 30 baht (RM3 FOR A GIANT COCONUT), and I think because we looked like such happy teenage tourists, the kind lady vendor decided to throw in another coconut for free! See, it pays to be friendly and happy! 🙂

Us being very happy with our 30baht coconuts 😀

4. The Hilltop

So, as I was saying earlier, our island guide introduced us to this place called the Hilltop for dinner. No prizes for guessing its location -.- But yes, the Hilltop is located somewhere along the Ao Nang stretch, on top of a hill! :p I cannot remember the exact location, but just mention the Hilltop to any tuktuk driver or hotel concierge, and I think they’ll know. In my opinion, everyone visiting Krabi should pay this place a visit for dinner! Why, you ask? The Hilltop is a posh restaurant that serves great and spicy Thai food (unlike the disgusting dinner we had the first night), it has an open bar with great music, and food is considered very reasonably priced for that kind of ambiance (roughly 200-300 baht or RM20-30 per person). But no, that’s not the best part yet.

View from the Hilltop

THIS is the amazing view you get when you dine at the Hilltop. Geez, my pictures taken with an iPad doesn’t even do it justice. It is by far the best sunset view I have ever witnessed in my life. We had so much fun taking pictures and immersing ourselves in the gorgeous setting horizon. The Hilltop would make a splendid proposal place, but too bad I was with my classmates and not my boyfriend :p

Amazing view & amazing company 🙂

5. Be sure to try out some authentic Thai street food

The best sinful indulgence I found in Krabi has to be the Thai pancakes. It is somewhat similar to our local roti canai, but crispier and with a Thai twist (hint: loaded with condensed milk). There are plenty of vendors selling this along the street for a mere 20-30 baht and I’m sure some are better than others, but the ones I had were so good I could cry. There are plenty of flavours to choose from – mango, banana, egg, cheese, nutella etc. I tried out mango and banana, and mango wins! There’s just something about Thai mangoes ❤ there are loads of other things you should give a try too. Skewered fishes, pad thai, tomyum. This is real Thai food, not some crappy Italian – Thai fusion crap. *bitter

Clockwise from left: 30baht coconuts, Mango pancakes, green curry & tom yum (both from the Hilltop)

6. Pay a visit to Krabi Town’s Weekend Night Market

This is probably one of the lesser known tourist attractions and perhaps more for the locals. It’s kind of like a Thai version of our pasar malam, and it’s very lively and lit up with locals performing singing and dancing. The night market is located in Krabi town, not near the beach area. As I mentioned earlier, we were lucky enough to meet the best tuktuk driver in the world. He got 3 other friends plus himself to ferry all nineteen of us from the beach to the town (about a 30 minutes drive) for only 700baht per tuktuk. That means each person pays about RM15 to and fro from town. Pretty decent leh! Taking a taxi would cost easily 500baht per person. Lek (the driver) even showed us around town and taught us how to navigate about the market. Here’s to hoping you find Lek in Krabi as well 😉

Sights & Sounds of the night market

There is plenty to see, to eat and to buy at the market. Food here may be a hit or miss, depending on your taste I guess. We had some awesome coconut based puffs and mango sticky rice. Pad Thai was average. There was a stall selling some orange juice and many locals were buying it so we got one as well, but it tasted so weird and artificial. Almost cancerous, really. Oh, a very random pleasant surprise happened while we were eating! We were sitting down enjoying our various snacks and watching a bboy performance by young Thai kids. The Thai kids were beyond cute so we being tourists started to cheer super loudly, clapping and shouting and making a fool out of ourselves. Then all of a sudden two guys with a camera and props approached us for an interview. We were all like ‘oooohhhh okay!!’ Turns out they were from KBS (some Korean channel) and they gave Tian Xi and I a solo interview! Yay I’m going to have 2 seconds of fame on Korean tv! I’m going to be famous! 😀 If you look at the top right hand of the collage above, you can see Tian Xi being interviewed, like a boss. Ngehehe.

Overall, I thought the market is a good place to visit, to kind of just experience Thai culture and food. There’s also some cheap shopping around, ie. I bought earrings for RM2 a pair and sunnies for RM7.50. The market is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, so check around with the locals before you go.

