Let the fasting begin!

Lo and behold! My bridesmaid dress for my aunt's wedding in October!

A gentle shade of baby blue with a veil-like lace patterned with swirls and peppered with glitter. Ain't it sweet? In my favourite hue of blue, too!

Apparently the adjustments made turn out to be a little harsh on my 'flattering' body figure. Bad, bad holiday. Enticing me to satisfy my bottomless pit of a stomach. Aunt suggested, none too lightly, that I should plunge into a starvation period go on a diet. Ugh.

Oats. Taste like woodchips and remind me of dry, flaky otorrhea.

Exercise. Does hiking up the slope to Block C after lunch count?

No oily food. Still bearable, considering I only get to steam my food (without a drop of oil, mind you) when I cook in the hostel.

Pills and medication. Puh-lease. I'm not THAT desperate. And I don't plan on dying early either.

Gah. If only I have the single-minded determination and the ability to side-step distractions when it comes to food.

P.S. My man's got a new song AFTER Amanda and Joanna bought me the album last year >:(

Whatever. Nothing's stopping me from loving Body Language. And I bet you would too, Daa.

O that body's like music to my ear
O that body's like music to my ear
O that body's like music to my ear
What you want is right here

Oh she, oh she's so international
The way, the way she get it on the floor
I'm tryin', I'm tryin' to holler at you
I want, to get, to know you better

Parlez vous francais?
Konichiwa, come and move in my way
Hey, little chica from Guadeloupe
That thing you got behind you is amazing

Now, I don't speak Spanish, Japanese or French
But the way that body's talkin' definitely makes sense
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
The way she moves around
When she grinds to the beat
Breaking it down articulately
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body

That make me want to say
he-eey, he-eey, he-eey
It's her, her body, her body, her body language come on

Shorty, let me whisper in your ear
Tell you, everything you wanna hear
You got my vote Hottest Girl of the Year
Let's have a ce-lebra-tion, baby

Parlez vous francais?
Konichiwa, come and move in my way
Hey, little chica from Guadeloupe
That thing you got behind you is amazing

Now, I don't speak Spanish, Japanese or French
But the way that body's talkin' definitely makes sense
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
The way she moves around
When she grinds to the beat
Breaking it down articulately
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body

That make me want to say
he-eey, he-eey, he-eey
It's her, her body, her body, her body language come on

I'm lifting up my voice to say
You're the hottest girl in the world today
The way you shake you got me losing my mind
You're banging like a speakerbox
Turn around the party stops
Universal lady, let me take you away

Now, I don't speak Spanish, Japanese or French
But the way that body's talkin definitely makes sense
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's the way she moves around
When she grinds to the beat
Breaking it down articulately
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body

That make me want to say
he-eey, he-eey, he-eey
It's her, her body, her body, her body language come on

O that body's like music to my ear
O that body's like music to my ear
O that body's like music to my ear
What you want is right here

Oui, Jesse, je parle francais :)

The Wind Blows

Honestly, the Port Dickson trip was like the Yin of the Malacca one. While the impromptu rendezvous with my conquistadors to the latter was all sun and the open-air and subjecting our senses to what the ancient city (the tiny circumference we visited) had in stored, our end-of-semester getaway in Port Dickson was the mirroring Yang of it. Saved for the presence of a merry though aberrant company on either trip, our supposedly 3 heavenly days of beach and water, both salt- and chlorine-infested, were ruined by the irregular gushes of rain, flashes of lightning and peels of thunder. Not to mention the lack of good food within walking distance.

So, there we were, the 9 of us cooped up in the under-maintained and dust-coated 2-and-a-half-room apartment like trapped animals. Partially because we were condemned to by the accursed weather, partially because we luxuriated in doing so, just laying back and relishing the sense of weightlessness and detachment, the precious gift of a semester break. It felt refreshing somehow, waking up to a clean slate of an agenda and not needing to fuss about locations to sight-see or ways to get there for the rest of the day. Our moods dictated our actions.

Day 1

The journey down south reminded me of the song 'We Can Go Anywhere' by Jesse McCartney, then again it has always been the soundtrack when I'm travelling.

Slow down, things have been a little crazy

Right now it's time to get away

You can find out what it is you're really after

Time is on our side

Come on, we're leaving everything behind

You know that sun is shinning

We'll keep driving, doesn't matter where

'Cause we got that open highway leading out way

As long as you are there, yeah, we can go anywhere

Ohh, we can go anywhere, oh, yeah

The bubbling excitement, the overwhelming anticipation, the barely-contained hullabaloo, the high spirits. Which probably explains the horrifying experience of witnessing firsthand Karen cutting across the road in an insane manner and stopping squarely in front of a police officer to wait for the 2 other cars to catch up. Utterly shocking. Everyone freaked out, even that policeman. Karen adamantly claimed, and still so, that she failed to notice his presence till Seong Seong yelled at her and frantic calls from the rest of us started pouring in. LoL.

