Those Voices Around Me

I've got a headache.
I need a peaceful afternoon where I can just sit and enjoy the silence.

Ah well.
I guess not today. :(

Holiday Chores

I guess the holidays aren't as bad as I thought they would be.
Sure, I spent the first whoknowshowmanydays sitting in front of the computer every day downloading movies while everyone else is off on vacation.

Honestly speaking, I didn't think I would be able to go out at all this holiday, based on the fact that my parents are holidaying Europe (Italy, Paris and Amsterdam) for about 2 weeks (they left one day after school holiday started and will be coming back one day before school semester starts). Therefore any outings will require finding of own transport.
Why didn't my parents bring my sister and I along, you ask?
Well, they reckoned that we should stay home and study for the exams since the school exams were originally planned to have a 2 week torturous holiday break in between. Furthermore, it was a friends-only trip: a chance for my parents to spend a crazy holiday with their friends ("crazy" will only go as far as shopping, reminiscing the old university days and numerous laughter I suppose) before they get too old or bones too stiff to travel abroad.
So yes, this is not reckless abandonment as my parents have invited my aunt from Melaka to take care of us for the holidays.

And so far I've gone out to a birthday party, will be going out tomorrow for a movie and I've found out that my aunt actually does not mind me taking public transport (YES!), unlike my parents.
This is a really good/really bad thing. This means that I can walk to the LRT station which is about 15 minutes from my house and take a shuttle bus/cab/LRT to OneUtama, TheCurve, KLCC or Tropicana City at free will but also increase the risk of kidnapping on the way to one of the destinations stated above because I will most probably be going alone. My sister and I have this agreement that if one of us is going out, the other would have to stay at home to accompany my aunt, thus no sister-shopping for us this holiday. :(
So as an obedient daughter, I will try not to take public transport if I can help it. :)

Anyway, time to watch some more movies and turn in early later.
:)

If I Could Turn Back Time,

I would visit the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World.
Out of the 7, only the Great Pyramid of Giza still stands bold and strong on the deserts of Egypt.
The other 6 have been unfortunately perished in earthquakes and fires or else destroyed by some dude(s) who did not have the brains to think of preserving the Wonders for future references.

And as you might have expected, this blog post is to promote the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, and I am doing so because I feel bored ahaha. ;)

The Great Pyramid of Giza
It was built as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu (hey, we studied him in history!), has two chambers and an entrance. I never knew that we could actually enter the pyramid! :D I always thought that they built it by using rocks, stuffed the King and Queen inside the pyramid and then used rocks to cover the whole thing up again. I don't think the original entrance can be used anymore. Tourists who want to enter the pyramid have to enter through this alternate entrance built by this dude. Oh well, you learn something new every day. :)

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Was built by Nebuchadnezzar II (we studied him in history too!) for his homesick wife Amytis of Media. It was really long and really wide, multi-levelled and was said to resemble a theatre. There're vaults constructed under the terraces of the garden which carried the entire weight of the garden and made it look like it was floating, hence the name. Lots of trees were planted, the soil and soft and red, water flowing everywhere- you get the point. It was a garden beautiful enough to charm anyone into staying there for ever and ever. Like El Dorado, The City of Gold. :)

Statue of Zeus at Olympia
They have a 12m tall statue of Zeus in the Temple of Zeus, Olympia! The statue takes up pretty much the whole temple and in Zeus's right hand he holds a small statue of the Goddess of Victory, Nike and in his left hand a golden sceptre. It was crafted by a Greek sculptor, Phidias.
The cause of destruction is a debate. Some reckoned it was destroyed by this Roman Emperor Caligula, who wanted his head on all the famous statues of the gods because he decided himself worthier of them. Others think it was perished in a disastrous fire.