7. Go on a Tuk Tuk ride!

Truthfully, Ao Nang beach isn’t very long nor is it a very tiring walk, but a tuktuk ride is just one of those novelty adventures everyone should try out in Krabi. In fact, I think Tuktuk’s are only available in Thailand. For a mere 20 baht, you can command the driver to drive you anywhere along the stretch of beach and just enjoy the wind in your hair. 🙂

Tuk tuk ride to town!

8. Be generous with sunblock

The Thai sun can be outrageously harsh, so get a full bottle of SPF50 sunblock and apply everywhere possible! I applied sunblock all over every 2 hours or so while island hopping, and I still came home tanner. I even burnt somewhere I thought could never be burnt – my scalp fml. It hurt for days whenever I tried shampooing my hair. My dear friend Kah Jo is an even smarter boy. I quote him, ‘real men don’t use sunblock’. This is what happened to him. FHL.

HAHAHAHA LOBSTER

9. Get a Good Hotel

Good hotels can be found easily by researching using Google. Check out TripAdvisor for ratings and of course, live within your means. We stayed at Srisuksant Hotel, roughly a 3 star hotel. Location wise, it wasn’t superb as it’s not facing Ao Nang Beach directly and it takes a bit of walking to the main tourist area. But our hotel rooms were very good for a 3 star hotel. The place was clean, tidy and reception was helpful 🙂 Good stay overall!

pool antics :p

10. No Harm Acting Like A Bunch of Tourists 🙂

If there’s anything this trip has taught me in my lifelong quest to be a better traveller, it is to be less shy and more outgoing. This is how I ended up taking pictures with blogger Cindy of teycindy.com, whom we met at the airport and all my guy friends (who previously did not know her at all) went gaga over her.

Cindy & us hehehe

And next is possibly the most spontaneous daredevil thing I have ever done in my life. While we (the girls) were on Phi Phi Island, tired and kind of bored out of our wits, this bunch of very eligible Korean hunks appeared out of nowhere. I could have sworn Suyin was drooling on the spot. :p Long story short, after LupYee pulled a solo stunt, we braved ourselves and asked for another picture with all of them. Teehee. 🙂

Krabi has been such an amazing place. The pristine beaches, the magnificent sunsets, the reassuring company I went with 🙂 These memories will last for a long, long time.Til then, xx.

p.s. if there’s anything you’d like to ask about Krabi, feel free to drop a comment! 🙂

p.p.s. photos are mostly stolen from Lup Yee, Shen Chien, & Jie Sze’s instagram, so credits to them!

Distillation

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Carmen Chua

Hello!

Once again, I am on a non-sleeping agenda. I was studying chemistry, but chemistry for 10 hours is pretty dreadful. My energy and motivation levels are bordering on zero, so I decided to give myself a breather. So here I am, blogging! 😀 and to motivate myself to continue studying after this, I shall blog about all the things I have in store for myself after the end of A Levels (freedom is so near yet so far T_T)

1. Attend my college prom! This is one day after my exams have ended. I may decide to pamper myself like crazy, just because I feel like I deserve it! 😀 manicures, pedicures, hair treatment & styling, and maybe I’ll throw in a massage for myself too. When details about prom was first announced about a month ago, I thought to myself, ‘aiya it’s just college prom. One of those obligatory non-eventful events that people attend for the sake of attending. Fine, I’ll trudge along.’ However, now I find myself totally pumped up and excited for prom! Maybe it’s because of relative comparison. Prom may not be the most happening thing in the world, but it certainly is a thousand times better than examinations. Also, I’m going with an amazing partner, found my dress (which i still adore) sitting together with my best friends in college, having a pre-prom make up session with my girls… What more can I ask for? 🙂

