All My Classes Are Cancelled Today

Dear Qwerty,

All my classes are cancelled today.

I must quickly find some ways to make it worth.

Now let me share with you some of the photos I've took when we go to Monkey Beach. I have been delaying this post for an eternity.

Model: Anonymous (which is not me of course)

This is when we first arrive. Nobody was there, The beach is  beautiful.

Then we found a swing and played while waiting for others to come.

This is a little sand turtle that my friend has crafted.

This is the view from the lighthouse we visited.
We had to climb for about half an hour to get there.

Bye2!

Why Are Children So Cute?

My niece - produced by Paint.

Dear Qwerty,

I was sitting on the floor. My 3 years old niece came to me and lay her head on my knee. I stroked her hair and said "wow, you're so much like a kitten!", which means that she is as cute as a kitten.

But suddenly, she got up, stared at me, frowned in confusion, and asked "but kittens have to stay outside...".

I can't stop laughing.

She is usually very quiet and would not stay away from her mom. But that evening she followed me everywhere and helped me with everything. Then, before they leave, she asked me to kiss her cheek (how adorable!!!).

And she kept on waving from the car as her father drove away. I waved back with both hands till they are out of sight.

Why are children so cute?

Till next time.

Decorations for Bulletin Board

Dear Qwerty,

As promised, here are the pictures of what I have done for our bulletin board :)

First I made some random deco items using used boxes. 

I cut out the shapes and pasted some coloured papers accordingly.

I used a black marker pen to draw the outline. 

My favourite! I love the buttons, They are the size of my palm. I like the huge heart too.
The little black and grey dots were made using a paper puncher.

I made lots of these! The dots are punched out of waste papers (that I have used to make something else).
I used a liquid paper to line the red strawberry. ^^

Tulips ready to fill up some empty space.

Another favourite yay!! I felt so happy when I was making this.
I used some cardboard and coloured papers to decorate the wooden cloth pegs.
And no liquid paper involved! ;)

This is to encourage my friends to scribble something on the board
(I  reserved a space just for random doodling). They can write about just anything!
I think it will make our board less boring >_<

This is our organisation chart. It was supposed to look like a rope ladder
(umm..do you know what I mean??) but in the end...T_T

So this is the final product!
The strawberry-lined corner is where we doodle our thoughts. :D
But look what happened to the chart. I had to remove the string and cram the photos like that.
There isn't much space T_T

The cloth pegs had now transformed into photo pegs!

The heading that I feel insecure about.

I kept all the deco items in a round cookie tin. I have thoroughly washed the tin but
it still retains the butter-cookie smell. But I love it that way! :P

It was so fun making all these decos that I often stayed so late at night (even until 5am!). But once I put everything on the board, I got a fever for days afterwards.

I hope that this post will give some ideas for those who are responsible for their club's bulletin board. I remember scouring the internet for ideas but couldn't find one that suits Malaysian students' style @_@

Bye-bye! :)

Beautiful Fabric

Dear Qwerty,

The parcel has arrived ^^

I purchased some beautiful fabrics from Fabric Fanatics. I thought that cotton would be softer than linen, but I was wrong. Linen is softer and looks better too. I am glad that I have bought the principal pattern in linen ^^

Next time, I will buy mostly linens.

The buttons are bought offline.

I will make some pouches and tote bag for my mum using the fabric. I'd like to make a makeup bag for myself too :)

Right now, I always look at Japanese craft magazine to get some ideas on its design. I don't understand what were written but the pictures are enough to make me understand. Right now, my favourite books are on crafts and recipes :)

I am going to start with the project during my semester break. I will try to post the picture here when they are completed.

Bye bye..

My Cloud Castle

Dear Qwerty,

Have you ever watched the show 'Cooking With Dog' on YouTube?

It is a Japanese cooking show. I learned to make bento from them. The instructions are very clear and they use simple ingredients. How would it feels to be able to eat light foods like that everyday? It must be wonderful. :)

This is a page from Suzy Charaben Book. It  teaches us how to make bentos.

When I own a house, I'd like it painted white with some pastels. The curtains would be white or earthy tones. Then, I would like to have wooden furnitures too. Not those made of expensive woods and decorated with elaborate carvings - just some simple, functional furnitures. Something that makes you feel relaxed and at home. Like in a summer cottage.

Something like this, but neater :)

Then, I would like to plant a lot of beautiful flowers outside. I think I will have a lot of yellow flowers :) I love roses too, but I don't like red roses. I prefer roses with softer colours. Oh, I want to have a small section of my yard as an edible garden. I will plant many different kinds of herbs in the small patch. I want to plant carrots too, although it is not considered a herb.

