A Missing Friend

To all my wonderful fellow and former sufferers of the university I call my choice,
Larry, Locoma, BJF, Ishyshy, Christina, Bordi, Shu, Anna and Qades,
this is just because I missed you guys today :)

A missing friend
Is an uneaten half of a waffle I couldn't finish.
It is an unobserved eye roll at the ridiculousness of club activities on campus.
Or an unshared giggle directed at a once-hated lecturer.

A missing friend
Is a signature that need not be forged on an attendance list.
It is a silent lunch alone with a book.
An unexpressed rant about the lack of vegetarian food at the cafeteria.

A missing friend
Is an uncontrollable smile as memories of good times interrupt thoughts of Life Contingencies.
It is a hasty text about how classes are depressing when you clowns aren't around.
Possibly a plan to relive childishness and irresponsibility in all its glory.
Possibly over bak kut teh ;)

Missing you guys!!

An Ash Wednesday

Well it's done it again. Lent has struck me unawares once more, making this the umpteenth Lent that I did not feel prepared for.

Today when I got my first vegetarian Lent meal, I felt like I was just pretending to be vegetarian for a mythical and completely made up season. How weird is that?

Anyway my oddities aside, other than my amazing meat, I really didn't know what to give up for Lent this year. I make it a point to give up meat because well, I've been doing it for a while now and it has never even gotten the slightest little bit easier. So I figure since it's so difficult for me to give up that it must be kinda important to me. Or just mightily taken for advantage. Take your pick. 

So yeah, meat's a given.

There was one year when I was obsessing quite madly over JC Chasez when I decided I should give up watching JC/NSync videos for Lent. It....was interesting.

Scratch that it was terrifying and it just made me hyper aware of just how mad a fangirl I can be. Okay then. Confession time. Don't judge me. 

Lent is supposed to be for 40 days, right? But if you actually add up all the days in Lent you get 47 days (or something like that. Whatever it's more than 40 days, okay??). This is because the Sundays in Lent aren't counted in the Lent season for some reason. So people like me latch onto this loophole for dear life during Lent and some people, namely me, probably wouldn't survive without these Sunday breaks from Lenten-ness. 

I would actually stay up Saturday night watching the clock on my laptop til it struck 12, my cursor pointed and ready on the first NSync video I wanted to watch that night. I'd stay up like a mad person til 3 or 4 in the morning just watching video after video to ogle at the perfection that was JC Chasez. I know. I was mad.

Although he is kinda adorable and uh...

*drop jaw* Perfect. He's perfection at its absolute best. Its best I tell you!! Its best!!

Let me tell you how obsessed I was with this poor man who was being web stalked from across the globe. I just Googled JC Chasez gif images for both the pictures above that accentuates his absolute perfection, right? It has been years since my crazy obsession and I still know which video the gif image came from and with no hint necessary I could tell you WORD for WORD what he was saying.

I vowed never to do anything like that again. It was mostly because giving up JC for Lent had only fueled my obsession with him and I became...well, absolutely cuckoo. 

So the other day, Hannah, who is now 13 and who I still babysit sometimes, was teasing me at church about that Lent when I gave up JC. Suddenly she got this huge grin on her face and she said, "Hey akka, you know what you should give up for Lent this year?"

I warily turned around knowing full well that this girl knew too many embarrassing things about me to not choose something that would hurt so much it would make me want to die a slow and painful death. 

Sure enough, guess what she suggested I give up.

*cough cough* Um, yeah. *clear throat* Yeah, I'm okay. That just uh.... *wipe away drool* yeah, that took a lot out of me. *clear throat* I'm okay. Yeah, sure. I'm sure. Uhhuh.

HOW DID SHE EXPECT ME TO GIVE UP THOSE DIMPLES!!!????

I actually got mad at her for suggesting it. The poor girl was wondering why I was suddenly so flustered. I know I screamed the word 'no' a lot and 'never again'. I'm sure I threw in a 'hell no' in there somewhere too. I came very close to telling her (in a very mean and un-role-model-like behaviour) to mind her own business. But I came to my senses and realizing how rude it would have sounded, reined in my sudden burst of 'anger' (the inverted commas are there because I really don't know what possessed me) to tell her to "Mind her own Lent" instead. So instead of a blowout, we ended up planning to make one of those t shirts that said "Keep Calm & Mind Your Own Lent". Isn't that an idea? :)

So needless to say, I spent my Ash Wednesday morning drooling over, I mean studying and analyzing for future television references, an episode of The Originals which yet again featured a shirtless, I mean a riveting performance by Joseph Morgan. 

