Window Panes
A short story by Audra K. Roslani

She lay on her bed, O Mio Babbino Caro played softly in the background. Her crown was to the window while the soft sunshine streamed in on that drizzly afternoon, the soft breeze lifting her hair ever so slightly off the pillow. The smell of fresh rain on green grass filled the room. Everything felt so clean, so new, the muddy footprints on the pavement below washed away with the last raindrop. She closed her eyes - the book in her right hand, her glasses in her left and on her chest.

Slowly she felt her thoughts, her memories, drained… drifting away from her honey blonde streaks, extending into long, silvery wisps that gradually formed into playful miniature Qi-lins. Tussling and intertwining, they made their way to the open windows and here, they played awhile more. Little by little and almost naively, they ventured further - chasing through the trees, oblivious to the world around them. Further up they went, exploring branch by branch, hide and seek. Higher and higher up into the sky they played, until they could be seen no longer.

Her cheeks were wet. She breathed in and smiled, eyes still closed and turned her head to her pillow.


Maybe they would visit her again.

Raya di Perantauan.. (23/10/2006)

Maaf Zahir & Batin to all and to all Selamat Hari Raya! I had a rather enjoyable Raya this year despite the fact that I'm NOT in KL ripleys believe it or not. Was terribly homesick the week before due to a number of reasons known and unknown to me but I'm all good now. Spent the morning of Eid stuck in a three-hour French class learning the mundane je fais, tu fais, il fait, nous faisons, vous faites and ils font. tres bien. Went to class in my kebaya top with jeans and no one said a word can you believe it? I tell you these matsalleh women, CANNOT give compliments one. grr.

anyway, unfazed by this i went back to my room and then went knocking on some of my more familiar neighbours and offered them biskut that I bought from Tesco the previous day (hey they were like realllly nice chocolate covered biscuits to replace the mama-kerrys of Raya ok) to do my bit in spreading the joy of Raya around Gubbay Hall.

Dewi and Hafzy picked me and Hana up at noon, and we made our way to the High Commisioner's Open House somewhere near Hendon. his house is so nice, it has the nicest garden. they greeted us at the entrance, there was foooood...oh yum..the rendang? c'est bien! oohlala non, tres bien! met up with a lot of Dewi's tarian friends whom I've met on my previous trip to la Londres, they want me to join the troupe so we can all perform in Oslo and you know what.. by golly I'm so tempted, I just might do it! also bumped into Farahana and her mother who engaged me into what felt like the longest conversation of my life, but she is a nice lady and lucky Farah got her momma to visit her - I want my mummy too : (

the tarian girls, they're all so pretty and smart AND on the singles market (except for the one in red!!!) - like i needed the extra competition!

my lovely sister and my giant wife.

surprise surprise! guess who i bumped into!

i've got bigggg hands!

Afterwards, Hana and I took the tube to Oxford St for coffee and a dose of Topshop. To make a longggg story short, we somehow ended up in Mawar for their open house (and supposedly to meet Ili there as well) but all the food was gone by then! so we headed back to Selfridges at about 6pmish - I bought myself a vintage Paul's Boutique handbag with the duit raya my sister gave me coz you know, I was depressed and it was raya, and I didn't have a new outfit..or a new hairjob..so yeah. Felt guilty about the splurge at first, but when I look at the pony and I feel so happy and it kinda made my day actually : ) small price to pay for instant gratification eh? I know, I know.. I shouldn't have to justify myself - I FUCKIN' DESERVE IT! After Selfridges, Hana and I went to Trafalgar Square for a late night walk and to take some glorious night shots of the city.

my little pony and friendsss

balik kampung naik bas bawak baju dalam beg plastik kuning tunggu kat bas stop tengah hujan

my wifey and @ selfridges

my late night raya walk at Trafalgar Square, tell me this ain't beautiful!

i no have sparklers, but i got city full of lights..that'll do!

we took the tube back from Covent Garden, got some hot chips doused in salt and vinegar, headed back to the halls, cooked ourselves a hearty pasta meal and watched an episode of Family Guy at her room. On the way back to mine, Diana was already outside my room and so we watched another episode of Family Guy in my room before I had to shoo her off to start doing some reading for today's class - Drama and Translation! exciting stuff. will blog more on that some other time. andddd after classes today, I went to Enfield to visit some of the other Malaysians in Middlesex for some Raya makaning...yum!

the nice people at Ted Lewis Hall : )