In my spare time, I want to try new recipes from my cookbooks or make fabric crafts using beautiful fabrics.
If I can afford it, I'd like to have a piano too. I can't play piano, but I love the sound it makes. Is it a crazy idea to buy an instrument you can't play? But I still want it >_<

I feel happy just by looking at this.

Of course I want to have a cat as a pet. But I won't buy it off a petshop. I don't like petshop, they lock the animals in small cages and the animals looked bored. I want to pick up some cats that looks sorry, like abandoned kittens. I'll clean them and feed them well until they look really cute :)

This is like the poem Lake Isle of Innisfree :)

OK, I'm done with (too much) day-dreaming. Till then~

One of the Fridays

Dear Qwerty,

A lot of things happened today, but in the end it felt like just any other day.

And everything will be alright (some already are) :)

I had some suprisingly tasty meals:

lunch : rice + beansprouts + crispy tempeh + fried egg in soy sauce

dinner : rice + baby cucumbers + fried egg + mango salad

they are very light- I can distinguish the flavours of each ingredient used

wish I could have them again tomorrow.

Today

Dear Qwerty,

I don't really anticipate tomorrow.

I am feeling so lazy. It's been a taxing week. I feel tired. I wanted to rest. But today is Sunday. And I have to start working again tomorrow. Because it will be Monday, again.

Till then.

p/s: I do anticipate the following week. It's the CNY break for 9 days. And those days will be mine.

A Crazy Schedule

Dear Qwerty,

It's been long.

A new semester had been running for about two weeks. All I can say is that this semester is the craziest semester ever. My timetable is so packed I can't find a room to stop and breathe (exaggerate~). I don't even have a Friday for myself. But I'll get through this, with God's will. :)

It Won't Stop Tinkling!

Dear Qwerty,

It has been a busy day.

After all, I still managed to steal some of my own precious time to look at something that has absolutely nothing to do with my assignments: Tonci Huljic. Do you who he is?

Tonci Huljic is the composer for some (or should I say most?) of Maksim Mrvica's piano compositions. Omg, I think I love him. Among his most famous compositions for Maksim are Croation Rhapsody (which has officially became my ringtone for the moment), Nostradamus, and Victory. Dear me! I can't stop listening to Croation Rhapsody! It's fast paced and very energetic. When I listen to it I can't do anything else - I just sit down and listen till the very end without realising that the clock is ticking away. Even when I don't purposely roll the mp3 it keeps playing in my head. So should I say that my world revolves around the song? lol~

As for Victory, I'm sure you had listened to the song, at least, once; it was always on the tv. Only now (I hate myself for this) that I found out that it was actually written by Huljic. All this time I thought it was some classical piece from some old time back then. And I'm ashamed of myself ! =_=

Err..actually I didn't plan to write about Huljic when I log in just now, I planned to write about my busy day. But you're still going to read, aren't you? :)

Alright, it's 30 minutes past my bedtime. Nytes~

Music

Dear Qwerty,

I just want to write, so will you just read? :)

At this very moment, Ballade pour Adeline is tinkling away through my WMP. Do you know what it is? It is a piano composition, one of the most beautiful composition I have ever listened to. I don't know what's the theme of the song, well, I don't really want to know either. When I listen to piano compositions, I prefer to devise my own storyline. :)

It's a bit different from when I listen to songs; songs with lyrics of course. Some songs are flexible enough to be interpreted on our own, but most of them (especially the ones that emerges nowadays) are so straightforward that I don't see them as any form of art anymore. One of my favourite songs is Kiss From A Rose by Seal. I love songs by Seal in general. They are soulful, intelligent, meaningful, everything. But let us focus on Kiss From A Rose for the moment.

Have you ever listened to the song? If you haven't, be sure that you would. The song talks about a lonely grey tower, how a kiss from a rose can enlighten everything, and how strange love actually is. Well what's the best part? Seal didn't tell us what he was actually saying when he was singing the song, he let us play with it. We are free to interpret the true meaning of 'kiss from a rose', the 'tower' and there's a neverending mystery about the lyrics: gray or grave? He kept the answer to himself. I prefer to take it as grave, but sometimes, when I feel like it, I change to gray. :)

When I listen to Ballade pour Adeline up there, I sense hope and light. I sense happiness and courage. I sense sadness that was forced away. It's all about moving on with life, and appreciating whatever you have with you for the moment.

Right now, Maksim Mrvica is on my playlist. I might talk about him later. For now, I just want to go to bed and have these wonderful music as soundtracks for my dreams.

