Room Makeover!!

Some many months ago, I moved house. Actually, it's hardly called a move, I just shifted exactly 11 doors down from where I used to live. But anyways, 11 or 101 doors, it involved lots of packing, loading, unloading and unpacking. This time around, I was determined to have a more cosy looking room. I shopped for lots of ideas from Ikea and also browsed through the volumes of interior design magazines I borrowed / coxed (very very nicely) Ryan into buying. *smiles with glee*.

The final piece of the makeover came from the Lusty carpet I wanted sooooo much from Ikea. And that came true when I brought mum and dad to Ikea. Them feeling very generous that day decided they could help me purchase it! Yay!!!

After the many many months of the make over, I've not posted the pictures up. The room does not look fancy but I love it to bits! Take a peek*

Right side of room


Left side of room


The siesta spot

An empty mind...

...is said to be the devil's workshop. but i dont think it has reached that point yet. i'm just rather restless. everyday is a routine, there is nothing to look forward to.

i wake up, get dressed
work work work
lunch
work work
get crammed in sardine packed lrt
shower and dinner
surf the net, check emails, facebook
read
bed

tomorrow the whole day repeats itself. weekends are a lil better, there is always a play to catch, and i can count the invitations to pool parties, or if i'm really up for it, clubbing. but they no longer appeal to me. its been there, done that.

i guess i'm looking for something more meaningful. i have the weekends in my hands and as much as i really enjoy my sleep (coz 6 hours on mon-fri ain't enough), i need something to look forward to. make a contribution to society, help someone in need, learn a new skill, go dancing like i've always wanted to, just something. a breeze of fresh air.

i want a vacation. the weather and i, however, are not on agreeable terms. so the vacation will have to wait.

i'm already rambling. its the partially empty mind i'm telling you.

What do you see?

From the outside,
you see a pretty face,
with a hint of rouge,
shade of rose on her lips,
hair with curls around the ears.
Fair skin with dark hair,
Deep set eyes,
Someone who is almost serene
in the midst of madness and chaos.

What you don’t know is
She plays the organ,
Never wears a bikini
Always punctual and hates those who are not
Talks too much as she can’t live with the deafening silence
Enjoys a good book before she sleeps
Thinks movies are overrated
And theater are deserving of more
Adores babies and well behaved kids
Like her chocolates dark and Belgian,
Flowers should only be a single red rose.

Underneath the face,
She too gets scared
Sometimes worries too much
And the walls of her heart are kept high
to protect herself from getting hurt,
to keep others from seeing what’s truly inside,
for fear of letting people in.

But really, how can you tell
When all you’re allowed to see
Is a bright smile, a bubbly upfront,
Always sure, bold and ready with an answer,
Not everyone’s cup of tea.

The face on the mirror
Doesn’t always replicate what you see,
You see what you want,
And you see what is shown
It is after all, just a reflection.

The English Language

Caller : Hello, can I speak to Annie Wan? (anyone)

Operator : Yes, you can speak to me.

Caller: No, I want to speak to Annie Wan!

Operator: You are talking to someone! Who is this?

Caller: I'm Sam Wan (someone) And I need to talk to Annie Wan! It's urgent.

Operator: I know you are someone and you want to talk to anyone! But what's this urgent matter about ?

Caller: Well... just tell my sister Annie Wan that our brother Noel Wan (no one) was involved in an accident. Noel Wan got injured and now Noel Wan is being sent to the hospital. Right now, Avery Wan is on his way to the hospital.

Operator: Look if no one was injured and no one was sent to the hospital, then the accident isn't an urgent matter! You may find this hilarious but I don't have time for this!

Caller: You are so rude! Who are you?

Operator: I'm Saw Lee. (sorry)

Caller: Yes! You should be sorry. Now give me your name!!

False Alarm

My weekend was absolutely interesting in the oddest way. Since I’ve started working, I have been staying at my aunt’s place. I moved in yesterday to my place which will from now on be referred to as Maya Casa. Maya means dream or illusion while casa is castle so put together it’s the Castle of Dreams.