Temple of Artemis
It was dedicated to the Greek Goddess Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, twin to Apollo the Sun God and it took 120 years to built the temple. But it was destroyed in one snap by this guy called Herostratus. He torched the temple just so he could get famous. It was rebuilt by Alexander the Great, only to be destroyed by the Goths. Rebuilt again but it was closed and destroyed by a mob led by St John Chrysotom.
I don't think Artemis could've been that popular in those days, if her temple was to be built and destroyed three times. :S

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus 
It was built as a tomb for Mausolus, a leader in the Persian Empire, very much like the Pyramid of Gize I suppose. Halicarnassus is a city constructed by Mausolus and his wife Artemisia. After Mausolus died Artemisia was heartbroken, so she decided to built him this huge tomb. She took over the job as ruler of Halicarnassus, and she even won this war against the Rhodians. She died two years after her husband died, and their urns were put into the tomb. As a sacrifice ritual bodies of dead animals were put on the stone steps of the tomb and then sealed with stones and rubble. The tomb was built on a hill overlooking the city, which bytheway is a very nice place to have your ashes put after you die.

Colossus of Rhodes
It's a statue of the Greek god Helios (we read about him too!). It stood over 30 metres high, making it the tallest statues of the ancient world. It started with the Siege of Rhodes, and the Rhodians won. In order to celebrate their victory, they constructed this GIANT statue of Helios. It was destroyed in an earthquake, and was offered the money by Ptolemy III to rebuild the statue. But the Rhodians, who feared that they have insulted Helios the God, declined.

Lighthouse of Alexandria
Also known as Pharos of Alexandria, Pharos is a Latin word for 'lighthouse'. There is nothing very much interesting in this lighthouse, for it was ever just a lighthouse.

She Works Hard For The Money

Maybe the holidays are making me feel this way, maybe the boredom, maybe it's mum and dad going off to Europe for 2 weeks or maybe it's just me, but I miss my China camp, and I would love to spend 12 days touring one part of China again. :)

Whee. :)

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.

The Little Prince

I feel happy today. :)
Didn't really do anything productive, like homework or MoralProject or anything, but I still feel happy. :)

And you, you know why.
Haha! :D

A Rose For Me and You

Hello! I'm back from Singapore. :D
Nothing beats coming home and sitting in front of the TV watching American Idol, even though I did just come back from pretty Singapore. :)
Okay I'm not sure if that made any sense. But anyway,

In Singapore:

1. I got my fair share of angpows. :D
I visited more relatives than I did this Chinese New Year compared to the last, thus the increase of my angpow money- although more than half of it is going into the bank.

2. I got bitten by my cousin's evil hamster.
My cousin has two adorable hamsters- a white and a brown. Coincidentally, the white one is the sweet, innocent furry little thing while the brown one is the one who bit my finger and left it bleeding white it scurried in a corner, probably licking the blood stains off it's mouth. Meh.

3. I went to the beach!
The beach in Singapore is really nice and clean (no surprise there). There were a lot of people camping there, which is something you seldom see back here. One day, I too shall camp at the beach. :)

4. I camwhored at my aunt's brick wall.
See, the brick wall outside my aunt's condo makes a very good place for taking pictures. And so, my cousin, my sister and I spent some time posing at the wall taking pictures- most of which were deleted because we either looked weird or retarded. :)

5. We had a traditional Chinese New Year tea ceremony.
It was this little thing that my cousin's family picked up last year, and so this year when I arrived at their house I was surprised to see my niece wearing a baju kebaya and pouring tea. The little ones had to kneel down before the elders and say a few prosperous words before happily getting their red-packets.

6. I visited the Merlion.
FINALLY. After many years of visiting Singapore, I have never, never been to Merlion Park. This comes from the fact that every time I go to Singapore, I go as a visit to my relatives and never as a tourist. I thought the Merlion would be larger though, hmm.