..and that about sums up my two days of Raya. not the greatest but I really don't feel as bad as I had expected to which is a good thing I guess. I do miss my mom a lot though. sigh. ah well..its 4am and i want to SLEEP! hope you guys had a good raya, i am missing everyone back home heaps : )

Homework

I’ve had a few questions about what my coursework is like, so this should give you a rough idea. I’m posting up bits from what I did in my Literature and its Translation class (which I’m rather proud of to be honest, did you really think I’d post it up if it was rubbish). For my first piece, I decided to start off small and relatively "simple"..simple being subjective here (and also because I'm not being graded for this) - the snippet of a dialogue between Hang Tuah and Gusti Putri – probably my favouritest Malay dialogue... EVER? I’ve left out the literal translation but do give it a go, its amazing the different results you get. I myself, am posting up my fourth draft here. The commentary is slightly rubbish as I put it together in like 15 minutes so please excuse that ; )

Foreword: This excerpt was taken from the movie Puteri Gunung Ledang (lit. Princess of Mount Ophir), a very famous Malay legend set in the late 15th century. A forbidden romance blossoms between Gusti Putri, a Javanese Hindu princess and Hang Tuah, a Malay Muslim warrior from Melaka – against a backdrop of war and mysticism.

Setapak melangkah

Dua langkah ingatan kanda kepada dinda



Adinda bersumpah jikalau kekanda tidak kembali

Adinda akan menyusul kekanda

Mengijab pada tanah yang sama

Bernafas pada udara yang sama

Belayar berbelok-belok

Sauh dibongkar ditempat tenang

Yang tinggal hati tak elok

Yang pergi hati tak senang

Bila sampai waktu kita akan bersama

Challenges:
i) Rhyming where it rhymed in the source poem and maintaining the meter and rhythm to catch the essence of the pantun.
ii) Coming up with a way to convey “kanda” and “adinda” most accurately in English, as the usage of "you" and "I" eliminated the mood set by the source text.



Solutions:

i) Playing around with the meter, and switching the order in a sentence

ii) Using the word “thou” to solve both of the problems mentioned above.

- “Thou” is the mostly archaic second person singular pronoun in English.

- Originally, “thou” was simply the singular counterpart to the plural pronoun “ye” descended from an ancient Indo-European root. (makes sense to use it in this context as Puteri Gunung Ledang has Indonesian roots).

-In imitation of the French practice, “thou” was later used to express familiarity, intimacy, or disrespect. (Expresses the terms “kanda” and “adinda” more accurately as compared to using “you” and “I”.

- After “thou” fell out of fashion, it was primarily retained in fixed rituals, so that it eventually came to connote formality and solemnity. (the language used in the pantun is Classic Malay – and as it is not used in daily conversations therefore this lends a feeling of formality to the text.)

And the result is:

For every step thy take,

Two steps closer, my thoughts of thee.

Thy swear that if thou should not return,

Thy will seek for thee,

Betrothed, the same earth as thou,

Breathing air that of the same as thou.

Sailing the waves,

In calm shores, anchored,

What is left, a heart that caves,

What is gone, a heart unsettled

The time will come when we shall be together.

- Audra K. Roslani

And there you have it! I know it’s not the best of translations but hey I’m working on it. It’s one of those things that comes to you just as you’re about to fall asleep and constantly needs reworking and lets bear in my mind, I’m not a literary person to start with so I’m only just getting the hang of it. So far so good I’m loving it! Note the rhyming bits I tried to follow as close as possible to the original, if you look at the physical shape of the translation as well, it's almost the same..yeahhh! Again, it’s my interpretation of the dialogue (and just bits of my explanation, can't be arsed to put the whole thing up) but I hope you guys enjoyed it all the same : )

Wings of Desire


ok watch this. ok. watch it. it's the one that City of Angels totally bastardized - i mean really Nicholas Cage? really?? and Meg Ryan palessssssssss in comparison to Solveig Dommartin's character by a mile. still it may be a little slow moving for some, but stick with it.. it really is a gem. please please if you ever come across it give it a go. and Peter Falk is in it. anything with Columbo you know is gonna be pretty damn good.


