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Mi piace la musica

This is so adorable, I just had to share it with everyone. Especially for you 😉

Move over Jason Donovan 😛

—

I was in love with this man.

Eternal devotion I swore to him.

This man is none other than Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.

The first time I heard about his music was about in 1997 when staying up late and I caught the music clip, Tonight Tonight.

The video was surreal, with the set like 1920’s science fiction show and it was really engrossing to watch. At the time, it was a refreshing change to watching the typical music clips.

But what really snagged me about the song was the stringed instruments in the background. It just emotionally tugs your heart and I cant help but to be completely enthralled by it.

I borrowed the Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness cd from my then classmate, Fazna and poured over every song that there is in there.

The whole cd is a complete treat! It starts off with a gentle and soothing piano recital in ‘Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness’ (apart from guitar, Billy Corgan plays the piano too) to the more alternative rock sounds of ‘Zero‘.

After weeks and weeks of borrowing Fazna’s cd, I decided to purchase the cd for my own. My very first music cd. Considering then, that I was a schoolgirl with no job, that was one of my more expensive purchase. But never did I regretted it, as I listened to the cd day by day.

There is a vast mix of different type of sounds, from harder metallic sounds like ‘X.Y.U‘ and ‘Tales of a scorched earth’ and the nostalgic sounds of ‘1979‘ All of them with an amazing harmonic blend of rifts and bass.

I believe that Billy Corgan has a romantic soul

Who can not fall in love with ‘By starlight’?

by starlight i’ll kiss you
and promise to be your one and only
i’ll make you feel happy
and leave you to be lost in mine

Or the lush and haunting ‘Beautiful’

Don’t let your life wrap up around you
Don’t forget to call, whenever
I’ll be here just waiting for you
I’ll be under your stars forever
Neither here nor there just right beside you
I’ll be under the stairs forever
Neither here nor there just right beside you

The lyrics to ‘Porcelina of the vast oceans‘ is amazing

As far as you take me, that’s where I believe
The realm of soft delusions, floating on the leaves
On a distant shoreline, she waves her arms to me
As all the thought police, and closing in for sleep

Its just wonderful.

One of my favourites would be ‘mayonaise‘ from the album Siamese Dream. It starts off lush and soft and then slowly goes to its guitar rift. And he starts with

Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Doomed
Pick your pockets full of sorrow
And run away with me tomorrow
June

We’ll try and ease the pain
But somehow we’ll feel the same
Well, no one knows
Where our secrets go

It might sound silly, but I felt a closeness to all of his songs. It was as if he was relating to me. Like he understood what I was going through in my turmoil filled teenage life.

The music totally changed when the band produced the following album ‘Ava Adore’ and hasnt quite been the same since. But to me, Mellon collie will always be one of the best albums ever produced.

Today is the greatest day I’ve ever known …

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Ti odio, idiota

Oh Zuji! Oh Zuji!
Oh how you annoy me!
You promised me, my refund
In 3 weeks, you said, it shall come

But is almost a month already
And I still dont see my money
So how on earth can I go to Italy?
This is really not funny

I wish I was rich
Then I wouldnt act like such a
Till then I have this stitch
In my heart, its more than just an itch

Sigh.

I planned to go to see my dearest again for vacation in June and I’ve been scouring around for different places that have competitive prices.

After going to the Natas fair (where the tickets are sold out) and then Using Fare.net (they dont have tickets for the dates where I want to go) I then decided to use Zuji.

On the 27th of March, I booked a ticket with Zuji but after being acknowledged that they do not accept my KLM voucher, I quickly cancelled the booking. They still deducted money on my card anyway on Friday and I had no way to stop the transaction.

After a call from the customer service, a lady informed me that my money will arrive in about 7 – 10 days and I waited patiently even though I was pretty nerve wrecked with the increasing of ticket prices with time.

