I Can't Be A Celebrity

I'm very surprised I survived this week and can live to tell the tale.

I spent my Monday night working on a Stress video... yes, the irony. But I am very proud of it. I hope the boys enjoy it! And I hope I get the recognition for it too.

Tuesday: I had dinner with Serena near Mustafa as she was craving for Indian food. Heh. I love her so much! She has so much life and warmth about her, that meeting her always perks me up. She's leaving the country soon... for a guy! I think that is both brave and romantic, something which I'm pretty sure I would never ever do. That's what I love most about her. She has this if I don't try, I will never know attitude. How cool is that? The days at IJTP were memorable because of her.

Wednesday: I had dinner with Ismadi at my usual 2 pit stops at Arab Street. It is always awesome to meet up with my NIE bff. Heh. We can't stop talking about Star Wars or his travels. He brings out the adventurous geek in me.

Thursday: I had dinner with David at Thai Express and then we proceeded onto my favourite dessert stall. Hey, any moment with The Best Friend is awesome. He's trying to convince me to a Scrubs addict but I'm like meh... It can't beat How I Met Your Mother and it definitely can't even be half as funny as The Big Bang Theory. We shall see...

Friday: I had basketball CCA till 4pm then I met Aqil for dinner at Ichiban Sushi. It was really good that I met him. We had such a fantastic talk and I'm so much saner after it. The next few days, thinking about could-have-been is going to kill me. I'm deeply bummed out by what happened. But oh well, we move on.

In a nutshell, I had Indian, Turkish, Thai & Japanese cuisine all in a week. God, I'm such a glutton!

Gah. I should get ready. I'm taking the P5 boys for the NE show. I'm only excited because this is my first NE show and I'm going with the Goodness boys!! *blush*

Faqih update.

So I sent him an sms on Tuesday; it was his birthday. I was petrified. I didn't know if he would respond and if he did, I didn't know the reaction I would receive. It was pure torture waiting for his response. I had a workshop that day so I didn't check my phone till much later. When I did, I was beside myself! In a nutshell he said that he'd been thinking of all of us hanging out again and that he even had dreams about it. So it was awesomely-weird that I contacted him at that moment.

That was exactly a week ago. Now, things are back to normal. We have our late-night chats which I have always enjoyed thoroughly. And he's learnt new songs so he sings to me each time. What more can a girl ask for, ay? I am happy.

I Need Courage

I had a good talk with Aqil and Iggy just now. For some strange reason, I decided to check my inbox in my cell phone and I came across Faqih's text messages. That got to me. I miss him terribly and reading how sorry he felt and how sincere his apologies were, made me wish that I wasn't such a conceited bitch. Yes, I am finally admitting to it. In my defense, he was wrong and he should not have treated me so badly. But I believe he learnt his lesson and his apologies were in fact, sincere. He did call and play me Everlong and I sobbed like a child after that. He was learning the song to play on my birthday but we had our tiff so the private performance was put off indefinitely. But he insisted on playing it for me, just after my birthday and I still didn't accept his apology.

Wow. Re-telling the story really puts me in a bad light. But recently, I have had this overwhelming urge to reconcile with him and the advice given by Aqil and Iggy earlier has given me the courage I need. It's his birthday on Tuesday and I shall wish him well. I really hope he responds. Any response will do but a positive one would be fantastic. Gosh. I am quivering as I type this - I hate rejection.

I hope I didn't screw up badly and I also hope that we can put aside our differences and be friends again. That, and I should really get some sleep.

The Day Athena Went Missing

Here's the story...

I took Athena to the vet on Sunday so that she could get vaccinated. Routine business. I brought her home and as before, she was annoyed and she hissed at me before scampering to hide under my bed.

Not long later, she crawled from under my bed and made her way to the living room. That was the last I saw of her. I assumed that she was still sleeping when it was nearing dinner time. I looked in all the obvious places but it did not occur to me that she was missing!

The next morning, I took off to school, not thinking much about her absence. Nearing noon, I received a text message from Lily; Athena was missing! I panicked and called my mum immediately. They had been searching for her for hours and they had already informed the neighbours. By this time, it was already the end of the school day. I had planned to stay till late to clear my marking but I could not concentrate. Jacinta suggested that I head home to look for her.

I tried really hard but I could not hold back my tears and I didn't want to be alone. So I called Aqil. I'm so thankful and eternally grateful to him. He met me at J8 and we went back to my place to look for my cat. Sweet, yes?

