Beautifully Imperfect.

Well, was initially supposed to get going to the pasar malam after work yesterday to meet some real people. But the big, bad thunderclouds came and dampened our plans [pun totally intended]. Sigh.

Thankfully, I got a call from Amanda at work after that, [Yeah, I had to put her on hold, and she had to listen to my lines over and over again.] and yay, we were going to go out with Michelle!

Went to Papa Chops Mama Grills [Or was it Papa Grills Mama Chops? What kind of a name is that, anyway?] for dinner, and saw a big version of Azan's face plastered on the wall there. He could make it work like a discount card, y'know?

"Hey, that's me. *points to himself, and then to face on wall* Now, I want a 20% off on my black pepper steak."

Okay, okay. I'm off-topic. Back to Michelle. She's still the same ol' Mich. Vertically-challenged, horizontally gifted, and hyper with a capital H. Catching up on the old days was too much fun. Gave us all the blushes.

Manda reminded us that we had formed a group called the Jellybeans donkey years ago in Standard 6, which I apparently was playing the keyboard for. I have no glimpses of that now, whatsoever.

What was I doing in a group named the Jellybeans? *scratches head*

Reminisced about the good old primary school days, which included:

• sneaking Digimons to school and hiding them in the flower pots;
• begging Pn. Chai to let the girls play football,
• which we succeeded in and in which,
• our dear goalkeeper, Mun Fong scored a spectacular own-goal;
• Sharmin being a very bad influence to all of us [This was unanimous, dear, sorry];
• what little bitches we were back then even when we were still in navy blue uniforms,
• and even though the whole lot of them [Excluding me, mind you.] were prefects,
• making Suk Kwan cry because we didn't like the same member of the Backstreet Boys as she did, [Yes, back then we were ALL teenybopper fanatics.]
• us making the most god-awful, horrifying, embarassing video for Michelle for her 16th birthday. I shall not go into details but we were acting as Charlie's Angels. God.]

The rest of the conversation was way too mortifying for me to disclose publicly on my blog. Lol.

*turns deep shade of red*

Took some crazy pics. Will post 'em up when I get them from Karen.

Friday's a pretty slow day. I've officially gone 57 minutes without answering a single phone call. You know I'm pathetic when I know that it's been 57 minutes.

Damn, the phone's ringing right now. I've gone and jinxed myself. Hang on. Will be back shortly.

----------------

Argh. Bloody hell. Now the damn phone won't stop ringing.

Why do I always jinx myself? Dammit. Be back later.

I need to talk to real people.

Answer phones for a day, say the same lines over and over again. And you'll just start feeling a little less human. Robotic, even.

"Bristol-Myers Squibb, good morning, how may I help you?"

[pauses to listen]

"I'm sorry sir, Mr. *insert name here* is unavailable for the next two days as the company is away on their annual trip."

[pauses to listen, usually to some exclamation of 'Wow!' or a slow thoughtful 'I see', which is then promptly followed by them asking where the trip is to. Insert some nodding here even though no one is around to see it.]

"They've left this morning for Sabah, sir."

[more pausing on my part]

"Perhaps you can try calling again on Monday, sir?"

[pauses again]

"All right, sorry for the inconvenience, sir. Thank you, bye."

*Note: Replace the above underlined words when necessary with appropriate alternatives.


Yeah, so I feel like a robot.

It's another 8 and a half hours of being a robot again tomorrow.

I need to talk to some real people, who do not include those on electronic devices, courier service messengers, PosLaju messengers, or any of the kind. Any takers?

Big, fat, gigantic no thank you to Xue who kindly informed me that there was a bloody arm sticking out of the cubicle behind me. I freak easily. Sheesh. Even when there are NO cubicles, whatsoever, behind me. Stupid, I know, but hey, I can't help it!

Oh well. A huge pile of mail just came in for me to sort through.

Sooooooo, I shall have to let my blog goooooo. Geez, how pathetic do I sound?