After two weeks, I called up the customer service again. They said this time that I will take 3 weeks from the date of cancellation. They even assured me that the finance department is handling the matter and then abruptly put down the phone.

To date, I still dont have my money.

And guess what?

The prices for plane tickets to Rome now is getting more and more extravagant.

I’m really not happy with the fact that:

a) Zuji couldnt be bothered to tell me the exact date when I will get my refund. If the customer service would tell me that it would take *that* long for the refund to arrive, I wouldnt have cancelled the booking. I would have stayed and wouldnt be so emotionally nerve wrecked by the whole experience.

b) That airplane prices are really going up so high. Just a few days difference could mean a difference in hundreds of dollars! Just a month ago, airfrance was just $900 compared to now which is $1400

c) That I made hasty decisions like this and this in turn effects everything. Why cant I just decide on one thing and then just be happy with it. Instead I still want to look for other alternatives.

Sigh.

I wish I was rich. Then I wouldnt have to worry about petty things like these. But I’m not. Oh gosh. After the payments for everything. I feel so dry right now.


Me angry! Me want smash your face!

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Beautiful Terengganu

What can I say? Terengganu is one of the most beautiful beaches that I’ve seen. Wonderful coastline and soft powdery sands. Simply breathtaking. Two days isnt enough time to experience the things that I would have liked to see and do.

Terengganu is located on the east cost of peninsula Malaysia and it overlooks the South China Sea.

We left on Thursday night and took the overnight coach to get there. Dont the reason why, but all overnight coaches are freezing cold! I could still feel the bite even in my jacket. Luckily for me, I packed my body towel along to wrap myself in.

The next day, tired and groggy, we stopped at Kemaman for morning prayers and breakfast. Loads of food to eat! Younger bro and sis each had Nasi Lemak (Coconut rice) each. Mum and Dad had Roti Canai while I had a plate of Kuih (cakes) and my favourite Teh Halia (ginger tea)


Teh halia!


Roti Canai is similar Roti Prata, best eaten hot and with curry. Their version is a little spicier though. But still delicious!

It was a hearty breakfast. Bro and Dad had second helpings even till everyone was full. We spent $18 Ringgit for a family of 5. That was so awesome. 🙂

Unlike Singapore, there were plenty of animals roaming around. Like sheeps and cows and there were plenty of cats there. I had a ball of a time playing with them.


Err .. hello, what happened to you?

Later we stopped by a batik factory and saw beautiful batiks being made. Batik is made of a silk cloth, where the beautiful pattern are usually handmade.

Hot wax is put into the tool called chenang while the artist draws pattern on the cloth

The pattern are traced in wax and then coloured with cloth dye.


This is a tool where you dip in wax and then pressed on the silk. Another type of batik.


Mum choosing some batiks for us. I’m going to look like a SIA girl! Haha!


Man with glass crafting demonstration near the batik demonstration

We then went to Pasar Besar Kedai Payang (translated to Big Market Shop Payang). It was such a kaleidescope of colours. And in the morning, with a bustling of activities of people buying their daily needs.

There were loads of things being sold there, from fresh vegetables being heaped like hills, to cakes, to fresh flowers. There were many things as far as the eye can see.


Turtle eggs that can be eaten. It has a slightly bitter taste.





Colourful keropoks made of different type of seafood

Terengganu is famous for turtles and seafood. Keropok, a type of food made of fish paste is also a famous snack here. Mum decided to buy some turtle eggs and keropok while I observed around. Even though I was malay, the natives here has a different way of talking. They tend to speak their words with an additional ‘g’

“Saya nak makang”
“Satu, dua, tiga, engpat, lima, enam, tujuh, lapang”

It took me a while to get used to the way they talk.

We had lunch together. My parents had baked fish each and dare I say that it was truely one of the best ones that I’ve eaten so far. It may be a simple dish, but it really tasted so good.


Yummy!


