A Rude Awakening

Ever been so sure of something that you were about as immovable as a rock on steroids? Apparently, I've been too. I was completely unaware of it, but well, I suppose that doesn't make it any less true.

I've always maintained that I wasn't one of those people whose phones pretty much contained their lives. I don't obsessively upload pictures of my food or my outfits on Instagram, I don't share every YouTube video I like on Facebook and I most definitely do not post my every random thought (in a wit and pop culture reference themed extravaganza) on Twitter. I realised recently that no one knows I've graduated from university simply because I didn't post any pictures on Facebook. Imagine having a life altering moment and not plastering it into the story of your online presence. The horror!

Anyway, back to not being one of those my-phone-is-my-life people. So I left my phone at a friend's place the other day and only realised it when I had gotten home. By then all I had time for was a shower and a change of clothes before heading to work. In an unfortunate turn of events, I eventually did get Xander the Xperia back.

It took almost two. Whole. Days.

Oh boy, did I suffer. I couldn't do anything! I couldn't reach anyone because the only numbers I'd memorised belong the parents and the sister, which is ridiculous seeing as I live with my brother and he's the one I'd be calling more often asking if there's bread and milk at home or if he wants food. I couldn't play Sudoku to while away the commercials while watching tv. I couldn't even set an alarm to force myself out of bed in the morning! My days were filled with "Sudhan, can you call my sister for me?" and "Joash, can you text Leanne for me?". I felt so helpless and out of reach. My boss couldn't reach me if one of my classes had been cancelled, my friends couldn't reach me with the latest news (Or gossip. Whichever.), and Sudhan and Jasmine turned my pain into a Whatsapp spam party.

So yeah. Turns out I'm one of em tech zombies after all. I was way too happy to get Xander back to be devastated at the thought of being one with the masses though. And of course by masses I mean the kids all over the world who stare at the closest screen while you attempt to speak to them. Oh well, I haven't started scrolling down my Facebook news feed while someone tries to pry a sentence out of me at least. Good Lord, please don't ever let me be that punk. 

So there it is. I said a polite hello to my wake up call and am now unashamedly staring at my beloved Xander whenever I choose to spend quality time with him. IT. I meant it! 

Oh, what the hell. I mean, I did name the precious thing after all. Calling my phone 'him' won't level-up my psychosis any. 

A Birthday Week Part II

So continuing my previous post where we left off.

So the night of the 26th the college buddies counted down to Beh Jian Fung's birthday together in our Whatsapp group very aptly named 'We Hate UTAR'. We had a little Whatsapp emoticon celebration at midnight. It was horrendously lame but oh well we all thought it was the height of fun at the time :) 

The next day I met BJF at Mid Valley for a birthday buddies lunch. To our delight there was an Antipodean there. The last time we had gone to Antipodean at Bangsar together we really enjoyed ourselves and thought the service was great. To top it off, we saw our favourite waiter there and he was as affable and pleasant as ever. So of course, in response to all these good things, we stayed all afternoon drinking delicious coffee and talking away. And not one of the waiters gave us bitchy, judgey stares. It was very, very nice and we had a great time and even left before the 5pm KL deadlock traffic jams.

Always an honour to share an adjacent birthday with you, Beh Jian Fung :)

And that night it was a Middle Eastern dinner with the Rushworths and one of their longtime friends who was down from Langkawi for a visit. It was a lot of fun looking through the menu and not understanding what everything was. We all relied on Charles to not Punk us into having goat entrails for dinner. But thankfully his sense of humour was not that twisted and dinner was delicious. So it was another dinner with great company and conversation that I really enjoyed.

Then on Friday it was dinner with the mom and the sister and Manny. Manny was hilarious, saying it seemed like days ago that we were celebrating my birthday. We went to Nando's as usual and god my mouth is watering thinking of that extra hot peri peri chicken. Mom was telling us about her presentation that day that she had, as usual, done exceptionally well. She went on to win third place for Best Speaker. Couldn't public speaking be hereditary?? Damn. Well I did get my public speaking skills from both her and dad I'm sure, but it sure as hell was watered down lol.