PS: On a much, much, much brighter note: Michelle's back from Australia to the hot sunny land we call home; she says she's already melting. Haha.

I cannot play tennis.

Seriously.

I tend to play it like badminton. So, I'm constantly scooping the ball up, which makes the lil green tennis ball zoom and bounce like crazy from one end of the tennis court to the other.

But well, it was a good try. And I learnt that I like to watch tennis more than I like to play it. So far, anyway. I'd like to learn to play it properly though. One day.

Woke up at what seemed like the crack of dawn to me, [Okay, so it was 7:50 a.m.] and made my way to college with Ching. Met up with a bunch of college friends: Kai Han, Zhen Han, Melissa and Uncle Darren. Both of us had our first sort-of-slash-unofficial tennis lesson, and promptly spent more time picking up tennis balls than actually hitting tennis balls.

Although, there was this super-shot which Ching hit out of our fenced tennis court into the football field. Heh.

PS: I also think I'm getting a little better at basketball. Maybe that's just because the hoops at college seem a little lower I've grew taller. Hmpf.

For some reason, we were both in such a semangat sporting mood, that we called up the rest of the gang and went to play badminton in the evening. Badminton was fun; we watched Sukkwan do her Shaolin-cum-ballet badminton moves, Siokkwan's 'smashes', Jo's and my miscommunications on court, and of course, Ching whacking me on the head with the badminton racquet.

Owch. That hurt. And I heard some ringing noises in my ears and saw a few stars. Reminds me of the time she kicked the volleyball into my face when she was aiming for something else far away from where I was standing. Hazardous to my health, I tell you.

That was a lot of sweat for one day. That, and the fact that we went to Ming Tien after that and probably ate off all our hard work. What was meant to be an innocent trip to get some fresh fruit juice after our TWO HOUR badminton session, turned out to be an eating session. I guess we can't resist ikan bakar and deep fried mushrooms. Slurping-ly sinful.

Oh well, it's to work again tomorrow at Bristol-Myers Squibb to fill in for their receptionist for another time because it's their company annual trip to Sabah. So, it'll be two full days of answering phone calls for me.

"Bristol-Myers Squibb, good afternoon; how may I help you?"

Just try saying that really fast a few times and see if you get tongue-twisted. Lol.

And then, come Friday evening, it's off to Melaka with the council. Road trip!!!! It's not the full council going, but nevertheless, it's gonna be tons of fun, I'm sure. I've missed spending crazy times with them, hanging around and bullshitting in the council room with nothing better to do. Probably the last official outing of our council.

Been watching tons of TV lately, and oh no, I think I've gotten hooked onto some new series: Grey's Anatomy and The O.C.

I know I'm a bit late to be jumping on the O.C. bandwagon, since the second or third season's already showing on 8TV but I've been watching the first few episodes of the first season because they're showing it on Astro, and it's pretty interesting. I still like One Tree Hill better of course, but well, Orange County's not too bad either; love the scenery and the houses, and well, Seth's pretty cute in a geeky way. Lol.

Song of the day: Michael Tolcher's Bad Habits.

And one more thing. Daniel, our current not-quite Malaysian Idol is overrated. Ugh. Was watching the repeat of the season 2 finale, and EVERYONE can sing Daniel out of the water. Seriously. I want my Ashhhhh to be Malaysian Idol. I want anyone else to be Malaysian Idol. Okay, errrr, on the other hand, maybe not Faizull.



Ouch. My entire body's still hurting from our hard-core tennis/badminton session. Huff huff. Puff puff. We should really do this more often.

What did 2005 hold for you? Do you even remember?

Honestly, I had no idea what I was going to blog about, because well, I'm kinda running out of inspiration. There's absolutely NOTHING going on right now to blog about, nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Zero. Trust me, you would not be terribly amused by my bumming around encounters at home with the idiot box :) The idiot box is muahhh friendddd. And the brand-new DVD player, too. They switch on at the touch of a button, and they shut up, when you pull the plug. Good friends, those. Lmao.

