Life’s Little Tidbits – Page 7

A Crammed Post About Everything That Has Happened While I Was Away From this Blog and the End of A Pretty Amazing Year

This blog has not been updated for too long, but perhaps it’s because I’ve finally gotten a life. Quite a lot has happened to me while I was away from this blog. The main reason I couldn’t blog was because I was staying at my Si Pek’s house from Sunday to Thursday, and blogging on my phone was inconvenient.

Might I add that I’d been leading a life of hedonism while I was away. Hedonism in my contextual definition means enjoying every single thing I do without really worrying about the consequences, in case you’re worrying that I’ve started picking up drinking or smoking habits or whatnot. I’m pointing it out because somehow, I finally found the guts to step out of my typical guidelines to do things -things I normally would be horrified to do- without thinking too much of the consequences, which is something I’ve never been brave enough to do before. Again, nothing serious or life-damaging, but perhaps a little life-changing.

So here’s what you missed on Michelle’s Interesting Life:

I have been attending a lot of Christmas parties. A family dinner at Si Pek’s house on the 24th, a barbecue dinner at Caleb’s house on the 25th, another Christmas party at Si Pek’s house on the 26th, a Christmas festival at Taman Laguna Mas on the 29th and an MYF Christmas party last night, the 30th. This year’s Christmas has been great. Some ups and some downs but overall pretty satisfying.

Dad started giving me driving lessons around the neighbourhood, because he said he wanted to make sure I had “steady steering skills” before I worry about manual gears during the real exams. The first time was horrifying, and I couldn’t even exceed 10 km/h. I’d brake everytime a car or a motorbike appeared out of nowhere, so you can more or less imagine the hysterical screams and laughter I emitted while my dad got more and more frustrated. However, today’s my third time driving around the neighbourhood now and safe to say, I love driving. I know I’ll most likely change my mind in a few months’ time but right now, I love driving.

This is the first non-separated post about my braces, which hurts my OCD but there’s nothing I can do about it. I got black braces yesterday. Yes, black and nothing else. It symbolises my mourning of the start of a new school year.

And now we get to the sentimental part. The end of 2011. To be quite honest, 2011 was probably the best year I’ve ever had, and I know I say the same about every year when it’s coming to an end, but this time I really mean it. I’ve been to so many different places and obtained eye-opening experiences, made new friends with wonderful people as well as strengthened old friendships, and done things I’d never, in a million years, think of doing.

But of course, there were the horrible breakdowns, painful heartbreaks and confusing obstacles that lined the path of 2011. Those are places I don’t really want to venture into but just to make it clear that 2011 wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns and pure ecstasy.

Hence, safe to say, the best and worst moments of my life all took place this year. It has been a wonderful yet disastrous ride, but a lot of lessons have been learned. They’ve helped me grow into the person I am now. I think I can safely say that I’m better than the person I was early this year.

There’s another reason why I dread the arrival of 2012 besides the fact that this year has been infinitely good to me, and that is SPM. I don’t think it has fully registered in my brain yet that in less than a year’s time, I’m going to be sitting for what would probably be the most important examination in my life. I’m not prepared yet. I don’t think I’ll ever be. It makes me nauseous just thinking about it. So I shall not think about it. Yet. For today.

And then there’s also the teeny voice at the back of my head that spews apocalyptic theories which, sometimes, even makes me doubt myself, wondering if it’s true we’re all going to die next year. I know it’s highly unlikely, but you never know these things. Unlike SPM, there’s nothing I can do about it but being a natural worrier, I still worry about it.

All I know for sure is that next year is going to be one hell of a ride. Stopping for a breather even sounds absurd. So here’s to the last two days of freedom before the gates of school finally open to welcome all of us into her arms, despite our struggles and tantrums.

I would’ve written this at night when 2012 looms closer, but there is a countdown tonight and I don’t think I’ll be able to break away from it to write a blogpost so this is it.

See you guys next year!

PS. Unfortunately, I have not completed my YNN Camp page yet. Epic facepalm. Guess you all will have to wait until next year.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS!

This is what my dog, Heart, looked like when I came home. I couldn’t even recognise him.

Anyway, I’M HOME!

I reached Alor Setar at around 1 PM yesterday and to be honest, everything here seemed foreign at first glance: the lack of traffic, the slightly less developed roads, the absence of towering buildings and even my home. But after having lived here for 11 years, I managed to slip back into my normal routine quite easily and frankly, I am glad to be home.

I didn’t get the chance to blog about my return yesterday because yesterday was a day of productiveness. As soon as I got home, I started unpacking everything and then proceeded to clean my room so now it’s inhabitable. I don’t even remember what time I went to sleep last night. That’s how productive I was.

I am almost done with Christmas gift wrappings and that’s pretty much what I’m looking forward to at the moment: Christmas.

Despite the gladness and relief, yes, I still do miss my Starstruck! buddies. But I’m veering more towards “until the time we meet again” instead of lurking at “our time here is over, we might never see each other again” so yes, that’s been helpful, at least.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

PS. I didn’t forget about the YNN Camp page. It’s still under construction until I stop procrastinating enough to finish it.

Remember the Time When We Stole the Whole Day?

Ann-Marie, Wee Nie, Min Hui, Le Shea and yours truly. Copyright (c) Le Shea.

Another mushy post about an ending? Unfortunately, yes. But it’s my blog and these are my memories so it would only make sense for me to jot down every single detail before they fade away with time.

I’m headed for Alor Setar tomorrow morning and I’m in the middle of repacking. I can still remember the day before I headed for KL for the internship. I was fresh out of the finals oven, both anticipating and dreading the internship. I was reluctant to pack, to head for this totally different environment which I would have to live in for a month.

Time flies, a little too quickly for my liking. Now that I’m going home, it’s hard to leave all these new memories, experiences and friends behind to return to my old life.

I just came back from a farewell dinner at 1Utama with Ann-Marie, Ellora, Kyle, Le Shea, Wee Nie, Ju Mei and Chester. Promises were made, roads down memory lane were taken, long hugs were given, more memories were formed and fortunately, no tears were shed. They were close to making their appearances, but I willed them not to with constant reassurances that these were faces that I would see again. Maybe not soon, but perhaps soon enough. (Sorry Le Shea you didn’t make me cry, but if it’s any consolation, I almost did.)