Marion: "All these people I've known, who are and always will be in my head. There's always a beginning and an end. It was too good. Outside at last, in the city... find out who I am, what I've become. Most of the time, I am too aware to be sad. I waited an eternity to hear a loving word. Then I went abroad. Someone who'd say 'I love you so much today', that would be so wonderful! ... Emptied out, inadequate. Fear, fear, fear. The look of a small animal lost in the woods. Who are you? I don't know anymore. But I do know that I won't be a trapeze artist. Unforeseen decisions in which to believe. I must not cry... I won't cry... no way! It happens, that's how it goes, not always as you wish it. Emptiness, emptiness..."

Random Day Out
after a rather dissapointing night of salsa lessons at the Trent Park Club House last night with Veron and her two Malaysian friends (AND after staying in the whole day), I woke up today with an itch to just get out of my room and out there! Went down to the bank to check on the status of my Connect Card and the guy tells me he'll call me when it's done (which he never did, the bastardo). So i thought i'd be random and have myself a little adventure. took the 121 bus to Wood Green (is a good half hour away) as i was told there was a shopping complex there. and that's what i did, i berjalan-jalan by my lonesome and wanted to buy everything but obviously didn't. after realising i had spent quite abit on nonsensical stuff, i decided to head back - not before tapauing halal lamb donner kebab to buka with. ah..meat. gotta love meat.

don't i look all gangsta. uh- huh. yea.

but don't tell Daddy..
i bought a pair of gorgeous, gorgeous Converse high-tops. i could not resist. just look at it! black and white print with coloured butterflies!! if someone had asked me to design a pair of Converse sneakers THIS would prolly be the end product. i love it to bits..who cares if i don't eat for a week! i'm sure we'll have mannny adventures together, my pretty! <3>

Baroque or Brrrroke (07 October 2006)
Veron and I giving our non-existent ballroom dancing skills a go at the beautiful baroquesque ballroom at the Victoria and Albert Museum : )

Part 1: The National Gallery, Chinatown and Victoria & Albert Museum (07 October 2006)

I rather last minutely pulled together a group of us for a day out in Central London to do the culture-vulture thing by going to the places mentioned above. Hana and I met up with Veron and Chesta at Oakwood Station, and i introduced them to my coursemate Stella whom we met up with at Southgate Station. our first stop was the National Gallery to see the Monet to Picasso Exhibition that was showing then (free naturally). I love it how there are so many museums with so many free exhibitions here in London, it's just great! there's never a shortage of things to do - you can even attend talks, film screenings if you want to, heck taking a walk and observing people and tourists alike is a past time in itself. one of these days i think i'll have a day out on my own and just soak it all in while the novelty's still there.

i absolutely loved the Monet to Picasso exhibition. one of my favourite's was the Boulevard de Clichy under Snow by Norbert Goeneutte. I love the effects of using a variation of the whites, black and deep reds..it's not so obvious in this picture but when you actually see the textures in real life you can't help but feel you're looking back in time, feel that the horse-driven carriage is moving.. i also loved how the trees lined up in the center reminded me of my night of mad-comical-drunken-stupor relief with Mandy that night on the way to Sacre Coeur from Montmartre...ah Paris, Je T'aime. oh btw has anyone seen that movie yet?? i'm dying to get my hands on the DVD!

'Le Boulevard de Clichy, par un temps de neige'

another one of my all time favourite impressionists - Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas was also showing. He's more known for his paintings of ballerina's, dancers and the sort and they had Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando on exhibit which thrilled me to bits!

Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando

And of course this National Gallery entry wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t post up a picture of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Like the Mona Lisa, seeing it up close you are able to appreciate the layers of paint and technique that went into producing it..but unlike the Mona Lisa – Sunflowers was actually more impressive in real life due to its size in relativity to dear Miss Mona.

Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh

Moving along, we did the touristy thing and took our token touristy pictures at Trafalgar Square with the infamous pigeons, I swear they look like scabs there were so many of them. Don’t you feel like just scratching them from the picture! Geli!!

Scabby pigeons. yuck!

Stella and Audra do National Gallery!

Shesta, Veron, Audra and Stella infront of the National Gallery

Audra does her scary geisha dance

We headed to China Town after for lunch and Stella was just grossed out seeing the roasted ducks hanging from the glass windows of the Chinese restaurants – something most Asians are just so accustomed to seeing in our everyday lives, which I found amusing. Stella decided to try the same thing as I had, Malaysian Ho Fun which was quite delicious to be honest but she found it a bit too spicy for her palate. Veron and I thought them how to use chopsticks, bubble tea and the beauty of ending every sentence with ‘lah’ and ‘man’. Hana is almost there mannn : )

Hana and her chopsticks!