The grand finale of all the celebrations was the young people party at Solaris. Mine and Lisa's fun started in the car on the way there, of course. Yes, we decided to carpool to save the environment. Or...because we wanted to get a head start on catching up and I didn't want to drive in case anyone got the bright idea of getting the birthday girl to drink shots or something :D 

Dinner was hilarious. Everyone, being Malaysian, was either late or lost or looking for parking or lost looking for parking. And all these clowns, being Malaysian, refused to wait for everyone to get there before ordering their food. Eventually Charles and I were the only decent people who hadn't eaten yet, sitting there and judging everyone who had given in to their growling stomachs because KEVIN LEE NATHANIEL WAS SO LATE WE COULD ALL HAVE HAD TWO MEALS. In fact BJF did have two meals. I'm sorry, Beh Jian Fung, the lie had to end lol. He had one meal with all the other indecent people who couldn't wait. Then when Kevin finally got there he ordered again, saying he hadn't eaten yet lol. 

Another hilarious thing that happened was when Kevin and Amir had disappeared somewhere and suddenly everyone at the table asked if they were together LOL. I had to calm down long enough to explain that no, Kevin was quite definitely straight and so was Amir, even though the perfection of his hair could have implied otherwise. 

And my goodness. My food. I ordered whitebait fish, expecting a nice healthy meal. And what arrived was this thing that looked like french fries and tasted like fishy french fries. I stared at it for a long time before eating it, sobbing on the inside. I scolded Joash later for not warning me. At least Charles took pity on me and gave me some of his OH MY GOD SO DELICIOUS pork. By the time Beh Jian Fung offered me some of his pork burger I was thankfully full and no longer sobbing on the inside. 

Then Bryan and Leanne arrive and Bryan of course decides to embarrass the bejeezus out of me, walking in and screaming HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLANA. He kissed the back of my head repeatedly while I tried to crawl under the table to dig myself a hole to China. But my birthday brownie that later arrived made up for the embarrassment because it was so gooooood.

Sad part is everyone suddenly became camera shy and we somehow only took this one photo which didn't even include everyone :( Lisa does look like she's about to eat the table though so I suppose that makes up for it :)

All in all, even though everyone mysteriously quieted down when we got to Barfly after dinner, it was a good night and a great end to a great birthday week. The highlight had to be Charles and Larry's conversation pretty much the entire walk to the car plus the ride home which I should probably keep to myself so they don't both get killed with hate lol.

So I'd like to thank everyone who wished me and anyone who was involved in the great birthday week one way or another. To all those poor souls who couldn't make it, there'll always be next year. Love all you guys!!

A Birthday Week Part I

It's been a gooooood week :D

Well last week was. Why, you ask? Well who doesn't have a fantastically awesome time when they have a week's worth of celebrations for their birthday?? That's right. This old girl's finally 24. It sounds like a good age, I'll admit. And it is. I can say with full confidence that this has been one hell of a year. The sister got married, I graduated *cough cough made my escape cough cough* from the university they still tell me is my choice, got my first job which I ended up loving way more than I expected...the list goes on, I assure you.

The celebrations started on Tuesday at work. I was teaching a Science class when suddenly one of the teachers opened the door to my classroom and sent Kabir, this little boy (well not so little, he's 10) in to disturb his brother who I was teaching. I was kinda surprised at her encouraging this kind of behaviour and was about to protest when lo and behold, in walks Sudhan with a birthday cake. All together now, awwwwwwwww.

Needless to say, I was delighted and the cake was delicious and my student was elated that his one and a half hour long class got slashed to an hour because we were all (and by we all I of course mean me and Sudhan aka Larry) enjoying the cake waaaay too much. It was seriously delicious orange cake though. And several slices of carrot cake. Moist and delicious. Yum yum :)

Me: You wanna take photos, fine. Nothing's gonna interrupt me and this gorgeous carrot cake.
Larry: Mmmmmmmmm, preach it sista!