Bro couldnt understand this cute little boy who asked him, “Have you paid for your drinks?” Children here are so cute I swear. They are always playing and smiling

—

At length in the evening, we reached our hotel – the Awana Kijal hotel. By then we were too tired to do anything. I would have liked to do a bit of water sports (there’s kayaking here! Jet skiing! Catamaran!) or simple things like seeing the fireflies. Unfortunately it was too late to do any thing because it was already 5pm and bookings will be closed by then.

Thats the thing about group tours that I really dont like. That we have to comply to do things that is in the schedule. Oh well. Maybe we’ll go there again the next time, but we’ll do it free and easy 🙂

The hotel was pretty nice and had a lovely view of the sea when we opened the curtains.



Can you imagine waking up to this?

I persuaded my (already tired) family to see the sea. “If not now, when?” We were tired from the long journey but it was such a treat to see the wondrous sight. And we viewed the cultural show which was going on, on the way back to the hotel.


My beautiful mum by the sea


My dad walking along the sandy beach. The white thing is whole sea shells.


Diana admiring the sea


A scene from the cultural show – This guy is very handsome!

—

We had to leave the next day (Bwaaah! Thats not even one day we spent there!) We spent time on the bus again, stopping now and then to eat. We must have eaten lots!

Sis loved eating Sata. boneless fish marinated in spices, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over charcoal fire. My parents bought lemang, bamboo stuffed with rice and cooked over coals for several hours. While I had keropok lekor, delicious fish sausages that is eaten with chili sauces.



Sata is made of marinated fish paste and wrapped in banana leaves and then grilled. Really delicious when eaten hot


Lemang – rice stuffed in bamboo and cooked over an open fire


Keropok Lekor, made of fish paste. Can be eaten as it is like this


But I prefer it fried and crispy

Sigh. There really is something special about eating authentic food.

—

Would love to visit again. Truely is paradise on earth.


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The mind jog


It was a nice and breezy day, not too warm and was just perfect for a sports match. The school that I worked at, had their sports day today.

We had it at the Clementi stadium and there were heaps of people cheering wildly for their favourite athletes that it wasnt hard to get in the mood either.

Initially it rained in the morning and I was worried that I could ruin my precious Canon EOS350 camera from the condensation. Fortunately for us, the rain didnt last too long and soonafter we resumed the event.

Here’s a few of the pictures from the event:


We want this!


Haha, look at Alan’s face!


Yeah! No one can defeat me!


In deep concentration


The antagonising feeling during the race


Just a bit more, abit more …


I’m the winner!

—

In night class, during my mathematics lesson, the lecturer started on Permutations and combinations and I was just sitting there thinking to myself, being amazed.

It was almost 10 years since I left school and almost for the same amount of time, last used a calculator. I turned to my partner.

Me : Err Hanna, how did you get that answer?

Hanna : I pressed this on my calculator. Dont you have that function? (peer over)

Me : I dont see it! Sir! Can you explain how you came about that formula?

Teacher : Formula? You dont have to remember the formula (comes over my table)

Teacher : Its right here, see.

Me : Oh. (Feels sheepish)

But it wasnt so bad, the lessons having since already taken C maths (Which was supposed to be harder than AO maths) previously, the lessons wasnt so hard. But I do need lots of brushing up and practise.

A friend walked with me on the way back to the bus stop and asked me, how I found the lessons so far. She told me that it was different for us working people, having to juggle between our jobs and night class. She also said that as older people, it was harder to grasp new concepts.

I disagree that older people find it more difficult to learn. My idol, Tony Buzan is about 64 years old but he can comprehend things in a flash!

What I do agree however is that working people dont have much time to dedicate to their studies, with work taking up a large chunk of their waking time. It also affects the physical capabilities of a person, making them tired and this in turn affects them mentally.

I believe that a person doesnt go more mentally challenged as they grow older. I think that with mental stimulation, a person can still remain as sharp no matter what their age will be.

Its very much like gym.

We exercise, our physical self will be healthy. No exercise, unhealthy.