On Saturday on my way to Maya Casa, I had the strangest cramp and the pain lasted throughout the day. I didn’t make mention of it to anyone coz I could still tolerate the pain. And I figured it would eventually subside. The pain gradually got worse at night but I still tahan la.

By the time Sunday morning, I couldn’t stand straight anymore and the lower right side right under the tummy freaking hurts. I was walking like a hunched old woman tugging her tummy. Dad got me to the clinic and the doctor suspected I have a case of appendicitis. However, he said I look pretty comfortable for an appendicitis patient. I was referred to the hospital just in case.

The alternative was to wait for about 6 hours and if the pain gets worse, I should get admitted so I picked this option instead. He prescribed some painkillers, I popped one, slept and woke up with the pain in tact. So my original plan to move in to KJ on Sunday morning had to be postponed.

Since sleep wasn’t helping, I decided to go ahead and move in to Maya Casa after lunch. While helping my dad with the cleaning up, I suddenly realized that I could actually stand straight and the pain has vanished! I was so surprised coz I didn’t notice it earlier. I guess I somehow recovered along the 45 min journey from Aunt’s Place to Maya Casa!

Of course my dad was still concerned coz it’s hard to believe that someone who could barely walk an hour ago can recover just like that. He wanted me to stay at my aunt’s place one more night just to be sure but I convinced him I was fine. And true enough, the pain didn’t come back and I’m as good as new. The false alarm was so not plesant.

The puzzling part is this – what caused the awful 2 day cramp which really felt like appendicitis and how in the world could the pain just disappear? That’s a mystery I have yet to uncover. But I’m super duper thankful that the pain is no more, I do not have appendicitis, no hospital and no surgery. I pray this episode won’t make a comeback.

The Moi Who Didn’t Fast

I wanted a change in outfit from the usual corporate wear so I donned a baju kurung instead today. Wearing the usual slacks, skirts and collared shirts are getting a little too routine so I decided to throw something traditional in to spice things up.

And the reaction it got me was rather amusing especially from those working in my department, which I have decided to name the Prefect Board. I’ll get to its name in another post yeah. So many people were excited to see a non-malay wearing a baju kurung and I had quite a number of compliments on how nice my baju kurung is.

Inside I was chuckling coz I only have 2 baju kurungs in my entire wardrobe and this is a really old one which had made not more than 5 appearances since 5 years ago when I bought it. In fact, it is an extremely simple outfit, nothing fancy and I know how much nicer my colleagues baju kurungs look like.

The best part is I got loads of people outside my department confused as I unashamedly ate my tuna sandwich at the pantry without any guilt or remorse. You see, they actually thought I was malay girl! I even heard two ladies whispering to each other about me not fasting (quite kepo huh don’t you think?) until someone said I’m not malay. And when I went for lunch at the nearby foodcourt, I could feel dagger stares penetrating through my thin and tiny frame for queuing for food.

When the office boy left for home (those fasting leave at 4pm), he turned around and said “Moi, jangan lupa buka puasa tau.” There you go; a supposed Chinese girl in a baju kurung not fasting. Hang on, I look Chinese?? *puzzled*

Quickie

I've been spending a lot of time in front of the computer studying! and there are so many modules more to go but my exam is at 2.30pm so i have resorted to studying smart. i did the trial papers and noted popular chapters and dive straight into reading those chapter's materials. and i scored a 50% average too. not bad!

and i still have so many pictures from rainforest to upload.

am no longer missy-swollen-face, now just missy-slightly-swollen-face. will write more about what actually happened once i do have the time.

im so outdated with movies. i have yet to catch hancook, then there is the dark knight and journey to the centre of the earth. am thinking of doing a movie marathon. now, who do i ask along? hhmmm....

ok, i gtg. back to hitting the books... er... modules online. all the best to me.

