Food for thought?

I've been getting a lot of responses for my recent somewhat-provocative and somewhat-sexually-explicit entry, 'The epochal lover'. (It is important that I stress the word: somewhat.. only, somewhat.. I haven't reached the status of established romance novel writers in the world.. yet.)

I was talking to a bunch of my friends that day.. and apparently, my 'trashy' entry was what makes me a better writer.. or at least, a writer that can sell. I was shocked! Horrified! Stupendified! Hurt! I am an established writer who should be acknowledged for my superb writing style, witty and incomparable intellect and of course, for my extensive vocabulary. To be defined only by that single entry is completely beyond me! Why, one of my friends actually said that that piece was my best blogging piece ever!!

Actually, I'm just exaggerating.. I'm just kidding about how horrified/stupendified/hurt I was when my friends told me that.. But I was not kidding about what they said.

Anyway, I started to think. I just realised that in order to sell, I need to have something to sell. So far, I've writen lots about all kinds of things, but the recurring theme was me, of course. It all revolved around me. Hey, I can't help it if 'narcissistic' is my middle name now, can I? I'm digressing. Anyway, as much as those topics are extremely interesting to me and the people around me (well, some people, at least..) it doesn't sell. Why? Simply because it does not appeal to everyone else. That would explain why I'm not a so-called famous blogger.

I now understand that if I want my material to sell, I've got to write more than my day-to-day happenings, and appeal to a wider audience. I surfed around looking at other people's blogs and it seems obvious that there's really just a bunch of standard things that seems to be attention-grabbing: sex, politics and of course, controversy.

The question for me now is, do I really want to 'whore' my blog (i.e. turn into a blogslut) and turn my blog into a hotspot for sex, bitching and lots of controversy? (Sorry peeps, I don't do politics..) Or should I remain true to my ever-so-egotistical self and continue what I'm doing? (Well, not exactly continue, I need to write more about proper stuff as opposed to the 10 reasons why I'm lazy, procrastinating and not studying)

Do I really crave the attention? Do I really need the 50-hits-a-day spike on my stats counter? Do I really care what other people want? I think I know my answers to these questions.. but I'll try sitting on it for awhile.. I might have a change of heart!

Crystals

This post is meant to be an advertisment for a good friend of mine. So read on:

Just wanted to show you the beautiful brooch that WS bought for me from Paris when we went in April. It's just amazingly beautiful and I absolutely love it.. :) I value it so much that I don't even dare to wear it, just in case I lose it! Haha.. It's really stunning and the crystal is so well cut, it sparkles! I guess what I'm saying is that I really love it, and moreover, coming from a special someone, it brings so much more meaning, don't u think? More importantly, it's my very first Swarovski!! (Wonder if there's more to come? Haha.. I wish!)

Anyway, as I was saying, these beautiful pictures were taken by a good friend of mine, SJ Ko, a professional amateur photographer. (status granted by Canon, UK) He's very talented & a very helpful friend too! Anyway, these pictures are meant to be a demonstration of his fantastic photography skills and also as an invitation to visit his website. (It's not updated that often, but there are many good shots so definitely worth visiting!) Ooh, by the way, the beautiful photo of my lovely roses posted yesterday was also a work of his art!

Also, this professional amateur photographer is up for hire for any occasion: parties, bbq, class photos etc, so if you're interested, let me know and I'll give you his contact details. (Can't just put it up here, right?) He's very experienced and has done loads of events before. Don't worry, he's very reasonably priced as well!

Well, that's all from me for now.. Enjoy the beautiful photos and I'll enjoy my beautiful pin... Sorry there are no 'interesting' stories this time, but I believe, my muse has left me.. so I blame it on her! ;) (Moreover, with exams only 3 days away, and nothing much done all weekend, I'm basically screwed!!)

The epochal lover..

She could still taste his lips as she walked through her room door.. The room was stained with evidence of his presence - his clothes folded neatly on her bed, his towel hanging to dry behind her door, his toothbrush sitting on her dresser, the scent of his aftershave lingering in the air.. As she stood there, tidying up her cozy little room, she was haunted by the memory of the stormy night they had.. It's been awhile since she's felt such passion.. such desire.. such affection.. such fire... But most of all, she was plagued by his exquisite tenderness... his desire to please, pamper and delight.. His patience was well worth the while, as he finally accomplished what he set out to do and was rewarded with ultimate control and of course, pleasure..

He told her that there was no other.. but she couldn't quite believe him. He couldn't possibly be so good without practice. It just wasn't natural. But then again, she thought, maybe it was just chemistry. Maybe there was something so strong between them, it exploded when they were together.. Maybe this was what it felt like to be in love..It sure felt right.. it sure felt so good..