Kidding, kidding. But, I digress.

Back to the topic at hand: My 2005. What happened? Amidst the three-hundred and sixty-five [and a quarter] days, which held too much good times to measure, 150 kgs of laughters, 10 grams of anger, a few ounces of tears, two teaspoons of insecurities, and a pinch of bitchy-ness. [Yes, just a pinch. Lol. I'm not that bad.] Let's have a look at my 2005:

1. Left the security of the turqoise pinafore and baju kurung behind and traded them in for the hustle-bustle big scenario of college. It's different. From the people you've seen everyday for the past five years, to a whole sea of new faces and a multitude of personalities. You see shallow people with layers of fake-ness. [Oh, and not forgetting layers of make-up, too. *insert eyeroll here*] But more importantly, you meet genuine people who you don't forget.
2. Kept going at my blog. Wow. Amazing, huh? I am the typical specimen of someone who never finishes what she starts, but I kept on blogging, and learnt some basic HTML along the way. And yes, I'm proud of that.
3. Managed not to drop my lovely Samsung handphone like how I did with my previous ones. Lol. I tried to be not so clumsy in the past year. And not bad; just dropping it three times ain't that bad for my standards.
4. Gained more weight than I ever needed to. Not like I need to. 'Nuff said. Lol.
5. Welcomed a new addition into the ever-growing Tan family of 11-A, Jalan SS2/57. Like most of you already know, Su's pregnant, and due somewhere in May this year.
6. Got my driver's license! Big, big achievement. Hah.
7. Sort-of taught myself to play the guitar. And I actually tried my hand at song-writing. Seriously. It's therapeutic. Music is my security blanket. I may be writing crap, for all I know, but it's good to get things out of your system sometimes.
8. Travelled outside Malaysia for the first time since I was nine. [Nope, I'm not counting Singapore in this one here, because I go there so bloody often.] Hopefully, I will get to go to more places, and see more cultures, because I really enjoyed myself. It was a trip, where I was old enough to see things through my own eyes, and not anyone's else's, and process those sights into my own thoughts. Learning experience. Plus, I know I'll sound like a complete spoilt brat when I say this, but I think it was the first time I'd been away from home for so long without family members around. [Not that Ching's not like family to me, but well, you get what I mean. I hope.]
9. Kept in contact with my close buddies. You guys know who you all are. We always worried [or rather, I always worried] that we would start growing apart after secondary school, but we didn't. It was a joint effort from all of us. *beams proudly*
10. Found a new unhealthy obsession in the form of One Tree Hill. Lol. Me and Mary both.
11. Got good results. SPM, and then MUFY. And I'm happy. Being the big ol' softie that I am, I cried both times, the first because I was ectastic, and the second because I was disappointed at first. But now I'm okay. I'm pretty sure that I am. As cliched as this is going to sound, it made me stronger. *cue sappy violins playing in the background*
12. Became a whole shitload more thick-skinned. Thanks to the Sunway Ball. I'd packed away my shyness and approached whichever Tom, Dick and Harry I saw to get them to come to our ball. Mortifying, I know. I still can't believe I did that. Which brings me to...
13. Planning the biggest-ever project of my life, with the largest capacity ever. The Sunway Ball. Though it was difficult, it was stressful, tempers flaring and boiling over, but through it, I had the pleasure and experience of working with some of the most talented, strong and amazing individuals. Our council rawks my sawks! Lol.
14. Wrote 'I'm An Angel' more than 800 times. Don't ask me. No thanks to the Student Council of Sunway University College. Sheesh.
15. Cursed a whole lot more than I should've. Gosh. It's not something to be proud of, definitely.
16. We went picnic-ing at FRIM. Lol. One of the greatest times I've had all year, I think. [Aside from Sukkwan's camera getting dunked into the water by accident, of course.]
17. And well, last but not least, I graduated from college. How time flies.

