August 2013 – michelle teoh

Life In Technicolour

I tried combining “technicolour” and “Instagram” to sound witty but it just sounds terrible.

One. My expression does not do my excitement for the release of the One Direction movie justice but please do understand that there were a lot of people around and I don’t think Malaysians in particular fathom the needs of a rabid fangirl very well. Anyway, we went to watch City of Bones and it was fantastic and did the book justice, despite the many negative reviews I’ve heard. 10/10 would recommend.

Two. The next day, a Saturday, Yi Jing, Rumin, Pei Ying and I joined the Teach For Malaysia Summit 2013 at Sunway International School as a Sunway volunteer and even though it was more tedious than I’d expected, it was still pretty cool and fun and it was an experience like no other, particularly since I was joining a teachers’ conference for teachers from a student’s perspective, and everyone was basically discussing about students aka me.

Three. Ken Fui suggested a clothing theme for our class on Monday, which is Emo Day (the theme I mean, not the day) and basically it was just getting everyone to wear black except for Janesh who was to wear white because he is the President of ALSCO. (Speaking of ALSCO, I didn’t get in.) It was mighty fun and I even got Zi Tian to draw a fake sailor tattoo for me so I could be Harry Styles for the day, complete with the Ramones shirt and all.

Four. This badge is one of the many goodies I got from the first day of Recruitment Drive which is today. Nothing much to say about the badge, but I’m using it as a photo to talk about A Levels in general and I have three upcoming tests continuously this week and oh myyyy goddddddd

Of Chalk and Crayon Burgers

Yesterday was a Friday and that meant we had a three hour break in between classes. So the day before, after many exclaims of “BOJIO!” everyone decided to jio everyone in the class on a mini road trip to Crayon Burger at SS15 in three cars. I was in the same car as Bellyn, Taliza, Irfan, Rynn and Ken Fui and the best part of being in that car was when Fall Out Boy came on the radio and we went into full-fledged jamming mode.

And then we got lost a bit when we were heading back to college but we succeeded to do so in the end so that was another story to tell the grandchildren someday.

Overall, the food was good, the company better, and the day best.

oh you bite your friend like chocolate

Nothing much to announce, just felt the urge to write.

I’ve been back at college for four days now, and it pleases me to no end that tomorrow is Friday. Things have been getting quite hectic ever since I came back, and perhaps that’s a good thing. I’m slowly starting to slip in easily into this routine, and already it feels like I’ve been doing this forever. Okay maybe not, because let’s be real, we all know how much I like to exaggerate things sometimes.

I’ve also had two assessments on Physics and Maths so far. They were okay, I guess.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of The 1975 lately, evident from the lyric title above. You can blame that on Sakina.

I think I’ve found my favourite spot to hang out within the vicinity of my residence now. The Monash University cafeteria makes me feel strangely calm. Maybe it was all the laughing sessions we had had there.

I need to stop starting my sentences with “I”.

i’d trade all my tomorrows/for just one yesterday

Not sure if people are liking this lowercase lyric title approach but if you don’t then too bad, I guess.

You know those moments in life when you’re holed up at home for weeks and then suddenly you meet a whole bunch of different people in a single day? Yesterday was one of those days.

Holidays were supposed to mean getting the chance to sleep in so naturally, I hated waking up early in the morning and by “early in the morning” here I mean “before 12 noon”. But wake up I did anyway because I’d promised Beneh that I was to visit her for Eid and after dressing up in last year’s very same baju kurung, Dad dropped me off at her place because I was too lazy to drive.

And then Beneh drove me and Eah to Laiyy’s place and we met even more people.

Elis, Eah, Beneh, Laiyy, yours truly and Mas

After that, Dad picked me up and I changed at home before heading out again, this time driving to Pann’s Kitchen for a meetup with the Chinese gang this time to celebrate Chew Jie’s (surprise) birthday party.

(Front) Yu Han, Pei Fong, Chew Jie
(Back)Jia Yee, Ee Ching, Yuen Ming and yours truly

And then after that I drove to Fresh to meet up with Caleb, Sasha and Meara before Sasha went back to KL.

We didn't take any photos. — We didn’t take any photos.

After that, I went to help my mum out at her shop at Tesco. Fin.