Self-checked-in at the Glory Beach Resort around 1pm...to a dust-bunnies inhabited apartment. Even the floors and other available surfaces were sprinkled with a blackish-grey layer of filth. Ugh. Damn potong steam. Attempted to hire a cleaning lady or staff to do the job. Pah. No such luck. They didn't even consider our 30 bucks bribe. For once, I wished they were corrupted.

And so, the 9 UCSI Contemporary Music Degree students were degraded to sweeping and scrubbing the floors (literally in fact, most of them got down on their knees and 'mopped' the old fashion way using wet rags) as well as washing and sterilising the toilets. Imagine our disgusted faces. But we made it in good time.

We became potato coaches for what was left of the afternoon. Watched some Chinese/Cantonese drama series, during which I rolled my eyes in annoyance so many times that my eyeballs could have gotten jammed to the insides of my head. I would rather be haunted by Hannah Montana and her cahoots anytime than puking all over myself watching any of those drama series. Their acting...*Shudders*

Anyway, BBQ was a failure. Big time. Each time the tiniest of a flame flare up, rain pelted down and we had to shift everything to the nearest shelter, which was more than 20 paces away. Then, the short heavy shower would pass and leave all in its path awashed. And Hueyuen would scuttle out to rekindle the fire while we schlepped the stuff back to the wooden bench. Barely 10 minutes later, rain would strike again. On its final round, the torrent of rain just refused to quit, so we simply squatted to curl ourselves up or paced about, all to ensure we would not ice over. When we could no longer stand the cold, we ran helter-skelter through a labyrinth of corridors that joined one block to another, squealing as we plunged into muddy puddles and giggling from the adrenaline rush and, at the same time, avoiding the onslaught of stray rain droplets. It was wickedly blood-pumping.

Our make-shift BBQ pit

It looks as if they were competing to ignite the fire

Kevin and Seong Seong

While we were seeking shelter from the rain.... Wanna see what was Jia Wen eating?

Honey on a slice of cucumber! Kevin's invention. So don't blame me if you're curious enough to experiment and it tastes weird.

We wound down after that, by lazing about and gossiping. Our human radios/TVs were functioning pretty well that night, don't you guys agree?

Day 2

Can you guess which was ours and which was the seniors'?

The leftovers from the previous night + breakfast

Flew a kite with a little help from Yvonne and the strong gust of wind. Seong Seong managed the other kite. The others were bent on burying Andrew in the sand, then proceeded to draw him a seductive 2D body, of which my camera was used to take a couple of photos but they would remain discreet till the subject grants permission.

Andrew, Karen and Hueyuen. Ha. Talk about digging his own grave.

Emo...


Seong Seong, Yvonne and me

Let me show you a magic trick...

+

.

.

.

.

.

...albeit a disturbing one.

After cracking up over watching Andrew clawed and hauled himself out from beneath the sand, we went for a cool dip in the pool. We even had a game of 'monkey' and since none of us brought a float ball, we improvised by using goggles. Not before long, people starting staring at us, even the 3 bald sun-bathing Caucasians seemed highly amused, especially when we fought to get hold of the goggles.

Too bad it had to rain, though some gleefully took it as a cue to have lunch. And of all things, we (me, Jia Wen, Andrew, Kevin) ate KFC. The seniors had Cheesy Burgers, me thinks.

The best is always saved for the last. In this particular case, to me, was that night. Played Mafia for the first time, at least abiding a different set of rules. But it wasn't until the punishment that the game went uphill on the thrill scale. Andrew had to spell Mississippi in the air with his butt. I had to do the Banana Dance. Hueyuen was squashed by us on her back, a burden which she took gracefully...till I tickled the soles of her feet. Seong Seong and Karen struck a sexy and cheerleading pose respectively. Yvonne did the kawaii/la-la faces for the numbers 1 to 10. Jie Ying's punishment had yet to be carried out.

We could all now view our seniors in a new light. A positive one, I assure you.

Day 3

Had another round of cleaning up before closing the door to the apartment as well as, to yet another semester break. It was as if with every mile we drove, the grip of what lay ahead in Degree 2 tightened. Assignments were the oncoming storms, Jury 1 the ultimate hurricane. *Sighs in resignation* Adios, semester break.