Me: What do you mean, half the cake is yours? It's MY birthday!
Larry: Here's a detailed mathematically proven dissertation on why I deserve not only half, but the WHOLE CAKE.

Can I just say how well this one picture depicts our entire friendship? There's Larry, holding MY birthday cake while I hold up a tiny little slice of carrot cake. This describes almost every meal we've ever had in the duration of our friendship lol. And well, there's also the fact that we have so much cake and we're the two idiots trying to keep it all to ourselves :D

Oh well, whatever it is, you're the best Larry. Like you said, here's to 50 more years. Of friendship. Just in case all the shippers read too much into that lol.

I should also mention that I'm so horribly dressed because I was so sick that day. I tried to look like I cared about how I looked when I got dressed, I swear. I put earrings on at least! Anyway, I really thought I was going to be stuck in bed on my birthday. I thought cake had irrevocably lifted my spirits but then Mr. Fever made an appearance and Mistress Ginormous Headache soon followed. I had several 'you look terrible's and ' you look really sick's and even one 'you look like a goldfish' before I finally relented and sought out some Panadol.

I was supposed to pack and move out of the Rushworths (I was house sitting for them but they had come back from their holiday the day before) that night but as soon as I reached their place after a drive home fraught with headaching, I collapsed onto the sofa and kinda did not get back up. And I had a sick companion in Charles so yeah, so much for going home. Poor auntie Fabienne had to take care of me. My body was just in one of its moods where it was intent on being sick, the meds be damned. 

Then my birthday came and hello birthday miracle, I felt so much better. I then proceeded to laze the morning away with auntie Fabienne on the balcony admiring the weather and the birds and talking away. It was a great start to a great birthday :)

So my actual birthday naturally meant a family dinner. Dad was here for the occasion and of course the sister and Manny joined us as well. It was a good dinner with great food and good company and lots of laughs. I had a great time and as usual WE NEVER TOOK PHOTOS. But that's okay, we're a camera shy family I suppose. I think the moment of the night was when Joash told us all about this new ad he had come up with for an assignment. It was so good that we all just stared at him, partly in awe and partly in disbelief that he was capable of coming up with something so profound. I absolutely loved it and I'm so posting it if he actually does it and if he'll let me :D

And seeing as this post has somehow gotten way longer than I expected, I'll be writing the rest in a Part 2 post that I hope will be just as interesting as this one :)

A Difficult Confession

Here's the thing.

Before I completely humiliate myself can I just say that I am normally quite a rational and logic-loving person. I'm usually quite selective when it comes to the shows and movies that I watch. If I hate an actor in the show or the idea behind it or find it difficult to relate to, I tend to not even consider watching it. And if it's stupid humour, you know the kind of humour that's so ridiculously dumb it pisses you off instead of making you laugh, I stay a hundred miles away. 

Take Brooklyn Nine Nine for example. I had been forced to read all kinds of positive things about it on Tumblr so I thought hey, just because it's Andy Samberg doesn't mean it's stupid humour. I watched five minutes of the first episode and promptly got a headache. Needless to say I vowed never to watch another episode.

SO. Those are but a few of my many oddities. Because I had so many of them when it came to tv shows especially, I assumed I was just a difficult person to please when it came to tv. But let me tell you, the writers of some shows have wised up and figured out how to get me from rational and logical to the frothing at the mouth, yelling at the screen variety of their die hard viewers. Apparently, all they have to do is get one couple, a tragically adorable and made for each other couple, and parade them as subtly as possible. Apparently I am a total sucker for tragically adorable and made for each other couples. Who knew?

Then begins the madness.

Exhibit A. Olicity. That's right, Oliver and Felicity from the show Arrow.

