Conkers.

Today I realized:

1. The holidays are ending quick, and so far I have not done anything spectacular like try to finish one item on my list of Things I Want To Do Before I Die, although some things like buy my own team of snowdogs will have to wait.

2. The small bouquet of roses that Dad bought Mum for her birthday still smell nice even though they're wilting. It's so incredible how roses can wilt with such grace- that's what we should all do, age gracefully and NOT USE BOTOX.

3. I am still waiting for Inspiration to hit me like a rock. Though by this time tomorrow if I still don't get inspired I would wish for Inspiration to hit me like a brick house.

4. This holiday I have successfully finished reading The Little Prince and have finally picked up on Gone with the Wind again. Yes I know, it's taking me ages to finish this book- but it has nothing to do with the contents of the book- I've just been ignoring novels for the past few months. 


5. Mum has begun her don't-buy-anymore-clothes-ah-you-have-so-many-clothes-already lecture even though everyone knows a girl can't have too many clothes; and just the other day I intelligently snagged 4 items for only RM54. Feel PROUD. :)


That's all for today.

Servantless American Cooks

WARNING: LONG, (PROBABLY BORING) POST AHEAD.

Just yesterday I watched the movie: Julie and Julia; I found it a wonderful story. :)
As you can see, the plot of the movie is based on two true stories; stories of two women: one named Julia Child, a famous cook and another named Julie Powell.
Basically, this story is focused on two different lives. Julia Child was an American who moved to Paris after marrying a French husband Paul. Julia, a housewife at that time, decided to register herself for a cooking class in order to fill in her spacious every day schedule. Soon, she became a professional and started working as a teacher to teach Americans in Paris how to cook French meals (because all the cookbooks in Paris were in French and the Americans didn't read French) together with her friends Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. These three women then wrote a cook book together entitled Mastering The Art Of French Cooking.
Julie Powell however, was just a typical American who was stuck working in a cubicle day after day, receiving calls and stressfully dealing with the post-syndrome of the 9/11 attack. One day, realizing that she hadn't really achieved any of her goals in life, she decided to master all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering The Art Of French Cooking cook book: all 524 recipes in 365 days. And so her quest starts, where in the midst of it she had a few breakdowns due to the pressure of her self-appointed cooking deadline and the challenge of cooking. She used blogging as a therapeutic reliever, In the end she conquered all of the French cooking recipes, and she even wrote a book about it.
Unfortunately, Julie and Julia never met. Julia considered Julie's project a stunt, and didn't think Julie a serious cook.

What I really like about the movie is Julia Child's optimism. I have no idea how she is in real life, but in the movie Meryl Streep portrayed Julia as a always cheerful and happy woman, loving life and enjoying life's little pleasures. Never once have you seen Julia (in the movie) argue with her husband or lose a temper. She laughs everything off and it's clear that she has believes in solutions to every problem.
It's a nice movie to watch for Christmas. :)

Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night

Here is a movie about food that most people have probably imagined/daydreamed about, and it is great: CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS.

It is funny, touching, creative, imaginative and it doesn't get you thinking that this is the kind of cartoon that doesn't make sense (what with all the food falling out of the sky) because it is that good. So, this is a must watch. :)

It is so good, that I wouldn't mind watching this movie again in 3D.

This movie is adapted from the book of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but instead of food falling from the sky as a result of the invention of a machine by this dude, it's a natural phenomenon. Which is really cool, because imagine raining noodles as a natural cause. And I don't care that this is a picture book for kids, I want to get this book and read it. I call it a classic.

And now I have to go practice my guitar and write down a list of stuff I should be doing instead of spending a whole lot of my time on the internet.

Battle Of The Brains

This has become a habit of mine- blogskin hunting.

But I can't help it, there're so many nice and pretty blogskins out there just waiting for someone to use them. Haha.

Anyway, have been playing Restaurant City on Facebook (though I wouldn't exactly say obsessively) and fooling around on Photobucket.

Just remembered that the only subject that I finished studying is Literature, and I haven't even started on History yet. Yes, I know, I'm so screwed. And I really have to stop saying that and get down on my hands and knees and crawl to my History reference book.

But History is just so....boring and old. Especially Malaysian History. I'd rather World History a whole lot more. I even prefer Add Math and Math over History, and I'm a rather sucky person when it comes to numbers!