Here's to another painful and meaningful Lent that we will all survive together ;)

A Jumbled Mess of Thoughts Part II

This is what happens when I've been too lazy to update and my life suddenly becomes so hip and happening. Okay fine, it's not that hip and happening, I just have a mad urge to blog about the smallest things that happen to me :)

So all the big networks in the US are clearly trying to torture me now because somehow all the shows I follow are on a month-long hiatus. Okay fine, I was just being dramatic. It's more like a two-week hiatus. But still. I've been without The Originals and Klaus/Joseph Morgan for too long :'(

Ngaaaahhhhh.

Sorry. Floor broke my jaw's fall.

SPEAKING OF THE ORIGINALS OMG KLAROLINE FINALLY HAPPENED (well sort of) ON THE 100TH EPISODE OF THE VAMPIRE DIARIES HOLY CRAP I WAS SO EXCITED AND ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED BECAUSE OKAY NOBODY CARES BUT HE SAID HE'S NEVER COMING BACK OH GOD WHYYYY AND NOBODY KNOWS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT DO YOU BUT OMG KLAROLINE!!!

I hate to be using Tumblr slang but well it kinda kills you when your OTP finally shares a screen after goodness knows how many months and gahhh after their last scene in the Season 4 finale was so sweeeeet I'm gonna go sit in a corner and cry for a while now excuse me. But while I cry I might as well watch the scene again. After all, if this is all the Klaroline I'm going to be getting for the near future, I'm going to bloody well revel in this one scene. *burst into tears*

Okay I don't think I'm gonna stop crying anytime soon. I'll just type through the pain. *sob sob* Through the pain of watching them smile at each other like thaaaaaaaaaaaat. *sniffle*

You should have seen my Tumblr home page after this episode happened though. The entire thing was like a Klaroline shrine commemorating this epic Klaroline moment where Klaroline shippers all over the world died at "Hello Caroline".

For the sake of my sanity, for the sake of my well being, my state of mind and my overall health, he should not be able to smirk like that.

Speaking of fandoms that are ruining my life, after watching the last episode of Reign I think Mary and Bash are going to kill me too.

MUST they be so adorable together?? And he's so adorable when he's being all fiercely protective. And those blue, blue eyes....

Yup. My impending death. Right there.

I'm dead. I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead.

A Jumbled Mess of Thoughts Part I

I finally decided that it's about time I stop mucking around and update :)

About time, right? Damn, I have so much nonsense to write about!! A not so surprising first would be THE WEATHER. No seriously, hasn't the weather been killing you guys? I feel like all I actively do lately is sweat. Profusely! And might I add that every time it rains I always happen to be sitting in my car stuck in a jam that the weather just makes worse so I haven't been able to fully appreciate precipitation. The fact that I'm sick does not at all help seeing as I've been avoiding air conds lately because I wouldn't want to antagonize the mess that is my blocked nose. Which feels like it has been stuffed with Styrofoam by the way.

Okay, weather rant. Check.

Work, on the other hand, has been going very well. Larry was awesome enough to get me an interview at this new tuition centre he's been working at and as they say, the rest is history. I absolutely love my boss and my coworkers and everything about it. Well except how Desa Sri Hartamas seems to be in a constant traffic jam and the fact that looking for parking in that place seems to be a quest worthy of a Lord of the Rings trilogy. And to my absolute joy, there's so much food places around the centre that even I, the devourer of snacks cannot find anything to complain about :)

Oh and I simply must write about my Valentine's Day experiences. I was reminded about the madness of the day in quite an extreme way when I was passing by this school and some school boy ran in front of my car like a madman. I wasn't going very fast or anything but still, this guy was in considerable risk given that a motorist also had to swerve to avoid him. When he reached the other side of the road I eye stalked him in my rearview mirror to see what he had been running towards because well, I just have way more curiosity towards random events than most people should have. Guess what I saw? This boy ran across the road just to go up to some girl and carry her books for her. Okay, then. It really must have been Valentine's. 