Part 2: The National Gallery, Chinatown and Victoria & Albert Museum (07 October 2006)

After China Town, we got a bit lost but managed to find our way to the Victoria & Albert Museum which was most impressive! In a nutshell, I saw these gargantuan figures by Michaelangelo – his attention to the human body is just amazing from the veins to the muscles..WOW!, pieces of monuments from all over the world – one really wonders how they ship these things and how they get them into the museum..i felt like a midget. good place to go to if you want to check out Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist exhibits. the 60-70s Fashion Exhibition sponsored by Miss Selfridge was on at the time so decided to see what the fuss was about - was expecting a lot more to be honest!

he's a reaaal champion

how on earth did they ship this in, let alone fit it in the building?

hana thinks she'll look hot in the dress in the center

the Karl Lagerfield piano dress..i want!

getting inspired by the dummy. who the dummy?

zef this picture is for YOU you corset-loving woman!

oahhh heaathcliffee do come in for teahhh, oh dooooo!

We entered another section of the museum (can’t for the life of me remember what it was, the museum was closing and we were dead knackered by then) but it had some pretty cool 18th century European stuff. I finally saw a proper baroquesque room, that’s how my house is gonna look like man when I finally marry my oil and gas/shipping heir nanti. Yeahh. Yeahhh! : )

dance with me george!

does this dress make my bum look big?

After the V&A, I parted ways with my friends to meet up with Dewi, Hafzy and Dewi’s dancing group at the Holiday Villa in Bayswater for the buka puasa buffet. I had nasi lemak instead..been craving for that! Wasn’t all bad either. Stayed the night at Dewi’s and came back this afternoon. Ooh ok I’m loving it now. I tell myself to lap it up while I still can, essays are due in November haha. Good night and good luck everyone ; )

So you think you look like a celeb eh!

to which my mom would say, "ehh jangan perasan." ala what to do Ma, say it often enough it just might come true right! bahh humbug..when i groww up..i wanna look like Monica Belluci!! i wanna i wanna i wannaaa.

Lost in translation

so after attending classes yesterday, it got me to thinking about what i would translate. i have deffo confirmed that i will be doing Malay-English or vice versa and you know what? i'm pretty excited now! i was uber stressed yesterday - the confusion of still wanting to do French translation, but really that would just be complicating matters even worse. now that i've let it sink in a little, i just realised there's a wealth of Malay literary and non-literary materials that are just waitinggg to be translated and i'm so excited!! i started thinking of Puteri Gunung Ledang for one. i know they've actually subtitled the musical, but lets face it..that was pretty mediocre translation wasn't it. but then i gave it a go and yeah, that's the thing. to the normal joe translation seems like the easiest thing to do and god knows how many times we've laughed at the subtitling especially when it comes to movie titles (read: Mati Keras dengan Dendam - Die Hard With a Vengeance) but when you actually sit yourself down and try and translate proper then you realise how difficult it is. there's always the cultural/social aspect of translating something from one language to another language that its just totally different culturally/socially. how does one translate kekanda, adinda...whilst still maintaining that sense of respect/politeness. in english its just you, me, he, she. doesn't quite conote the same message or feel now does it?

but on that note, i'm really keen on doing classic malay translation or even pantun for that matter. i just find it absolutely awe-inspiring whenever i come across the older generation Malays who still pantun during weddings or rather engagements especially when it's done impromptu..no papers, no pens..just on the top of their head. its amazing. i wish i had that capability, unfortunately for me my Malay is attrocious, something i wish and am hoping to change. desperately.

well what do you guys think? i would love, love to get some feedback from this..like email me personally if you don't want to leave comments here i understand but yeah.. i would love to hear your thoughts on this. it is something that is playing on my mind constantly as the fear of having to do a proper translation and thesis on it (eventhough it is a year away) is scaring the living daylight out of me. i really feel the difference studying as an undergraduate and as a postgraduate. it's oh-so-serious and thrice as scary.

on a lighter note, i finally found a guy who's not bad to look at and i'm quite sure he isn't gay (more than half the men here are!!). his name is Ben and he's a jazz major...ohhhhhh you can't help but love these arty types. the ones that have to suffer for their trade? even better! tortured artists - my ultimate weakness! and please ah..you heard it here first copycats go to hell! well nah, i prolly wouldn't do anything about him, but rumour has it, he digs japanese girls. goddamit. so close yet so far! lol. annddd likkkeee omgggg i washed his bowl for him tonight when we had dinner at the Sassoon Halls after making small chitchat at the sink!! ooOOOOoo haha yes i am a loser but you guys keep coming back for more so that's something right! haha and well hey whatever helps me not think of the past and of what could've been eh? sigh.


good times, good times.. ..