Went to Popular today and bought a whole bunch of worksheets to help me get started (like, for real, serious studying) on my studying. I have at least 2 History workbooks so that should get me into the full mood to study this particularly boring subject of mine tomorrow today.

Besides that, I think I'm about 55% prepared for next week's midterms.

Plus I just realised that my post titles stink.

And do I really look like a Singaporean? :)

Pardon any grammar mistakes, I'm just feeling awfully sleepy.

Night.

I Am So Into Cookies Lately

The Secret Of Life, is to fall down seven times and get up eight times.

-- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I am so screwed for my midterms.

Like, really.

There's one week more to the start of exam and let me tell you people, that I haven't studied a BIT. No, not even one onehundreth of a chocolate chip piece on a chocolate cookie.

So you can probably imagine how much of a goner I am for the midterms.

It's not that I'm being a total lazy bumm and am neglecting my studies (okay, maybe a bit) but I spend like half of my time catching up with homework.

So, I DO wish that the teachers would STOP giving us homework and SPARE US, therefore giving us more FREE TIME to study.

Did I mention that I haven't even started studying? No, not even a BIT.

And here I am, blogging about it.

I've FINALLY finished my homework (am very lazy to do Mod Math, I don't think the trainee teacher will mind if I hand it in one day late. She's very nice one laa) and tomorrow I shall bring my History reference book to school and study.

I Rachel Ho, vow, and plegde to STUDY for as long as my eyes can stay open; and I will try (I said try) to keep all distractions (aka going online, watching DVD movies) away from me, and lock myself up in the study room, to study.

I Can't Help It, I Just Love Clothes!

Oh oh I saw this really nice white top hanging on a hanger on the knob of my mom's closet. It's really nice. And I am praying, that mom bought that for me (or my aunt or any singapore relative) from her trip to Singapore last weekend because I doubt mom would ever wear something like that. :)

I am so so tired. Exhausted would be more accurate word.

I just spent half the night yesterday glueing pieces of string together to make out the alphabets for the words 'students choice awards' for the header of the SCA notice board. It took up a LOT of my time, and so PeiShe you had better be really grateful to me. :P

But I'm not going to take a nap, because I don't take afternoon naps. And besides, I have tons of stuff to do (aka walk my dog, do my homework, figure out the lyrics of Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me, STUDY ) and they all pretty much have deadlines.

And I have been reading The Zahir (though not continously. I stopped for some time and picked up reading when I felt like it) for a few months now, and I really have got to finish that book because I want to get started on a new book, because I feel like my English is getting worse by the minute that I'm not reading a book.

And it is.

p/s: I'll bring my camera when I bring my dog out for a walk, just to see if there're any nice pictures I can snap, to post on my blog because- oh, you know why!

A Smile, A Big Hug, and THUMBS UP.

In order not to drive everyone who comes into my blog into clicking the little X red button when they see my originally-super-long-post, I have decided to separate my blogging into two posts today.

And this post is a shout-out to my dear sister, who just turned thirteen yesterday:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHEL. :) ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

She had a pretty normal birthday celebration, but I bet you she had an awesome time in school. I mean, more than half her class signed Happy Birthday on this piece of paper and gave it to her after school! That's like, so sweet! :)

I spent like, the whole afternoon running around performing errands with my mom. I had a haircut, bought my pen and file, fixed my mom's shoes, bought a patchwork-cake for my sister, fixed my spectacles, fixed my mom's spectacles, bought a packet of chewing gum, bought my sister a heart-shaped box filled with Ferrero Roche's and wrapped my sister's birthday present.

Oh yes I got her this book called False Impression by Jeffrey Archer and you really have to check it out. Just by reading the back of the book will drive you insane to rip the plastic-wrapping off and read it immediately!

Oh yes and we stayed at home and watched The Kite Runner, very very nice movie. I want to read the book so badly now (in fact I want to read a lot of books so badly) but my mom lost the book I think.

Oops gotta study now.

I will stop checking my email, it's not going to happen.

A Good Blue Book

I bought 4 classics from Popular on Friday. Yep, 4 classics namely: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice (both by Jane Austen, who is a really awesome writer by the way), A Tale of Two Cities (the original version I think, by Charles Dickens) and Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte).

Finally, I can do some real reading. Not that all the books I've been reading before are fake reading or anything, it's just that I can finally get my hands on some really good classics.

