Tuesday, January 05, 2010
So last year was almost a week ago and twenty ten is off to a slow, underwhelming start. Started '09 with a ball in my hand vying for IVPgold with the team and ended it watching fireworks and having fun with a bunch of good friends in my favourite food city. How priorities have shifted.(: Visited 13 cities in 7 countries (meaning my finances were sort of in order - strike one), manned up to myself to do the things I had always wanted to do (climbed an active volcano, learned pole-dancing, that piercing to mark that point in my life where it felt like everything was gonna go right), and saw (instead of imagined) more As in my assignments (strike two, الحمد لل). Oh! I deflated my ego to be treated like a girl by my dates. Sure someday I'll be a real lady, worrying if I've showered or not, but I'm definitely on my way. I mean, I actually put the hairband on my head than confusingly around my neck now.My best moment of 2009 was being at the India-Pakistan border, drowned in a very patriotic crowd chanting HINDUSTAN ZINDABAD as Jai Ho blasted, before a spectacular military performance marked the border-closing ceremony.
What do I want for this year? I don't know. Things just happen. And that's how they always will be.
2009=the best year of my life. My plan is to have no plans. Chalo!
Labels: milestones
Thursday, March 19, 2009
How did I get through all those tests, presentations, and term papers with my 2-second attention span? I don't know, but I did, and so I know life won't break me! :) Now that I've come out relatively unscathed (save for a week-old stye in my eye, do not wonder where that came from), time to put things in order.
A is for Angkor Wat.
One of my lifelong dreams coming true. Tickets booked, route undefined. Just the way I like it. Can't wait for temple fatigue!:)
B IS FOR BRIAN MCKNIGHT.
Now, I had only mentioned I wanted him to sing at my wedding for just about a thousand times. Seems like I'll never have to face the sobering truth now. Impossibility erased: catching him live Tuesday night. He stole my heart. I could feel my heart strings tugged at The Only One For Me (no favourite song bias there). HE WAS BEYOND INCREDIBLE. I would never say this otherwise, but it really felt like I was in heaven.
Had to refrain from acting out my fangirl fantasies, though. I caught Mcknight with my knight. Which could only be desirable, of course. What better way to express myself (not that I ever needed much help, but love ain't a trivial matter, and BOY was love aplenty!) ?
If you think this is as good as it gets
I swear you haven't seen nothing yet. :D
There was no other place I would have rather been at that night. I thought life would never be complete without witnessing the most amazing singer. Having the love of an amazing man, now that's something else.
The best night of my life, I daresay!
C is for championships.
Varsity playoffs this weekend and the next.
At this point, I couldn't have asked for more.
Labels: :X, milestones
Sunday, January 25, 2009
These cool snapshots were taken during ChallengeShield last year. Can you say serendipity? HAHAH! Syafiq and I barely knew each other then. He was so shy and I was bursting with happiness when he talked to me. 6 months on, what better way to create another memory than by winning ChallengeShield 6 together?(:
Halal Spideys: Aisyah, Fie, Sha, Yatay, Syafiq, Dinie, Luthfi and Fairuz.
Creating chaos out of water, dodgeball, hockey, and footie.
True to the message of the competition, we built unity after that with Kopi's team over coffee (and coffee alternatives) at Vivo's Starbugs.
3/4 of our really tall strongmen with lots of funnybones in them (Luthfi left for dinner with his former team Chuck Norris).
Yup, that's the girl who put in 2 goals in human foosball and 17 more during captain's football. So much for torn meniscus, Syah ♥!
Some of us may interpret the message to build ukhuwah differently, but I have no doubts everyone took home some pretty inspiring (and hopefully, life-altering) lessons from today. More than the medals, I had a blast!
And that, was how I spent the half with my better half and our friends.
Labels: :X, milestones
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Been a crazy January, and it's barely the first week. With two engagement announcements and the recent score stats in the two games I love, things look set to shine. But with the (un)happenings at the Gaza Strip and the baffling spate of romantic separations, I don't know anymore. Charmaine used to sing this song although it's not in the language she speaks. Can't find a more apt timing or a better song which describes the (trendy?) situation my friends are in. Dear God, they don't deserve these heartbreaks. Please heal them.
JANUARI - GLENN FREDLY
This is our January, girls!
Been going all out to max out my holiday which officially ends...now.
Caught a cultural performance.
Made new friends. That's Christoph from Deutschland. He's really maxing out his education, doing IAs all over the world!
Team Chuck and team Norris clinching top three positions in a beach dodgeball tournament. Fun stuff, funny guys.
Coach says we reap what we sow. The insanely early morning trainings, the torturous ice baths, the strict food intakes, and most importantly, the bloody injuries and sweat- they're all worth it. We wanted to make this season ours, and we didn't give up.
The 6-2 showdown in the finals got us here. :) Luck wasn't on our side in the semis (even coin toss was more of a certainty, really) and we were down by just one (last half minute, at that). The rp/ntu match was heart-stopping, so darn close, and ear-busting. Almost immediate equalising between the two teams could be seen, culminating in sudden death at 4-4. Man down and another later, it was 3v3. A burn by fresh legs from NTU decided their first placing.
On League, awesome! We're top of the table, and we had our toughest match thus far with PPG. After a few long points and fast turns, we ended the game two up. I wanna step up from where I am, fast. I wanna break out of the mentality that o-line is harder than being on d-line, and I wanna be braver in making cuts.
My grandmother turns a year wiser today. For the unconditional love and for always trying to shelter me from growing up pains, I'm soooo glad. I'd give up my world to see her happy and be with me for as long as possible. (:
The new semester begins. I wanna mark this journey with (not in order of priority) medals, good grades, jokes, kisses, hugs, and smiles. In other words, I wanna flick well, learn well, live well, and love much.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
In attempt to clean up my room, I found a load of stuff, like
a box of old letters, cards, movie and plane ticket stubs, pictures, and notes passed around in class!
