hiatus + update

Sorry for the long hiatus, took a vacation to HK and I've just been catching up with loved ones recently.


Haven't seen my babies in such a long time, and I am very very thankful that I got to spend my Wednesday with the bbgs. What's a meet up without Simpang food? That was our first stop, with stories and updates of our lives, one by one. Phones stacked up in the corner like how we've always done it, and sitting there with our food, we pour our hearts out to each other. These are meet ups that we each hold so close to our hearts. Days, weeks, months, years from now, we'll always look forward to those days, where we meet up, cast aside all our distractions and just speak freely. Yes, some of us are leaving, some of us are going to get so busy we'll hardly get to meet up, but these are the small things that make the largest difference in our lives and I bet with everything I have that we'll all try to make it work. Because we've gone through so much together, good times, bad times, everything. I'm extremely ecstatic to announce that....

WE ARE ALL GOING TO GRADUATE!!!!!

This is definitely very heartwarming, to me, at least. After 3 years of going through everything that we have gone through, all the rubbish that we've handled and obstacles we overcame, we're finally here. All together. At the finish line. And that's all that matters.

Friends are forever

Moving on to a slightly serious topic. People fall in and out of love so easily. I've seen it happen to so many different people. People I love the most. I don't know why but I'm always surprised/shocked/at a loss for words when I see how fast people change their feelings towards each other. Definitely not going to mention names or any events here to respect their privacy. I guess this just further proves why people build up walls, to protect themselves in case such events actually happens to them. But we all know there's bound to be someone who'll break those walls down and show you that he/she is actually worth of your love, care and concern. And obviously, you let your guard down and slowly let them into your life.

There are two ways to this scenario:
1. A happy ending.
2. A broken heart.

I guess people try things out because they're never sure which will happen. We'll all always get our happy endings in the end, but it's how many heartbreaks, how many walls we'd have to build and tear down before the right one comes along. I guess there's no certainty to what the future will bring, and yes, it'll definitely scare us, but how many will let their guards down, demolish that wall and dare to try again? Yes, heart breaks hurt like a bitch, we all know that. But at some point of time, we'd realise it's okay to move on, it's okay to stop thinking about what used to be, what used to matter.

I hate seeing the people I love being hurt. Especially in events like these because there's never going to be an exact time where the person starts to slowly move on. I feel for them, so much, because I've been in their shoes and I know how much it hurts, I know how much you want to keep everything in and how much you'd wish whatever happened didn't happen. Eventually you'll realise that things happen for a reason and you've got to look past the mistakes and, well, basically, stop thinking. I feel so helpless, like I know what they're feeling but there's no way for me to help. It's a process that they have to go through themselves as individuals. I just.. can't bear to see it happen.

Just know that I'm always here for you, whenever you need to talk, rant, cry, or when you just need a hug.

xx

python

WE WENT TO THE NIGHT SAFARI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was the most exciting trip ever. The drive there was really long and tedious, but we reached there safely. We also met with some mess up on Groupon's side while trying to redeem our entrance tickets. To cut the long story short, I doubt any of us will be buying anything from Groupon anymore.

Obligatory shot with the Night Safari sign

Us as elephants! 

(Notice how sab is the only elephant with the trunk the other way)

Aligator/Crocodile 

I screamed at first when N shouted "OH MY GOD" and ran towards the aligator/crocodile. I really thought it was real!!!!!!!!! Hence the face.

"Where shall we head to first?"

My pillars of strength

Oh hello there ;)

Moving on to happier things, we got to see so many creatures!!!!! I was surprised that there were so many nocturnal animals, and I never thought that we could see so many new creatures that I've never seen before. I was quite sad we didn't get to see any tigers but oh welllll. 

there was a python lying beneath the doors under our feet

We caught the "Creatures of the night" show first. As we were one of the first few in, we definitely wanted to get good seats. N wanted to sit at where we sat, and I was very skeptical about the doors that were lying under our feet and also the long rope that was above us. But N brushed them off, saying there was nothing behind those doors. BOY WAS SHE WRONG. Halfway through the show the zookeepers (or night safari keepers?) were looking for a missing animal and told us to check under our seats. Obviously we all freaked out. Then they opened the doors and oh my god, there was a python curled up neatly. All I remember was screams before we finally decided to settle back into our seats, all shaking like leaves (maybe it was just me...) We all had a good laugh after the show and took the tram!!!

sorry for the blur sab, it was our only tram picture 

The tram brought us around the safari (DUH) and we did alight to walk around the trails. We spent a good 3-4 hours there and it was the awesome-st time spent!!!! Even though we had to climb up steep paths, and poor Sab and I had to walk across suspension bridges that we feared, but most importantly, Sab and I had to go through the Bats area!!!!!!!! Where LARGE/HUMONGOUS fruit bats will fly all over the place. We basically ran through that place with me hiding behind N and asking her to hide behind some lady with a pram. 

Before we left, we all took a picture with the owl!!!!! We took a group shot plus individual shots. Except for Sab, she was so freaked out by the owl that she didn't dare to take an individual shot. While we were getting ready to take the group shot, the owl suddenly tried to fly away and it was sooooo scary. But it was a pretty owl and I managed to muster some guts/courage to take an individual shot. 

Me and my Hedwig

And of course, our night will not be completed without supper at Simpang. We had 2 plates of cheese fries (we rewarded ourselves for hiking through the Night Safari), N and I shared a lamb wrap and Syiq and Aisyah had desserts!!! 