I also made a video just an hour ago talking about college; do give it a watch even if I don’t know what I’m talking about:

var (was/shelter)

apparently you can make gifs on tumblr now

I think I’ve mentioned before on here that I’m a creature of habit. It doesn’t matter where I am as long as I’m adapted to it, have formed a routine/habit revolving around it. Hence, it was pretty strange to come home at first.

So far, my time at home has consisted of endless scrolling through Tumblr, bullying my dog (or the other way round, really), having cooking lessons with my mum and a dinner at Gemilang with the usual suspects. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be very willing to go back to KL after I’ve built a routine here. Movement sucks, but only with movement can you truly live.

Y’know, I never thought that my mom would worry about me having no friends at college, although I do see where she’s coming from. I’m glued to the Internet and if possible, will never want to leave a certain premise I’m comfortable with. I like to think that the forcible first step into college has brought about a change within me. A change of bravery and confidence. Heck, I permanently wear a wristband that says “bravery”, that’s pressure enough to be what your wristband says you should be. It’s easy to change as you step into a new environment; no one knows who you previously were and you can build a whole different reputation for yourself. That’s probably the greatest thing about starting college. And when you come home, you have the excuse of “college” being an influence for your change in personality.

But change scares me sometimes (creature of habit, remember?) that I wonder is this a change for the better? will people back at home approve of this change? I like to think it’s a good change, but what do I know, really? There could be people whispering behind my back that they’ve seen it coming, like it’s a bad thing. This isn’t a factual assumption, but I’ve heard of many anecdotes where this takes place and more often than not, it’s not something to be proud of. I don’t know. This is really confusing and terrifying to think about. Sometimes you just want to grab the world by the shoulders and shake them while yelling, “WHO AM I”

I also got a pair of Doc Martens yesterday.

you run into the night from all you’ve had

There’s something strangely therapeutic about listening to the light pitter-patter of raindrops as they beat against the nylon fabric of an umbrella which you’re holding over yourself.

Besides walking my dog in the rain late at night with an umbrella, this week, I’ve joined the school choir for a day, dressed up on Friday for college and sat on a plane alone. Again.

Last Thursday, since I had nothing else to do after classes, I decided to follow Yi Jing and Hannah (Yi Jing’s classmate and an ex-ALSTAR teammate of mine) to their choir practice from 5 to 7 because what the hell. It was free and who knows, maybe I have some kind of hidden talent for singing showcases. (Spoiler: that wasn’t the case.) The vocal trainer tested my vocal range for the first time and sorted me into soprano 2. Soprano. Oh. Hannah was a sop 2 as well and since I fail terribly at sight singing, I depended mostly (if not wholly) on Hannah when we practised. I don’t think I’ll be returning for the second practice, though.

The next day was a Friday, and previously, our econs teacher had instructed us to “dress up” on that day as we would be having an informal class photo taken. So after class on Thursday, the remaining people of my class had a brief meeting and we came to a consensus to dress formally the next day. So on Friday, majority of the boys were in collared shirts and slacks (Irfan went the distance and even had a bowtie on) (like Harry Styles) while Bellyn, Zi Tian and I dressed up in, well, dresses.

It was a really fun Friday. There’s always a certain…lightness to Fridays that Thursdays over here never had. It already feels like a day off even though it technically isn’t. Lecturers dress down while students dress up on Fridays, and it really is, in all its essence, TGIF.

On that Friday itself, I was to fly back to Alor Setar on an 8PM flight. Daniel, who was also staying at SMR offered me a lift to the Subang airport and when he dropped me there, it felt like Heathrow all over again, albeit a way smaller Heathrow because all I needed to do was walk straight and turn right to reach the waiting area. I didn’t even have to look for my terminal.

The gate of my flight opened at 1930 hours so at 7PM, I decided to call Beneh just for the heck of it and also to while away the time. The phone call lasted for 38 minutes and I didn’t even realise I’d missed my high school accomplice so much until then. And then it was boarding time and I spent the one hour on the plane silently laughing at Dan and Phil’s radio show video that I had pre-downloaded at school as a preparatory method to elude boredom on the plane. As a result, the hour literally flew by (see what I did there) and in no time at all, I was back at Alor Setar. My parents were already waiting for me and after hugging them, I was on the way home. Truly home. And damn, did that feel really frickin’ good. There really is no place like home.