I had a fulfilling year. Did you? Give it some thought.

Random thoughts of the day:

'Intolerable Cruelty' starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones absolutely sucks. What a load of crap. And a waste of time. But Catherine Zeta-Jones is beautiful though. Don't get any wrong ideas, please.

If your New Year's Resolution is to stop bitching, give this one here a thought: Life's a bitch, so sometimes we just gotta bitch right along with it. Lol.

I don't know what date it is. I seriously lose all track of time once it's holidays.

This song by Jack's Mannequin called 'The Mixed Tape'. If you're into rock-like bands, you gotta check it out. Or for those who don't, then there's always 'Only You' by Josh Kelley. Catchy song. Never heard of either of them?

I love 'Scrubs'. It rocks. Seriously. Stumbled across the blog of their lead actor, Zach Braff. Pretty funny, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek read, check it out of you have time. Click here. And also, I found his brother's blog as well. Joshua Braff, who is an author. He'd posted two really emotion-provoking short stories in his blog. Do read them. He's got a very simple, yet descriptive flair in his words. Just scroll through the posts. One of them is called 'Day of Days' and the other is 'Coney Island's No Fun If It's Raining'.

Hope it doesn't rain. Want to go to pasar malam later.

Want to learn how to play tennis soon. Mary, Jo, when are we ever going to go?

I suck at pool. I suck at foosball. I've come to the conclusion that I can only play games that don't require too much coordination skills [unlike foosball] and only one ball/shuttlecock/whatever [unlike pool]. Which is why I can only play netball. Sigh. Less talented people like us.

Oh my goodness. I'm actually liking Ashlee Simpson's songs these days.

I want to watch 'The Family Stone'.

I absolutely hate irritating VJs. Those two twins grate on my nerves, seriously. Get a life, please. We don't really care for you on MTV, other than when you're actually leaving. As though one of you wasn't enough. Who was God trying to punish when he made two of you?

Last night's match between Man Utd and West Burton Albion was the worst match I've ever seen. Absolutely pathetic. Emphatic pathetic-ness.

And to end this blog post, here a line from this new TV show, Grey's Anatomy. It shows on TV3, every Wednesday at 11 p.m. A cross between ER and Scrubs.

Meredith: Whoever said 'what you don't know can't hurt you' was a complete and total moron. Because... for most people I know, not knowing is the worst feeling in the world. But as human beings, sometimes, it's better to stay in the dark. Because in the dark, there may be fear, but there's also hope.

I love shows with lines like these.

Haven't blogged in so long, so I figured that my next blog post should be on the first day of the New Year. First of all, a very very very awesome-licious [this new word is courtesy of Ms. Lee Man Teng] super-tastic 2006! We had a good 2005, and hopefully a better '06, aight?

Okay, I haven't blogged since Christmas, so it would be totally wrong not to write about one of the last events of 2005, so here it is.

Instead of a white Christmas, Malaysians everywhere had a wet Christmas, because it just wouldn't quit raining. Went to church in the morning, and I loved it as usual. I love Christmas hymns, and the choirs and the lovely decorations. And most of all because we're celebrating the birth of dear Jesus Christ. That's one reason; another is that Christmas is one of the few times that my entire family actually gets to spend time together, and that's great. We're all usually so busy with our own things, that we don't sit down and have a meal together. I've got college, my siblings with work, the kids with kindergarten.


Our puny Christmas tree surrounded by a truckload of pressies. Mostly for the kids. *pout* But I'm a kid too!

Big big big thank you to Mary's dad and mum who treated us to a great buffet lunch at the Grand Season's Hotel. How many rounds did we go? A lot. Jo sapu-ed almost a whole plateful of lala. There was a lot of good food; turkey, a huge array of cakes, mousse, ice-cream, etc [As you can probably tell, I'm a dessert person]. We sat around feeling incredibly bloated for a pretty long time, feeling like humongous pigs.


Us girls.