2. Class trip to Krabi
We’re flying off the very next day after prom (so can you imagine how hectic it’ll be, with the prom prep and trip packing???) I absolutely can’t wait to have four EPIC days of sun and sea and just plain unadulterated teenage fun with my awesome classmates! We’re gonna scale caves and hike hills and snorkel with fishes and kayak in the ocean and…. Ah! I’m so grateful to be in the class I’m in, really. People usually don’t associate the words intelligent and fun much, but that’a exactly what my class is. I know that we’re going to have the best time of our lives in Krabi, so this is why I want my exams to end SO BAD. I also want to buy a bikini 😀

3. Girls’ trip to Singapore
I personally find Singapore a very expensive place to travel to, mainly because of the currency conversion and the ludicrous hotel rates. So yayyyy we’re going to stay at Ai Lin’s relative’s place (thanks Ai!) and I don’t have to spend a single cent on accommodation! So that means more money for the other stuff like shopping (!!!), Universal Studios Singapore and other touristy things. Also, it’s going to be a great last bonding session for the girls in my class before we go off to university all around the world!

4. Working!
I’m going to intern somewhere that I’ve heard so much about and have always wanted to apply to, so I plucked up some courage and send in an application last month, went for an interview and yay I got it! *dances around* I still have some very heavy considerations to make about whether I should pursue a gap year or not, so yes I will think very hard and long about it once exams are over. But regardless of my decision, I’m still going to go ahead with my internship because the company deals with things that I am genuinely interested in and passionate about. Also, I think working there will be a whole lot of fun and a great learning experience! 🙂 can’t wait!!!

5. Cooking and Baking
You know, just in case I don’t go to university…. NO I’M JUST KIDDING 😀 but yes, I really want to learn to cook and bake more. Learn the more complicated dishes and techniques (I really need a food processor), become like an amateur MasterChef, think of fancy names for my creations, and force Ian to eat every single hand-made catastrophe 😀 so much fun!

6. Become a spineless couch potato
Game of Thrones, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, Mad Men, Sherlock, 90210. Come to mummy.

7. Spend more time with my loved ones
My family, my girls, Ian (before he goes back to Cambridge and leaves me all by myself). A Levels has kept me so busy and so caught up that I just haven’t had a nice, relaxed, stress-free good time with the people I care about. I will make amends once this dreaded exam is over 🙂

Til then 🙂

Learning

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Carmen Chua

It is 8.36am as I type this, and I know what you must be thinking. What sane person blogs at eight in the morning? All it takes is a cup of tea from the Taiwanese tea joint too close to my house, and a sleepless night is guaranteed. Great fun, I assure you! I’m also training myself to be less reliant on air-conditioning for a good night’s sleep. If it’s any indication, I failed – miserably, may I add, and this has only been the second day. So yes, I’m still surviving now, but check back with me in about 2 hours alright.

While my brain and body will certainly suffer from this caffeine fuelled ordeal later today, I can’t say these few hours have been exactly bad. Oddly enough, I mustered up enough resilience and determination to drag myself off the bed, take a shower and head down to the kitchen. This was 4.30am. I continued reading Physics from where I left off previously, with only the quiet whirring of the ceiling fan and the flickering wings of some half-dead insect as company.

Physics, physics. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned about my love-hate relationship with the subject. The love only usually surfaces when I actually understand what I’m doing, while the hate… Let’s just say it’s there all the time, only masked or hidden by the sheer excitement of answering a question correctly. I have, however, come to realise that I do enjoy learning. I enjoy learning, I enjoy being taught, I enjoy understanding. These are the joys of a student, I feel. And I believe I will enjoy education and being educated so much more, if its purpose was to merely fulfill my curiousities of the world rather than say, to get a good grade for an exam.

The essence of learning is so that we find solutions to our questions, and while this is a seemingly ‘duh’ statement, I have to constantly remind myself about this. Why is this so? Perhaps it is because of the Malaysian education system, which promotes the digestion and regurtitation of facts (truth be told, after 11 years, this has become a comfortable routine for me). To learn, is to firstly, ask. Ask your own questions, then go out of the way to find an answer. If one answer doesn’t satisfy you (and you know it doesn’t), don’t give yourself excuses. Find another answer, and another, and another, until you find THE answer.