Part 1 : My London, London, London wanna go down!

so ok i've been meaning to blog for aggess but i hate how blogger is so fucked up! loading pictures is hell i tell you. so again, i'm sorry but you gotta make do with another pictureless blog. grr. well its been a little over a week now, and i'm proud to say i have survived! Ho yeah.

reached here at 7pm local time on the 14th of September and by the time we got to our campus with the Welcome to Middlesex orientation program guides it was almost 10pm. and i got to my room close to 11pm. a cold lonely room, it came with a cupboard that had no door, a rather comfy clean bed, a long desk, a pin-up wall, a sink and some other storage places. so in all my fatigue, i managed to unpack a little..i didn't know how to set up the internet so i switched my laptop on and rocked myself to sleep..haha nolah put it on for some music, coz it was a lil too quiet and i needed something to remind me of my comfort zone. then i started feeling hungry and thank the lord zefane fara zakaria (bless her soul) baked me brownies and packed it for me to bring on the plane the morning before i left - zef you are an absolut angel...as soon as i sunk my teeth into your home-baked-brownies-with-love i felt good again and slept like a babe!

the next day was basically just running around, getting my Middlesex ID card sorted n stuff like that. on Saturday, there was a tour of London and a day out shopping at Covent Garden. here i met Hana on the bus and we immediately hit it off! Hana's from Prague and she's fucking awesome. if there's one thing i realised since i got here is that the British and the Yanks only ever joke about alcohol and drunken nights - which is all fine, but can get a little stale after awhile. i mean c'mon..there's gotta be more depth than that, biensur! i get a long better with the Europeans..they're sense of humour is spot onnn man. then we have the Asians. lets just say that when they get together(Malaysian/Indonesian/Chinese/Korean/etc) the conversation goes a little something like this:

" hoshichangsherr!@#!$@!#^@*&#*&^#holengggahhh "

even when they fucking know i don't speak cina..abit rude right! oh well, so i wasn't yellow enough to hang out with the yellows and i wasn't white enough to hang out with the whites. what's a girl to do eh? she hangs out with the crazy girl from Czech! hahaha oh i love hanaball she's the best! k nuff bout that. my campus is pretty cool..its not your typical city uni which is just a building in a bustling town with traffic and pollution. on the contrary, it doesn't even feel like you're in London coz it is, as i have mentioned before, out in the boondocks. Trent Park is..as the name suggests..a park and you have loads of outsiders coming in on the weekends to the campus with their children and dogs running around, looking at the flourishing flora and fauna. the main building is called the Mansion and is lo and behold..a mansion! infront of it is a huge lawn where most of us have our lunch, sprawled and soaking up the sun while its still out. and facing this lawn are the halls - Gubbay Hall where i live, the student union bar/cafe/office beside it, the Stables where some classes take place at, and then Sassoon Hall. there is an open air swimming pool (open only during summer) and then a couple of steps that leads you down to the Bevan building which is where the language (my course!) and the library is at. there are a few other buildings for the music, dance and drama students. behind the mansion is sprawling greenery...it's just awesome. i'm pretty sure there's a lake at the bottom of it all, i have yet to see this lake..tomorrow perhaps!

yesterday i went for the beginners french course..thought i'd check it out before going straight for the intermediate coz you know i have "done three semesters in uni". that was all bull man! i prolly learned 4 weeks equivalent in the first class! but the great thing is that as a MA language/translation student, i can sit thru as many of these classes as i want to without having to pay a cent..woohoo! otherwise the french classes would be like 100pounds a semester..jackpot or what? ; )

today i met two other girls in my course (MA translation). Stella from Cyprus (who's frikkin hot in my opinion..and she's fuckin smart!!) and Irina from Romania. well actually i've met them before but today we hung out for abit which was good. classes started for me today, and damn..it was the reality check I needed. all of the other students were language students before except for me. Like what was i thinking. i hardly know verbs from adjectives..yes English IS my mother tongue but its more like ok what I’m saying sounds right. haha yes, i'm in deep shit.and the amount of reading we have to do is insane. so much so that i have decided to translate english-malay and vice versa. having done a semester in Malaysia i KNOW how difficult that is. its funny how not many people realize how difficult the art of translation is..but fuck them. i'm thinking of doing classic malay..syair or something like that, but then to get hold of info might be a bit of a problem. feel free to suggest any good literary malay works if you've read any, i would love to translate them!