Jo, Mary and Sioki. Siokkwan looks extra happy because she just glared at some small kid. Evil woman.


See those satisfied smiles?

The six of us had previously drawn lots to see who we had to buy Christmas gifts for. I bought Ching a shirt; Mary got me six pairs of earrings [!] and a beautiful choker. Oh, and Siokkwan bought this really funny book for Jo, it's called 'How To Be an Action Superhero', or something like that. Lol. It's pretty funny, a little crappy, but funny all the same. It teaches you [or rather, it teaches Jo] how to make a love potion, how to dirty dance, how to trap a thief and things like that. To make a love potion, Jo would have to collect two cups of rain water, amongst other things. Haha. People, stay away from Jo. He has that book, now.


After lunch with bigger tummies. Sigh.


Another pic.


Mary's shot at a self-taken pic. Not bad considering we managed to get six big heads into one shot. =P


In Jo's Atos on the way home.

Rushed home to prepare for my family's annual dinner, where each one of the girls [my two sis-in-laws, my sis and me] prepare one course each for the dinner. We were joking that next year we should make the guys cook. Hah! Mine as usual was dessert. Baked chocolate cake this year, and served it with hot chocolate sauce and vanilla ice-cream. Slurp. Ate somemore during dinner and felt even more bloated. I practically ate my way through Christmas! Mannnn.


The four chefs of the night with the feast laid out before us.


Fruits and flowers. Mmmmm. Aren't they beautiful?


Family pic. Everyone's secretly dying to dig into the food already.

Got loads of lovely gifts. New purple Ipanema slippers from Ching, more earrings and accessories, and a few tops for the new year. Presents make me a very happy lil girl.

Fast forward a few days, and we're at New Year's Eve. We went to the Curve this year for their street party: Jo, Siokkwan, Suki, Drew, Mary, Xue, Ching, Ming and I. Went to Secret Recipe's for dinner because our booking at TGIFs didn't get through, and anyway TGIFs didn't have their ala carte menu for the night, so their cheapest set dinner would've been a freaking RM 69.90. Had dinner while Mary and Wenxue tried their best not to argue be bitter with each other until the new year. Lol. It was an achievement.


Ching and Ming on the way to the Curve during the jam in Xue's car.


Drew and the two SKs during dinner.


Jo and Mary.

Left Secret Recipe's to go out to the celebration. It was still dristling, but that didn't stop a lot of people from going to the stage with umbrellas. Seriously. Not us, though. Lol. We waited for the rain to stop, and then went forward. Frequency Cannon was playing at that time, I think. They're pretty good. The standard of Malaysian music acts is slowly rising, at least.


The view from the steps while we were waiting. Lol.


Me, Siok Kwan and Mary.


Me and Jo. Sigh, his complexion is nicer than mine.

Bumped into Rica, Nicole and Cyndi near the stage, and then later Ping and Josh(plus his sister and her friend), and (after what seemed like ages of us holding up our arms trying to let them know where we were in the crowd) Sheng and Andrew. ALL of us were holding up our arms and waving to no one in particular, trying to get their attention for the LONGEST ever time. And then holding up our cameras and flash-ing randomly [Xue and Drew had to keep on putting up the cameras and snapping because they had the longest limbs amongst us all. Hee hee. Xue is Jar Jar Binks, after all]. Finally, Sheng found us about an hour later with the help of my handphone. [Yes Sheng, now we're even! Or else you couldn't have countdown-ed with us.] It was like a Taman Sea reunion. We screamed like mad and deafened the people in front of us. So, slowly, they moved to let us through and we made our way to the front of the stage. Mwahahahahahaha. We are all experienced campfire and installation screamers. Mary was the champion screamer, I tell you. *shakes head* Do not mess with us.


This is how near we got to the stage as a result of screaming. Yeah, we're good.


Cam-whoring while we were waiting for Zainal Abidin to come out. *shuddddders* He didn't come out in the end. Phew. Goodness knows where he went, but that's okay. I don't really wanna know.