Oh and I've decided to read Sense and Sensibility and present it as my book report in school. I've started, just so you know, and the English is really different from what we're learning nowadays. There're no bombastic words or anything, so the language is really simple, it's just the structure of sentences that makes it a little different to read. :)

But other than that it is a very appealing book. To me anyway.

Oh yes, and there's this missing dog near my house.

His name is Arjun, 10 years old, and he's been missing for 2 months now. He's been sighted quite a lot of times, but his owners can never seem to find him. Yesterday I think it was he who came to my gate sniffing at my dog, but afterwards he ran off. And my mom got this flyer about Arjun this morning and called the owners, and they had a really long chat.

They love their dog very very much, so if you see Arjun, give them a call or something.

Oh yes, and go to their website. www.HelpArjun.com

The Fountain Of Fair Fortune

Aha I've finally finished reading The Chronicles Of Narnia The Tales Of Beedle The Bard by JK Rowling.

I've been reading books in Popular every time I go to guitar class, and so yesterday I picked up the thin book of Beedle The Bard and finished reading every page of it, even the notes by Albus Dumbledore (PS. I am a huge Harry Potter fan, just in case you don't know that).

Oh yes that reminds me, I have to have to get on reading Narnia. And I will, this week. After I finish my homework and go jogging in Kiara Park.

Anyway, today was a very tiring day. Very tiring indeed.

Went to school for class replacement, and when I came home I had to eat and bathe and go out again for my Add Math tuition, which was 2 and a half hours today!

But it wasn't that bad, because I actually understood everything that my tuition teacher was teaching, and I feel that Add Math isn't as hard as everyone says it is. For now.

And now I shall either go read my book or go Youtubing. :)

"You Will Be Old Enough To Start Reading Fairytales Again"

I want the Astro movie package, badly.

Can you believe of all the channels that I have on Astro I don't have the movie package?!

And do you have any idea what is showing on the movie package?

1. Pirates of the Carribean triology!

I mean, its not like I haven't watched the triology before, but it won't hurt to want to watch it again (Jack Sparrow! I mean Johnny Depp. Who can ever get enough of him? He's Johnny Depp!! And of course Orlando Bloom)! And I would've watched my POTC on my dvd player but then unfortunately both my dvd players are screwed.

2. Escape from Huang Shi

Oh wait, that's already over. Darn.

3. Hairspray

Oh wait, that's over too! You know, Daddy, is it too much to ask for a movie package?!

4. Surf's Up

I've watched that cartoon already. But you know, the baby penguins are cute! So so so so SO cuddly.

Oh oh, and did I mention that I am into Narnia right now?

Like, right into Narnia?

And though it may be childish (CS Lewis wrote it for kids, sillies) I love it. And call me crazy but at least I'm doing some reading this holiday.

My favourite reading spot: My grandfather's old couch that he passed it down to my mom. :)

Especially To Mel: A Tribute To Taking Care Of Our Books

My sister just bought The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, part 2 of the LOTR triology. And so we dug up my many-year confiscicated part 1 book from the bunk of my mom's car. And what we saw was this slightly battered, yellow-paged modern classic novel. And it even had an obvious line at the spine of the book (which is obviously my doing many years ago when I was just a little girl).

!!!!!

I am going to prioritize taking care of this book (and maybe Harry Potter 4 as well), not only because this book is by JRR TOLKIEN, but also because I feel so bad for torturing my poor book.

If Mel were here she would go for a big "AIYAAA" and probably give me a good lecture.

Anyway, speaking of books, I bought reference books on Form4 Math and Sejarah. But nothing on Physics, Chem or Bio, because I'm not even sure I can get in Science next year. :/

But ANYWAY, Sej wasn't as boring as I thought, or at least it didn't SEEM boring. Because we're actually not focusing ALL of our chapters on Malaysia, but also a BIT about Southeast Asia, I think. So we won't exactly bore ourselves to sleep in class next year (seriously, we're gonna be 16 and we're still studying the history about our country. How ridiculously childish is THAT?!)

Arrgh my right foot it numb!

I could very well sink it in a tub of ice.

And I have to go shopping for trackpants. I'm going to PortDickson for 3 days! ;)

And That's Why I Wear Spectacles

Oh, I just realised that I have 9 books to read. Nine.

Let's list them out in proper order, shall we?