We spent hours wandering around the neighbourhood and scouring blocks searching for Athena. I wanted to give up. She could be anywhere! Logically, she could have wandered to any place and there was a very high possibility that we were looking for her in the wrong direction. I was forlorn. But Aqil, sweet Aqil, was my pillar of strength that day. He remained positive and persisted on. He even wanted to come back everyday to look for her with me till we found her.

It was getting late so we parted ways. I made my way home imagining what it would be like not to have Athena around anymore. My mum went downstairs to resume the search. Shu Yu printed posters to place at the void decks. I love them so much for everything that they've done.

So get this. I was in my room on my laptop and I noticed a passing shadow entering my brother's room. I glanced at that direction and thought I saw Athena. I looked again and paused for some time before I reacted. I called out to her and she turned to look at me void of expression. Understandably, I could not believe my eyes but I jumped to grab her. She hissed (

pissed) and ran to my parents' room. I was beside myself so I asked my father to check if that was really her or if I was imagining everything.

I'm getting bored of telling this story so in a nutshell, Athena came home, on her own. It was a horrible, horrible experience but it was comforting to know that there are such lovely souls in this cruel world.

I Won't Let This Build Up Inside Of Me

I got it bad. I've been playing the songs he used to sing to me, on repeat, the whole day.

I Won't Let This Build Up Inside of Me

I miss him. I hate to admit it but I do miss him terribly. In spite of all the antics and pranks, underneath it all, he was still a good friend to me. He was loyal, caring, understanding and above all compassionate. But it is good that we had to part ways; things were getting a tad too weird between us. As the saying goes, "Expectations are the mother of all fuck-ups." Sorry Fabian :p

Now, I play Vermilion Part 2 daily and on occasion Morning Glory only because the songs remind me of him.

I still love you, dude, but you have to learn to treat me better.

These Precious Moments We Have So Few

I blame Syakir. I can't get 2 songs out of my head; Pop Goes My Heart and Way Back Into Love from Music and Lyrics. I do find it very odd though that he listens to a whole lot of female artists...

So much for having a well-rested long weekend; it was downright crazy from start to end. I can't fathom how quickly the days passed by and it's back to school tomorrow. The horror. The horror!

Friday was the National Day celebrations in school which was THE WORST event I have ever attended. Things started going wrong right from the moment the bell rang to signal the start of the school day. Albeit the frustration and exhaustion, I have to admit that I was pleased the event was close to a disaster. Evil, I know but it was that ass who was the IC for the event. Off the top of my head, let me share with you some of the downfalls:

• the staggered timing for the main jigsaw activity did not run according to schedule, leaving the boys restless and bored in the classrooms
• when my class did eventually get to the hall to piece together the puzzle, our pieces were mismatched and we had much difficulty forming the puzzle
• upon completion, the boys were expected to carry the completed puzzle down to the parade square. My boys are Primary 1 boys and the puzzle is as large as 12 students' desks put together
• obviously the brains behind this project did not foresee a problem of carrying a large flimsy structure down 3 flights of stairs (with 2 corners to turn) because my boys had to break up the puzzle back into its pieces in order to be able to carry it down the flights of stairs onto the parade square
• because of the above, my class had to assemble the puzzle AGAIN. And by class, I do mean me inclusive
• sing-along in the scorching hot sun. For at least an hour. The hall was empty...
• we had no clue what the emcee was saying coz the sound system was dreadful. Non-existent would be a better adjective.
• our day ended at 11 because they gave the boys a 30 min recess. Not all the stalls were open. We could have ended earlier but NOOOOO... the boys had to be given recess...

Successful event, my ass. A bunch of the colleagues and I were discussing about the pre-hullabaloo for this event and that how the actual event was such a let down as compared to the hype he was creating. We can't wait for the feedback form to be given to us.

We had musical rehearsals next :( but thankfully Syabil and Syakir were awesome enough to wait for me (I ended at 2) and I really needed a break. I was fed and entertained. What more can I ask for? I love Them Boys for being so tolerant and for treating me like a princess (rare but there are those moments).

I headed home to pack my stuff as I was going to do an over-nighter at Amara's with the bride. Saturday morning was the wedding which consisted of me looting the groom and best man, the tea ceremony and the church wedding. I bummed at home for some time before heading down to Marriott Hotel to have dinner with my Aunt who just flew in from down under.