In my daily life, you will never see me sing praises about studying. Never. Because like what I said, conventional learning these days is limited to studying a set amount of textbooks, and having a competition to see whose better. But I really do enjoy the little moments. Moments that no one in an exam hall will ever have the chance of witnessing. Like that almost ecstatic high I reached last night when I finally understood why the speed of a conductor has to increase to accommodate the decrease in the change of magnetic flux, so as to maintain a constant emf. Nevermind the fact that this piece of information comes for a paper that I have to resit for, because I got a B last term. Learning is not and should not be a competition, but rather, a personal experience between you, and what this amazing universe has to offer.

So many people, myself included, often miss this point. And what a tragedy that is.

I Have Nothing

Standard | Posted on May 26, 2012 by Carmen Chua

The title of this post isn’t even relevant to what I’m going to talk about today, so ya don’t worry I’m not depressed or anything (yet). Hahaha it’s a song by the late Whitney Houston and covered by thousands of people before, but I think nothing can beat the original. Yo, it’s Whitney! Anyway, I caught an episode of Glee where Kurt was singing it, and the very same week Jessica Sanchez sang it in the Idol finale as well! She didn’t win (yes, I am a little bummed) but she got the song stuck in my head the entire week! Seriously, I sing it in the shower, when I’m studying or when I’m trying to go to bed but I’m too awake to. Albeit 10 keys off. LOL shareeee my lifeeee, take me for whoooo I ammm.

Ok I have to stop. (but please YouTube the song if you haven’t already heard it yet)

Cakes at our lunch place today 🙂

Anyway today I gave myself a break from my studies. I wouldn’t say it was a well deserved break, but it was definitely a well utilised one :p Let’s see, I woke up at 1pm. It’s been so long since I last woke up at 1pm, and I’ll have you know that I AM THE BIGGEST SLEEPER AROUND. Ask any of my friends. LOL so yes, I had a very satisfactory sleep. 🙂 my dad and I headed to Kota Damansara for lunch and while we were making rounds looking for a parking space, something caught my eye. It was love at first sight. I don’t even know how to explain this to you (because I don’t want anyone to think I’m crazy) but you absolutely recognise the moment when you see a beautiful dress and your heart and mind whispers to you, “you must have it!” Oh my goodness, even I think I’m crazy. It’s fine, go ahead and judge me! Anyway so like i was saying, after lunch I begged my dad to let me check out the dress. I needed a proper dress for prom this coming June anyway so this may just be it!

So I went up to the boutique, told the sales assistant I saw the most gorgeous dress on the mannequin from the roadside, and asked to try it on. When I put it on, I was almost in tears. This is MY DRESS. It fit every corner and curve like a glove. Ok la no it didn’t, in fact I had to get it altered slightly at the bust (no boobs mah) and the length of the skirt (not tall enough fml). But otherwise all was good! I think I made my decision to buy the dress in less than 15 minutes, which in female terms is super duper fast leh. I don’t have the dress with me now because it’s being altered, but I really hope this wasn’t an impulse buy, or it won’t look as nice as I thought it was anymore. Because this happens all the time 😦 but in that moment, I absolutely loved the dress! I’m not going to post a picture of my dress because I don’t want my prom date to see the dress and I’m well aware that he reads my blog periodically. So no, if you’re reading this, you’ll just have to wait 😉

All I can say is, the dress is nothing like what I had in mind. First of all, I wanted a short dress, because I had a long dress for last year’s prom and I wanted something new this time round. Also cos I thought long dresses for prom were a bit overrated, and you will only wear it once before it gets thrown into your closet and never see the light of day ever again. This is the true story of my old prom dress, poor thing. Turns out I got myself a long dress again. -.- Second, I was searching for something green in colour, and not just any green, but the deep Jaguar green. It’s my prom date’s favourite colour so I thought I’ll be the best partner ever by coordinating my dress colour with his ideal colour. But no, I failed LOL but you know, when a dress is calling you, you cannot say no. It’s against the law of attraction of the universe, equivalent to doom on you and your next 3 generations to come, resulting in ugly and only ugly dresses for all the girls in your future family.