Today N, Sab and I went to the Antoinette at Penhas Road for some high tea/dinner/desserts. The place was nicely decorated and seemed very cosy. There wasn't a lot of people there which was definitely a good thing because we got to catch up, rest our souls and spend quality time together. 

Sab had to rush off to meet one of her friend so she didn't order any food. 

Scottish Smoked Salmon with Poached Egg, Pain de Mie toast and house salad

I had the Scottish smoked salmon with poached egg, plus Pain de Mie toast. I loved the taste of the Pain de Mie toast (it actually tastes like normal bread with butter but it tastes really good ok!!!). You know how smoked salmon are usually ultra salty (some of them anyway) but the Scottish one they had here was like MAD AWESOME. So smooth, so silky, and so fresh. I had poached eggs which were done perfectly, I'd wish for a little more flavour on them though, perhaps a little sprinkle of salt or something, but still they were nicely done. It was my first time having poached egg though, and I'm glad I had it here, at Antoinette. You can choose how you'd like your eggs to be done! So it doesn't have to be poached like mine, it could be a sunny side up, scrambled, or maybe even boiled. The salad was a nice, light palate cleanser.

N had a sweet crepe, the Nougatine. It's actually a crepe with Nutella, salty caramel, caramelised filo, nougatine ice cream and vanilla creme chantilly. I forgot to take a picture of it but it was really good (according to her). The ice cream was very nutty and creamy too! 

le menu (trying to be french here)

We both had a pot of tea each, I had the French Apple Tart while N had the The de porcelaine rose. We both liked our tea so much that there was none left. 

N posing with her teacup (you don't say)

We took away some macarons as well. No pictures of that either but I think we got the Antoinette and the Praline. The Antoinette tasted nutty, with a strong nutmeg taste that I didn't really fancy. It also had a raspberry (I think) center which was a little surprising! The Praline is currently residing either in N's car or her stomach and I don't know how it tasted, you'd have to ask her.

Overall, I would say Antoinette is a nice place to dine at, it had nice food, with the best service ever. (There was a really really cute waiter there, hehe) I think it's a place that we'd definitely visit again in the near future. 

xxx

credits to sab for taking the pictures and N for uploading them

kryptonite

So since it's the holidays and school's out, I kind of want to start blogging more. Nothing interesting has been happening in my life recently, like everything's just starting to slow down and enter the "Holiday Phase" as I would call it and it's just basically relaxing, sleeping in, hanging out with friends and that's basically all.

Okay so it's probably too early to start being all emotional and blog about sad posts but this is a topic that has been coming up quite often/recent, and as much as I would love for it to stop, it's kind of expected and well, it's kind of like a conversation starter to some people.

I would say that I'm not a person who can memorise things as well as I would hope, and it kind of has been taking a toll on me recently. I've been realising that I actually have a very short memory and no matter how much I try to memorise my notes or actually try to study them, it's really hard for me and I always know the answers but I can never seem to write it out on paper. Especially for papers that are theory based, pretty much like my nutrition questions, or science questions.

It's actually really depressing and it sucks to have to explain to my mom. Like she would always ask "How did the paper go?" and my answer will always be "I don't know I think I might fail it.". I think it has come to the point where I don't even want to go for an exam. It's not like I don't study, for this paper, I actually studied like a whole week and made notes, tried to memorise it with different methods and all. For once, I actually could remember a good chunk of it and when you ask me about it I could recite how it works and tell you what the thing does. I was rather confident, I'll say about 75% confident that this paper would definitely be the "I'll pass this" type of paper.

But when I attempted the paper, I found that most times, I just stared at the question, knowing that I'm able to answer the question and that I actually know the answers to the questions, but I definitely couldn't write down the proper terms and whatever that was in my mind disappeared before I could get it down on paper. I felt so stressed and it was like I was at a dead end. I didn't know what to do and I tried calming myself down, saying a few prayers here and there, but nothing helped. I sure know that because I left the examination hall feeling "Damn, what happened there." I would say I knew the answers to majority of the questions, but I couldn't write them down. I knew how to do the math part and I knew how to draw the diagrams. But it couldn't come out on paper. I was devastated, disappointed. Alas, there was nothing I could do about it.

I wanted this semester to be the semester that helps to pull up my grade point average. I wanted it to make my mom proud of me, make myself proud of my own work and definitely for it to get me somewhere. Now, I highly doubt those will happen. It's just the kind of time when your friends will definitely try to persuade, encourage you that everything will be okay, but deep down, you know it's not going to be. I mean, it definitely is nice for someone to tell you not to worry and that things will be fine, but then there also is the possibility you might just have screwed things up for yourself once again. I just don't know how to deal with that.

These are definitely not excuses. I don't know how to stress it enough, but it is not an excuse. I know I have studied.

It would be nice if there's a learning disability/disorder I can blame, but well, we all know THAT is an excuse and as much as I would like to blame it on that, I doubt I have a learning disability/disorder. Life just isn't that easy.

I mean, how do you answer the question "Why do you never do well in any of your exams no matter how much you study? It's not enough, you have to start earlier."

It's definitely heartbreaking when your mother asks that, with a worried and disappointed look on her face. It's worse when you don't have a definite answer to that. I wish I could tell you, Mom, I wish I could.