(pats her wobbly bits)

Anyway, mum is taking us out to go to Terengganu in Malaysia for a family vacation. Oh boy! I need one. I’m so stressed out. Ah the sandy beaches, maybe some water sports?

Hooray!

Will be back on Sunday. (Maybe by then Zuji will give me back my money and I can finally book my plane ticket with KLM)

And Happy Easter everyone! Save a chocolate bunny for me 😉

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Poor Rinaz

I am now officially poor.

Now that I’ve made my payments for my examination, I’ve hardly anything left in the bank. But its alright, since its not for frivolous expenses like the makeover session I had with Juli and Geri.

By right, the end date to make the payments was on last Saturday, 8th of April. However, I stalled and procrastinated and by the time I reached the post office, it was already closed.

I really had a most upsetting weekend and all I could think about was how I wont be taking my examinations this year and how careless and what a blockhead I was.

But I decided to call up the ministry of education anyways. I didnt have anything else to lose. They actually said that they still accepted payments with today being the absolute last day.

My heart leaped! Hope! Joy! Revelation! Penance!

I’ll still be poor for a few months. Oh well, at least I’ll have no money problems since I dont have any money to speak of 😛

—

A couple of pictures I’d like to share with everyone. Shuqun, the school where I worked at had some guests from Hong Kong 🙂 They about 100 of these students, and they came over to experience what life would be like if they were students in Singapore.

They toured around the different places in Singapore like Bugis, Serangoon, to experience the culture and experienced different things. They even spent the night over at some shuqun student’s houses.

I think thats a splendid idea as this shows how people live. Its not superficial and its real. The right way to experience culture. (Do you hear that Ministry of Tourism?!)




Soft toys being sold. Money collected will be for the needy and poor students of Shuqun.


And my disciple Jean and me. Is it so wrong to want to take a huge bite out of my arm? ROFL!

Time to do a little bit of reading. Till the next time 🙂

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Completely and utterly pointless post

Somewhere on the abandoned planet of laptopia …





What will happen to our heroes? Tune in next time to … bricks in space!

—

Do you ever had one of those days when you just have one of those unexplained, “not good” feelings? I must have experienced one of my panic attacks again yesterday after being feeling overwhelmed by alot of different factors again.

Zuji still hasnt given me my refund (thats a whole months pay for me!)

Airplane tickets has already increased

Payment for my examination fees is already here

I’ve to pay for my geography tuition

And then payments for the economics additional group tuition

Costs for books is surprisingly expensive

My classmate Jaslyn got pepper sprayed on her face and then robbed

My dearest had his car broken in and his laptop stolen

Workload at work is as hectic as ever

Oh my heart cant take it. Thus, the overwhelming feeling and the panic attack again. But I have to keep myself focused on what I’m doing all these for. Its not easy to reach for for our goal and many a times we’ll face hurdles and some of us give up. But if one truely desires for something, one must persevere.

7 more months … 7 more months and I will be free …

—

I dont know why but I found this funny:

On realisation that it was the time of the month and having no supplies ready, I turned to ask my friend

Me : Psst! Do you have a pad?

She : Oh no, my dog died.

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Revenge of the killer bell peppers!

Feeling so much better now.

On monday evening, I thought that I’d make the lovely salad that I did in the weekend but instead of the regular amount of bell peppers, I’ve increased it.

Bad move.

The next morning I felt nausea and vomited. Oh gosh the pain! My kidneys were screaming out and there were banging in my head.

Couldnt go to work. The doctor diagnosed me as having food poisoning and gave me two days off and I was recuperating at home like an invalid, in a dizzy cloud of heavy medication.

Lesson learnt:

Too much bell peppers is bad for you

Curses on you bell peppers!

Update : Now mum seems to have my symptoms too … (she said that she’s better now) now it couldnt be the bell peppers since she never touched it. So what is it …?