I really cannot thank all of you enough for the wonderful time I’ve had. As Min Hui said, it’s been a long journey, but it’s also been an amazing journey. I’m in a thanksgiving mood, so to all of you (yes, you, even you who’s reading this now) thank you, just for being a part of my life. (Special shoutouts to Effie, Ellie, Mei, Hanna, Farhanah, Sarah and even Elya and Kath for the happiness you’ve given me for the past month.)

These wonderful memories are forever carved in my mind, complete with the footsteps all of you have left in my heart. You have all played important roles in my life, and all of you will never be forgotten.

Now we own the night, and it can’t be undone,
We’ll never forget how it feels to be young,
Beause it will be forever mine,
And it will be forever yours.

A Post About Stuff and…dsjadhslkjflskdjfsa

An excerpt from The Start of Something New:

Dear post-internship Michelle, as you reread this (I know you will, because you [or rather, we because we’re actually the same person obviously] are extreme narcissists), I hope you had a fantastic time at Menara Star and that you did not regret a single thing. I hope you learned a thing or two to make your life infinitely better than it is right now. I also hope you do not come back with a “big city mentality”, as I like to call it, because who knows what a city as huge as Kuala Lumpur is able to do to you? Remember your roots. (I am beginning to sound like a Disney movie now, aren’t I?) And if you didn’t enjoy your time there (though I hugely doubt so), remember that you have a knack of finding certain joys in life from the littlest things, so don’t mope over what’s over and start…preparing for your Form 5 life.

Dear pre-internship Michelle, you’re right! I did go back through all my pre-internship blogposts just to see how much I’ve changed!

I just rewatched Charlie McDonnell’s Time Travel video again and I wish I could’ve time travelled to where you are at the current moment (tenses might not be accurate where time travelling is concerned…confusing business, this is) to tell you that you have nothing to worry about. Well, not exactly nothing, but in retrospect, you really were worrying too much.

Your hopes also came true: I did have a fantastic time. Safe to say, this is the best month I’ve ever had, despite the fact that yes, I was pretty much still an awkward and homesick kid the first two weeks I was here but you know how confusing and brain-meddling the world can be when it comes to regrets and memories. The best moments are always the last few moments you have, right before realising that the wonderful time you are having is coming to an end.

Yes, I would say my life has changed for the better. I (officially) have a true family whom I love very much. I have made new friends who are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met (I realise I’ve said this before in my previous post…WHO CARES, THEIR AWESOMENESS SHOULD BE EMPHASISED ALWAYS) and been to places where I’ve never thought I would set foot on in a million years. It’s like Tweens Camp and MCYDS all over again, except perhaps accelerated in intensity because it’s a month we’re talking about here, not a three days or a week.

As for having a “big city mentality”…well, I don’t think so. I mean, I just asked my aunt for RM 20 for shopping today and she stared at me weirdly before shoving RM 100 into my hands, saying that there’s nothing you can buy in KL with 20 bucks. About human relationships though, I can’t judge yet because I haven’t met anyone from Alor Setar yet. So…yeah.

With that over and done, let me tell you a little about the turning out of my post-internship depression today.

I woke up this morning at 7.30 (it’s becoming a habit) wishing desperately that I could get up and go to work. Predictably, flashbacks started to appear in my head and it was too much for me to bear so, despite being quite awake, I pulled my covers over my head and willed myself to shut everything up and just go back to sleep and not think anymore. Somewhere in there was a crazy moment when I just wanted to roll from the bed onto the floor to stop thinking.

I even dreamt about Ellora and Min Hui in two separate dreams. In the first dream, Ellora and I went to this parade event in town (said town looked like classical London) where I got myself a stalker so I had to stay in a hotel for a night to get rid of him. In the second dream, I met Min Hui three times at the same mall and I remembered thinking to myself, this is coincidental…or IS IT?

The depression could’ve gone on longer but thank God I had plans for the day. I had a meetup with Farhanah and Sarah at 1 PM so I had to force myself out of bed by 11 AM to get ready.

Numero uno: Me and Farhanah; numero dos: Me and Sarah.

By the way, I had a fantastic time. We caught up during lunch at Food Republic and watched Arthur Christmas at GSC. But leaving was once again, reminiscent of all my post-event depressions and that was when I realised that most of my depressions revolve around the acknowledgement that I won’t be seeing these wonderful people ever again. So that’s it then, the core of my problem which I undoubtedly need to learn to face.

I would also like to clarify something in this post. Min Hui once asked me why I was so quiet on the Starstruck! 40 group wall all the time throughout the year, and I think I owe you Starstruck! guys an explanation of sorts.

At the beginning of the year, when I first found out I was selected as a Starstruck! writer, I made a decision: I was going to be the extroverted one this time around. So I started being active on all the topic threads, created a new thread to suggest names for Team B (Le Shea reminded me of this fact when she told me that I was the first Starstruck! person she spoke to on Facebook) and just…be as chatty and talkative as possible. At first it worked, but (I’m admitting something I’m disgusted of) I get bored easily and somewhere in March/April, I got busy with both curricular and co-curricular activities so my concentration shifted away from Starstruck. Hence, during the times when I frequented the group wall, I found you guys talking about stuff I don’t understand, and I realised that most (if not all) of you were already really close friends so I felt out of place and didn’t want to seem as if I was too desperate and started barging in or anything so I kept silent. Another reason why I kept to myself was sometimes, the assignments I sent in were done quite carelessly (especially when I was running out of time) and in a way, I felt guilty and didn’t want to visit the group wall out of guilt. So, yes. I also realise I might have come off as proud or arrogant that way, and I apologise. I really regret not spending more time with you guys because now, the time we’ve spent together just isn’t enough. I wished I was wise enough to realise that earlier on, but I’m foolishly ignorant most of the time so in your face, Michelle.

But to keep the optimism running, I promise not to dwell on the negative parts and rather relish the amazing moments we had together. You are all wonderful people and thank you for the joy you’ve brought into my life.

The End of Something Amazing (And A Whirlwind of Emotions)

It’s the 19th of December. I’m back from the YNN camp, which also means that my stint here in KL is officially over.

No more waking up at 7.30 every morning to get ready for work. No more crossing the overhead bridge to walk over to Menara Star every morning. No more taking the lift to Level 3A or 5. No more flashing my tags to enter the respective editorial departments. No more assignments. No more rushing around to meet deadlines. No more eating at the cafeteria or Commons. No more laughing and goofing around with the other interns. No more waiting at the entrance of 11.45 Club at 5 every evening for Hoon Jie Jie to pick me up. No more…internship.