Have a good night, and I wish myself the sweetest dream.

Such an Awful Experience, and I Hate It.

Dear Qwerty,

I had just had such a frightful and annoying experience, and I've got to tell you about this.

Qwerty, I had just go back from a brain-squashing test which ended around 9.45. I came back to my hostel and took another bus up the hill to reach the building. Everything was fine, and I was chatting enthusiastically with a friend about an assignment and the just-ended test, until we reached the first stop. Suddenly, the bus driver stood up and yell at us. He was asking who else ring the bell after the first bell. He won't open the door and all of us were trapped inside the bus. He kept yelling furiously and point randomly at us, demanding that someone would confess. But who do you think would?? We were so scared. It was 10 P-M and we were all young girls. And there he was getting so furious, yelling and hitting the bell with his palm (or fist, I can't really see that). I was lucky that I was going to drop off at the second stop, and was not suspected for ringing the bell. But whoever did that would have been so frightened. He should not do that to us.

At last he opened the door and let them out. I was still in the bus with my friend, waiting for the second bus-stop. All along he was barking and yelling and we were so scared. He even challenged that whoever who do not like his attitude can come and see him right then. He also said that if we don't like it, we shouldn't take the bus. We were so relieved when he finally opened the door.

Right now I'm in my room, safely writing to you. But still I am wondering why he would be so furious? Why did he did such a frightful thing to us? We didn't mean to make him angry, perhaps they were just being cautious, if he didn't notice the first bell. Maybe it was them who missed the first bell. But to yell and to lock us inside the bus are just wrong! I don't like it when people are angry. And this guy was furious about who-knows-what. I have to admit it - I was so scared. I was so scared and I was angry. I was scared that he'll do unwanted things to us at that moment, and I was angry because he didn't care for us, who are in his responsibility to be taken care of as long as we are in the vehicle. Why did he do that to us? I hate it, I hate him, I am so angry now, I feel like crying. But I won't, I won't waste my tears on him.

I'm not gonna take the bus again.

Till then, my silent reader.

My Favourite Colour

Dear Qwerty,

Do you know that I love whites? :)

I love everything in white, I just can't explain why. Most of my clothes are white, and most of my stuffs are white too. My phone is white, my favourite mug is in white, my favourite 'anything' is in white.

In my culture, white signifies sadness. White is worn during funeral and mourning. Even the ghosts are relevant to whites. But as so many other cultures do, we also perceive white as a symbol of purity.

I don't care how the community perceive things.

In my eyes, whites are the symbol of space, of brightness, of cheerfulness, of freedom, of anything that could make me smile. My eyes brighten up when I see some white devices. I always think that an artwork with the colour white as its base is the most attractive. Therefore, despite what people might think, I shall admire white the way I want to.

Qwerty, even your colour is white, do you realise that?
And that only makes me love you more. :)

Till then..

p/s: I have a new story to tell you, but that would stay just between us. :)
p/s/s: the beautiful picture of a white rose above is taken by Martin Nikolaj at Flickr.

Into the Woods at Dawn

Dear Qwerty,

How are you feeling today?

Today I woke up at 5.47 am. Is that too early for you? I think it's too early for me, as I usually wake up at 6.30 am. The reason I got up so early (actually I set my alarm at 5.30, but.. =_=) is because last night I've promised to go for a morning walk with a friend. She suggested that we start around 6.10 am. I agreed and we made a contract where whoever who failed to show up will have to treat the other with icecream :) .

Don't worry, we both show up at 6.15. At that time the sun was still sleeping. Up in the sky we can still see many stars shining brightly. My lovely friend showed me a set of three stars that she called Ya's Stars. 'Ya' is her name. I asked her why she call the stars by her name, and she told me that since she was in elementary school, whenever she look at the nightsky she would notice those stars. She don't know what the scientists called them, so she gave them her name. Isn't that cute? T_T While walking we looked at many stars, and saw red. orange, blue, yellow and white stars. It was so lucky that we did not trip because we keep looking and pointing at the sky while we walk!

We went into the campus and head for the lake. It was still dark. The air was so cool and fresh. I love the smell of the trees and grass in the morning. Slowly the sun was peeking from behind the clouds. I noticed that today the clouds were blue, violet, pink, and magenta in colour. I do not see such colours of cloud so often; usually it was magenta and red. Perhaps I was a bit early today, and so I managed to see those beautiful clouds against silver sky. Qwerty, if only you can see that..