ooh ooh, one last thing. my results came out while i was in kuching. i hv checked it and i'm really happy i did better than expected. so hurray, i'm trully and officially a graduate! can't wait for my graduation ceremony. which reminds me, i still havent decided what to wear for that BIG day.

ttyl~

Kuching Checklist

I’m all ready and packed out for my Kuching trip. Even as I’m typing this, my excitement is escalating at a frightening rate. Of course it is not frightening if you’re me! So I looked through my bag and mentally took note of all the items I needed to bring along. Here’s a check list I keep for travelling purposes. I absolutely hate accidentally leaving something behind. While some items can be lived without, having them around makes life so much easier. I take comfort in my own things. And I find it a hassle to have to borrow or worse still, buy, if I left something behind.

The checklist takes away the burden of having to mentally remember stuff. Plus all I need to do is to tick away the list to make I have taken along everything. Here’s my Kuching Checklist:

Clothes – to last 5 days 4 nights. Brought along lots of t-shirts and shorts to cater to the hot weather. Plus I’ll be outdoors quite a bit.

Undergarments – to last 5 days 4 nights or I prefer to count it as how many times I’ll be taking a shower. There will approximately 8 showers this trip so at least 8 sets to go.

Toiletries – comb, body shower, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste (all travel pack sizes of course)

Cleansing Regime – Cleanser, Toner, Moisturiser (travel pack) to make sure my skin stays healthy.

Camera – to take loads of pictures!! Included is the charger

Hand phone charger – so I can stay connected.

Sun block – much needed for all my time outdoors.

Cap – to prevent too much tan. I almost never regain my colour back whenever I’m out too long in the sun. So a cap reduces a tan a tiny bit.

Umbrella – for the sudden showers. Plus it also protects against the fury of the blazing sun.

Sunglasses – to look cool. *laughs*

Insect repellent – AA went for the Rainforest World Music Festival 2 years ago and reminded me (more like drilled it in my head) to bring this along because it would be my life saver. He poor soul had a literal blood donation drive to the feisty mosquitoes during his last visit there.

Denim Jacket – in case it gets cold. Will definitely use it on my journey to the airport (I’m leaving home at 6 am *horror*), the airport and during flights.

Towel – not provided by the backpackers I’m staying at.

Blanket – I get cold pretty fast due to the absence of flesh and fat in my severely underweight body. And I bet the ang moh’s in my dorm won’t be too happy if I switch off or turn up the temperature the air-cond in the middle of the night, so my blanket “courtesy” of Malaysian Airlines will keep me snug and warm.

Shoes and flip flops – For walking duh

Map – 3 Maps of Cat City with the main streets and important locations beautifully highlighted in yellow. I took the pains to look up comprehensive maps which had good landmarks to make travelling and walking around easy when we go sight-seeing.

List of Places to Visit and Food to Eat – again google and blogs are really helpful in deciding where to go, how to go and what to expect. I especially took in more effort in the food section coz this girl can definitely afford a piling up a few kilograms :).

Kenny’s Food Award post and Wiki Travel of Kuching are superb. I savoured every bit of those articles, absorbing all the details and then neatly compiled my own list in my notebook. I can’t possibly visit every single place so I focused on the must-not-miss items like the Sarawak laksa, Kolo Mee, Teh C Peng etc etc.

Packets of tissue – absolutely needed because my nose will display sinus-like and flu-like symptoms every time I eat irrespective of what I eat. Will need the tissues handy.

2 Hangers and clothes peg – Laugh all you want but I packed those because I know the clothes line and clothes hanger will be totally utilised as the backpackers is full house. At least I get to hang my towel to dry by the window or something.

Vitamin C – to stay in the pink of health.

That’s pretty much it. I doubt I left anything behind. While I do like travelling light, I also like to ensure I don’t miss out anything and try to cover all possibilities. I’m simply not a believer of chance and I hate thinking of “What if’s” without having a simple solution.

If the sun comes up, I have my cap and sunblock. When it rains, I’m geared with my umbrella. I brought an extra set of clothes in case of any emergency. It is all this little tiny things that can be left behind but I hate it when I’m stuck and thinking at the back of my head, “Damn, I should have brought that thing!”. So yeah, I pack up and am ready to go!