It’s become a part of my life for a month already so taking that away is kind of making the absence of it foreign now.

Judging by the intensity of my homesickness for the past month, it’s kind of a wonder that I feel sad to leave this place; you’d think I’d be glad and relieved to return home, but that’s just it. I’m awfully sad to leave this place, Menara Star and my new, amazing friends but I’m also incredibly happy to go home and meet my parents and basically just everyone in Alor Setar whom I haven’t seen in a month, and also to celebrate Christmas. These contradicting and conflicting emotions make my head hurt.

Human emotions, how do you work?

I’ve had a terrific time here. To be perfectly honest, there were times when I wanted to quit everything and just go home, times when I told myself that I’m not fit for this place, that the people here are too different for my liking. But then again, it’s not like I have a choice, do I? And most of the time, pleasant surprises turn up at random moments to alleviate the foreignness of it all. Friendships are formed, lessons are learned, and it’s these little things that make everything bad bearable, and sometimes even great. I’ve done things I’ve never thought I would have the guts to do and made friends with some of the coolest people I’ve ever met. Frankly, going home just seems quite bland and plain now compared to my initial zest.

I think the main thing that’s gotten me through the downs of the past month is my Starstruck! family. Min Hui’s so adorable and amazingly funny; Paik Suan’s jakun-ness is often an entertaining factor whenever we’re together and Claire’s so shy and precious and I quote Min Hui, “just like a little sister”. These three people were the ones I stuck to most of the time throughout the internship, so they’re almost like the sisters I’ve never had.

And also Ann-Marie, Ellora, Kyle, Ju Mei, Le Shea, Wee Nie and Amanda: for being such brilliant friends for the past few days; I wish we could’ve had more time together (one week is simply not enough).

It’s the post internship-cum-camp depression all over again. Yet again, I don’t want these wonderful memories to fade but I know they’ll dim down with time and there’s nothing I can do to prevent this so I’m just going to indulge in my memory archives while they’re still fresh in my mind.

I’m going to miss our Orlando-Bloom-lookalike stalking session, our Circle of Love, that infinite night at TGI Friday’s, that wonderful meeting in Warm Red, the overused “CEPUMAS” word in our vocabularies, the imitations of my Last Friday Night video everywhere I go and so many more. Thank you everyone, my entire Starstruck! family, Anne, Jeannette, everyone at the Newsdesk, Features and Education desk, San Ku and Hoon Jie Jie for making my one month here as great as it could possibly be. I could never ask for anything more than this. Thank you so much.

This post is kind of messy as are my emotions and feelings currently. I’m sorry.

I’m coming home on Friday a different and renewed person. Not entirely, but just enough.

PS. A page of the entire YNN Camp will be up soon under the ‘Journals’ tab. Watch out for it.

Always Darkest Before the Dawn (Internship Day Fifteen to Seventeen)

NOW PLAYING: SHAKE IT OUT- FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

Internship Day Fifteen- 13/12, Tuesday

Monday was an off day for us from the first and second batch but the third batch, the Form 5 Starstruckers and Eibhlin still had to go to work (and they got to interview the author of Beautiful Creatures, Margaret Stohl! How is that fair!). The third batch consists of Amanda Ng, Ellora Chua, Ann-Marie Khor, Kyle Chan, Cheng Ju Mei, June Lee and Eibhlin Lim.

That morning, I saw Ann-Marie, Ju Mei, June and Eibhlin for the first time and that “OMG YOU GUYS ARE REAL PEOPLE AND NOT JUST FACEBOOK PROFILES” feeling returned. At around 11 AM, Anne made a sudden announcement that there would be a trip to Dewan Negara/Parliament that morning, but since me and most of the other interns weren’t in suitable attires for the Parliament, only Paik Suan, June and Eibhlin were granted permission to enter the building.

Minus the three of them, the 11 of us had lunch together at the cafeteria where we told them about our experiences so far and pretty much just laughed and joked around like old friends who hadn’t seen each other for years (well for some of them, it’s six months).

Then, we also found out astounding news about us from a very nice and professional senior journalist. Thank you, man, seriously.

Ellora, Kyle, June, Paik Suan and I were in Features that week, but since Kyle, June and Paik Suan made the first trip to the Parliament, Sharmilla (one of the editors at Features) gave Ellora and I an assignment to sort out entries for a book survey they did in The Star.

When June, Paik Suan and Eibhlin returned, Anne and Jeannette held a brief meeting at Level 3 and basic words simply cannot describe the laughfest and chaos that happened. Put 14 rambunctious teenagers with high sugar levels into one room and this is what you get:

The day pretty much went on like that, as we crazy interns, previously power of four now boosted to power of fourteen, etched our marks at Level 3A of Menara Star by being the high-spirited and energetic kids we are.

Ann-Marie, Min Hui, Amanda, Amelia and a herpderp yours truly. Taken by Ju Mei.

http://twitter.com/#!/morhdorh/status/146453470566817792

Internship Day Sixteen- 14/12, Wednesday

On that day, the remaining 10 of us (Amelia couldn’t turn up) got the chance to enter Parliament. It was a 10-minute ride there, and when we reached the building, we found out we had to hand over all electronic devices to security and leave all bags in a lockers (seriously) then only were we allowed to enter.

Min Hui was a “model” doing “catwalks” that day because she’d borrowed stilettos from Jeannette and had difficulty walking in them (“My feet are in pain,” said 16-year-old Lee Min Hui who, at a point, even took off her heels to run across a corridor to catch up with the others).

In the Parliament room, the “debate” that was going on while we entered was concerning the usage of BM in Malaysia and how English is overriding our national language even on road signs, billboards etc when the irony of it all was right in front of their faces– the clock on both sides of the room walls showed “11.57 AM, Wed, Dec”.

After that, it was a no-go for our attention spans and we found ourselves starting to fidget and whisper and pass notes and occasionally when my conscience kicked in guiltily, I would stop to focus on the speaker but realised it was the same ol’ nonsense they’ve been spewing for years, so I proceeded to tune them out and resume my fidgeting and whispering and passing of notes.