tonight i went for a free theatre production of Kaboom the Office Burlesque in our campus with Melissa, Hanna and Ann. staged by our drama students..twas not bad. hey when you get a dose of culture for free..take it i say!

anyways, it has been fun i guess but damn i miss home so bad! ah i miss my mom, my dad, my crazy mofos..my CAR!!! ohhhh my lil black perdana...you have been so good to me!! grocery shopping when you have to walk like 15 minutes with heavy bottles and boxes is NOT fun! boo. someone please, buy me a ticket back for christmas. pleaseeeeee.


safe fasting everyone : )

Part 2: Riverboat Disco on the Thames (21 Sept 2006)

As part of the freshers Welcome to Middlesex orientation program, there was a riverboat disco on the itinerary and so students from the Enfield and Trent Park campuses got to mingle on a "river boat" on the lovely River Thames to witness a lovely London sunset and party the night away! i swear the boys are all fucken gay. goddam them. but i managed to meet up with Veron (yay!) and her friends which was nice : ) thanks for the late night chat babes!

Diana from Ecuadorrr..Ecuadorrr is sexxxyyyy!

The first Malaysian friend - Hui Nee!

Keane from Malaysia and Sharky from Lithuania

with the luverly gals from Enfield : )

aha where the cooool people were..top deck! ; )

oh wind wind blowing our hair!

Day out in Central (22 September 2006)
After putting my name down for the following clubs (in no particular order) at the Freshers Fayre at Trent Park:

i) Student Respect

ii) Some anti-war thing

iii) Yoga

iv) Gymnastics (only to find out its like artistic, no way in heck am i doing that)

v) cheerleading (shut up, i'm gonna cheer for Hana! haha go hankaaa. no i really am baffled by my choice)

vi) DJ-scratching (helll yea this should be fun, as well as cheaper entries into clubs woohoo.)

vii) Salsa (i figured since my mom made me bring my shoes, i mite as well!)

and

viii) Modern Language Society (alwaysss game for foreign movie watching so yeahhh! yeahhh! phoness for youuu)

we (Hana, Veron and I) decided we'd go to Central to check out London Fashion Week. obviously we wouldn't be able to get into the catwalk shows but apparently there was an exhibition so we thought what the hey. worse comes to worse, we'd snap a photo outside - who knows..if we were lucky we get to scream "beckhaammm" kan. so we go lah all the way to the Natural History Museum (where LFW is) and it looked like it was pretty much an invite thing only. so we go into the NHM and randomly camwhore as its such a nice (and free) museum. hehe.

giant! and i'm not talking about the girl in green : )

three vain girls and crazy mirrors..its a recipe for disaster!

yeargh! its jumanji all over again!

oh hello! you should go out more!

After that, we headed to Piccadily Circus for lunch at the Pizza Hut there (that was the only place I could recall and i really wanted to eat something quickly!) and after, Veron had to head back to meet up with some friends for dinner. So i took Hana to the Topshop at Oxford Street - you know..the four storey one! and omg, the bottom level is fucking amazing - the one with the vintage and bazaar stuff. we saw bags by Paul's Boutique, amazing boots..and we made an oath to find a job and blow it all only here..the lower level of Topshop Oxford St..and also in charity shop in Enfield! haha

lunching and munching

after feeling depressed about not being able to afford anything, i then took Hana to the Starbucks at the nearest Borders across the street for something a little more our budget..coffee!! so we sat there, daydreaming about cute handbags while killing time before dinner. took the tube back to Edgeware Rd to meet up with Dewi and Hafzy (that's my sister and bro-in-law for you ignorant fools ;p) at Mawar. Hana was so brave she tried the Singapore Laksa which was really quite spicy! she turned red, she teared..but she finished it all!! well done Hanaball, well done! she had to leave by 9pm coz the last shuttle to Trent Park was at 10pm. I on the other hand stayed at my sisters place over the weekend to sort out my phone, winter clothes shopping and some other stuff. so yeah i've got a UK number now - 0044 7726 341577 call me call me call meee : )

we've been fasting for two days now, and today i was back in the halls..so i cooked some really delish pasta (if i may say so myself..its like my specialty dish..and the ONLY dish i can cook) seriously damn sedap and i made some for Hana as well and she reallly loved it which was good! now i can get married and my man will have to eat pasta for the rest of his life haha! we went back to her room to watch the last episode of IT Crowd and then watched this Czech movie called Samotari. the actor Sasa (pronounced Sascha) Rasilov is soo hott..anyway, gonna end this post with a quote from that movie:

"You leave a piece of your soul with everyone you break up with.