So in the evening I went to watch Tales From The Bedroom, this compilation of 10 short plays at KLPAC. It really was pretty entertaining. I was with Nat and Larry's friend Shimi who both entertained me by always talking to me at the same time. Anyway the play that Larry directed was a great success so I was very proud of him :)

That's me, Nat, Larry, his cast members Marcus and Sharanya, and Shimi.

Anyway after the play we headed to Publika to meet Joash and his crazy friends for a while. Nat, Shimi and I then proceeded to have the awkwardest night ever talking and laughing amongst ourselves instead of with the others because all the other people there were pretty much still in date-mode and were all happy and Valentinesy.

But Nat and I did see this car covered in stuffed animals on the way there. I jumped to the weirdest conclusion ever, thinking that some overzealous boyfriend had covered his girlfriend's car in them before Nat wisely interrupted my crazy thoughts by saying someone was selling them. Yeah, that made way more sense. 

Anyway I had driven Max the Sunny since Joash was the one who actually had a date and all. Not that I didn't have a date, that is. Nat and I had a really great Valentine's Day as girl dates lol. So anyway, I naively thought that if anyone was going to be having car trouble it was going to be me in my dying Sunny right? WRONG.

Just when Nat and I had gotten home and changed into comfortable clothes to munch on our snacks and watch a movie and go to bed, I get a call from my brother telling me that the Persona had a flat tyre LOL. So Nat and I didn't bother to change and went to meet him and park behind him in the middle of the road while he changed the tyre. That's right, me and Nat were there purely for moral support as Joash changed the tyre by himself. Basically he had only called me because he needed one of the tools from Max. 

Which explains why I look so happy in this picture, I guess. I was expressing my delight at the fact that I wasn't needed for actual manual labour :)

A Mind...Blasted

Yes, yes, it's been forever. What else is new right? I've been running around like a headless chicken a lot lately. December was pure, unadulterated madness to say the least and I spent almost half of January recovering from the hustle and bustle of it all.

So I was watching this new show Reign right? I only started watching it because it was about Mary, Queen of Scots and I'm a total sucker for these historical drama types of shows. So I watched the latest episode the other day and all of a sudden I found myself in a frenzy of disbelief. Needless to say I am now in the mood for some good ol bashing of every character in the show *evil smile*.

Now, now, Reign fans. Hold your horses and hear me out okay?

Let me just say that my powers of foresight scare me sometimes because before even watching the show or reading a summary or anything, I took one look at this picture and groaned. I groaned for a full minute and thought, "They're brothers fighting over her aren't they?"

Turns out, they're half brothers. One is the future king of France and the other is the king's bastard son. Needless to say I had a cathartic moment and needed to lie down. I realised this was going to be The Vampire Diaries all over again. Only instead of vampires and werewolves there would be royalty and politics. 

Don't get me wrong I'm absolutely fascinated by the show. So Mary has been betrothed to Francis, Dauphin of France since she was 6. But she was sent away for her protection because everyone wanted her dead so that Scotland would be up for grabs. At the beginning of the show, she gets sent back to French court where it's assumed that she'll be safer. So the drama begins.

Okay I admit that I usually hate a lot of heroines. An awful, terrible lot. So far, Mary seems to be an exception.

I mean just look at that face. She's adorable :)

So yeah, had no problem with her. She's clever and soooo pretty and well, she's not just a pretty face so that's nice.

Her and Francis have a great connection too. They have the most adorable eye contact.

One would think they would get married and live happily ever after. Then this happens.

So some stuff happens, Mary and Francis fall in love, they have ONE fight (well granted it was a huge fight because some other woman was chasing after him and he was being a bit of a jerk), and then...

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me.

Seriously? Poor Francis I tell you. One fight and of all people you go running around kissing his brother?? I mean yeah he's really...

Yeah. Okay fine, so he's really and I mean REALLY pretty and Bash has got to be the most adorable nickname for Sebastian that I've ever heard in my entire life but come ON. You want both the Dauphin and the bastard son? Come on now Mary, don't make me despise you like I despise Elena bloody Gilbert!!

Anyway after all that has been sorted out and Mary and Francis are all happy and getting ready to be married, suddenly the queen (Francis's mother who doesn't hate Mary but is trying to protect Francis. I think.) chooses to tell Mary why she's been making things very difficult for her. Nostradamus (who can kinda see the future) has seen that if Mary marries Francis, he'll die. 