We left early because it was getting unbearable in there. Amanda, Ann-Marie and Min Hui left in a cab to continue their next assignment whereas the rest of us returned to Menara Star by the same van. Nothing much happened that day, but I managed to finish Sharmilla’s assignment as well as half of my personal story before going home.

That night, Paik Suan just had to remind me of the time we have left (five days) by posting this picture on Facebook:

Internship Day Seventeen- 15/12, Thursday

Today officially marks the last day of my internship, along with Paik Suan, Min Hui, Claire and Vincent because for the next four days, we’ll be joining a Young News Network camp in Pahang. Tomorrow’s the first day but we’ll only be leaving for 8 Acres (a campsite somewhere in the forest where, according to Yee Lisan, one of the people in charge of YNN, cannot be found even on Google Maps) on Saturday morning.

The previous day, Jeannette told us that there would be a photoshoot for the cover of the first issue of Stuff@School next year so that was the first thing on our agenda for the day. Only Ellora, Paik Suan, June, Kyle, Amanda, Min Hui and I were involved in the photoshoot because Jeannette didn’t want the cover to be too crowded.

(Photo will posted here once it’s out.)

After that, we had lunch and since I still had RM 50+ worth of coupons and it’s already my last day of internship, I belanja-ed everyone a bottle of Minute Maid and it felt awesome. Being nice is awesome. (Lol.)

After that, we went back to Level 3A and both Ellora and I were given a new assignment by Ann Marie Chandy (another editor) to search for a new theme for the Silver Scream section. In the end, we decided on Nicholas Sparks’ book-to-movie adaptations and I reviewed The Last Song (it was okay) and Dear John (it was not okay) whereas Ellora reviewed The Notebook and A Walk To Remember.

The first day of YNN officially starts tomorrow!

EDIT: This post was supposed to be published yesterday but this went down: I was halfway through this post when I suddenly felt something pressed against my chest and I found it hard to breathe and I started to panic as I shut everything down. I wanted to just forget it and maybe just sleep it away so I thought maybe I’ll just play Temple Run to calm my nerves for a while until I’m relaxed enough to go to sleep but the paranoid parrot in me kept reminding me of my pain and the possible outcomes of my ignorance, eg. a full-force pneumonia which would lead to death. I really, really thought I was going to die last night. It was frightening. The fact that San Ku and Hoon Jie Jie were both unwell and already asleep made things worse. However, in the end, I had to wake Hoon Jie Jie up anyway even though she was sick with a cough and flu (I’m so, so sorry) and she had to drive me to the emergency area at Damansara Specialist Hospital where they did a check up for me and told me I was okay but after consultation, the doctor said it was probably a normal case of acid reflex. So apparently, it’s all fine and dandy but I still needed to get an injection (three full syringes) which would be the first one I’ve had all year long.

But I’m fine and all that now. Just my paranoia making life harder again.

Tomorrow me and 30 other teenagers will be heading for Bentong, Pahang and you know what that means! No Internet! So I will be AWOL from the Internet universe for three days until I return in the evening of Monday.

Today has been amazing. I’m drafting it.

I also can’t believe that I’m leaving soon. Halfway through dinner, this realisation really hit me on the head with such force that nausea overwhelmed me for a moment before I forced those thoughts out of my head. I’m not exactly prepared for a post-internship depression period when I get home.

Interlude 4

Getting Down On A Weekend

How does one get down on a weekend (or Friday)?

I don’t know!

I spent my weekend with Soo May again. On Saturday, we went to The Curve where I finally completed my Christmas shopping. At night, we went to a Watch Awards show at Starhill Gallery and I saw Jimmy Choo and Sheila Majid with my own eyes!

After the event, we were stuck in a jam for an hour and missed X Factor. So we came home and watched Mean Girls until 2AM instead.

The next morning, we slept in late and after waking up, I watched The Lovely Bones. Hands down most tragic story ever. At 2PM, we attended the Piala Sri Endon Batik Competition at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre but left early because, well, it was boring. After all that, Soo May sent be back to San Ku’s house where a sudden change of plans happened: Sank Ku said I could go for the mini Starstruck! gathering at 1Utama. The gathering was held because the Form 5 Starstruckers had already arrived at KL and will be starting work tomorrow.

Seven out of twenty-three (right?) of us turned up: Alicia, Le Shea, Amanda, Wee Nie, Kyle, Ellora and I. When I met them, they were already halfway through dinner at New York New York Deli.

At New York New York Deli, this was what went down: when the bill came and everyone started to fork out their money to pay their part of the bill, chaos ensued (to quote Amanda, “We Starstruckers may be good at writing but we are certainly bad at math.” And also to quote Kyle, “This would make a good news article: The Woes of Eating Out With Teenage Friends.”) but it wasn’t until Kyle brought out his towers of coins that everyone started laughing. The reactions of the restaurant waiters were priceless. By the time we left the restaurant, they hadn’t even finished counting the coins yet. I think we were the loudest bunch in the restaurant.

After dinner, we went window shopping then had snacks at Chatime and Carls Jr. (where chaos also ensued during Amanda’s meat accident and Le Shea’s plea to the family at the table next to us to take a group photo of us; it seems that chaos ensue wherever we go) before everyone muttered their goodbyes and “see you”s. I’ve never felt so happy to be part of the Starstruck! family.

Amanda and Wee Nie. Copyright (c) Ellora Chua.

Alicia and Le Shea. Copyright (c) Ellora Chua.

Ellora and Kyle. Copyright (c) Ellora Chua.

Alicia, Kyle, Ellora, Wee Nie, Amanda, me and Le Shea at Carls Jr. Copyright (c) Le Shea.

The towers of coins that made us grow abs from laughing too hard. Copyright (c) Ellora Chua.

This also happened. Copyright (c) Kyle Chan.

Internship Day Ten to Fourteen

Internship Day Ten- 5/12, Monday

First day at Education Desk! This time, Min Hui and Claire were switched to Features Desk and Paik Suan (who was originally at Business Desk) and I to Education Desk. On that day, the second batch of Starstruck! writers arrived: Alicia Nicholle and Amelia Henderson. Both of them plus Vincent were at Newsdesk.

The day before, Chelsea (The OC of Edu Desk) had already given me assignments through email which is interviewing three mothers for easy and healthy recipes to be published in the Smart Snacks column. I interviewed Mum, Ju Mei (not a mother, I know, but a teenager which makes it better because the recipes are supposed to be for young students and undergrads who er…don’t know how to cook) and Min Hui’s mum.