Kuching, beware for here comes Ohkulala to invade, explore and enjoy your city!!!

How to Prepare for a Job Interview

Now that I’m in a job hunt, I have to get myself prepped up for interviews. It is important to be prepared because it will show when the interviewers asks you questions and giving blank looks aint going to earn you any brownie points. When I was studying, looking for a job didn’t seem so hard. All I thought I had to do was send in my resumes to a few companies and wait for their call. Boy, I was wrong! Just sitting and waiting did not get my anywhere so a different approach has to be taken. More initiative into calling and emailing them expressing my interest works better than just waiting.

So here’s a few tips for attending interviews:

1. Resume & Cover Letter – make sure they are spelling and grammatically error free. It doesn’t give a good first impression to note mistakes on your “selling point”. This is afterall the first document the HR department receives prior to scheduling to meet you for an interview.

2. Company Background – This can be found mainly on their website. The amount of information may be overwhelming but the key items to look for is the company history (which country are they from and current headquarters) and company mission

3. Attire – dress to impress. First impressions count very heavily as you may only see your interviewer once and it’s best to create a good hence positive and lasting impression. Invest in a pair of black shoes, slacks and a good fitting collared shirt. Ties should match the attire and pls skip those sleezy smiley faces ties, those will not work! Girls, do not wear make-up 3 inches thick unless you’re applying for a job that has such requirements.

4. Be prepared with answers. Some questions will pop up and it’s best to be prepared. Popular questions include:

a) Tell us about yourself.

b) Why did you choose our organization?

c) Your strength and weaknesses

d) Why should we hire you over the next qualified person?

Answer with sincerity and while it is great to highlight on your strengths and keen interest, do not exaggerate as you may come across as a show-off or arrogant.

Well, that should set you up for a decent interview. One more very very important thing to note, Be On Time. Its alright if you’re early but never come in late. In a case of emergency, it is best to call and give them a heads up. Interviewers also have their jobs to do and can’t spend the whole day waiting. If they do and seem snappy, you know why. Good luck then!

PS: I was in the newspapers again, on New Straits Times last Saturday for the Made of Honour Premiers. Will blog bout it later :)

I got a jab!

My sister and I have yet to get chicken pox all this years despite my mum’s repeated attempts to get us infected. Among such ingenious methods include making us play with her friend’s children who have chicken pox hoping we would get it. But yet it didn’t work. Our immune system must be heck of a powerful huh. Hehe….

Well, Sis S’s best friend contracted the *horror* chicken pox not too long ago and when my mum saw her condition, it shocked her to see how adverse the effects could be on a slightly grown up child. The scars were bad and she took a much longer time to recover. So we’re getting inoculated against it.

I had my first jab today. The doctor insisted i not look while i got my jab. I breathed in, breathe out. Nothing. Then breathe in .... oooowwww!!!! and breathe out. I was glad it was over so fast. It was alright, like a sting of a red ant. No scars, no bumps and my arm functions just fine. Phew...

I'll get my second dose on the 25th of August (2 months from now). And when I looked at my card, I smiled coz 25th is a day after my graduation ceremony. All things happen at the same time huh.

Hair Cut and Cost Cuts

I did one of the most random things today. Well, it is not outrageously random unless you're me. Coz you see, i got myself a hair cut. Yes, a cut, not a mere trim as i regularly do. I was thinking of getting a new hairstyle, preferbably something shorter as my hair is in its longest length ever grown and i'm in need of some change.

So while chit chatting with my mum today, i had this sudden urge to get myself a new hairstyle. And i'm the sort of person who has to go out doing something right when i feel like it. If i were to wait and further think, i usually end up not accomplishing it. So i changed and headed off to the salon immediately.