When we reached the lake, we were a bit scared because it was quite dark and I know that there are large monitor lizards lurking among the water reeds. But we pushed the thought off our mind. I even make up a fairy tale in my mind. That's because the lake is so beautiful (except for those little dinosaurs). It was surrounded by many magnificent trees. I don't remember the name of those trees but trees are always pleasant to look at. Especially those with translucent leaves and those with yellow flowers. But I also love trees that have needle-like leaves and the huge trees with wide-spreading boughs, and all other trees too? Oh no I can't make up my mind!

So, why are the blog title up there is about the woods? Easy, that's simply what I imagined while walking around the lake. :)

We walked back at around 7.10 and reached our room at around 7.20. It was such a wonderful experience. Next time I hope we can walk at the park with rows of enormous trees. Those trees are like armies of giants, but still, they look so beautiful in my eyes. I love walking with her. She's my travel partner. We both like to explore places and we always plan our journey together. She is very pretty and has a personality that makes people around her feel so comfortable. I'm so glad that I have a friend like her. :) Now, I'm back in my room sipping green tea after having a wholesome breakfast of oatmeal and honey. Life!

BumbleDee Cafe at Bukit Gambir

Dear Qwerty,

Would you like some free cupcakes? :)

Yesterday I had a wonderful dinner at BumbleDee Cafe. It offers a wide variety of western food and beverages. I had Spaghetti with Roasted Chicken, a delightful serving of Ice-blended Chocolate with Whipped Cream, and a cute little vanilla cupcake. All for RM10.40 - the cupcake is for free!

Here's what I love about the cafe:

The food is very good. The spaghetti was perfectly cooked till al-dente and they don't stick to each other; I was quite surprised as I thought that the spaghetti would be of the usual quality around here - which is not up to standard at all, I apologize. The tomato sauce was lovely too - it needs no extra seasoning nor it needs less of any. How do I put it? Hmm..I could say that the spaghetti was decent, it is not extraordinary but it still manage to impress you. The roasted chicken? Well, that's the one you don't find anywhere else. It's purrrrfectt! The meat was tender and succulent and it is as flavourful as I always imagine a roasted chicken to be - not the ones that I had which is friendly to the cam but never to the tongue!

If ever you decided to have some dinner over there, do try their ice-blends. I had chocolate while my pretty friend had vanilla. Both is equally delightful. The vanilla has just the right amount of sweetness and as creamy as an ice-cream. Mine is chocolate and I had found out that they are very generous of their chocolate stash as the drink was nothing but breathtakingly chocolatey and there are even some crunchy chunks of chocolate bites in it! Next time, I'm gonna go for latte for a change. :)

They give you free cupcake for every meal. The cupcakes are nice too - but the pretty buttercream frosting was not as smooth as I expected. But still, it's something that you would enjoy.

So, do try some of their food when you can. I'm determined to be a returning customer. :)

Why Are You Afraid?

Dear Qwerty and Nadder,

What makes us afraid?

Today, on the way back to my room from the cafe, I heard a cat mewing loudly from rooftop. I look up and saw that there was a cat on the roof at third floor balcony, but he was too afraid to climb back to safety. I knew that cats are actually very afraid of height, though they are gifted with incomparable agility that allows them to jump or hang from practically anywhere they want to. And the cat I was talking about, he was only needs to jump for o.7m to save himself. Any creature belonging to the family of feline domestica can easily accomplish that. But he didn't, he don't even dare to move his feet. He was afraid of the other possibility; that he would fail and fall 6 meter down. In fact he won't, if he can't make it he'll fall back to the balcony. He's just plain scared, and that's it. That's simply the reason.

I tried to lure him back, but he keep refusing and hissing. After about 15 minutes talking to a cat, I left him up there. It was quite a disappointment, really, for we both know that he can do it. But he didn't. I threw down some snacks for him though. I'll see if he's still there tomorrow morning.

Let's just pray that he'll be okay and gain some courage to do it.

Good luck, kitty. Your life depends on your courage.

A Sudden Journey

Dear Qwerty and Nadder,

Today is a funny day!

Why? That's because a lot of things happened they way they shouldn't. And again, I've met interesting people!

Referring back to the title above, I went to Tesco today. All by myself though, for my room mate have set her goal to be the next PM of Malaysia and therefore attending as many meetings as possible, and I just like to walk around by myself. The problem is, when walking around alone, we need extreme self esteem, which would seriously take appearance into account. Well, I screwed it up.

Let's see what I've worn to Tesco:

1. A baby pink t-shirt

2. A magenta cardigan (which matches well with the shirt, somehow)

now it's time for the horror:

3. A black track bottom (which doesn't fit well)

4. Blue flip-flops

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! It's a fashion tragedy, and I was all alone.