—

Going out of my mind over the stress of everything. Studies! Work! Finances! No time! Arghh!!!


Karen, me and Diane at Newton Circus so-so foodcenter

But always time to pose for a picture with friends. Without the motivational support and encouragement of other people, its very hard to carry on.

I really really want to make this worth it.

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Lunch time with rinaz

Buon Giorno Signora and Signore! Please sit down comfortably while the chef serves you your lunch today!

For starters we have

Salad with Watercress, cherry tomatoes and grilled bell peppers with Italian dressing. Ah benissimo!

For the main course we have

Penne Arrabbiata. What Signore? You cant take the heat?

What about some honey glazed chicken instead? Squisito!

A bit of sparkly for the Signora? Perfetto!

And for dessert we have vanilla ice cream with a generous topping of chocolate syrup. Ah … Cielo!

Thank you for coming!

—

To be honest, I’m not the type of person who’s into cooking. In fact, I actually hated it. As a kid, mum would try to coax me to learn how to cook and I’d always try to run away.

Malay cooking isnt the easiest thing to cook. With all the preparation, the pounding, the ingredients, the endless waiting of the stirring and such, the typical time to prepare one dish would be about 2 hours.

And it can be really physically harming. Cooking Ayam masak merah requires a soldier’s bravery. The frying of blended chili in hot oil – which tends to just splatter out at the most unexpected time, usually everywhere, like the kitchen walls, the stove top, the floor, and me! Its really painful! And the kitchen will end up like a warzone at the end of it.

It takes a brave person to try to clean the sticky mess up afterwards.

Not to say that its not worth cooking it though, because the end product is worth waiting for, wonderfully appetizing and aromatic. Foods like Kari Ayam (Chicken Curry), Otak-otak (BBQ Fish mousse), Ayam masak merah (Chicken in Red sauce), Satay (BBQ’ed marinated meat) and Nasi Lemak (Rice cooked with Pandan leaves and coconut milk) are just heavenly.

But I really dont have the patience to stay in the kitchen for too long. Makes me admire the persistance, patience and dexterity of the people who cooks them every day. Amazing people.

For the moment, I’m starting slow and try easy to make foods that doesnt require so much effort to make. Sure I’m no Jamie Oliver or Anthony Bourdain but at least my food is edible (At least I think so)

Jemput Makan!
Come and eat!

Dang … I’m 60 kilos now …

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The reopening of Jurong Lake Park

—


Went kayaking with my mum and brother today at the beautiful, newly opened Jurong Lake park. That was a whole load of fun! Initially mum was so afraid of falling in the water while in the kayak but after a short while, she really enjoyed herself pedalling smoothly in the lake that when the time was up, she didn’t even want to leave!

I really like kayaking. It probably started in Outward Bound School I think. One try and I really liked it. One of the more memorable experiences that I had was during the trip to Thailand with my best friends Juli and Hema. We went through mangrove swamps and the open sea and the experience really felt like a discovery channel show with all the nature that we saw.

Hema and guide in the front kayak with me and Juli at the back I miss this. I’d love to go again

Will there be a kayaking club in Jurong, I wonder? The instructors didn’t say, but I think it would be lovely to have one on lakeside, with all the unused water catchment area. I’d join in a heartbeat!

—

Night classes has been interesting. It was lovely to see some friendly faces but that nervous feeling is there. The feeling of unpreparedness, especially after one economics class when the tutor asked us a question and I just sat there feeling very blank.

I turn around to the person behind me.

“I don’t know how to do this. How do you answer it?”

“Oh, when the marginal propriety consumption goes up, the marginal propriety savings goes down. Thus, in the graph, it shifts up and the consumption graph, it pivots. Pretty easy right?”

“Huh? Err .. yeah, yeah yeah … easy …”

Just what the heck are you talking about?

I really need to buck up. I’m just too tired to do anything. Is it possible to have a burnout before anything even started?

