Ying Hui's Scrapbook

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

We straightened the Curve

Date: 26th Oct 09

Venue: The Curve

Purpose: Jing Hua's belated birthday celebration and Lucy's farewell

A Adrenaline is Always at its Apex

B Bountiful Beds

C Chee Kin of the Caliginous Closet

The one in red (like you don't know already)

D Damnifying Duos

E Eu Chern Envelopes us with his Ebullience

F Frisky Feasting

G Glamorous Groupies

H Hazardous Hyperactivity + Hysteria

I Indignant Incredulity

Can you believe they didn't notice they were being followed and spied on by us (me, Jo and Eu) for more than 10 minutes? Even when we were walking in the opposite direction facing each other or when Jo used flash to catch their attention. So imagine our incredulity.

J Joanna and Jing Hua, the Jabbering Jargonists

Sorry Jing, the only photo I have of you other than the trios and the solo shot at Manhattan is this one.

K Kitchen

L Lucinda, Lady of Loveliness

M Maddeningly Muddled?

N Nemeses of Naughtiness

O OOooOoOoOOooo

P Promiscuous Posers

Q Queer Quirks

R Random Rendezvous

Spontaneous trip to IKEA

S Sexy backs

T Titillating Trios

U Unpalatable Ubiquitous Urchins

V Vandalizing Vacant Vicinity

W Wheeeee.....!

X XOXO

Wishing you all the luck and love for your studies and college life in UK!

Hope you will be blessed with wonderful friends and companions to colour up your days there!

Oh! Don't forget to bring a watch there! Don't want to annoy your British mates with your 'What time is it?' like you did with me!

LoL. You know I was just kidding, hon' (:

Bear hugs and sloppy kisses XOXO

Y Yeasty Ying Hui

Z Zeal for Zest

Now you've learned our ABC, you can come and sing with me!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Everyone Needs A Superman.

Sometimes she felt as if life were a masquerade. An eternal ball choked with incognito partygoers. Every angle she glance, every faceless person her eyes fleeted across, it was just a kaleidoscope of superficial beauty.

And more often than not, the charlatans shielded behind the dull glitter of their sequin-crusted crimson half-face masks or the beneath the folds of feathers of their handheld embroidered Columbine Venetian masks, would return her gaze with a wan smile - a smile that reeked of false pretenses.

She shirked away, stung and wounded. But what hurt the most was having a familiar face shoved deliberately at her. Someone she thought she knew like the back of her hand. Could it be Lily, her tiny-framed lab partner who would scrounge her nose disapprovingly at her messy handwriting? Or Shay, who endured with her years of sun-tanning sessions, training together on the same basketball team? But as she stared, the features, or what was left exposed, blended together and blurred and she would be left blinking in confusion. It would be just another concealed face in a crowd. Had she none true friends, then?

People change, she rationed. But a small voice countered, so should you. Ignorance isn’t bliss. Invulnerability is.

She shook her head in frustration. Whether it was at life itself, or the way life had made everyone, she could not tell. Like an unwritten rule of the transition into a ‘custom’ hormone-ranging adolescent, make-up had became some sort of an imperial aegis, an impenetrable armor to hide flaws and serve to inspire awe and, perhaps, fear. Please. If embellishing a farmer with a king’s sword would not make him a skilled swordsman, how would anointing cosmetics make any difference to a person’s beauty? At least not more than skin-deep, she thought.

Of course, she did not always just mean the physical make-up.

But slowly, like a sun dipping into the horizon, she was beginning to accept that. Appearance first, the heart later; a book was always judged by its cover. No one was more important than you; was not that why ‘I’ written in capital?

Her fingers curled around the edges of her mask, eyes scrutinizing the surroundings for the umpteenth time. Her ears pricked for the rhythmic clopping of hoofbeats, on which horse her savior would come a-rescuing, or the sweet chime of midnight. Neither transpired.

She sighed in resignation. So be it. Her fingers quavered as she lifted her mask to her face; tears glistened as it inched closer. Her eyelids fluttered down, if this was what she had to do to survive…

Her hand paused. A light pressure lingered on her arm, holding her back. She looked up. Her brows crinkled, it was not a face she had come across before. But it was a beautiful one – one without a mask. And such lovely eyes, no, not because of the colour, which, she noticed, was a shade darker than her light brown ones. No, it was the softness in them. And her tomato-red cheeks seemed to be glowing.

Then, as if it were the most natural thing to do, the girl took her hand and led her through the throng of people, though it suddenly seemed to her they were merely a sea of puppets, the materialistic world their puppeteer.

And, like a fog dissipating in the heat of the morning sun, she began to notice unveiled faces amidst the masses; roses among thorns. How had she overlooked…?