I happened to try on a lilac dress at the same shop as well, which I thought was really pretty as well, but looked more like a wedding/bridesmaids gown than a prom dress so I chose the former dress. Then suddenly Huili called me saying she’s looking for a prom dress also, so I told her where I got mine and asked her to check it out also! Haha she went and try on the lilac piece, but I guess it didn’t suit her so she didn’t get it. But yes, she did find her dream dress also! Omg I’m so happy for her because I understand the feeling! <;3 so yay, we have one less burden on our shoulders for prom preparation! I ended my day by going to the movies with my dad and brother. We watched Dark Shadows, a comedic horror collaboration by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. I love Johnny Depp and his eccentric roles, so yeah, it’s a rather fun watch! The Asian in me felt some guilt pinching at my conscience for not doing anything productive study wise, so when I got home I did some math questions. Tomorrow I’ll start working on my Mechanics! My goodness, I just realised how utterly bimbotic this post has been. My apologies, I can’t seem to churn out any deep, meaningful thoughts during exams period. 😦 goodnight.

My favourite place on earth 🙂

College

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Carmen Chua

Hello! I know I haven’t blogged in a really long time, but forgive me, exams are and should be a bigger priority because I am Asian and. Well that’s the only reason actually. :p There have been somethings and nothings that happened in this absence, among them the end of college, a string of scholarship interviews, mundane study break, the arrival of my new iPad Debussy… Yeah that’s about all that’s happened lately. What did I tell you? A Levels will rob your soul, don’t take it. I feel like blogging about my thoughts on A-Levels and my subject combination, but I’ll make a mental note to do it some other day, perhaps after my exams. 🙂

Today i want to talk about the 1.5 years of college and the whole college life experience. College may sound like a big deal to secondary school leavers, and perhaps it would be for people taking other pre-u courses, but in my honest opinion, apart from getting rid of the school uniforms and perhaps having a driver’s license, college hasn’t been much different from high school. I still wake up at 7am in the morning to haul my butt to school, eat (overpriced) zhap fan over 20 minute lunch breaks, study last minute like a maniac before exams. Oh, I forgot to mention that in high school, there was more time to take part in societies and activities and go to concerts and other fun student stuff. In A-Levels, it’s study or DIE. I consider myself very fortunate though, because I’ve had the opportunity of being taught by awesome lecturers so classes are very bearable. I remember sleeping in almost all my classes in high school with Chen Lynn, so yes, that’s one plus point in college. :p

In college, you definitely meet new people and mix around with a new bunch. At the start of my course, everyone will appear more sociable and chatty and you make loads of new acquaintances, some of which may forge into greater friendships and most just dwindle to mere hi-bye greetings. For some reason, I never really got close with many of my classmates until mid of last year. I don’t have any solid clue on why that happened, but according to Eu Jin I was still dating Kz then and didn’t care about my classmates. Which I wholeheartedly disagree with. It just so happened that I got myself out of the relationship and at the same time started bonding with my classmates. So yeah, I’ve met a whole bunch of great people from my class. I got placed in the class with the most intelligent whiz kids ever (much to my disadvantage fml), from kids who make Cambridge offers look like an easy piece of cake to students who teach my math lecturer something new (in math, of course) as well as an Ivy League boy. These are just SOME examples of the people I sit in class with every day. Oddly enough, the people in my class are a fun bunch at the same time. Fun doesn’t necessarily come from alcohol or loud music or dancing, as the stereotype often depicts. We have our own share of fun from class trips (to Redang last June, and to Krabi this June :p ), the occasional laser tag or movie outing, gatherings, or just plain joke-sharing or insult sessions.

I’m glad to have gotten along comfortably with a good number of my classmates over the course of these 1.5 years. I may not be as close to them as I am to my best friend bunch from high school, but good ties and friendships have been formed, and I truly appreciate that. Oh gosh, I’m such a cheese. But I love my classmates lah, every single one of them ❤ and I hope that when I look back on this post in the near future, I’ll still be in contact with this awesome bunch of people. Now, for some pictures 🙂

For the last week of college, the girls in my class decided to coordinate our dressing to suit the occasion. For example, Monday was Blue Day. Don’t ask me why.