I spent the whole of my Sunday watching Saw 1 to 5 and for that I completely blame Faqih. Sometime near the evening, my mum decided she wanted to crash Marriott Hotel again. Plans were made to have our National Day celebrations there (Yes, we ALL said the pledge at 8:22pm). We could see a third of the fireworks from the hotel room. We pigged out, joked, watched the end to a horror movie before falling sound asleep at 11pm. Yea, age is so catching up on me.

We woke up early on Monday morning (4am for everyone else and 5:30am for me) and headed across the border. It was a mad-ass road trip to JB & Kota Tinggi. It was literally non-stop eating and shopping for us. I managed to snooze a couple of times too. I did try to convince everyone that Mango is really Rambutan and I'm pretty certain I managed to get some of them confused... not convinced, just confused. We reached home at half past 6 after having dinner near Labrador Park. Here I am now, typing this out and still not believing how quickly the days went by and wishing desperately that the work week passes by just as quickly so that I can enjoy the weekend again!

Why I Need to Nap ASAP

I read through all my posts and tagged them appropriately and I feel so much better now. I may be partially autistic on top of having mild ADHD. You know, I've never heard of any of those terms until I started teaching... must be something in the water. Kids were normal back then and we always attributed bad behaviour to well, just bad behaviour!

Yesterday's outing got me thinking that Them Boys treat me like a brand new toy that everyone wants a piece of. It's neither a compliment nor an insult but it helps me to explain why they do the things that they do. I love them so much, nonetheless.

Is It Just Me or Do They Seem Bigger?

Today was one of those outings where jokes were told and people laughed. Ok, that is a total understatement of the awesome-ness that is today; of innuendoes, double entendre, puns and blatantly obvious so-lame-but-I-still-can't-help-but-laugh-at-them jokes / stories. I laughed so much (and hard) I could have peed in my pants. True story.

My favourite bit would have to be... *drum rolls* when Syabil mentioned something about Aqil pms-ing and he went on to say that he should remove his uterus.

Sidenote: If you have no uterus, you have no say in this. But when it comes to that time of the month and I get those cramps, I just want to squat by the side of the road and rip out my bloody uterus.

Back to the story. Unfortunately, being a dude, Syabil apparently has no clue where a uterus should be so he mimed the ripping of the uterus somewhere near his heart. I immediately burst out laughing. It could be a job hazard but the teacher in me had to correct him so I showed him where he should have positioned his hand if he wants to rip out his uterus. The dude completely lost it! He literally had to back away from us and laughed hysterically a few feet away from us.

But it doesn't stop there. I was on a roll today, you see. I proclaimed very calmly, "Just because your heart bleeds from there, it doesn't mean that everything that bleeds has to be positioned there." All 3 of us lost it! We were creating quite a scene at the bus stop! There were stares BUT get this, some of them were surpressing giggles!!

I guess one could say that that was our good deed for the day. I mean we did put smiles on people's faces.

Back to Reality... Bloody Reality

Dear Diary,

Today I spat at my son. Just when we were starting to bond, I had to screw it up. I couldn't help myself though... I got carried away with the scene and I forgot my lines; so I got a tad flustered and I was trying to enunciate and SPLAT! right on his nose. He didn't notice at first, not until I shrieked and went, "Oh my Gawd! I spat on you! I'm so sorry! SONNNNNNNNNN!!!!" Then he blushed and cowered when I tried to wipe it off. Sigh. But he was so professional about it. Picked himself up and continued with the scene, leaving me as the bumbling idiot. Ahhh.... my son.... I love my son.

On a more entertaining side, I decided to wish Them Boys & Deux a happy start to the new term and I was amused by the varied responses which I received. I'll share some:

• It's not my first day... my first day was years ago
• Aw dreads... hate it man... i got the start sch blues now... hahas thxs anyway :)
• Haha thank you? You too :) Don't kill anyone in school arh! Must be a good teacher :) haha
• Don't remind me :(
• Doubt I'll have one... dread it so much!
• HAHA BALLZ MAN. I can't wait to go to school. But I don't feel like going. What's wrong?
• No. It's always not great on the first day of school. I try.
• I loathe this day... I hate first days of sch... Cause it's the worst time to screw up
• I'm planning to pon sch and sleep

Cute aren't they?