7. I didn't get to do any shopping.
THIS IS VERY SAD. The time in Singapore was spent driving around looking for relatives' houses, or going around to relatives' houses, or swimming or laying back on the couch watching I Not Stupid 2 or playing Monopoly Deal- which by the way, is a much nicer game to play than Monopoly. :)
So yeah, no shopping. :(

But other than that, I had a cool time in Singapore, yup. :)

BOOM! Crackers

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

Get lots of angpows, people!
Cast aside all unhappy thoughts and just have fun. :)

As for me, I'm off to Singapore early tomorrow morning.
Whee! :D

Using The Blender

Okay, I know this is not the best picture to upload onto my blog, but, this picture is concrete proof that I made eggnog.
That's right, eggnog, the supposedly nice drink that people drink on Christmas Eve/Christmas Night. :)

Well, this isn't the traditional eggnog that you would have for Christmas, because it's non-alcoholic. And if you Google eggnog recipes you'll find that eggnogs always have a bit of whiskey/brandy/rum in them. And since I don't really have any whiskey/brandy/rum in my house (maybe I do, but even if I do I don't know about it), and the eggnog making was really a last minute decision (just hours before guests came for Christmas Eve Dinner), I just googled a non-alcoholic recipe on eggnogs and made it.

Honestly, making eggnog is probably the easiest drink ever to make. You just take all the ingredients (raw eggs, sugar, vanilla, ground nutmeg etc.), throw them into a blender, blend the ingredients and put it in the chiller to chill until the guests arrive.
It doesn't taste that bad, you know, with the blended raw eggs and everything- it actually tastes pretty good. AND it's rather filling. I had half a cup and I was full beyond anything (but maybe that was because I was still bloated from a good dinner).

So yeah. That was my eggnog making experience. Next year I'm going to try it with some alcohol. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! :D

My Eyeballs Are Spinning Round In Their Sockets

Hello!
I am officially back from my 12 day trip in China. :)
It was TOTALLY AWESOME. Going around Guangzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou and Fuzhou in these short 12 days can really tire you out, let you learn new things (like calligraphy, wushu and China's national calligraphy drawings), make you see life in a different perspective and introduce you to a whole bunch of new people whom you may find is coincidentally related to you, though not by blood. ;)

Pictures are all here on Facebook (no one really posts picture bulks on their blogs now) so make sure you go and browse through the pictures and see how much fun it was there during that China Winter Camp. Whee! :D Honestly, I'm going to miss friends whom I've met during the trip, though not so much with closer friends because I'm very sure I'll be seeing them sometime soon next year!

Oh yes, there was this one incident witnessed in China that I really have to blog about.
See, we, these awesome bunch of people, were walking down the streets of Fuzhou in the evening, doing our last day shopping and bonding and stuff when we saw this motorcycle coming straight past us; the bloody cyclist was driving fast even though the street we were walking on was slippery with the after rain. And as the motorcycle went past us, the back wheel of the motorcycle hooked onto this lady's foot (the lady was standing/walking right NEXT to me; we were probably just a few centimetres apart) and knocked her down. The lady, quote "flew from point A to point B" and her umbrella accidentally caught the top of my hair. The lady, pained from being thrown off her feet and probably badly hurt from slipping right off her feet and landing with a big thump on her bum, just sat there frozen.
The cyclist, realizing what happened, got down on this motorcycle and went over the lady to see if he could be of any help. But he wasn't any help, because just a mere 1 minute later, he smiled, got on his bike and drove away. WTF? Also, the passer-bys and salemen who witnessed the whole accident as well didn't even bother to help. They just walked past like nothing happened and went on selling their stupid items. WTF?
So we, the awesome bunch of people, walked over the lady to see if she was badly hurt and if she could stand up and walk and stuff like that. She was crying, but fortunately there were no bruises or cuts. We gave her a whole packet of tissues and she went off, nodding appreciatively but still sobbing from the pain (in her bum, I think).