Ze girls!

Wednesday was Dress Day! 🙂

More girls! 😀

Thursday was A-Levels Hoodie day! Basically, our HELP Academy student council manufactured a hoodie for us students to purchase. It’s turning into one of my favourite things to wear lately. It’s not incredibly stylish or fashionable but it’s so comfortable I feel like a marshmallow in it.

Ai Lin & Jie Sze 🙂 Nevermind that I look horrendous here.

Fluffy & I ! 🙂

And finally, Friday was our very last class, officially anyway, because we had an extra class the following Tuesday -.- Our last lecture was by Mr Lim, our Physics lecturer, whom I can safely say has been the most inspirational example of a teacher, albeit using odd psychological taunts and insults. My resentment for Physics has decreased with time and Mr Lim lessons too, though I must admit there are bits and pieces left. Magnetic fields 😡 The entire class decided to suit up for the last day of college. I picked a floral dress, a black blazer from my Interact Club days in high school, and a pair of really old chord heels. After class and a very long photo (camwhoring) session, most of us headed to Plan B at Bangsar Village for brunch. Food was quite decent 🙂 I had for myself an eggplant & feta salad, which was yummy enough for me. I should go back soon to sample their range of bread and other things on the menu!

Class photo with Mr Lim! 🙂 hahaha quite funny how all the girls are clustered at one side.

Top: Candid unprepared moment at Plan B
Bottom: Girls with Mr Lim!

Lup & I look happy. Suyin looks surprised! :p

Haha funny picture! Ok no one’s laughing 😦

Clockwise: Suyin, Victoria, JieSze, MacWai! Part of the many homies in class 🙂

Top: Girls in formal 🙂
Bottom: My very own Big Bang Theory boys

Haha I have to write a little bit of the boys above because I never want to forget them. To be honest, I don’t know exactly how I got so close to them. People who watch the Big Bang Theory will get this. I’m Penny, Ejong is Leonard, Tian Xi is Sheldon, Fluffy is Raj (for his inability to talk to girls. True story), Jo is Howard. Oddly enough, the characters are all somewhat fitting. And just like that, I’m this dumb blonde-ish girl who bears with all the nonsense that these four boys create everyday. I watch them argue about physics, solve their emotional problems, put up with their wacky nonsense. Random fact: Tian Xi goes crazy every time he sits in my car. If I had a tranquilizer dart with me I would use it every single time. Despite all that, we’re misfits who form a perfectly great gang and they’re all very good guys. Girls, this is your cue. You can get their numbers from me anytime! (Except for Tian Xi, he’s already taken and getting married to Zhi Ling soon. Sorry girls! :p )

Proper brunch photo to end this post! 🙂

As of right now, it’s two more days to my first paper! Going to start with a Unit 6 Physics paper, and I’m fairly well prepared. But I’ve learned that overconfidence can kill, so I’ll continue studying tomorrow. Wish me luck if you’re reading this! 🙂 Can’t wait for exams to be over, then I’ll be reunited with Ian and we will conquer the world together!

My Crap Luck

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Carmen Chua

My friend Rachel used to tell me all the time that she does not believe in luck. Back in high school, whenever we had major exams and we were super kanchiong and burying our heads in books and finally when the teacher called for us to put our bags outside, ya then we would start saying ‘Oh Good Luck! ^_^’ But yeah, Rachel always just said ‘all the best’. Aiya why I tell grandmother story. The point is –> I CANNOT BELIEVE MY CRAPPY LUCK. And there are times when I really just blame it on luck, because I cannot blame God right. So maybe the odds just weren’t in my favour.