If you've read a smidgen of my latest posts you would know that this mildly tragic couple makes me physically ill with how perfect they are for each other. But what I haven't yet mentioned is that I actually had a deep in my soul hate for the show in its first season. I mean sure, it was a little bit interesting and it got more intriguing as the season went on. But gahhhh the banality and total predictability of the characters!! 

When the show got to season 2 it suddenly became so much better. And I could never really pinpoint what it was about season 2 that was so different and the complete opposite of cliche from season 1. The character development was soooo much better and there were much more interesting storylines and there was a really cool mysterious villain so I thought it must have been some combination of those and other things. Until the second half of the season when I realised I was obsessed with these two clowns getting together. It's season 3 and they still haven't, by the way. 

So here I sit, watching them in all their angsty glory. The whole "I'm so crazy in love with you but we can't be together because of all these noble and heroic reasons" takes a toll and I'm telling you, the pain and the waiting and the torture of watching the slow burn of these two be around each other, wanting to be together? It just reels me in. I'm helpless against its pull. Curse the writers. I feel like the baby in that saying about taking candy from a baby -_-'

Anyway, I watched the pilot of this show called Red Band Society because there was nothing else to do and I was bored and the ads for the show made me curious. Turns out it's one of those rare shows where once I watched the first episode, I was hooked. I mean, this is a show about sick kids living in a hospital whose adorableness should be illegal that we're talking about after all. 

As the show went on, my obsessiveness made an appearance with another two clowns.

He's a cancer survivor who had to have his leg amputated. He used to be one of those nice jock types that we're always seeing on American shows nowadays. And she's this geeky girl who's really smart and sarcastic. Oh, and anorexic. They're so unlikely yet hopelessly cute together, it makes me want to start yelling at my screen again. Well no it doesn't. I mostly stay silent and let their cuteness wash over me. 

Of course I also love the storyline in general and the other characters haven't really been fleshed out yet but...I think I kinda love this show. And then there's Octavia Spencer's character who's this really strict nurse, which she plays wonderfully of course and there's the fact that this whole show is based on a true story which kinda rocks and um...

FINE he's just really CUTE. Okay???

Don't judge me. 

A Really Messy Catch Up

It's been so long that the mere thought of my blog makes me feel guilty. The oh my goodness I've been unfaithful kind of guilty. Which is fitting, I suppose. 

So, there have been a lot of things happening since (OH MY GOODNESS YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME THE LAST TIME I UPDATED WAS IN) May. The siblings and I moved to a new apartment, the sister got married and moved out of the new apartment too, work got a lot busier and slowed back down, I got put in charge of caroling and caroling practices have started! Major changes all around I guess.

The new apartment is great. Now that it's just me and the brother, we have a running joke that we both basically live alone and take shifts being home. Seriously, I never see the guy anymore. Once when Larry went to visit his sister at work (who happens to be the brother's boss), Joash apparently asked how I was because he hadn't seen me in about two weeks. It was hilarious :) Now that I'm house sitting and it's been just me and the dog, everyone has been asking me what the hell I do with myself alone there. I keep telling people that even when I was at home, it's not like I ever saw Joash so it's pretty much the same thing. At least here I have McDog who wakes me up early in the morning whenever he feels like going outside and demands to be wrapped like a sausage in his blanket for entertainment and listens to me talk to myself. Wow that sounded really sad, didn't it? LOL

The sister's wedding was a lot of fun. I think it was definitely the most fun I've ever had at a wedding :) Let's just say it was a night to never forget and leave it at that, shall we? :p

Last Sunday was out first ever caroling practice of the year! It was a LOT of fun. Since quite a few of our newer carolers can't make it for caroling this year, everyone who showed up for practice was strictly longtime friends. That made for plenty of entertainment. Well if you call barely a moment of silence and screaming to get people's attention and having Leanne's baby sister being carried in to be inducted into the caroling habit early in life 'plenty of entertainment'. It really was good fun though :)

So there's the update post. Hopefully now that work has slowed down I'll be able to write something interesting soon :)

A Glorious Moment

I got the call on one of my lazy mornings in. Well, almost all my mornings are lazy mornings in considering my work can only start once my students are done with school, i.e. in the afternoon after I've had a nice lie-in, but I digress.