Nothing eventful happened for the day. (I define “eventful” as going out for assignments.) However, these two events did happen:

#1. Jeannette asked if I wanted to do a book review for Write Reads in Stuff@School and I said yes, so I chose Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi because Harper Collins had tweeted about the newly released book and I wanted to find out if it was as good as the people at Harper Collins had said (hint: no). Later, my spirits rose when I found out I could keep the book! Astounding news!

#2. All four of us, Min Hui, Paik Suan, Claire and I had a huge laughfest. I don’t really want to talk about the main reason that caused the laughfest because despite it being a laughfest, it was actually quite er…controversial. But it was Paik Suan (supposedly the leader of the Circle of Hate which subsequently changed into the Circle of Love) who started the passionate and heated debate which brought tears to her eyes (“Those were tears from laughing too hard! Seriously! I have really, really sensitive eyes!”), and then the laughfest heightened with the appearance of a scary Claire-lookalike and then heightened even more when I introduced Min Hui to the existence of a particular Harry Potter fanfic (snigger) and we couldn’t stop laughing for about half an hour. I realise that we were once again nuisances to everyone on the floor and I sincerely apologise.

Highlights of the laughfest through tweets:

http://twitter.com/#!/echoingrabbits/status/143613552324919297
http://twitter.com/#!/echoingrabbits/status/143613804876529664
http://twitter.com/#!/itsminhui/status/143604120807419906
http://twitter.com/#!/echoingrabbits/status/143596044226265088
http://twitter.com/#!/itsminhui/status/143642982447452160

Internship Day Eleven- 6/12, Tuesday

Day Eleven saw me waking up to this tweet…

http://twitter.com/#!/penguinusa/status/143811573717270528

…and my day got better instantly.

The day at the office was uneventful too, and I spent the whole day finishing up my first email mythbuster article and coming up with a topic for my personal story. Sitting next to Paik Suan (who was typing away ceaselessly on the computer) made me feel like the worst and most unproductive procrastinator ever. Thanks, Paik Suan.

We also found out Jeannette and Anne were designing Starstruck! T-shirts for us Starstruckers! Brilliant!

That night, with In The Mourning constantly on repeat, I had to crop an image of a cockroach by its borders (not a very entertaining activity for a katsaridaphobe like me) for my email mythbuster article and safe to say, it was the most traumatizing experience I’ve ever had to endure ever since I came to KL.

(Curious about aforementioned traumatizing picture? Click here!)

Internship Day Twelve- 7/12, Wednesday

Our assignment for the day was to attend the Memorandum of Cooperation Signing Ceremony between KDU University College and ECM Libra Foundation. Both companies were collaborating to to provide a bursary and loan scheme to underprivileged children in developing towns. It was an interesting ceremony, to be fairly honest, contrary to the fact that it was described as “dry and boring” before we left for the assignment. But you know the real thrilling treat of the day?

We had lunch at this prestigious and high-class Italian restaurant called Pietro and…

Wait for it…

…it was free!

Free, delicious, four-coursed, Italian gourmet food that made Paik Suan and I gasp at each other in awe and amazement after taking a bite of each dish. The first course was a round of antipasti (an Italian appetizer of bread with various dishes such as black peppered vegetables, cubed cheese, fresh prawns, fried squid etc) which was, truthfully, a new experience for me. The second round was mushroom soup so glorious and heavenly it left me begging for more. The third course was a huge plate of chicken steak and pasta which was, admittedly, too large a portion but was still delizioso. The last course was the best of all: creamy, vanilla gelato with strawberries. The sweet vanilla ice cream blended with the fresh, sour taste of strawberries which led to a divine explosion in my mouth.

We both agreed it was the best lunch we’ve ever had since November 21st.

The company was good, too! Big names from KDU UC were fascinated that we were only sixteen years old and already working. Words like “scholarship” and “internship” were thrown around fairly often in our conversations and we both knew we’d schmoozed with the right kind of people. It was great.

Internship Day Thirteen- 8/12, Thursday

When I first started this internship, I never dreamt of the day when my assignment would actually involve a trip to a book carnival. Well, guess what?

My assignment on Day Thirteen was a trip to the MPH Carnival at Midvalley! Brillante!

When we got there, the place was already brimming with people. There was no space to move between shelves and the queues at the counters were formidable. Although, admittedly, the carnival proved to be quite a disappointment. The book choices were few and the discounts only went up to 25%. We couldn’t even use our complimentary MPH book vouchers (yes, we got complimentary MPH book vouchers). But in the end, I bought The Hobbit as well as the entire set of Lord of the Rings for…

Wait for it…

…forty bucks only.

Granted, it was exactly like the one I already have but forty bucks.

“I had to buy it,” said 16-year-old Michelle Teoh’s obsessive compulsive disorder.

Anyway, we attended the official launch, then proceeded to our second assignment which involved another round of ambushing random people. This time, the ambushees were parents. We were doing a story on parents’ budgets to prepare their kids for next year, and to find out if the RM100 money aid was useful. (To be truthful, non è stato.)

Then came the worst episode of the day: waiting for a cab. When we saw the long queue at the taxi pick-up and also the rain, our spirits dropped instantaneously. Safe to say, from the moment we waited for a cab, took a cab, waited in a cab in a traffic jam to the moment we reached Menara Star, two hours were wasted, just like that. And that is why I will never, ever, ever want to live in KL.

We were exhausted by the time we reached the office and yet we had an 800-word article to churn out. However, my spirits were lifted mildly when we found out there was a Christmas buffet for the staff! It’s wonderful when these little unexpected joyful surprises pop up to add a little colour to your dull day: it’s one of those I-believe-in-the-existence-of-unicorns moments once again.

Back Camera — Christmas tree and decoration on Level 1 of Menara Star.

Later, we found out from Anne that there was even a group of staff from Sunway Resort Hotel who did some caroling at Menara Star! They were also the ones who’d sponsored the Christmas buffet. There was turkey, cinnamon rolls, sugar cookies, fruitcakes and candycanes. It was brilliant. I’ve never been more excited for Christmas.