I must say i was a teeny tiny nervous about the haircut coz i've not had short hair for many many years. So i told my hairstylist Ron (who is so cute btw) that i'm putting my faith in him to make me look nice. Lol. You should have seen the look on his face when i said that. Plus i couldnt get something funky in case i need to attend job interviews.

Anyhow, here's how my hair now looks like. I've not spotted hair this short since i was 12!! I quite like the cut, simple and absolutely no-maintenance. I need a break after one year of taking care of my curls.

Tadaaaa.... the new haircut

And speaking of short hair and the current hike of petrol prices, i'm already doing my part. Shorter hair means less shampoo and less water therefore less expenditure. Smart right? *laughs*

Fishing My Way To Made of Honour

Now that exams are over and my presentation done, i'm all alone here with solid good internet and what hv i been doing?? FISHING! Yeah, i've been playing this 90sec fishing game brought to you by Hong Leong Bank. I love it so much even you should give it try *click*

So, what is this hoo-ha all about? Well, Nuffnang is holding this competition where 40 winners will get to attend an 8 course dinner in JW Marriott KL after which will be the premier of Made of Honour! I've heard so much of this place i need to get my butt there. All you need to do is to, well, fish of course. Then you post a screenshot of the highest score with the title above. Oh, how i love not having to study so i can play and play this game the whole day. Yippee!

After all the fishing, here's my highest score and i sure hope this is good enough to get me a superb treat to a fabulous dinner at the glitzy JW Marriott and watch McDreamy in Made of Honour. Ahhh.... *drools*

Dream a little Dreamz

1. Who is the professional image consultant dishing out juicy tips on how to look your best at CloveTWO.com's Lookin' Good section?
Wendy Lee

2. Name the bloggers at the Guy and Parent blogs.
Guy: Andrew William
Parent: Sharmila Rajah

3. At which section do you find stories on women's fashion and beauty?
Style Sheet

Attending Dreamz would be a dream come true for me because magical white lions teamed with a show of love, romance, passion are fantasies I would like to see come to life.

To take part, *click*

All You Need Is One

From One Tree Hill by Peyton Sawyer

"At this moment,

there are 6 billion, 4 hundred, 71 million,

8 hundred, 18 thousand, 6 hundred,

71 people in the world.

Some are running scared.. some are coming home.

Some tell lies to make it through the day..

others are just now facing the truth.

Some are evil men at war with good,

some are good.. struggling with evil.

6 billion people in the world,

6 billion souls --

and sometimes..

all you need is 1."

City of Angels

City of Angels is one of my all time favourite movie for its simplicity and the way the movie is shot. My favourite quote was when Seth (Nicolas Cage) talked about Maggie (Meg Ryan) and how much she meant to him although she died very shortly after they had been together.

i would rather have had one breath of her hair,

one kiss of her mouth,

one touch of her hand,

than an eternity without it.

The best time of my day is...

Shower Time!!!

I Love Love Love taking showers. They are so refreshing and relaxing. Showers to me are like therapy, you go in, you get pampered and when you leave, you feel all good and nice inside. The pitter patter of water droplets on my face and body is soothing like massage to my tired muscles. I can’t imagine anyone Not liking a shower.

If I could be addicted to one more thing asides chocolates and ice-cream, showers would it. I love taking showers so much that I tend to stay in there till my fingers wrinkle up like prunes. But it is so fun just playing with water.

Of course I do wish my bathroom looks like this:

Then I probably wouldn’t even get out. Hehehe…. In fact, I do a lot of my thinking and soul-searching as I lather with soap; scrub myself clean from sweat and grime. It is the perfect time to think, peaceful, quiet and I can hear my thought loud and clear. I ponder on many things, scheme evil plans in my notty lil head (yeah right) and create a mirage of imaginary situations. Say if I were to meet the President of the United States, would I slap him or shake his hand?

It is so fun that I do get carried away. This explains why a shower for me is usually 15 minutes of luxurious alone time to remedy my body after a long day of hard work. And it is almost half hour when I wash my hair. Hey, hair also need some TCL ok, if not how would I expect my crowning glory to shine?