So there you go. It was we, the awesome bunch of Malaysians, who showed graceful Malaysian spirit while we were overseas. HIGHFIVE, my awesome bunch of friends! :)

The Checklist

I have a confession to make: I have never read the Lord of the Rings novels.
And yet the novel collection is what I consider to be one of my favourites. Isn't that funny now? :)
Maybe it's the fact that Tolkien wrote the best set of novels of the century, or maybe it's the movies that made the books look so interesting; but I won't deny that I have never read more than a hundred pages of the the Fellowship of the Ring.
I think my English was still improper and not advanced enough when I first started reading the Fellowship of the Ring, but I still found the book interesting enough for it to put it in my favourite books list. I have no idea if these things happen to other readers, so yeah. Haha. :)

Anyway, I went to watch this movie called Planet 51 yesterday (after failing to buy tickets for 2012), and the movie was actually pretty OK. I mean, despite the fact that there wasn't enough space in between the seats, and I had to slide down a bit in my chair so that I could rest my head on the top of the seat, and there were people munching on popcorn so loudly, and you could hear people whispering and talking (as I've said, there wasn't enough bloody spaces in between the chairs to assure total comfort), and there was this baby wailing all the time and people giving the parents weird looks and I could stretch my legs nicely, yeah, it was a pretty good movie.
But, well, note the fact that I don't rate movies that highly. I enjoy almost every movie that I watch. :)

Anyway, THIS is Planet 51:

It's basically about this astronaut who landed on this alien planet called Planet 51, and all the aliens thought HE was an alien that was here to hijack their planet and control their minds with his super mind controlling powers. But the astronaut, named Chuck Baker, had only one mission, which was to get to his captured spaceship and get back to Earth so that he could join the Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards (he was to get slimed). Some teenager inhabitants of Planet 51 believed that Chuck Baker wasn't a complete psycho and decided to help him get to his spaceship, which we know in every cartoon that the mission was achieved and it all ended with a happy ending. :)

So yup, quite a funny movie.
And to top it off, in a totally unrelated matter to the said movie, my mom bought me a new tote bag. :D

Me And You And A Dog Named Boo

My post title is a song name; presumably a song created in the same era as "itsybitsyteenyweenyyellowpolkadotbikini". Why can't we get such nice song titles nowadays? Haha.

Anyway, I am here with a quest. A quest to revive my blog. And since I have nothing interesting to blog about, what better thing to do to attempt a blog-revivification than to create holiday lists! :)

Rachel's Holiday List of Dids
1. Did wake up every morning to watch Grey's Anatomy.
2. Did school work revision as mom requested (it's the holidays!!!)
3. Did buy a new purse.
4. Did go shopping for new turtlenecks in preparation for China trip.
5. Did some helping out to clean up the house.
6. Did go jogging.
7. Did practice my guitar.
8. Did freak out a bit when I agreed to perform in a mini concert.
9. Did face my nerves when I managed to perform in the mini concert.
10. Did watch A Christmas Carol (not as nice as I hoped it would be).
11. Did play chess and won (TWICE BABY!)
12. Did play Cluedo and won. :)
13. Did play Scrabble and got the letters that make up the words "porn" and "fart".
14. Did text a lot.
15. Did finish the Star Wars saga.
16. Did manage to create an entry in my diary after a whole month of neglecting it.
17. Did go to the salon and get my hair cut.

Rachel's Holiday Lists of Shoulds
1. Should win an award for trying to resurrect my dead blog.
2. Should have saved more money to go shopping.
3. Should go and watch New Moon. :D
4. Should watch Twilight (yes, you got me, I've never watched it before).
5. Should watch more movies.
6. Should finish reading my 1,073 page thick Gone with The Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
7. Should charge my iPod.
8. Should do something daring like try a double flip in mid air and risk breaking my neck but I won't because I'm not an adrenaline junkie.
9. Should (or should not?) buy a new bag.
10. Should think of something more interesting to blog about because if I were someone else and I were reading my blog I think I would hit the little red X button hastily.
11. Should write a heartwarming holiday story and become famous like Charles Dickens.
12. Should go climb a rock.
13. Should do something unexpected. Like what I don't know. Give me suggestions!

Do or Do Not

Hello.

So the plans about the Star Wars Marathon that was discussed briefly on Facebook was finally put to action, haha! :)

Went over to Nick's house on Sunday and Monday to watch the Star Wars movies- our plan was to finish watching all 6 movies of Star Wars but unfortunately we only made 4.

And I will tell you now (and Nick if you're reading) that Nick is probably one of the best hosts I know. He didn't really seemed to mind that we talked a lot and loudly during the movie, trashed his living room, played with his XBox and bounced all over his couch.