A good friend called while I was looking for comfort of the Tumblr kind after watching the make-me-want-to-tear-my-hair-out season finale of Arrow. I know I used to hate it but somehow the writers have me intrigued now. In other words they've enslaved me into the 'tortured without it, frothing at the mouth for more' kind of addiction. I mean it can be crazy dramatic most of the...okay ALL the time but I just...

They have me shipping Olicity, okay? There. I said it.

They're just so cute together!! I don't know why I have such a thing for emotions that so often GO UNSAID and longing looks and angst ridden "I could never be with her/him" moments which pretty much make up all my favourite unlikely as hell couples. Exhibit A, I'm embarrassed to admit, would probably be a certain Original Hybrid and perky blond vampire.

Then there was, quite briefly (thank goodness) the Queen of Scots and the King of France's bastard son.

And now the devastatingly gorgeous CEO billionaire slash superhero and his geeky tech support slash superhero teammate. Something is quite seriously wrong with me but then again, I already knew that.

Gahhhhh THE WAY HE'S LOOKING AT HER!!!!

Anyway, they're so cute they make me want to laugh up a lung. And sometimes cry my tear ducts into dust. They were hilarious before she found out that he was the Arrow cause he kept coming to her for tech support that he didn't have.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!

Is that not the best first meet ever??

LOL let's all pretend the BS story was more bull than usual because he was under the influence. And the way he laughed...be still my beating heart. Okay it's not listening, or still.

The first time I watched this scene I had to pause so I could laugh til I didn't feel like dying from gasping for breath or choking out yet another bout of uncontrollable laughter. It went on for at least 5 minutes I'm sure.

They're really heartbreaking in Season 2 though :(

This one was when he slept with this woman who turned out to be evil. I soooo knew she was evil. She looked like she was constantly trying to sniff out a bad smell.

Okay I hated him a bit for this during the episode but then he had to go and break my heart with that speech at the end. Idiot. And in the very next episode (the writers are totally trying to kill me by overwhelming me with all these emotions I can't name) this happens and I want to kill myself but can't help watching it over and over again.

THE WAY HE KINDA SMILES AT HER WHEN HE SAYS IT'S NOTHING!!!!! *burst into tears*

Later in the same episode...

I both love and hate the way they look at each other. It's monumentally sweet and utterly heartbreaking at the same time.

Oh. Oh. Jealous Oliver.

Jealous Oliver is the BEST. Jealous Felicity was heartbreaking but jealous Oliver?? The. Freaking. Best.

So. The season finale that had me stumbling over to Tumblr for some much needed emotional support.

Obviously when it happened I started squealing (out loud). But wait, that's not all.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????

It was all A TRICK??

You can't DO that, okay?? Having there be no confession at all would have been better than just giving it to me freaking halfway!!

Then came the final nail in the coffin of my overload of Olicity shipping. The moment I started to seriously contemplate suicide by sobbing.

Aaaand I kill myself. Gahhhhhhh the way he looks at herrrrr!!! Just one more look...

*sigh*

There is hope though.

Okay, first of all, what is up with that beard? Even though he kinda...pulls it off.

And second of all, please tell me Season 3 of Arrow is SOON. Like two months at the most soon. Please?

Pretty please?

And wow. How I have digressed. A lot. Again.

Back to my once upon a time story that I began at the beginning of this post. So I got the call. Results were out. For finals. As in, my last final before I graduated. Uhhuh.

I had thought to myself after the paper that I didn't do too badly in the final. But in that moment with my phone to my ear and my heart racing as I scrolled down the UTAR portal, I couldn't help but offer a much too late prayer which probably got some chuckles from The Guy Upstairs. Somehow I had myself convinced that I had failed and that I would stay in UTAR forever, never passing this one crucial paper.