Sweet innocent smiles. Ehehe. Not while we're cursing the people who spray-ed us and the weird dancers, right? =P


Half me, Mary and three-quarters of Jo.


Jo and us girls.


Drew, Xue, Ching and Rica. The guys look bored, lol. The light was behind me, so the pic turned out this way.


Mary and I.


Rica, Nicole on the phone giving directions to Ping, Cyndi and Sioki.


Sookies and Jo.


Me, Mary, Suki and Jo.


Ching and me. I think we have one pic like this almost every special event.


The light's behind the camera in this one, but somehow I like the effect.


There's Mary's new obsession guy, Vince on the screen. Lol. Sorry Mary, didn't get any good shots of him. But I have to say, he looks way better in person, sounds really good live, and is a really good entertainer. Mary (after his performance): He's mine, ahhhhhhh!


Nicholas Teo, singing. He sounded pretty good too.


Him again.


*Squeals* Pop Shuvit! Pop Shuvit! Ahhhhhhhh! I screamed myself hoarse. Too bad their drummer's way at the back. Sigh.


More Pop Shuvit.


And more.


And more, of course!

To potong steam after Pop Shuvit's superb performance, Ella came out. Ugh. Her voice is good, but oh my bleeping goodness, she's so slutty-looking. Trying to be cute, running her fingers through her hair again and again. Yuck. And then there was Ferhad, who sounds a little like Aaron Carter at times, and scarily like Diana Ross at other times. Ass. He kept on telling the crowd to reach out, and feel and touch others, because it's the New Year's. Uh-huh.


Countdown-ing!


First pic of 2006!

And then the fireworks came! Wheeeee. I'm such a little kid. I LURVE fireworks. I watch them and literally go ooh-ing and aah-ing. So gorgeous. Somehow the fireworks looked a whole lot better when I was little, but I guess you're easily amazed when you're a kid-lah, right?


Check the fireworks out.








And after all the explosions and bang-bang-booms, they told us to turn around to witness the biggest fireworks in Malaysia. So we turned around and saw...


(Supposedly) the biggest fireworks in Malaysia. Errrrr, okay? Lol. The ones we had earlier were way bigger, thank you very much.

Reshmonu came out after the fireworks and sang a few songs, that was fun. Dancin'. Partyin'. And getting knocked by this bunch of really weird people dancing, their jackets inside-out and with their elbows in the air and all. Ping calls it their 'rasa sayang' style. Lmao. Hee hee. And urgh, I hate that snow-spray in a bottle shit. It stinks. Some arses were dousing us with tons of it.

It took us about an hour to get out of the Tesco parking lot, where Jo successfully, skillfully maneuvered an-almost 300 degrees in his own parking place to zoom out and drive against the traffic. Whoa. Skill, Jo! Ask me to tell you the story when you see me, because I have no idea how to put it in words here. It's too amazing. Lol. Okay, before Jo totally inflates-slash-kembang, we must also all thank Andrew for being the other hero and getting out of the car to move the dustbin and trolley to give Jo enough space to do his magic, and also walking around the parking lot to see which exit we should go to. Our first adventure of the New Year's.

Went off to Mosin becuase Williams was too packed. Sigh. Was dying for a Ribena Longan after all that crazy screaming. Met up with some others over there, and also walked over to Williams for a short while to see some old classmates. Saw Andrea there too.

After more chit-chatting, got a ride home from Xue. Bathed, washed my hair and got whatever snow-spray that had gotten into it, and collapsed into bed at about 4 a.m.

What an eventful first day of 2006, seriously. Crazy ladies [plus a few guys] nite out. If the rest of the year's gonna be like this, I'll need to stop and catch my breath first. =P

More reenactments of our crazy night out: Sheng's blog and Nic's blog.

All the pics will be up very very soon at my Multiply site, so go there to curi whatever you want that's not here. =P

Till then, happy new year! xoxoxo Loadsa lurve, from..ME!