Mmm... kitty's going psycho... she's licking my toes; I think she's hungry. Ciao.

Saturday Bliss

Woop woop! Exams are over... which means the hols are just around the corner! WOOP WOOP!

I absolutely love bumming around. All I did today was eat, nap and watch a bunch of movies. On the list were Training Day, Scoop and Monsters vs Aliens. Hmmm... what shall I watch next *laughs hysterically*

Oh, sorry Faqih; guess your tuner has to wait. I... just... can't... get... my... butt... off... the... couch...

I Am A Convert

Ever since I can remember, I have been using Herbal Essences. I have loved it up till quite recently. I was using the one for oily hair and it made my hair dry. Then I changed to the one for dry hair and it made my hair... yea you guessed it, oily. I was getting frustrated.

A friend recommended Silkpro and I am loving it!! I've been using it for the past 2 days but I can see, smell and feel the difference! My hair is back to its original fabulous state *grin* Yea, I know, I am vain but I do love my hair very VERY much :)

On a more serious note, it's the exams now. Looking at the results for their English paper, they have improved remarkably, with many meeting my expectations. So that's great. Then again, as for the failures, sigh... SIGH... I did expect them to fail but... a tiny part of me was hoping for miracle. Math tomorrow! Gah!!

My Very Own Acid Flashback

Note to self: Do not have phone conversations that last till the wee hours of the morning... especially if it's a school day the next day. I am running on 2 hours of sleep. Gah. Everything is moving in slow motion; especially my senses. I feel so light-headed. Ironically, my MP3 player was playing tons of songs from Across the Universe and now I feel so high, dudes. So high.

I could be on the Pineapple Express. Heh. Speaking of which, sadly that wasn't that good a stoner film as I thought it'd be. It was from the producers of Superbad and that movie was super hilarious! But still my favourite stoner film has to be Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle. Can The Big Lebowski be included? The Dude was pretty stoned throughout most of the film anyway.

The Big Lebowski: What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?

The Dude: Dude.

The Big Lebowski: Huh?

The Dude: Uhh... I don't know sir.

The Big Lebowski: Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn't that what makes a man?

The Dude: Hmmm... Sure, that and a pair of testicles.

Classic.

Another Week Has Gone By

I find that I am having difficulty differentiating the days. Everyday feels like the same day to me now. Considering I am not doing anything different; it's the same thing, day in and day out.

The oddest thing is that although I am just teaching P1 this year, I find myself more exhausted than I have ever been! And it's only Term 1. On top of the mental exhaustion, I seem to be leaving school much later. Without fail, I leave the school after 5. That's dreadful! Once, I think 2 weeks ago, twice in the same week, I left the school after 6:30 pm. Now that's insane. Don't read me wrong, it's not the marking that's holding me back. Believe me, P1 marking is almost non-existent. I'm staying back for my other teacher duties. You know the kinds of outside-the-classroom-duties that the people up there throw at you for you to do on top of your normal teaching load. Yea, well, this year I have tons of them.

I listed all of them down and it startled me greatly. Where the bloody hell am I going to find the bloody time to do them all? I mean, I can forego sleeping, eating, spending time with the family and sleeping... yea, I'm sure that would give me just a wee bit more time to accomplish my tasks. Please note the sarcasm.

This is driving me crazy. I'm trying to squeeze time out from thin air! I sleep less, I go out even lesser and I've not met Them Boys Deux for about a week and a half and I feel absolutely guilty for ditching them like that. To make things worse, some of them are giving me shit for it which is not helping the guilt at all. I am going crazy.

I resorted to retail therapy. I bought 3 pairs of shoes at Charles and Keith. The purchase totalled up to slightly over $90 but it was only when I reached home when I realised what a steal I got the shoes for. The total price would have amounted to $195 but there's a sale going on so... I saved approximately $100. That certainly put a smile on my face!

It's amazing really. With the financial crisis going on, one would think that we would be strict with how we spend our dough, but I literally had to elbow women out of the way, in C&K, to move about in the store. Like today, I took my aunt and uncle (they're flying off next week) and my mum out for lunch and when it was around one in the afternoon, the crowd poured in! Almost every restaurant we walked by, including the one we were in, was packed inside and had a queue outside. So much for budgets and financial planning.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I am seriously contemplating getting a new laptop. But that would take a considerable chunk out of my savings. Hmmm... it is a necessity, since I do intend to start school again this year. Yes, it took me this long to decide that I need to, how do they say it... further my studies... gah.