*dum dum DUMMMMMM*

But Mary still needs to marry the future king of France because Scotland and France want to claim the throne of England together. Guess what her solution was.

Legitimize Bash and marry him. 

Acceptable, of course. She doesn't want Francis to die, but she still loves FRANCIS right???

One episode later, just ONE episode, mind you...

I could not possibly be more confused. I get the whole we've got to make this work even though the politics suck thing. But WHAT ON EARTH IS HAPPENING??????

Does she love them both? Does she love Francis but kinda like Bash, disturbing as that may be because nobody else seems to mind being attracted to two people related by blood at the same time? Does she love Francis sort of, but now is kinda falling for Bash? But....within one episode? 

If Bash wasn't so blue eyed and stubble-y I could have been in serious danger of being completely thrown by the lack of logic here.

But....*sigh*....I suppose I'm okay with that face being all the logic Mary needs. 

It's certainly all the logic I need. *wink*

A Hilarious Carolers Weekend Part II

Ah the second day. The day of distant and faraway houses. Because we could all fit into one van, Avean now had a van full of people to torment. And torment us he did.

House #1

I think it’s safe to say that we carolers are animals when it comes to chocolate. We were at Benjamin and Christina’s (the cousins) place and they had Kit Kats for us. Pretty soon the Kit Kat bowl was empty and when Thea came looking for some, I asked some of the people I had seen pocketing the Kit Kats to give her one. All of a sudden everyone’s secret stash came spilling out of their pockets. Chocolate makes thieves apparently.

So because I was determined to take pictures and I’m not enough of a camwhore to do it at people’s houses, the van was my only other option. Bad idea.

I had somehow fooled myself into sitting at the same spot I was the day before, getting my head knocked on the side of the van again. Clever me. Nat gave me her hat to see if it could cushion the blows and Avean obligingly ‘checked the brakes’ again and I got another bump on my head. I gave Nat’s hat back to her with regretful thanks saying it didn’t work.

Anyway I was trying to get a picture of everyone sitting behind me so I was perched very awkwardly in my seat. Every time I counted down to take a picture the brakes would suddenly need checking and I would go lurching all over the place. The pictures were, without exception, either blurry or very blurry. Pretty soon I was trying to be sneaky about it and still didn’t manage to get a shot because I was busy watching Avean and he was busy glancing into the rearview mirror to see if we were up to anything. It was on one of these times when the brakes got checked that Avean finally managed to make me fall out of my seat -_-

House #2

The second house was kinda hot but we were all managing okay while we were singing. Then lo and behold, when we gave our customary gift of a lighted candle to our host, he switched off the fan so it wouldn’t go out! None of us said anything, we’re much too polite for that. But when everyone started fanning themselves quite desperately the fan came back on. When it was time for food, everyone crowded into the room where the food was. I stayed outside very wisely and yelled that we were taking it in shifts to get our food because of the limited space and well…air. Suddenly everyone came spilling out of the room because it was too hot and I got to take my food first :D

We also managed to cover up a crime scene when Aaron spilt something when he was throwing away his plate cause he was laughing at me. I grabbed the tissues and blocked him while he imperceptibly got on his hands and knees and swiped that mess clean. Although if I were smart I probably wouldn’t be blogging about it.

Anyway on our way to the third and final house for the night, Joash was telling us all a funny story about his video shoot that day. And believe me, the story wasn’t half as funny as Nat’s reaction. I think the entire van was in hysterics for a good 5 minutes at least. At first we were laughing because Joash’s story was funny. Then suddenly we were laughing at Nat’s hysterical laughter. Every time we calmed down, we’d hear her laugh and the whole van would double up with laughter again. Before I knew it I was holding my eyeliner in place with my fingers because I was laughing too hard to look for my tissues. Everyone calmed down when we pulled over because we thought we were lost so we finally sobered up. Turned out Avean just wanted to ask if Nat was okay after all the high-induced madness lol.

House #3

I probably shouldn’t have announced just before going into the house that this was where we screwed up every time we came. I told my people that we should try to break the tradition but we decided to stick to it instead lol. Of all things, I screwed up When A Child is Born. My first ever solo. I should be ashamed.