Internship Day Fourteen- 9/12, Friday

We headed for 1Utama at 11.30 AM to continue our parents-ambushing assignment. After that, I stole a few minutes at MPH to spend my MPH vouchers. I bought Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Hence, that would be nine books plus one huge LOTR book set I’m lugging back to Alor Setar. Simply fantastico, Michelle.

I just finished Shatter Me. If you’re planning to pick up that book, don’t. Reading that book literally made me nauseous.

The Star, 9/12/11. That would be Amelia in the picture!

Things to look forward to: meetup with Farhanah and Sarah in the morning at 1Utama on Sunday, meetup with all the Starstruckers in the evening at 1Utama on Sunday, arrival of the Form 5 Starstruckers on Monday and the YNN workshop on Friday.

It astounds me how time flies so quickly. I only have a week left.

Two-Day Treat

As I’d already told you in my previous post, Si Pek, Si Em and Soo Ling were coming over to KL (if you don’t understand Hokkien lingo, my uncle, aunt and cousin were coming over) and I now realise that there is a perk of waking up early.

On Friday night, I considered ringing up Soo May earlier to ask if they were going anywhere now that her parents and sister were here and if I could follow them as well, but then I decided that calling her on Saturday morning would be better since it was already late. On Saturday morning, I woke up at 7 AM to go to the toilet and couldn’t go back to sleep and was it coincidence or the effect of something greater when I heard the phone vibrating (on silent mode) only to find that it was Soo May calling me to ask me whether I wanted to spend the whole two-day weekend with them and better yet, spend the night at her place? Of course I said yes. It was one of those moments when you truly believe in the existence of unicorns (because unicorns are magical and just great).

(Another instance of this unicorn-believing moment was when I went to Borders this afternoon wanting to look for Into The Wild but didn’t know the name of the author, so I wanted to use the computer archive system only to find that the system was down. Next to the monitor was a piece of paper taped to it that said: “To search for a book title, key in JANE EYRE under the ‘Title’ category. To search for a book title and its author, key in INTO THE WILD and JON KRAKAUER under the ‘Title’ and ‘Author’ category.”)

(But I still couldn’t find the book in the store so, unicorns, you guys could’ve done better.)

So I packed my stuff hurriedly and said temporary goodbyes to San Ku and Hoon Jie Jie before leaving. First stop, we went to the wet market for a quick breakfast, then, we headed for Bukit Tinggi.

We didn’t go to any specific destination at Bukit Tinggi, only to take a look at the landplaces but that was well enough. Anything’s well enough when the weather itself is well enough. We even stopped at an empty land to pick acorns (you don’t get to do that everyday now, do you?) and laughed and jumped around and treated the place as our own because there was no one around and the weather was cooling; not too cold that we needed jackets and not too hot that we had to shield our eyes.

After that, we had refreshments at a random restaurant as we descended the hill and had refreshments again after we descended the hill. It was my first time at Snowflake at Kota Damansara.

Then, we went home to Soo May’s apartment, had baths, watched Charlie St. Cloud and played with Lady (Soo May’s dog; also Heart’s…uh…little sister?) before paying a visit to Kevin Ko Ko at the hospital. After that, we had a fantastic dinner at Jake’s Charbroil Steaks at Damansara Heights. Everyone came home feeling great from the great food and we watched Astro (yes!) and Drew (no!) get kicked out from X Factor before we went to sleep.

There’s this quote from Fight Club that goes, “If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?” This quote is relevant to this morning, despite the fact that I did not wake up at a different time and in a different place. (But I’ve never spent the night at Soo May’s place before so ‘different place’ application here, and I’ve never really woken up that early on a weekend, either [the previous morning doesn’t count] so ‘different time’ application here. God, it’s so hard to explain in words so just accept it and pretend that I make sense, okay?)

We drove into KL early in the morning to this renowned yet small Chinese kopitiam famous for its pork rolls. And I really do mean it when I use the term ‘renowned’ because when we got there, there was literally a long queue outside of the kopitiam and the kopitiam itself was full to the brim (even strangers had to share tables). We had to wait about 10 minutes before we were seated.

After that, Soo May took us around Bangsar to drool over the enormous houses. Then, we went to The Curve and did some shopping at Padini’s and Soo May got me a pair of red ribbon earrings as an early Christmas present. Then I did some Christmas shopping myself at Borders. We wandered around The Curve for a while before going to Ikea where Si Pek shopped for his Christmas tree.

That’s three ‘Christmases’ in that paragraph alone. I am just so excited for Christmas.

We then had late lunch at Burger King at Mutiara Damansara and verdict: the burgers shrank, the drinks tasted and smelled of perfume and the service was frustrating.

After that, we went home (home in this case means Soo May’s apartment) where Soo May and I spent an hour playing her Xbox and burning our fats at the same time. I couldn’t move at all after that hour.

When I could move, Soo May sent me back here, to San Ku’s house and so here I am, blogging about the best weekend I’ve ever had. I wish it could’ve gone on longer than two days but platypus.

Work at a brand new department alone tomorrow! *does a 300 spartan charge*

LOOK! SNOW! (Internship Day Six to Nine)

What? What are these weird white spots drifting down my computer screen? Is it…snow?

Well, my golly, it sure is! And what does snow mean?

Winter?

And what does winter mean?

…

CHRISTMAS!!!

Yes, the festive mood is in the air! Old blog readers will notice that I had the snow function turned on as well last December. Now you know why WordPress rules: you get free snow on your blog every December if you’re on WordPress. How badass.

Also, theme change. I changed to this new theme with a darker backdrop so you can see the snow more clearly. I will change it back to Manifest (that’s the totally-white, header-equipped theme I used previously) on the 4th of January when the snow function ends.

Okay, now for those who want to know why I don’t blog about my internship everyday now. I have finally won the battle against my OCD (who wants a post per day) to give you a post per week. Reasons why I don’t want a post per day:

Easier for me
Less annoying for you

I often come home from work in no mood to write a blogpost, so I’m only going to write about my entire week during the weekends. Which starts today. TGIF, man, TGIF.

Internship Day Six- 29/11, Tuesday

All four of us were divided into two groups again: Min Hui & Paik Suan, Claire and I. Min Hui and Paik Suan followed Yvonne to an event attended by the Minister of Tourism, Dato’ Sri Ng Yen Yen, while Claire and I followed Terrence to an event attended by -le gasp!- Datin Seri Paduka Rosmah Mansor. Before setting off, we did some stalking (or intense researching, as Paik Suan likes to put it) on Rosmah Mansor’s part and needless to say, it was scandalous, indeed.