The missing piece is what hurts the most..

..because it's not with you."

i swear people high on crack have the best quotes..ever! good night and good luck people : )

Ode to My Room.
Middlesex University, Room West 210,
Gubbay Hall, Trent Park Campus,
Cockfosters Road, Barnet,
Hertfordshire EN4 OPT.

when bored

take picture,

in the room with poster,

like a loser.

fin.

Wedding of the Year: Datin Siti Nurhaliza & Datuk Khalid Mohamad Jiwa @ Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (28/08/2006)

the view from our table

SO. JFK invited me to go as his date for the so-called wedding of the year, and although I am prolly not her biggest fan I thought..what the hey. With less than a week's notice, I scrambled to put my look together, borrowing pieces here and there (thanks Eliza, your outfit rocked!), got my hair done in Shah Alam, and awesome blossom make-up by Zefane Fara Zakaria (anyone need a make-up artist, just ask me for her details :P)

I drove to KL Convention Centre on my own and met JFK there, who decided he was going to kick-start his John Travolta celebrity-pilot "status" that night by coming in his RM2k Italian pilot suit. um um..yeah. Malay wedding = pilot suit. ntah apa2 entah.

We were uber punctual and thank god for that too, for as soon as we arrived we all (I'm talking VIPs, celebs, commonfolk, what-have-yous) had to queue up to register for door gifts and seat numbers before entering. Trust me, with 3000 guests..this is not a possible feat or rather intelligent planning to start with.

Being a 'celebs' date at a big function like this was uber weird because the media kept wanting to interview JFK or have his picture taken and I felt like a frikkin accesory. YER. never again man..NEVER.

So anyway, we queued up to get the door gift thing coz we thought we HAD to (like half an hour??) and when we finally got into the hall (which was beautifully decorated to look like a garden) we thought our seats were rrrigghttt at the back but when we asked the usherer, apparently we could sit anywhere because they would have to start later then planned if everyone had to go through registration..pandai pun!

my date for the night

We sat four tables away from the left of the pelamin (and also the door where Siti would come out from) with some other not-so-fun people ;) The table beside us saw Joe Flizzow (yo yo.) and this other actor I forget his name..Ahmad Idham? lade-frikkin-da.

another view from our table

After being seated and slowly but surely seeing the hall fill up, I was utterly amused to see that the celebs who decided that they would come fashionably late, trying to cover their embarassment to find that this was a first come first serve seating basis as they scuttled to find seats at the very back. hilarious. I dunno who to feel sorry for, the celebs or the very poorly organised seating arrangement.

The wedding dinner started with Datin Siti looking very regal, awesome make-up ya'll..and I loved the fact that her hair she put in a loose-permed low bun. Classic!

Siti and K enter

Anyway, I'm not gonna talk about the entertainment/itinerary aspect of it - I'm sure you've read more than enough reports in the papers and what not. I am happy that I got to see Kris Dayanti and Hetty Koes Endang perform though...score! Ziana looked like a cake..yummy.

NOT Hetty or Kris..it is Ziana.

um..um..YEAH.

Tun with..some gila glam woman who was all "ohhh these are my childrennn" while Tun just nodded and darted his eyes to the entrance. Classic!

With the purdy bride and the duh-like groom. pft.

a Kelly Ng moment.

In conclusion, the dinner was alright, not great but not bad either. The performances were good, that I have to give credit. The food was mediocre, Siti's first outfit I loved, the second one..not quite to my liking but hey..it prolly cost more than anything I'll ever wear in my lifetime right, so who am I to say ;) With that, I wish her all the best of luck and for her sake I really hope this is the real thing..bonne nuit et bonne chance!

..And back home!

Cam-whore alerttt..Sleeping Dictionary ya'll hahahaha...ohh i so need a new hobby.

red corsets are the way to go eh Zef?

Where's my tiara? looking pretty and regal like Siti with red eyeshadow- Zef you rock lah woman, i look like sotong and loving it!