Well, I hope things are much rosier on your end. I have to get back to reality now. Enjoy whatever's left of the weekend.

Because After 2am is When Things Get Legendary

Cluedo is a God-send! I have spent many late nights the past week suggesting and accusing and I am so addicted to the game that I find myself looking forward to coming home just so that I can play the game with my brother and his wife. Addictions are nasty business indeed.

On one such night, my brother and I were deciding where to take the family for dinner. Every weekend, we pick a location that we've not been to before and once a decision has been made, he drives us all there. To make said decisions, we entrust the help of this site, Hungry Go Where. I absolutely am fascinated by how organised the categories are and you are literally spoiled for choice! It caters to lifestyle choice, time of day, craving, preference of location etc. That's how David's birthday dinner location was finalised and believe me, it was a memorable dining experience.

But that's not my point. A couple of days back, my brother asked if I knew any nice places that he could take his wife to. Without blinking an eye, I very casually said, "Oh, go to boredgowhere.com" and he really did! I think my natural passive nature fooled him and he couldn't tell that I was pulling a fast one on him! Damn.

Then it hit me, BoredGoWhere.com does sound like a legitimate site. Think about it, if there really is a Hungry Go Where, why not the one which I made up? It must have been the night air but the hamsters in my head were racing on their wheels; I started coming up with ridiculous yet believable site names.

• Bored Go Where - I would honestly visit this site quite religiously.


• Antisocial Go Where - For those, like me, who shun crowded spots. The only downfall is popularity would defeat the purpose of the site.


• Emo Go Where - For those who are tired of sitting in the bathroom slitting your wrists, visit the site for more locations to brood with your posse.


• Lazy Go Where - Haunts located a stone's throw from your area of residence.

A crazy thought was to have one that catered to your lifestyle choice (Straight Go Where, Gay Go Where, Curious Go Where etc...). Come on, it's hilarious!! Don't get me wrong, this is just meant to be a joke but as Barney (as in Neil Patrick Harris' character in How I Met Your Mother and not the purple dinosaur) would say, "If you don't laugh, it would just seem mean."

Plus I was awake way after my bedtime so I had to stop coming up with site names... and for the record, if those names do get used, you heard it here first.

Oh and Aqil, stop reading what I KNOW you're reading before you get addicted. Ask me nicely and I may just share with you my favourite stories *wink wink*.

Guilty Pleasures... One, Two, Three

ONE

For the first time ever, I left school right on the dot. There wasn't a meeting or a workshop to attend, heck, it wasn't anything work related. I just had lunch with my colleagues. I felt so guilty, still. I completely blame it on peer pressure. I really wanted to stay back and get some marking done but they were so persistent on me leaving and lunching with them. Peer pressure is a dangerous, dangerous affair.

But alas! I was spotted by none other than a student from my form class. SEE! Play truant and you get caught! Lesson learnt here, kids.

On the other hand, lunch was absolutely delicious...

TWO

I had a Transporter marathon the weekend before school officially started and boy oh boy oh boy am I hooked. Jason Statham is YUMMY! For the record I have no interest in action flicks ala the likes of Bond, Mission Impossible, Die Hard etc...

However, what are rules if they're not broken, yes? His character exudes so much confidence, poise and cool, I had to turn down the heating and refill my glass of water ever so often. Yummy is the only English-word equivalent to what he does to me. If I were to give it a non-English-word, it'd probably be something along the lines of "mmmmhhhhhyymmzzzzzzbbbbbttttt".

Yummy even when candid. Gosh. I'm such a groupie!

Don't tell me that does NOTHING to you?



sigh...

Yes, I am a hopeless case.

THREE

We may remember this... I sure do. Things have changed and I am glad though cautious, nonetheless. Losing a dear friend is tough but rekindling what was lost is even tougher. After a pretty long chat last night, not till the wee hours of the morning this time, there is a high possibility that him and I may satisfy our cravings and head to Ben & Jerry's later tonight. I sure hope they run out of Turtle Soup... but indulge we will.

I feel so elevated, but bearing in mind the above, I'm not inching my way towards heaven anytime soon... I may have just covered a good number of the 7 Deadly Sins, ay? Thus the title, my comrades! *wink-wink*