This is what happened. My piano exam is this Friday at 2.45pm and I knew this way beforehand already. Sounds boring right? NO, DENG DENG DENG. Axiata had to schedule a scholarship assessment on the very same day, from 8am to 6pm. That’s 10 hours! I really wonder what and how they plan on assessing us. Maybe they’d throw us in a Hunger Games arena and let us battle it out and the last person standing gets the scholarship. But anyway, obviously I wanted a shot at the scholarship AND to pass my Grade 8 (last grade ok!!!). First thing I did when I woke up this morning was to call up Axiata and ask if the assessment was really 10 hours long, and if there was a lunch break in between where I could sneak off to play the piano. Alas, Axiata guy was too nice. He was SO POLITE but at the same time he was basically telling me they can’t do much, I have to choose between the scholarship or my piano. I wished he was meaner or something so that’d make my decision so much easier, but no he had to be so calm and rational about it. ~T_T~ I suspect they picked up psychology studies as part of their job scope, so sheepish people like me will just accept anything they say as long as they say it nicely.

So yes, I’m forced to make a decision but until now I still cannot. My plan now is just to be extremely gungho and be super impressive from 8am to 1pm at the interview and then run off to my exam. Then come back and just BLOW THEIR MINDS WITH MY OUTSTANDING AWESOMENESS. Sigh this isn’t going to work is it? okay.jpg My second best bet is to go to the education ministry tomorrow and go down on my knees begging them to change my exam date. 😦 so ya, my luck cannot get any worse than this. It better not. T_T

—-

But I shall keep all the negativity away and swing with the positivity because people say thoughts become things. Instead I shall just post pictures from a dinner that was on Jo a few weeks back. The initial bet was if he got into Cambridge, dinner will be on him ^_^ so yeah, FREE DINNER. It was a good night (despite a physics test the next day) with good food and great company! So yes. I think I only have two pictures LOL

WHY OH WHY DID I JUST DECIDE TO POST FOOD PICTURES??? Dinner was at Pasta Zanmai @ Tropicana City Mall btw. Ok lah I tell everybody. I’m on a diet (again). Yes from far away, I can just hear some people say AGAIN??? Sigh. I hate the fact that I’m over 50kg now. To be exact, I’m around 51kg the last time I weighed. I WAS 45 IN FORM THREE. How did this happen I do not know. Determined this time (yes all my other diet plans failed), I signed up for a gym membership (also, because it makes me feel so adult). I also decided to not touch rice anymore until I’m 45kg again. So status update: Dieting is so terrible. Seriously. I’m a person who loves my rice. And meat. And milk and cream and cakes and dessert. And from last week until now, I basically eat a bowl of slimming cereal with low fat milk (tastes like water) for breakfast, vegetables for lunch, maybe an apple if I remember, and more vegetables for dinner. I substitute rice with oats instead, but it tastes like baby food, only worse. If I had no choice but to eat out (like for TianXi’s birthday dinner last Saturday) I’ll probably take fish. I promise myself if this diet doesn’t work I’ll just go bulimic and vomit everything I eat lah sigh. (Joke! I joke!)

You may be wondering why I’m so self-conscious and why do I feel it is so necessary to conform to society’s notion that thin is beautiful. I’ve been lectured so many times by Yu Li I can even remember her lines. In my honest opinion, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with wanting to conform. In fact, sometimes I get tired of people who diss mainstream options, saying oh we should be unique, we shouldn’t care what other people think, we should live for ourselves and not other people. WRONG. That is a wrong concept to live by. And my reasoning is very simple – you don’t live alone on this planet. You have to get along with the other 7 billion people who share the same living ground as you do. And to get along, you have to be accepted. To be accepted, you have to meet a certain standard. This is why generally (not me ok) people shun a person who is obese, or say full of warts. In fact, even though this sounds very insensitive, I’m going to say that I personally believe better looking people gain more opportunities. Better looking doesn’t only mean what you’re born with, ie. your genes. It can mean the way you dress, the way you talk, how you carry yourself. A better looking person and an average looking person finding a job, better looking person has a higher probability of winning. Unless of course average looking person is really a genius inside, but that’s a whole new topic. I know and understand that the world is superficial, and really, there’s nothing we can do to change it. It’s a psychological thing for all humans to WANT to be accepted by other human beings, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me. Also, hypothetically, if I do get back my old 45kg body, naturally I’d be more confident and happy inside since I’ve achieved my goal. And I believe this happiness will transfer from the inside to the outside also LOL.