Would you catch me if I fall?

In the heat of summer sunshine

"Hey, you free on Monday?"
"Yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Wanna go Malacca?"

"Whoa. Sure!"

We took sun-bathing a whole notch higher, beh-bay! We literally soaked up the sun! Nothing beats risking a sun-stroke :) Nah. It wasn't that scorching, more like glaring. And the occasional breeze kept the heat at bay when we were sizzling under the sun's blistering mercy. Though I would not have complained if we WERE roasted and grilled to the bones, much preferable than being rained on, non? Imagine fleeing from shop to shop, not being able to roam on the streets freely, and then squirming uncomfortably for the rest of the day in clothes with wet patches of rain. Ugh. The only times I enjoy getting drenched thoroughly are:

a) a pool party

b) I have a change of clothes at hand

c) I'm not having any electronic gadgets or non-waterproof objects on me

But the skies were generous today. There wasn't a tinge of grey in the clouds :) Too bad we boarded a typical-Malaysian bus in the morning, potong our steam for a moment. That dumb guy conned us that the bus was leaving at 8.30am but, voila, it departed at 9am, being all adamant about filling up the seats. No wonder Malaysia's public transportation has always been a constant down turner.

We're on an adventure, Charlieeeeeee!

From the terminal in Malacca, we hijacked another degraded bus to Jonker Street!

Seriously, I could hear the seats squeaked as our butts sunk low into the cushion.

The square (or whatever it is called)!
Jing Hua, Eu Chern, me, Joanna

Such humour insight to the minds of the people in the olden days

By the time we were done entertaining ourselves with the fountain, cam-whoring and holy-ing ourselves in the church, we were, more or less, fazed by hunger. To the Jonker Street! Eu Chern directed and we stalked along like the living dead.

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts! Erm. I mean A lovely coconut. HAHA. That sounds wrong.

Wandered down the street for a while, pausing, at first, at every single shop, then the amount dwindled with our growing thirst, till we just simply dived headlong for the cendol store. Mamma mia, we found heaven :)

Candy mountains, Charlieeeeeee!

Can you believe these 2 skinny things had THREE bowls of cendols?! OK. They weren't BIG bowls, but still. Sweet stuff takes up A LOT of space in the stomach, which is why desserts are always served at the end of a meal.

Goreng-goreng me likes :)

And out we went again, to bask in the full glory of stinging rays of sunlight.

At a point that I was only vaguely aware of, we couldn't tolerate the heat anymore and seeked shelter from Dataran Pahlawan. To be honest, the reason I squealed and reeled in shock about entering the mall was that I genuinely thought it was an open-air location, not a shopping mall. I mean, 'Dataran' makes me think of the forsaken Dataran Merdeka and the shimmering heat. So it wasn't because I didn't welcome the blast of cool air, I just didn't expect a shopping mall with that name. Yes, I've been living under a rock, as far as places in Malaysia are concerned.

Screw that face.

Mine fits better. LoL.

Me: Teehee! We're in Mahkota Parade!

Eu Chern: *Disgusted* Purple homos bumping their stomachs seductively

Lost?

Somehow it was decided, perhaps through telepathy and my connection was down, we should give this Solero Shot-lookalike a go. The next thing I knew, I paid 10 bucks and was in the queue waiting for the ride.

Up, up and away! Seriously, I initially freaked out. Stupid, stupid acrophobia.

That thing, what do you think? It rocks! Ah.Ha.

Then, more walking. Awed by the many wonderful locations to cam-whore.

What WAS with these people?!

A matching colour of blue and white

Ditto. Though reversed.

Took a detour up and over St. Paul.
Bottoms up!

Ah. A' Famosa. Heavily fragranted with the scent of cat piss.

Just envision I'm holding a flag, k?

And our last eventful stop of the day: Satay colok (do correct me if I've misspelt)! Quite worth it I suppose, after all the trouble of locating the shop, no thanks to the already-sleeping Jonker Street by 6pm.

Cam-whored a little while in the midst of searching for the dessert store earlier. Two particular people were craving for a fourth bowl of cendol.


Settled at one of the last few shops that were still open. Not too satisfied, sadly.

Breathtaking, isn't it? Taken by Jing Hua. There's one more similarly beautiful, captured by Joanna, but it's on Facebook. You're welcome to check it out.

Last group shot at the terminal.
Bought the 8pm ticket but the bus wasn't there after we came out from the toilet. Unnerved us a little.




Hoooooooomeeeeee!

Freaky, eh?