I am really sorry for all the inconveniences caused Nick. :S

Well for the past 2 days I learned/re-learned/found out that:-

1. Zac Efron looks like Luke Skywalker,

2. Pink lemonade tastes nice,

3. Luke Skywalker actually had feelings for Princess Leia,

4. I kept giggling about how Darth Vader's breathing sounded like he had asthma,

5. I suck at Guitar Heroes,

6. Nick's condo is very very nice,

and

7. If you watch a movie with Carmen, Pei, Nick, Matthew and Aaron, they can turn supposedly devastating death and romantic scenes into scenes that you laugh out loud at.

I think if that happened in a cinema we would have people shooting daggers at us and requesting that we be kicked out of the movie but under certain circumstances I call this good, fun and noisy companionship. :)

Fuhgiggly Gland

I have my baby back, the final term is finally over (time flies!) and I'm going to watch a nice movie and do a bit of shopping tomorrow. :)

If I say that life cannot get any better than this, well then I'm lying.

Because there always is something much better coming your way.

And so I shall not lie, and just end my short post by saying that life, at the moment, is good.

:)

Codswallop, I Say

OMG the most embarrassing thing just happened to me.

See, I was asking people to go to the China year end trip (mentioned a few posts before) with me and I decided to ask Chris, you know, my godbrother because I saw him online.

So I double clicked his user account and started chatting to him immediately and stuff like that.

And I must've been chatting with him for a full 10 minutes until I realised (with the help of the Chris I was chatting to), that the person I was chatting to wasn't my godbrother Chris, and it was someone else with the username of Chris chatting back to me!

I'm pretty sure now that the person I was chatting to is named Thomas, and I have no idea why his username was Chris. And let me tell you that was HIGHLY HUMILIATING.

Gosh.

Well anyway, I am hoping that WenMin gets to come along with the China trip with me, and how come EVERYONE seems to have year end holidays planned in Mid-October already.

Hmm, :S

Faux-11

I'm so glad that exams are at a temporarily halt, because I don't think I can study hard with all the drilling going on downstairs and the hammering and my constant thinking about my early-planned EXTREMELY REASONABLY PRICED YEAR-END HOLIDAYS.

:)

This year end is going to be such a good one and one full of knowledge, sociality and experience, I'll bet you anything. Though there may be nothing like staying at Home-Sweet-Home and enjoying a nice cup of tea (or a gazillion bottles of Coke), there is also nothing like going to China for a nice knowledgeable trip.

I shall be able to improve my Chinese and when I come back I'll have loads of cultural China stuff to talk about with Mum. :)

And this, I say is early-planned because I don't usually plan my holidays/get to know about my holiday trips until one month before them. And as for this year I planned by holidays in ONE NIGHT'S TIME (say, in an hour) and reached a decision whereby Mum has granted me her permission to travel alongside a few other students.

This, as Dad will always say, is a good exposure. Haha.

ANYWAY, I am prepared to spend ONE WHOLE LAZY DAY of doing absolutely NOTHING ADVANTAGEOUS to my studies like eating raspberry liquorice (expiry date 20th October), scraping movies to watch on my laptop and/or watch loads and loads of Youtube videos until I get sick of Youtube.

And here's to everyone who studied well in exams and those who have earned this little one week rest well. :)

P/S: I feel like my blogging's getting more and more formal, and I hope this is result of my maturity and also because I've been thinking too much about Britains and their lovely accents.

Mathematical Disorder

My self-esteem has been re-boosted after the horrible incident yesterday.

I am going to keep reminding myself that I can do things as long as I put a strong mind into it and sleep early. Because staying up for 24 hours does not help and it only makes my head spin.

So, I am going to study hard now (remember the Inspiration!) and party hard in the evening. :)

I am celebrating the Moon Cake Festival later at night and am prepared to indulge a bunch of chips, Australian liquorice (raspberry flavor, yum), bottles of soft drinks and of course (who could forget, it's the Food of the Celebration)- mooncakes.