I do plan on getting myself a beautiful bathroom when I get a place of my own one day. Preferably one that incorporates both a shower and a bathtub so I can take my many many bubble baths. And let’s not forget, a shower and bath can always be shared with a someone else to a romantic escapade of passion :) Now, I’ll leave that to your creative imagination.

Who Is That?

Try guessing who, when and how the picture was taken. The first person who gets it right wins a treat and the pleasure of Ohkulala's company :) Drop answers at your comment. Terms and conditions applied.

The Social Outcast

Just 2 days ago i was talking about the poor phone reception and unstable internet connection here in uni and how without either my social life will suffer.

i guess i said it too soon.

This morning as i was logging into gtalk, i got a notification saying "ACCOUNT DISABLED". wtf. seriously, WTF. i have no idea what happened. but i do know this. for the last 2 weeks, i've been receiving tonnes of delivery failure notifications and i had no clue as to why is this happening so i naturally report them as spam and cleared them. easy right? until i checked my sent messages and realised that my account is the cause of it. it has been silently spamming people with the most disgusting emails like teenage sex, viagra for better performance, prescriptions that will change your life, yadda yadda. therefore when the emails do not get sent, i receive the delivery failure notifications. i did ask around and so far the spam has been addressed to random emails, i'm glad none of those in my contacts list has been affected so far.

so today, i actually am feeling the glimpse of a destroyed social life. i rely very heavily on my gmail for work purposes as well as to keep in touch with my friends. and today that is taken away from me. the email i use for my blog (kullovesyou@gmail.com) is a secondary account, one created when i was caffein high 5 years ago. but seriously you dont expect me to put this down as my primary account in my resumes for companies to contact me right. coz i think the moment they reach the line where my email is stated, i think my resume will be chugged into the "dont qualify" pile.

it is amazing how we become dependent on technology and emails. a part of me feels thankful that not ALL my account access uses the primary gmail account or else that will definitely spell D-O-O-M. so far my facebook, friendster and yahoo mail are working fine. i pray it remains so.

a big word of thanks to dear roomie Ah Sha for helping spread the word about my predicament via her gtalk status. so for the time being, do redirect all emails to vandes38@yahoo.com. A word of reminder, i do not appreciate forwarded emails so spare me the task of deleting them ya. And do add me on my temporary gtalk account, kullovesyou@gmail.com while the problem is rectified.

my most immediate concern is my resumes that has been distributed by the Career Unit of Cowboy Town Uni. i hope that if and when they would like to contact me and realises that my email has been disabled, they would pick up the phone to give me a buzz instead. i rather the walk out to the corridor to answer the call than to miss out on anything.

So pretty please to the people at Gmail Support, I need my gmail account up and running as soon as possible. Meantime, you know what to do right.

Frustrated

These days my patience is running very thin on two very important things – the reception of my mobile phone service provider and the speed of the internet in uni. I can’t pick an either or, they both make me do this:

As a loyal Maxis customer, is too hard to expect good reception in my room? Every time the phone rings, I’ll need to get out of my room to the corridor but that solution is temporary. After say 3 minutes, the connection lapses and I will be forced to move which eventually leads me to going out of my block. It is no fun you know. I would really love the convenience of being able to have conversation without 50% of it being this:

Me: Hello

Caller: Hello. Hello. Heellooo…. I can’t hear you. Are you there?

Me: But I can hear you. Helloooo. Can you hear me? Heellooo

Caller: Oh, there you are. So, how’s things *bzzz**cracks*crackles*bzzzz*? *Mumbles jumbles rambles further*

Me: Huh, sorry I couldn’t hear you. What did you say?

Caller: Hellooo… Elllooo…. Yellow. If you’re there, *bzzz**cracks*crackles*bzzzz* you.