It took us an hour to arrive at Hulu Langat, where the Girl Guides’ Selangor ‘Turun Padang’ Closing Ceremony officiated by Rosmah Mansor herself was held. By the time we arrived, I was already dizzy with motion sickness, so you know the ride wasn’t really a nice one. It wasn’t Terrence’s fault though. That’s the peculiar thing about my motion sickness, it comes as it likes under any circumstance at all. I even get motion sickness staying at home. This is not your average motion sickness.

But the next hour proved to be entertaining, although, I don’t think I was supposed to be entertained. I don’t think I should write down what exactly happened that proved to be entertainment to me here because my blog is easily Google-able (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha) but if you want to know, ask me next time when we meet and I’ll tell you.

Then, it was another hour-ride back to Menara Star but I felt better this time. We had great conversations with Terrence in the car about movies, TV shows, books, anime, celebrities, books, future careers, KL geography, and did I mention books?

Here, have a photo of Rosmah Mansor:

Internship Day Seven- 30/11, Wednesday

Internship Day Seven is practically crossed off the list. I didn’t go to work that Wednesday because there were still remnants of the previous day’s nausea. It was horrible. I did nothing except sleep the whole day, and when I felt better, I spent the rest of the whole day on Hyperbole And A Half and The Oatmeal.

Internship Day Eight- 1/12, Thursday

That morning, Shah (the associate editor of newsdesk, remember?) gave all of us interns words of advice, about how we should fully use our senses to gain knowledge; because that’s the race we should never give up on: the race to gain knowledge. Then, we were given an assignment to attend a press conference conducted by Datuk Michael Chong at the MCA building. We were led by Shaun, a different senior journalist.

The press conference was held at the Public Services and Complaints Department and there were three cases that afternoon: a woman was charged an exorbitant amount of money for her towed-away car, and the other two were missing person cases; one involved a mentally challenged 37-year-old and another a 14-year-old teenage girl. I really can’t say anything here for reasons similar to the aforementioned Rosmah Mansor event, so ask me this again when you see me. It was equally entertaining and frustrating. I am never going near the Malaysian political field again.

Internship Day Nine- 2/12, Friday

It feels weird to be working on a Friday. Friday’s normally let’s-do-nothing-but-have-fun day back in Alor Setar.

Nevertheless, it was our last day at the newsdesk department and, well, it was quite a sad moment when the realisation hit us because we won’t really be seeing Yvonne or Esther or the other journalists and OCs we’ve grown used to seeing every weekday anymore.

Today’s assignment was another event involving Ng Yen Yen at the National Art Gallery. It was an opening ceremony for Malaysian artist Ali ‘Mabuha’ Rahamad’s art exhibition. Before the ceremony started, we took a look at all of Ali Mabuha’s works and they were disturbing, to be frank. There was a section in which there was a particularly dark and depressing theme to it and Yvonne, Min Hui and I more or less made our own logical interpretations of the art pieces. I wanted to point out that moment because I felt…different after our interpretations. Like there’s something hidden from my sight all along. Artists, how do their brains work?

Then came the highlight of the day, an incident that sent us laughing all the way back to Menara Star. There was this Orlando Bloom lookalike at the gallery and at first sight, Min Hui and Paik Suan started flailing. After that, it was a case of well, stalking Orlando Bloom lookalike all the way into the gallery on the first floor, then out of the gallery, then into the gallery on the second floor, then out of the gallery again, and then waiting near the table where he sat at to have lunch while pretending to be playing Temple Run (that would be Min Hui). I swear, we are such hormonal teenage girls. Back in the car, we told Yvonne about our stalking quest and she just laughed at us and the laughter never ended all the way to Menara Star. It was great.

And that was the end of the days of working at newsdesk. Next stop: education department.

Did I mention that Si Pek, Si Em and Soo Ling are coming to KL tomorrow? Yes!

Never Conquered, Rarely Came

“Why isn’t this a post about your internship?” Come back tomorrow (or the day after tomorrow) to find out the answer.

After working at newsdesk for almost two weeks now, I have learned to get straight to the point at the very beginning of an article (or in this case, blogpost) so let me get straight to the point:

I miss home.

I miss Mum and Dad, my friends, my dogs, my books, my room and just everything about my pre-internship life. Oftentimes, especially at night, I am overwhelmed by sudden waves of homesickness when thoughts of home -which I try very hard to suppress each and every day- resurface in my mind, having succeeded in breaking through the weak foundations of my mind, attacking me at my most vulnerable. I suppress them because whenever they appear, I lose the ability to do anything except moan and mope over situations which I am not in, people who I cannot meet or talk to, things I cannot do or have. That is very weak of me, I know, since it’s only been, what? Less than two weeks since I came here? And it’s not even as if I’m staying alone or hating my job or being away for a long period of time. No, I stay with two relatives of mine (and I have two more relatives who come over to visit every weekend; it’s like a mini family reunion every Saturday and Sunday over here), I love my awesome job and I’m only here for a month. But these thoughts are weak when faced with bouts of hopelessness as I wander around the house alone with nothing to do and no one to talk to. Things just aren’t the same here compared to home. Things are much…lonelier and quieter, and while this might seem a-okay for the first few days, it gets tiresome and even revolting by the first week. Normally, when I feel sad at home, I have many things or people or pets to fall back on: I have my parents, my dogs, my shelves of books, my movies, my bed (not that I don’t have a bed here but it just isn’t the same okay) and just the mere thought of being at home to comfort myself when things get out of hand. Here, I only have the Internet and occasionally books but in the end it just boils down to one thing: it just isn’t the same.

That is the most pathetic excuse I’ve ever heard but I’m not as strong and independent as I want to be. Yes, I know nothing in the world is ever the same as home, and life is never fair, and we all have to adapt to changes when we grow up and step into the huge, daunting, adult world but I’m…unprepared. I always use the reason “I have a year to go, let me prepare myself for Life with the capital L during that one year” but I know it’s not really true. I’ll never be prepared, just like how most parents are also never prepared to let their kids go. But I’m trying, you know. I’m trying really, really hard. Trying never hurts, does it?

I miss Alor Setar and everyone in Alor Setar. Don’t do awesome things before I come back. Wait for me.