I find enlarging and underlining and coloring font pretty and fun, thus the result of my blog post above. :)

I Am Not A Quitter!

And I repeat this: I am not a quitter. If there's anything to fight about, I shall fight!, and that includes trying to beat KwanSeng at something. *nods determinely*

Anyway, I'M BAAAAACK!

I had a one day trip to Melaka, which was decided by my parents just an hour before leaving the house.

Things To Note During My Trip:

On The Way To Melaka, I-

1. ate Cuttlefish CrackerBalls.

2. wondered if there was going to be any fireworks today even though fireworks were banned (banned, right?) from this year's Merdeka Celebration.

3. planned my next blog post.

4. texted a lot (shame on me!)

5. felt really, really bored.

In Melaka, I-

1. had curry chicken pie for lunch. Omggggg it was so gooooooddd.

2. had a chance to wear my shades.

3. went for a stroll at the beach.

4. played with 1 month old puppies!

5. texted some more (shame, shame, shame)

6. gazed longingly at a white Vincci purse that my mom wouldn't buy for me.

On My Way Back From Melaka, I-

1. stuffed myself with plum strips.

2. wished Dad would turn the air-conditioner to a lower temperature.

3. listened to my iPod.

4. texted some MORE.

5. got a told off from Mom about the radiation of cellphones and to stop texting.

Back Home From Melaka, I-

1. realized something very unbelievable from Facebook.

2. was listening to the sound of illegal fireworks but everyone seems to be such a goody-two-shoes this year.

3. couldn't find as many people on Facebook as I did yesterday.

And with that I end my post.

Oh yes:

HAPPY MERDEKA.

A Dirty Tennis Ball Found On The Ground

So, my cousins came to visit us at my house today while on the way back from Ipoh to Singapore.

And well, obviously they brought their kids along- Emily, Elliot and Ethan, each aged 9, 7 and 3 and a half.

All extremely adorable and extremely loud too!

We got off to a good start, eating Indonesian fried crackers (otherwise known as keropok) and then playing in the park. Then Emily fell down twice and dirtied her knees, Chel stepped on I-dunno-what and her toe bled a little. Elliot refused to play most of the games we were playing, and Ethan slept all the way until we came back from the park.

And just before they left, we took a group shot, and then I wanted some individual shots of Emily, Elliot and Ethan. And only Emily was photogenic enough to give me a good shot, while Elliot scarpered like some cat running away from a dog and Ethan wasn't quick enough so we caught him and took a cute little shot of him.

There's Emily holding onto her brother. That was where Ethan gave up. And Elliot was hiding in a corner, somewhere nearby I think.

And Emily, she's a pretty one. :)

Little Ethan, real chubby. ;)

And the one wearing blue is Elliot, the two behind are my cousin and her husband, and there I am, looking as horrible as I always do in pictures. Bleargh.

"a life lived with fear is a life half lived"

24th December, Christmas Eve:

Oh, it was just like any other normal day. I did all the normal things one could do at home, had a perfectly typical Christmas Eve dinner (although it felt nothing like Christmas Eve, mind you), with no tree and no Christmas decorations in my house this year (because it was a little too late to decorate when I came back from my trips and I was oh-so-lazy to decorate my house earlier this month) and then I slept from 8-9pm, woke up and watched, as PeiShe quotes "crappy Christmas movies". A crappy Christmas movie, in my case. The movie was rather boring and VERY predictable.

25th December, Christmas!:

I was too tired to prepare the usual Christmas breakfast for my parents, so I laid in bed and woke up at 11am. Then I watched some more Christmas movies (this time not so crappy) and cleaned my old book cupboard and arranged my new one for the books needed next year.

AND I watched 'The Pink Panther' which was MUCH MUCH better than the Christmas movies, and in the evening we went to one utama, ate dinner at New York New York Deli and bought my sister her new phone and then met up with my godbrothers and their family to watch the movie 'Australia'. Which was VERY NICE indeed. Except that it was pretty long for a movie.

Another Christmas gone by.

4 more days till my doom!