In one of the messages my best friend left in my diary:
Yaya Goondoosamy,
I’ve said it too many times and I still stand firm. You get what you put in and people get what they deserve. If you ain’t seeing yours, I ain’t seeing mine. Why? Only NOBODY knows why. Geddit?
And then there's the little oh-so-subtle clever gift given by someone who taught me many life lessons:
And that, is what all of my 2008 had been about: being happy, and letting go of all the nonsense that would've done no good to my life. :) Just like my favourite quote in the book, which says- The heart is happiest when it beats for others. :)
I spent the eve of 2009 (what did adam say?- yijun, hahahaha!) being drugged by pills. At almost 39 degrees C, complete with backaches, flu, and a spliting headache, all countdown plans had to be shredded. Slept the whole day and woke up drenched in my own sweat. Tried sneaking out for training (yes, a reccurence of last year's immense fear of not turning up, freaky freaky), but mother took advantage of my weak state and did all she could to prevent such stupidity. Hoho, I guess that's love. At the stroke of midnight, Syafiq rode over to spend some time with me. Symbolic of new beginnings. :)
The first half of 2008 was forgettable and paled in comparison to the second. I was enlivened by the new, like-minded friends I made, and how we grew stronger with each competition we took part in. We came from diverse sports background, but together, we really make an awesome team! Champion team, not team of champions. :) My CAP slid down by almost a half point, but I have no regrets because I know it did at the expense of things I had always wanted to do. I finally visited Saigon, and I learned a lot of cool stuff from MuddyGrass. So here's to the best last half of '08- you took forever to come but I'm crazy happy you did.
I just wanna stay uninjured this year, physically and emotionally. And I know I can count on my loved ones to see to it.
Happy 2k+9, everyone!
Labels: milestones
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Oh seven was one kickass year, though I didn't see everything coming. There were the newfound responsibilities of work, that constant struggle to not give up on school, training commitments, having to give up the new sport I fell in love with because of everything else. But I also made new friends who are definitely for keeps. I got closer to my parents, and picked up 2 new languages. I was freed of the teeth grids after years of being bound. My heart was healed. The Saturday games.Most of all, I have people who have much more faith in me than I do. =)
Spent the closing of last year making up for lost time to two of my best friends, and I kept at it with another one today. We sneaked into our old school when new term had obviously begun, all 10 of us, and we played and played the morning away. Samir scored all of our side's, and both of us had the longest bff conversation after that over drinks. One at a time. =)
Friends, family, sports, studies. There's nothing I want more (for now hoho!).
Labels: girlfriends, milestones, Unendlicher als ewig
Friday, March 02, 2007
Life is short; we had been through two releases of Cambridge examination results, we knew better than to turn up early/punctually only to be frightened by statistics/bored by speeches (dare you object?).So while most people scurried to school in absolute fear, we spent the first part of noon the only way we knew how- watersliding with wild abandonment.
Needless to say, it was fabulous.
So what if it was already 1430?
Cool people don't ignore hunger, said a prodigy once.
We got engrossed in a conversation about grass-cutters (we tried to hurry, really we did) and missed two buses. After much harassment from our associates via phone (e.g. "Grow some balls and get your asses down to school"-Anwar 2007), we hopped on a little after 1500.
Here, you will forgive me for ignoring some calls and texts. We were still not feeling the jitters so we used what was left of our nerves to imagine what that fleeting moment of truth (a piece of paper exchanging hands) would look like.
Was it gonna be the "OH GOSHIE PRINCETON HERE I COOOOME!" look?
"Gee, I don't deserve such goodness in my life"?
The crestfallen classic.
HAHA! GOTCHA! That's not your result slip la.
I can live with this.
A possible variant of the above response.
So when's Ashton appearing?
The calls from sinners/over-achievers revealing their results became impossible to ignore (Tikus we need tips on call-centre professionalism), it started to pour (signs?), so we succumbed to international pressure and switched to a cab. It was a little after 1600 (old habits like latecoming die hard) and we were nowhere near (bless stupid routes).
We ran out of ideas for expressions so we pretended to drive faster (alright alright, we didn't exactly want to be the last ones).
Updates on who got gazillion As (196 of them to be exact) started streaming in.
We became VERY worried but managed to be civil and dutifully attended to calls and texts. Commendable, I must say.
Why are you so kancheong?
She even threatened Uncle into speeding! But damn speed limits.
A little towards 5 pm, arrival : We made chatting with the missed ones a priority. Because our teachers were strategically seated apart from each other, we couldn't witness each other's historic moment. Teachers being teachers, mine settled administrative matters straight away. She handed over the year book, my 200 bucks voucher, university (gasp) guidebooks. The joy.
"You did okay," she said. 2 years had not equipped me with the skills to uncode her expressions, and I stupidly said "don't show me". Here's when it got really confusing. She spelt out the three magic letters, my heart stopped for a bit, and I hated myself for not doing better. I found myself hugging her, and she looked SO glad to say "you finally made it!:)" I couldn't help but feign a grin. Ran to hug Khan and we whispered to each other our grades. I couldn't believe anything. The rest of the evening whirled by. It was so hard revealing mine to everyone else. Was told they were good. Not enough for me. They still aren't. Got slammed pretty badly for not being grateful (skuter told me off, can you believe it? SKUTER). Good news: I got over it. After much of my sanity has been restored, I accept that the grades were justified. I mean lookit, I remember dancing to HSM more than putting in effort.
Agony spared, bigger dreams. I wouldn't trade today with her for anything else, not even for better grades.
Labels: milestones