Heartlines

It’s the weekend! It’s the weekend!

I went to a sort-of Tumblr meetup at Gardens today to meet all these lovely people: Ellie, Effie, Mei and Hanna.

I also bought Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and Delirium by Lauren Oliver.

Effie gave me two incredibly lovely notebooks which I am in love with.

I gave Ellie and Effie my owls!

I apologise for my introversion the whole 4 hours we were there but I had a really good time!

My verdict for everyone: Everyone was lovely, and I’m not just saying it.

Also, thank you Effie for the ride home.

Internship Day Five

I realise I have not shown Careful Confessions my tag yet so here it is.

I received a text from Anne this morning saying that “Friday is dress down day at The Star” so I decided to wear jeans to work today. Esther was our OC for the day again and she said she will be sending us off with Yvonne to Midvalley on a new assignment as soon as Yvonne checks in at around noon. She was checking in later than usual today because she had to stay at Menara Star till midnight last night to finish her assignments. As usual, echoing Min Hui’s “Interns: forever waiting” slogan, we sat ourselves at the computer terminals until Yvonne arrived at around 1 PM. After lunch, we left for Midvalley at 2 PM.

Our assignment for today was to look out for the latest Christmas deco trend in malls this year. Once again, we were divided into two groups and I went with Paik Suan today while Min Hui went with Claire. What we did was observe the Christmas decorations each shop had put on, interview the shop owners and also customers on their Christmas deco theme for the year, what kind of deco has the highest sales etc. We went into Living Cabin, A Cut Above, Luggage Empire, Sony Centre and Living Quarters in Metrojaya. The only shop that had an obvious prevailing theme was Living Quarters: traditional Christmas VS modern Christmas (which would include White Christmas, Kaleidoscope Christmas etc). We spent quite some time squealing over the fabulous decorations and I even got owls!

However, an issue went down with the manager of Metrojaya but Yvonne got it sorted out quickly. After that, we left at around 4 PM to write our stories at Menara Star.

Highlight of the day: Kyle, also a Starstrucker (and an SPM candidate) had posted a status in which he was asking for dares and the dare which got a minimum of 50 likes, he would do it. During our “hanging out at the computer terminals” session in the morning, we found out that Le Shea had already posted a dare: “I dare you to make a cover of Rebecca Black’s Friday, upload it on Youtube, and at the end of the video, declare your undying love for her.” It was fantastic, since Kyle was famous for constantly serenading us Starstruckers with Friday on the Starstruck! 2011 group wall every Friday. At the time, there were only 19 likes, and, desperate to see Kyle’s rendition of Miss Black’s renowned song, we started going crazy and spread the word all over the Internet universe. By the time we left, there were 21 likes. By the time we got back, there were 48 likes. Fifteen minutes later, goal achieved: 51 likes. We had the time of our lives, laughing and screeching until I was quite sure the other surrounding journalists were already fed up with us. Sorry. But yes, we look forward to Kyle’s video soon. When we told Yvonne about this exciting turn of events, she even said it would make a good story on R.AGE. Things just rose to a whole new level.

It’s finally Friday (oh, the irony) and for once, I can say Thank God It’s Friday! Not that I had a particularly horrible week (quite the opposite) but yeah, I never get to say that back in Alor Setar so yay!

I will also be meeting up with Effie, Ellie and Mei at Midvalley tomorrow! How exciting!

Internship Day Four

One of the many motivational pin-ups on the cabinets above the computer terminals at Newsdesk.

I decided to wear a skirt to office today. I don’t know, random statement.

We hung out around the computer terminals at Newsdesk again today until Yvonne said four of us would be divided into two groups: one group would follow her to a press conference by Datuk Michael Chong, the other would follow another senior journalist named Wani to a Deepavali open house where we will supposedly meet the president of MIC, Dato’ G. Palanivel. We drew lots and Min Hui and I got Palanivel whereas Paik Suan and Claire got Michael Chong.

We left Menara Star with Wani in a cab at around lunchtime. To be honest, we had no idea where we were going and had assumed that it would be a political press conference. Hence, we were genuinely surprised when Wani gave directions to the cab driver to set off for the TNB Headquarters in Bangsar. It appeared that we were attending a Deepavali open house organised by TNB. The hall in which the open house was held was huge and took us by surprise the moment we stepped into it. There were about 50 tables and stalls full of marvelous Indian food outlined the hall. Despite the fact that we already had lunch at the cafeteria back at Menara Star before this, Min Hui and I couldn’t resist ourselves and went for another round, and a huge round at that. If Min Hui was around right now she’d know all the names of the dishes we had but she isn’t so let me just say that the food was heavenly. Free, good Indian food, now where else on Earth can you find that?

With our stomachs full to the brim, we were given tasks by Wani to interview several retirees who were invited to attend the function. Again, butterflies started fluttering in my stomach but as it was with the previous ambush-interviews, I put on a smile and approached this one retiree named Ismail Omar who was the ex-Deputy Chief Engineer of the company. All the retirees were extremely friendly and even quite adorable. Most of their answers to the question “How do you feel being invited to return to such events despite the fact that you’re already retired?” were “I feel happy because it’s one of the few times I get to meet my old friends and colleagues, to see how many are left every year. And I find out that the crowd actually gets smaller every year!”

The second task Wani gave us was to interview several orphans who were invited to the event, during which they were given Deepavali angpaus (Deepaus? Valipaus?). I interviewed two 13-year-olds from the At-Taqwa orphanage/kebajikan centre about how they felt coming here, what they planned to do with the money they received etc.

After we were done with the orphans, we had a brief interview with the Chief Executive Officer of TNB, Dato’ Sri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh. He was a friendly person and answered all our questions quite enthusiastically. By the time it was time to leave, I was already exhausted. Ah, the life of a journalist.

(“What happened to Palanivel?” Well, Palanivel’s mother passed away the day before so Datuk S. Subramaniam attended the event instead. We didn’t interview him though because he didn’t make a speech as we had initially expected.)

When we returned to Menara Star, I started on the report on the orphans and Min Hui did the one with the retirees and when we were done, we sent them to Wani. Paik Suan and Claire returned a little later than us and we found out that they’d gone to a real press conference (with huge cameras flashing every now and then and reporters jotting down notes at tables provided) and they had to write their reports on the event, too.

One more day until I can say “TGIF!”