Of course, there are instances of people who don’t conform and turn out successful. But honestly, radical changes don’t work all the time. For that one example of a person you see who was a successful rebel, there were probably another 999 who failed. And because they failed you don’t get to see them. Ok abrupt end to this post because my train of thought cannot go on anymore.

Klutz

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Carmen Chua

Yes I am one. A mindless clumsy klutz I mean. People who know me close enough will know that they’ve met the clumsiest person in their lives, and yes it’s me. Though my kind of clumsy isn’t the trip-and-fall-down clumsy or the knock-one-thing-which-causes-a-domino-effect-of-things-falling kind of clumsy. I’m more of the losing things clumsy. And so here is a (definitely shortened) list of things I’ve lost over the years. Do not judge me.

1. My Phone – actually losing phones is quite common nowadays lah. But the story of how I lost it is quite funny. I was on a plane to Redang, phone in my pocket and I was sleeping while my classmates were busy taking unflattering pictures of me asleep.

This is obviously not me.

An hour later, the plane had landed, I was walking out of the airport when I realised the phone wasn’t with me. Talked to the AirAsia staff, they promised to look for my phone on the plane, and I sat on the bus heading to the jetty. Alas, the staff didn’t call back so I thought that was the end of my phone. Guess what? A week later I got my phone back! A kind-hearted man who boarded the next flight back to KL on the same plane called my mum and gave me back my phone! God bless him, and it’s things like this that retains my faith in humanity LOL although to be fair my phone (complete with kinks and scratches) isn’t exactly what people would like to steal. 😀

2. Jason Mraz Live In Malaysia 2009 Concert Ticket – Yes I lost my concert ticket 1 hour before the concert outside the stadium. Go ahead and facepalm right now. I must’ve been holding it in my hands and unknowingly dropped it when I used that very same hand to carry a drink or something. Until today it remains a mystery unsolved. So anyway, in panic attack mode, I frantically went to the counter to get a new ticket. I explained my situation to the ticketing lady and she nicely hooked me up with the only ticket left – the most expensive one 😦 Sigh, poor Form 4 me had to fork up around RM400 inclusive of the ticket I lost and the new ticket I got. Interestingly enough, I still have the ticket stub from back then. Obviously it’s the new ticket I got.

Still an amazing show nevertheless. Mraz is a wonderful entertainer.

3. My Car Keys – in fact, this happened not too long ago. I parked in college as usual, boarded the shuttle bus, went to class. By lunch time, we decided to hop onto Ejong’s car to Village Park. That’s when I realised my cute koala bear keychain holding my car keys wasn’t in my bag anymore. I traced back my steps and searched in every place I had been to that morning but no 😥 Car keys were gone. I got a long lecture from my mother. Anyway, about a week back, I was riding the shuttle bus back to the parking lot when I noticed a familiar keychain hanging on the ignition of the bus. Further inspection showed it was MY KEYCHAIN!!! So obviously I went and asked around about the origins of the keychain but le sigh, keychain is there but keys are nowhere to be found 😦 I wonder why didn’t I ask for the keychain back.

4. My Car – hahahahaha ok lah I didn’t exactly lose my car. But it did disappear after I came back from a dinner at Bangsar. As I stared at the vacant space where my car used to be, a thousand thought were running through my head. ‘Oh my goodness mum is going to slaughter me..’, ‘WHO STOLE MY CAR!!!’, ‘What am I going to do…???’ Luckily Chen’s boyf Ivan was there and he calmly went to ask a guard who was guarding the bank I parked in front of. (At this point I was quite hysterical and wasn’t exactly in a condition fit enough to ask around for help LOLOL) Yeah my car got towed by DBKL. The next day I went all the way to Jinjang, Kepong to the pound and paid RM260 😦 Moral of story: Don’t park illegally in Bangsar. Or anywhere for that matter.

Poor car in the pound 😦

Other than this, I’ve lost things like cameras, clothes, books and all sorts of trinkets. So yes I’m a very bad keeper of things. Things just go missing in my hands, and I can’t help it 😦 Nowadays I don’t even trust myself anymore so I let people keep important things for me. My worst fear is losing my passport out of the country, so I pray it’ll never happen to me ._.