Then I found those fated, long-awaited words.

Status: Completion of Study.

It. Was. Glorious.

So yeah. I'm graduating!! Yayyyyyy!!!

Although I think I reacted with way more emotion to the Arrow finale. I'm gonna take some wise advise from Ronald Weasley and get my messed up priorities straight.

A Random Story

So I was just messing around writing some nonsense the other day and all this came pouring out from goodness knows where. I thought I could share it here :)

So here it is!


David looked back towards the living room, sighing tiredly as he loosened his tie. Knowing he was distracted, I stared at the lips of the man who had become my betrothed well against my wishes. Long story. There was a business deal and two powerful fathers with children poised to take over their respective family businesses who had no plans on getting married or having kids and then came the threats of disinheritance and hey presto! I was engaged to a man I had never met. 

It dawned on me that the man who had been a complete stranger ten months before, had a mere hour ago wrapped his fingers so tightly around my own that I could barely imagine them existing without his calloused hands fused around them. We stood on the stairs where I had caught him trying to sneak away from the stares and the pitying smiles. Even the fact that I was standing on the stairs of his childhood home like I belonged there gave me pause. A lifetime ago I had stood on this very spot, spitting rage and vomiting hate at the man I swore I would never let worm his way into my family’s wealth and empire. 

Yet here I stood, staring at one of the many parts of him I had come to allow myself to be curious about. I had been doing that a lot lately. Staring at his lips. I never let myself wonder why. That was one road I was not ready to even think about traversing. 

“Is it weird that I’m more tired than sad?” he asked me quietly, looking at the people who still lingered in the living room. Some were there for the food and some for the company of the influential and powerful, but the respectful and loyal few still exchanged fond memories and tall tales of David’s father Charles, M. McCallum, speaking wistfully about a great man. I had known him as the bedridden white-haired sweetheart who had told me stories about his mischievous boy who had grown up to be my (I still choked over the word sometimes) fiancé, but everyone else knew a giant. A man who had been larger than life and harder than steel. 

David and I had never made a habit of holding hands before. Even after he had slid an obscenely large diamond onto my left ring finger at an engagement party to rival any in the 21st century, we had never even pretended to be close, not even in public. Sure, we had agreed to get to know each other but it had all been in the name of a business deal. Hardly the way to deal with matters of the heart, but neither of us chose to acknowledge the truth in that. 

But as I reached for his hand to, heavens forbid, comfort my fiancé, like some…normal couple who could actually relate to and like each other, maybe even lov..? Okay so maybe I’m not ready for that particular ‘L’ word just yet… 

“It’s been a hell of a week,” I offered lamely, my attempts at comfort falling to my thumb rubbing little circles on the back of his hand. “We have time to be sad tomorrow. Today, tired wins.” 

He gave me that smile that I had come to understand meant that he appreciated my dry humour even though it always came at the most inopportune and inappropriate of times. But I knew where his focus lay when his eyes darted quickly to our linked fingers. Somehow the combination of that indulgent smile, usually accompanied by a snort or rolled eyes, and those darting eyes that were capable of smiling at me all by themselves, was what got to me. 

We were a couple. By no means were we in love, but we sure as hell weren’t in hate any more. We were in…understanding. We would get to friendship, to trust. In that moment, I was satisfied to know that we knew each other well enough to communicate without words which, let’s not kid ourselves, both our parents who were very much in love, did on a daily basis. 

So when my father and his mourning mother found us holding hands and granting each other the privilege of our broken smiles, they smiled knowingly before interrupting us. When they summoned us for introductions to people we would one day need to know, I let David slide his arm around my waist and tuck me into his side, the image of the golden couple who would one day rule a business empire all their own. 

We would grow into that image and one day grow beyond it too. Today, I held my fiancé’s hand and stared at his lips, letting myself wonder how they would taste.