So you see it sucks when I can’t carry out a decent conversation. Half the time will be spent on saying “Hello”, “I can’t hear you”, “Could you please repeat that”. I have developed the skill of guessing what people say to me during all the buzzing and lost in transmission lapses. These skills only go so far. I have guessed wrongly in the past which led to hilarious conversations. Pretty much like A asking B, “So, where did you go today?” and B responding by saying “Oh you heard too. Yeah, my uncle’s grandfather’s sister-in-law’s nephew’s neighbor’s daughter passed away 2 days ago”.

Without my phone dearest, I’ll be as good as living under a coconut shell. It is the life line to my social existence, the outside world, far away from Cowboy Town Uni and of course of home. I do feel bad for those who call me for the agony of not being able to hear me. And I feel bad for those who feel bad for me every time I ask them to hang on while I get out of my hostel. But I don’t think I have much of a choice at the risk of not having a life beyond the perimeters of my campus. Because the alternative of stubbornly sitting in my room, getting text messages from Maxis listing down my missed calls and not be in touch with the outside world is unacceptable. So yes, when the phone vibrates its happy tone, I briskly walk out, down the staircase to the corridor walkway to answer the call with a smile on my face.

The internet brings upon a different but equally frustrating story. It is pretty stable except when you really need it to be working. Then it becomes an a**olic b***h. I remember how the first 5 weekends in uni were spent internet-less. I felt so lost without it. Every time I want to Google something, I go all the way to clicking IE, waiting *fingers tapping* and then when it says “Page Can Not Be Found” before I bang my head realizing that there is NO internet again!

The lack of good connection really saps out all the joy in blogging. There are so many things I would like to post but they are just too time consuming that I eventually change my mind. Just look at my Vaisakhi post, I wanted to upload about 8 pics but only ended up with 3. You want to know why? I took me 2 freaking hours uploading them onto Photobucket before I could generate the html codes to include them here! 2 hours=3 pictures=productive time gone to waste on waiting.

I know I should be thankful that I do have internet and what can barely be called a phone reception. Not everyone in other parts of the world (or even in some uni’s in this country) have the privilege of such facilities. However, I do feel I hold certain leverage against Cowboy Town Uni simply because it claims to be a uni of international standards and world standing. How could a university of this prestige not be able to secure its scholars and students a consistently good, fast and stable internet connection? I don’t think that it’s a demand too big to fulfill.

As my mother puts it, this is only for 2 more months. Indeed.

Gifts and Presents Part 1

Buying gifts for a loved one, family and friends is no easy task. A lot of time and thought goes into choosing a gift. You want to buy something the other person will want, appreciate and like, not something you as the buyer like. I feel the best presents are those of something a person needs and can make use of. A painter can also do with an extra set of brushes. But also make sure it is a suitable gift. Buying a handphone for someone who just got the new iPhone would be redundant.

Some of the best presents I received are one of the simplest kinds. A cute mug reminding how high I get with caffeine. A brown shawl I once hated because I didn’t like its colour which now I never leave without because it is small, fits snugly into my handbag and keeps me really warm during my late nights out. A watch which a dear friend picked out. It is not just any watch, it was of the design I like, square face, small and of a metal strap, that friend had excellent memory about what I mentioned a long time ago about how I choose my watches. And the timing was perfect because I lost my watch while shopping in Bangkok. The unexpected trip to the optometrist to get a new pair of glasses (I could pick anything my heart desires) from my mother for helping her out. books to read when my eyes were giving me problems from too much exposure to the computer so I could read and still be entertained instead of watching my series. A pair of chopsticks to represent me and you and without the other, the chopstick is useless.

Back in high school, my best friends and I gave cards on Valentine's Day to one another, hand-made cards with notes of thanks for always being there through everything and how much I appreciate having them around. I have kept all the cards and notes I have received over the years and whenever I feel nostalgic, I dig them up and read them. Some puts a smile of my face, a few gets me bursting with laughter and the really touching ones, tears. I can still identify a card from the handwriting. I also see the progression we made as we grow up, the cards become less child-like and more mature with time. And I hope that my words warm their hearts they way they did mine.

I’ll come up with some ideas and suggestions on pressies tmrw. Stay tuned~