Anyway one good thing came out of it though. Nygel decided that we were so bad that him joining us would probably be good for us so he said he’s coming for caroling this coming week. YAYYYY!!!! Finally, success. After goodness knows how many years of trying to get him to come for caroling, all I needed to do was screw up a solo while everyone watched :D

Quote of the day has to go to Joash (Surprise, surprise. I swear there’s no nepotism involved here) from when we were at the petrol station before making the trip back to church from Putra Heights.

“I may be a parian, but I still have feelings!!”

Here’s to staying sane til Wednesday when the madness starts up again!

A Hilarious Carolers Weekend Part I

The weekend began as one would suspect. I woke up late running to get the landline that was ringing only to discover Joash was closer to it but couldn’t hear it cause he had his earphones on -_- ANYWAY in the afternoon there was suddenly a flurry of activity in the Selvaraj household as we all ran around getting ready for our first day of caroling :D

So we got to church and realized we had a few too many people to squeeze into one van, so we had to take two. Little did we know that everyone was going to squeeze themselves into one van, leaving me, Joash, Edwin (Holy crap haven’t seen him since his wedding we were all so excited he was there!! When the sister told me he was coming I almost fell over.), Michael, Valentine, Elisabeth and Avean our ever responsible driver in the other van that could seat fifteen lol. We were very happy that we all had room to stretch out. Unfortunately that also meant that there was more room to be jostled about in, which Avean was very happy about and took full advantage of as he ‘checked the brakes’ every opportunity he had. I kept almost falling and hitting my head on the side of the van, yet very cleverly never moving.

House #1

It was a good omen that we got lost on our way to the very first house. Best part was that when we finally got there after asking for directions from a bunch of scary looking Indian boys, we discovered that it was Aaron and Andrea’s place but they had just sat quietly in the other van, not saying anything lol.

After we had finished singing (fabulously as usual) we got to eat a bunch of delicious doughnuts. Nathalie, the crazy person who hadn’t eaten since 11am the day before, ate four of them and proceeded to pack the rest to eat in the van. Joash of course didn’t let her live it down and now immediately summons her in every house for the purpose of bungkus-ing food :)

House #2

One of our hosts pointed out that our van tyre or rims or something to do with that area looked like it was…about to be punctured? Something like that. Avean proceeded to explain the problem and tell me and only me to avoid weighing down the van -_- Curses.

House #3

Well it wasn’t exactly a house, it was a big condo party that we were singing at. Where we sang for an hour by the way. It is a thing to be proud of, I tell you. We were off to a slow start because both our guitar and bongo player, namely the dear brother and Edgar, got lost looking for the gents. So the rest of us were just standing at the ready for almost five whole minutes waiting for them to show up. That was fun.

So we sang and sang until we were hoarse and when the coordinator announced that the carolers were taking a 10 minute break, we all gratefully tumbled away towards the drinks, which we discovered were all cold. So…no liquid refreshment for us then. A mere 3 minutes later we were summoned back to sing, which obviously surprised us and we scrambled back there to croak another couple of songs plus an encore cause the people there thought we were just that good. By the second half, Joash was rubbing his shoulder from his enthusiastic strumming, Edgar was massaging his fingers and I was bent at the waist rubbing the spot where I kept battering myself with the tambourine.

House #4

THEY GAVE US FERREROROCHER!!! Needless to say, we finished one box and Nat was tempted to bungkus the other lol.

Our hosts were our Area Fellowship-mates so that was fun. It was such a nice house. So anyway when we went downstairs and were waiting for another elevator-load of people, I was asking the kids what the other van was like and when they said it was really quiet I asked them why and if they all didn’t like each other or something. The silence was deafening and I officially got worried lol.

When Joash came down and we were all getting onto the van he started yelling how our van was the party van and it was party time and all that. Next minute he suddenly whispered, “Sleepy la cha.” LOL

House #5

So by the time we got to Uncle Joseph Manuel’s house we were all sooooo hungry. While we were singing I could smell the wonderful scent of chicken curry wafting over to us, effectively distracting me from singing in any level of decent. Luckily the singing was soon over and we all indulged and then listened to Nat for entertainment :)

Quote of the day would have to be Nat telling us a joke while we were walking from the vans to Uncle Joseph Manuel’s house.

“So this is a fish right? (wiggles hand) So what’s this? (makes a fist and wiggles it the same way)

A fishball.”

*Smack forehead* Joash and I looked at each other then he couldn’t stop himself from asking Nat if she was high.