But back then I didn't really care. I was just looking for something convenient and comfortable to go, for I need to walk about 2 km, up and downhill. Anyhow, everything was OK, no fashion police around.

But the funny bit was; I was thinking of getting a new pair of sneakers. So I walk into the XES shop looking all confident and determined, picked up a a pair of nice sneakers, and ask the promoter to find my size. But then, when I was about to put my feet into the shoe, dang! The promoter noticed my nearly rotten dingy flip-flops lol! What a shame! Anyway I managed to keep the poker face and tried it on. It doesn't fit well though, and I left with a winning smile haha.

But all starts bad can somehow ends well; I managed to fulfill the to-buy list, and arrived home (room) safely and happily.

OK my dear (s), I'm gonna go to bed now. So goodnight and sweetdream. :)

Gourmet Tomyam For Free!

Dear Qwerty and Nadder,

Today is one of the most beautiful day ever.

Today is the second day for me working at Econ Shop in USM. I feel more comfortable now compared to yesterday, which is my first time. I met a lot of interesting people these two days. And that excites me very much!

Yesterday there was an uncle who look mean(lol!) but was actually very kind and funny. And there was also a funny guy who was so nervous about meeting someone who had just graduated. He came back to tell me that he finally got to see the graduates, but at the second time he looked more relaxed.

Today there was a big guy who complained a lot, but he was laughing hard while doing so. Such a weirdo! And there's a whole big family came to rummage our poor little fridge too! They came together (more than ten at a time) and took lots of the drinks. The problem is I'm the one who was at the counter at that time and I have to do a lot of calculations (which I really hate). Lucky to have my ultimate weapon at my side; the scientific calculator! yeah! (what a shame)

Oh ya, I met Kak Fiza today! Finally! I was so happy because she's the one who ofered the part time job to us. She's very kind indeed. It was so comfortable to be with her and have long casual chat. And she's very helpful too. She taught me how to use the retail machine! That really helps a lot cuz I am terribly bad at math. T_T

But then again, though all goes well and smoothly, I made a few mistakes too. I accidentally gave two Celcom Topup Cards to a customer. I was glad that she's such a kind soul and returned it back to us. And I calculated one of the total wrongly too! I'm so sorry for that.. T_T That's when Kak Fiza decided to teach me how to use the machine. I hope I won't get fired though..

Oh! I almost leave out the topic under the title! Tomyam! Today after working there I went to the cafe to buy some lunch (it cost me only RM1!). I was considering to buy some food for dinner too, but thinking that my room-mate will be hungry during dinner time, I decided to buy just lunch. But what a shame! She told me that she'll be cooking with her friend for dinner! That's an awfully terrible news cuz it means I'm going to have dinner down at the cafe by myself. I'd never do that of course, and rather have Maggi mee instead. But then came a better news, she insisted that I have some of the food she'll be cooking. How can I resist lol.. But oh, she was so busy cooking and forgot about the pathetic starving girl back at her room. I was so sleepy after waiting for two hours and was about to fall into a floating journey when she knocked the door. There was a bowl of wafting tomyam and a glass of lychee in her hands! Hooray! But I can't seem to move myself out of the bed and tell her to leave them on my table. Not for long, people, not for long, cuz 10 minutes after that I can't put myself to sleep again. Eventually I got up and gobbled up everything on the table lol. Both the tomyam and the lychee were awesome! It would cost me RM15 if I were eating outside. I can't explain further my dear cherrypies, I'm too sleepy presently.

So goodnight, and dream nicely. :)

Bumble Bee On the Go

Dear Qwerty,

Omg! I need to finish my tutorial works before thursday! I better start now. Plus a client asked us to translate two chapters of a book before next friday! Buzy buzy buzy~~

Oh, while i'm still here, I'd like to do some marketing stuff lol:

I'm a translation student from USM who is currently pursuing the Bachelor of Arts in Translation and Interpreting (BATI). My lecturer encourage us to take translation assignments while we're still in university level in order to gain much experience before we enter the so much dreaded working world. So, if any of you would like me to do some translation for you, please let me know ya~

p/s: I'm still a student, so the payment won't be as high as RM0.10 per word. I usually take RM3-5 per page :) (Professional translators will normally charge RM20 per page)

Hyes and Hellos

Dear Qwerty,

I'm more than two weeks into this sem. But I don't feel the urge to study as I would have in the last sems. Why is that so? Qwerty, please scold me. I need to start studying now!

Will write to you later. Bye for now~

p/s: please pray for me.