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Of night classes and flight agencies

My night classes started already and I was very pleased to see that the General Paper lecturer that taught me last year, Mr Chako, was the one who will be guiding us again this year. There seemed to be just a handful of my previous classmates joining in this year. Majority of them, I’m seeing them for the first time.

Some of them were A level retakers, I realised. The mood was casual, however, I could sense that it was a tinge more serious as compared to last years where there were more happy-go-lucky people.

I am surprised that the ITE department allocated us to the 4th level instead of the 1st level where we were used to. Apparantly, the students at Monks Hill Secondary School, the school where we used for night studies, complained that the classes were always in a dirty state when they come back to school the next day.

I wasnt pleased at having to climb up so much staircase after a hard days work. It was tiring having to go for a one hour bus journey and then walking such a long distance from the bus stop to the school. But what made me extremely displeased was that there were no proper facilities on the 4th floor. There isnt any projector where the lecturer could use to give his demonstrations.

It felt discriminatory.

I’m quite appalled that the school would do that. I can vouch for myself that the classes that I passed by had no evidence of being littered nor messed up.

The least that the principal could do was to at least give a warning before implementing such a harsh treatment like that. We’re paying students. Yes, I realise that we are heavily subsidized but the least we want is to have proper facilities for our lessons.

Sigh

But anyway, it was always an interesting lesson (as always) in which we discussed about the different reasons why people would commit euthanasia. He states 2 different examples:

Firstly, Ramon Sempedro, a Spanish man whom became completely immobile from the neck down due to a diving accident. For 27 years, he enjoyed the support from his family and friends and kept his mind sharp through reading, but finally succumed to depression and wanted to die with dignity.

Secondly, was an exerp from S. Rajaratnam, a former previous deputy minister of Singapore, who recently passed away, wrote:

“This brings me to the question of human rights. The list of rights is growing, but one important right is absent from the list – the right to die with dignity. Neither law, the Constitution, nor even the United Nations Charter of Human Rights makes any reference to a human being’s right to die without indignity and with the least possible pain. Dying should not be prolonged torture”

To what extent does committing suicide be justifiable?

—

I’ve been stressed out trying to book a plane ticket all week now. Fare.net finally responded to my email but I couldnt get to the discounted Emirates flight that I wanted as they claimed that it was fully booked and adviced me to book a higher priced plane ticket with another company. So I called up some agencies from the namecards that I acquired from the Natas fair and guess what was the response?

“Sorry, we dont cater to airline plane ticket sales”

Huh? But the salesperson at the counter at the Natas fair said …

Then I finally gave up. Fine. I’ll use Zuji again. And then I booked a flight with KLM and then I realised that KLM gave me a voucher last year. I’m sure I could use this and so I called up the Customer service. Only to find out that they dont accept vouchers and that If I wanted to do that, I had to book with the airline themselves.

So I quickly checked the KLM website. Guess what? The plane ticket dropped from the initial $1.2k to $950! I was fuming! And my heart palpitations started again …

Cancel my booking! I dont want anymore!

And I quickly tried to do a reservation with KLM instead. But they couldnt process the transaction. Zuji still kept my money and they will only refund it back in 7 working days. In the meantime, I cant do anything with my money being stuck and I dare not spend anymore money with my examination fees, my tuition fees and other payments that I had to do …

O I’m so stressed. Whats wrong with airline agencies? Why do they pressurise me so? This must be some kind of devious torture for us to want to book the ticket fast but dangle a carrot every now and then with a cheaper plane ticket.

O my heart … be still. You’ve been beating so fast, a Bollywood MTV couldnt catch up.

Sigh

Anyway, something nice did happen this week. Sujimi, a former newsreader and currently a producer for the tv show, Hanyut, a reality tv drama came over to the workplace. He did an interesting talk and a demonstration for the students. I quickly asked for a picture before he ran away for his next appointment.

How come celebrities seem to always come when I’m in my glasses and looking very mousy?!?!