The nights had grown cold and lonely without his presence in her life.. he was only gone a few weeks at a time, but it felt like she had to wait forever for his promised return..When he finally did, she welcomed him back with opened arms.. and more. She yearned for him to stay, ached for his companionship, but knew that it was impossible. There was just too many things to do, too many places to go. She could never be a part of his life.. just as he could never be hers.. not for now, at least. Not until it was time..

For now, she would have to settle for what they have.. short-stay rendezvous filled with excitement, amour and if she was lucky, comfort... She promised herself that she would not cry. That there will be a next time, and that for now, she could be strong and cope on her own. She promised herself that she would wait. For she knew, her endurance will at last be rewarded.

Just a quickie.. ;)

Been meaning to write a lot lately.. since I've got a few burning issues that I wanna talk about.. Unfortunately, I've got exams next week, which means I will be attempting (keyword being attempting..) to do my revision every chance I get.. So that means, no blogging from me until I'm done... (Aww.. don't miss me! :P Haha!)

In the meantime, I just realised that I never formally 'announced' one of my new photo albums called "Food, glorious food!". It basically just contains lots of photos of foods that we've experimented with this whole year.. It's not nearly as complete as it should be, since sometimes we just get too hungry that we don't think about taking pictures and just dig in! Hehe.. But anyhow, let me know what you think!

Gotta go.. Until next time.. toodaloo!

PS: If you're wondering, my unkymood shows 'scared' because I'm friggin' scared about my exams!!! I'm so dead...

Just a bored babe babbling..

I've been plagued with the 'boredom' bug.. It's a tiny bug, highly-infectious and seems to be going around lately (since most of my friends seem to have contracted a disease with similar symptoms to mine). I've read around for the latest literature but apparently, there's no known cure for this disease. Even though there's been a huge amount of money invested into heavily researching this new syndrome, there has been a poor yield. All they can tell us now is the epidemiology, pathology, clinical signs and symptoms but unfortunately, no treatment yet. So, all I have to do is to persevere and hope my immune system does its job.

Yeah, this is the after-effect of finishing with Bugsy.. withdrawal symptoms, you could call it. From a room full of bustling people to a room full of well, aromatherapy fumes, I guess.. and only that.. Sighh..

My housemates are in Austria now, doing the touristy thing, and they've left me alone for over a week now. (They'll be back later today..) It would be a perfectly good opportunity to study, but it also means that if I don't leave the house, I get very minimal human contact. Ok, so that's not such a bad thing. But considering how I haven't left the house in 3 days, it's quite bad. I'm getting so darn bored that even watching series reruns or movies isn't helping. I mean, that's bad for me ok!! The situation is getting a bit more dire than I thought!!

Ok, ok, do not panic. Hehe.. well, instead of boring whoever's reading this with elaborate elaborations (huh?) about my boredom, I think I'll do something more productive. I will compile a list of all the places that I've travelled to and visited outside of Malaysia!! (Woohoo! Something to do!) Yeah, I've always loved travelling and seeing new places, so this is good! (Although my definition of 'new places' is strictly confined to areas of high development and good economic status. Sorry, but I can't stand being in icky places!)

Let's start with the UK:
- London (of course)
- Nottingham (d'oh)
- Manchester (hehe)
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- York
- Leeds
- Liverpool
- Bristol
- Blackpool
- Bath
- Coventry
- Birmingham
- Warwick
- Windermere }
- Grasmere } Lake District
- Keswick }

Europe:
- Republic of Ireland
- France - Paris & Versailles
- Switzerland
- Czech Republic
- Austria - Salzburg & Vienna
- Vatican City
- Italy - Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples & Capri

Rest of the world:
- USA (woohoo!) - LA, San Fransisco, San Diego, Hawaii, Chicago, Wisconsin & more (can't remember)
- Canada (Toronto & Niagara Falls)
- Australia - Sydney & Melbourne (I would've made it to Gold Coast if my wonderful parents didn't leave me behind!!)
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- Thailand

Hey.. I just realised that my list is actually quite short! And here I was thinking that I've been to so many places.. Maybe I should quit school and become a full-time traveller. Hmm.. that sounds like a really good idea! Yay! That's going to be my new goal/ambition!!!! Woohoo!!!

PS: My to-do list in order of priority:
Europe:
- Spain - Barcelona, Madrid & Costa del Sol
- Greece
- Amsterdam & Cuchanov (Can't remember how to spell it)
- Belgium

UK:
- Cambridge
- Cardiff
- Stratford upon Avon
- Newcastle
- Southampton ??

and of course, my favourite of all.. back to the USA!!! (Gosh, where do I begin?!)

Bugsy Malone Pictures

Here are the pictures that I promised! Most of the onstage ones are really nice (especially the ones Nik Qisti took! Check out his homepage for more amazing examples of his work: http://www.drenqueue.com) and the ones backstage are great too, of course!