She peered towards the girl. And somehow, she knew her name. She just knew.

“Thank you, Amanda.”

The other girl smiled.

After a day in Sunway Lagoon. Were fiddling with my hay-wired video camcorder/sound recorder/mp3 player.

When imMoral projects still haunt us.

Must have annoyed Amanda's little sis that day. Jumping into her inflated baby pool with her then shooing her out.

If my memory serves me, this was taken at The Curve during Chinese New Year, hence the cherry blossoms in the background.

OooOo. I remember Amanda spent the whole morning before the outing experimenting on my hair with her new heat curlers. And look, already half of the curls had straightened out. LoL.

Hey, I didn't know we wearing the same blouse! Or was it just the play of light?

Graduation day! One of the only days we could bring our cameras to school legally.

Me loves this pic (:

Our faces were so pink!

Ahaha. Joshua Bell. The only international 'celebrity' (at least in the Classical Music world) we succeeded in taking a photo with.

I miss you so mucho, babe. It ain't no fun drooling over books alone.

P.S. Now you know why I adored 2a1 immensely. As far as high school is concerned, Form 1 is merely a dark splotch, like someone had poured ink over that memory.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

a Torrent of Words

Was just sifting through the ancient folder dad transferred over from the dead computer (may it rest in peace) months ago and voila! I found the table I drew up for the 100 verbs Mr. William assigned us to categorize and arrange in ascending intensity! Ah, I miss the good old days of Form 4 English classes. I think he gave up after a couple of days and spoon fed us the answers instead. I haven't got a chance to use half the words. If only he made us write an essay, like he did with the list of terms starting with the letter 'A'...

Anyway, for all that it's worth, he failed to provide the name of the categories. Or he did and I wasn't paying attention, which doesn't make sense since English classes were the only ones I had my ears and mind anchored to earth. Hmm...

Philanthropy

Pity

Sorry

Mercy

Sympathy

Mitigation

Compassion

Commiseration

Benevolence

Clemency

Intrusion (?)

Attack

Assault

Lunge

Aggression

Assailing

Coup de main

Blitzkrieg

Fusillade

Infiltration

Mindset

Sure

Certain

Positive

Definite

Absolute

Univocal

Conclusive

Ineluctable

Determination

Indication

Hint

Signal

Notification

Warning

Magnificence

Presage

Presentiment

Portentous

Premonition

Admonishment

Attractiveness (?)

Gorgeous

Splendour

Brilliance

Majestic

Magnificence

August

Resplendence

Stateliness

Grandeur

Edacity (?)

Greed

Avarice

Cupidity

Avidity

Voracity

Rapacious

Acquisitive

Covetousness

Ravenousness

(?)

Anger

Ire

Wrath

Rage

Fury

Pique

Tantrum

Vehemence

Paroxysm

(?)

Caricature

Exaggeration

Amplification

Magnification

Extravagance

Burlesque

Hyperbole

Aggrandize

Grandiloquence

(?) Personally, I find this particular list weird. Kind of mixed up. Like, a word or two don't belong, don't you think?

Flabbergast

Captivate

Fascination

Enticement

Allurement

Bewildered

Enchantment

Enthralment

Inveiglement

P.S. They are all in ascending order. Or at least, that's what I hope.

P.P.S. Someone please help me with those marked (?)

Friday, September 4, 2009

You can sit beside me when the world comes down

Monday

3.30pm-5pm Choir

Tuesday

10am-12noon Ear Training

6pm-7pm Piano

Wednesday

10am-12noon HAMM

1pm-2pm Band coaching

3.30pm-5pm Choir

Thursday

1pm-2pm Band practice

2pm-4pm Ear Training

4pm-6pm HAMM

7pm-8pm Piano

Friday

2pm-5pm Modern Band Ensemble

Honestly, this isn't in the least bit comforting. No amount of love for music can dilute my disgust for packed schedules. Then again, who doesn't? It's the kind of fetish saved for workaholics. Either whom, or the schizophrenics.

But I guess I can try to be an optimistic freak for once and view it as a method of keeping my feet (or more like my fingers) itchy and not slack during breaks. Skies are grey. Won't want it raining on me before I got to the shelter. Hmm. I think I failed to mention about having to sit for Jury 1 (practical examination for instrument(s) we're Major-ing in) by the end of the semester. And since this happened to be a short semester (the purpose being to ensure ample time for internship), that means doomsday's next month.

Argh. DEPRESSING.

All American Rejects - Mona Lisa (When The World Comes Down)

Here's another pity and there's another chance

Try to learn a lesson but you can't

We can burn a city in futures and in past

Without a change, our lives will never last

We're going fast