1. Lipstick Jungle- a book which is definitely not suitable for kids.
2. The Alchemyst: The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel- it seemed like a very good book, so I just bought it anyway.
3. The Chronicles Of Narnia- All of the 7 books. I haven't really read the whole chronicle, and I've always admired the greatness of CS Lewis as an infamous author, so I'm determined to finish reading his creations of Narnia.

And seeing as that I'm not into a reading mood these few days (and instead spend my days sitting in front of the TV and going online), I have to say I've turned into an extremely slow reader, which BY THE WAY, is not a good thing.

AAAAAAND, I really wish to read JRR Tolkien's Lord of The Rings triology, because people- those are the greatest books in history and should never be missed an opportunity to read (I bought the first book years and years ago but I think the english was a little too advanced for me to understand back then, so yeah).

I Am Such An Idiot

I just came back from guitar class.
And I went to Popular Book Store for a browse just now.

And you wouldn't believe what I saw!!
LIPSTICK JUNGLE.
SELLING FOR RM13.90. ONLY!

They actually have two versions, the yellow-orangy one and the green one.
The green version is the larger size of the two, and it's selling for Rm13.90.
Whereas the yellow-orangy one is selling for RM32.90.

See the big difference?!
SEE IT?

And do you KNOW what is the WORSE thing that happened to me?!
(No, they weren't out of stock, if that's what you were thinking.)
I didn't bring any money with me.
I DIDN'T BRING A SINGLE CENT AT ALL.
(Except for the 5 bucks where Mom gave me to buy gummy worms. *smile*)
And they only have ONE green version book left. What if it's all gone by the time I come back next week to buy it?!
I am such an idiot. Who doesn't bring their money out with them?!

A Fair of Books

I finally remembered what I wanted to blog about.
The school had a Book Fair, and there were LOADS of books from Popular and MPH ready for sale. Oh, and all students get a special 10% discount on all books.

Trust me, there was every choice possible, and every book I looked through looked interesting I just felt like buying the whole table of books.
But I only had 70, and so I chose the three most important (and most interesting books) to me to buy.

1. Chasing Harry Winston (HAH! It was on a 20% discount!!)


2. The Alchemyst: The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel


3. Howl's Moving Castle (I couldn't find the novel picture online and I'm too lazy to take a picture with my camera and upload it to the computer, so here's how the castle looks like from the anime)
I'm currently reading Chasing Harry Winston (and trying to read it fast because I have a waiting list of 3 people [and each one gets a maximum time of 3 weeks to read the book. {there's a reason for this}] and I've been a pretty slow reader these few days) and after that most probably Howl's Moving Castle and then The Alchemyst.

Plus I've got my trials coming up so that would mean studying as well.
Bummer.

Brain Jam

I really wonder sometimes if they're trying to stress us to death.
As if PMR is not an enough threat.
And what with my weak subjects appearing in the shape of Math, History and Geography, I definitely need more time to study.

And I still want to read Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella.
Great.
Let's hope they don't mean it when they complain about wanting to be back in Form 3 once they go up to Form 4.

I mean, how hard can Biology, Chemistry and Physics be?
I don't want to think about it.

Darnit

My POOR POOR POOR POOR POOR Shopaholic & Baby book!
I am never lending any books to anyone again. Not with the condition they turned my book into!

GRRAARRGHH.

Baby Prams and Shopping Bags

I just bought Shopaholic and Baby. And I love it a lot. I love Becky Bloomwood and her financial problems. I love Luke Brandon for his caring responsibility towards his wife. And I love the baby.

From now one, I will accumulate my money to buying novels instead of buying blouses. Except, of course, for the ones that are really attractive and that beckons me to buy them.

I'm Reading

Books I Think I should read:

1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Gossip Girl
3. PS I Love You
4. Narnia: Prince Caspian

Books I should TRY to read (again):

1. Twilight

That should keep me busy for the year.

Inspired

I just came back from lunch and guess what I bought from the bookshop?
A retro-patterned notebook. Its so cool! And I just simply cannot keep my hands off the lovely hard cover.
Oh, and I also bought a gel pen that can be rubbed off using its very own rubber.

By Campap. I really really love the circles. It reminds me of my hooped earrings.

And if you actually look closer (though I doubt you can see it), below the CAMPAP are the small words "Inspiring ideas"

And I am inspired by this pen. XD