So for those of you who missed the show.. hope this'll give you a good glimpse of the fun we had!!

(PS: Err, there's a link, by the way.. which brings you to my online photo album where all the photos are at.. just in case you didn't know!)

Everybody's favourite? Chinese launderers hard at work!


No typecasting or stereotypes of any sort.. we went through a really tough audition to get these parts!! ;)

I'm a reporter for the Oriental Daily! (Sorry, this pic's a bit blur..) 

Can you spot me??? 

High, hyper and crazy?

It's 2.28 in the morning, and not only am I still wide-eyed and awake, I'm also extremely energetic, hyper and generally just riding the adrenaline wave... I'm not about to crawl into my comfy bed because chances are, I'd probably just be laying there, waiting for my mind to settle down. Having said that, I will indefinitely suffer the consequences when I wake up tomorrow past noon.

Tonight was the last night of our musical production, Bugsy Malone - and a fantabulastic night it was indeed!!! The show went really well (it had gotten progressively better and slicker as the nights went by.. I bet we could do it for the whole year!) Ooh, and at the end, we all got absolutely covered in splurge (Which thankfully, was just shaving cream! Still, I got completely badgered by so many people that I had shaving cream everywhere! My hair, inside my ears, in my eyes, on my pants, on my neck.. everywhere! You can imagine how disgusting it was..).

But more importantly, I had a great time at the after-show party. We went to Snug and absolutely everyone was there! It was great getting to see all the people we've worked so hard with for the past few months all hanging out, chilling and dancing, as well as loads of people who came to watch us, singing nothing but praises for our brilliant show! It was not only exhiliarating, it was intoxicating!!!

Anyhow, we all had a really good time.. I managed to drag SY out tonight, and I think she enjoyed herself. (Although she got a little drunk, which incidentally was really funny! Haha.. sorry, but I love it when people are drunk - they are so much more fun!!!)

Well, I'm just sitting here writing all this nonsensical garb simply because I'm too high on adrenaline and my happy hormones to go to sleep. (And by the way, I'm not drunk. I'm a tee-totaler, which basically means I don't touch alcohol at all. How can I still get so high? Well, those of you who know me can definitely say that I don't need alcohol to get high and drunk. :) It used to be that sugar could do it easily, cos' I get hyper on glucose, but now, I don't even need sugar to get hyper!!! I drink Diet Coke and since there's no glucose in that, safe to say, I can get disinhibited on my own!!) I digress. Anyway, even though I can't sleep, I need to shower to get all the smoke and shaving cream residue out of my hair so I better be going..

I am soooooo screwing up my studying plan tomorrow...

P/S: By the way, below is a great photo showing an example of how crazy I can be on a good night out, like tonight. I'll get the photos from my show soon and will make sure I put them up here!

An example of how I look like on a night out.. 

Show biz is my biz..

It's been awhile since I last wrote.. Apart from the lack of interesting subject matter to pen and the impending doom of my final exams, I've been busy getting myself involved with show business!!! :) Yup, my dream has finally come true... NOT! Haha.. It's just a small production by the 3rd year medics in my university and we're doing.. Bugsy Malone!

Anyway, our show is running for 4 nights this week (starting tonight) and we're really really enjoying ourselves! All the rushing around, changing costumes, injuries (unfortunately, I sustained a little injury on my leg tonite.. it's small but it really hurt! How will I survive 3 more nights???), lots of nervous nail-biting behaviour.. it's all fantastic!!! Haha.. yes, as you can probably suspect, I'm suffering from the all-too-familiar show biz rush! It's scientifically proven to be as intoxicating as celebrity rush, sex rush and all the other rushes you get with well, whatever.. Anyhow, I don't care what it is, I love it! It's exhiliarating!!! (See? Didn't I tell you I belonged on the stage?? Just read 'So near yet so far' and you'll understand..)

Opening night tonight was not as bad as we expected.. it went really well and despite the odd hiccup here and there, people managed to react really well to it so the audience couldn't really tell! All professional amateurs, mind you.. I truly hope that the audience found it worth their money and their while. Even though we aren't paid, we still want to put up a good show. After all, we are here to entertain! I mean, come on! This is show biz!!!

In case you're wondering, I'm playing a huge part indeed.. I've got 7 whole lines!!! Haha.. Yeah, I'm a buzzing reporter and I play many other small little extra parts as well. So it's really quite cool! Like I said before, that means lots of costume changes and a lot of stripping-in-front-of-people-I-don't-really-know cos' we really don't have the time to run to the loo. Ah well.. all in the name of show biz babeh!

Anyhow, if you're from around here, do let me know if you want tickets to come catch this fabulous show. I'll be more than glad to point you in the direction and hopefully, I'll see people there!!

For now... hip hip hooray to all involved for a fantastic night!

Bugsy Malone!!