P0SH F00D 4 P0SH PE0PLE PART 1

I have this habit of arranging my food in "interesting" ways

     We ate at Pizza Hut at my chilhood hometown Sandakan; the same day I received my first debit card. It took me quite a few minutes to arrange my meal so it would look acceptable on camera. I was quite hungry at that time so I didn't have time to remove that ugly sauce-stained plate at the back.

     My aunt came along with us to eat at the luxurious diner and she was so funny when she saw the sweet barbeque chicken arrive at our table. It looked dark and shiny and it smelled HEAVENLY. Not to sound racist or impose skin color discrimination but she said, "Aik! Kenapa ini ayam jadi India suda?" It means, "Whoa! Why did this chicken turned Indian?"

     It sounded a LOT funnier when she said it. I laughed the entire meal. I am so, so guilty on laughing about it because it's like I'm making fun of other people's race and skin color :< But I just can't help it! Maybe it's not the content of the joke my aunt said but the way she said it that made me laugh. She's very funny most of the time xD

     The meal was VERY filling. I couldn't finish my second slice of pizza. It's normal. I get full very quickly. Probably because I enjoy my meals and eat them very slowly to SAVOR THE FLAVOR!!! The fries were okay; it tasted just like any other french fries I've had. The pizza? I only enjoyed eating the fat crust stuffed with delicious, rich and chewy Mozarella cheese. Oh man, when you bite it, it's so soft and fluffy yet a bit crunchy because of the slightly burnt dough on some areas. And when you chew it slowly you can taste that sweet, savoury cheese flavour on the sides and the back of your tongue and you just want that flavour to stay there FOREVER and ever and ever and ever and

     The barbeque chicken! To be honest, I cannot remember the last time we at at Pizza Hut (We seldom eat at this kind of restaurants). Probably once a year or twice... Yes, the chicken. I ENJOY eating the skin and the coating! It's sweet, and a bit sour, very savoury. Crunchy, yet so tender... I cannot even describe it properly without saliva building up in my mouth at this very moment! The juices went all the way into the chicken meat and the meat... The MEAT inside! I don't even like eating meat but this... THIS particular meat is the ONLY exception. It tasted remarkable especially when you dip it into the sweet chili sauce they provided.

     It's going to take maybe half a year more before we enter another Pizza Hut door. But that's alright. I shall wait for the next food euphoria no matter how long it takes. Time and distance makes the heart grow fonder, they say.

I'll be waiting.

Getting My First Debit Card at BIMB Sandakan

     This happened only yesterday. We left Telupid early in the morning, for your useless information. When my mom and sisters finished renewing their passports (we spent 1 and a half hours in that air-conditioned building), we head to the only BIMB in Sandakan at Mile 4.

     We found out the front entrance of the bank couldn't be opened because of some technical difficulties so we were told to enter through the back door or something. When we finally entered, it was PACKED with humans. There was even a ginormous balloon arch near the still locked entrance and this made the small crowded space even MORE smaller.

     As usual, I don't know what to do there so my mom asked the security guard on what to do if you want to claim your debit card. The guard gave me an "Application for Debit/Credit Card" form or something like that and then suddenly my mom just went from Mrs I'm-so-relieved-that-we-finished-our-business-at-JPN Immigration-I'm-so-happy to Mrs. Angry Panky If You Mess with Me You'll Get a Spanky.

    So when my mom became Mrs Angry she would talk in her native Iban language.

When I was waiting for the guy to finish filling out his form at the table, my mom was all, "Okay, after him, you go straight to the table."

     When I forgot my address (My family moved a lot so we don't really care about memorizing our home address since we're going to move in a few years anyway), I asked for our church's address from my mom and she was all, "Why can't you be ready for things like this? See, now I have to find the damn paper (that contains our church address) in my purse and there's so many people here!Next time, write it in your phones; that's what phones are for!" and so on.

     It's a good thing she talked in Iban. There's a small chance people around us could understand what she's talking about.

     When it was time for me to hand the form to the lady at the desk, my mom scolded me again "Why won't you hand the paper to her?See, other people already took your place?That's why lah you," and so on.

     I need to wait my turn okay, mummy? And that person is already sitting there even BEFORE I got the application form... Besides, we're not in a rush anyway. You didn't hear me nagging in Iban when I waited for you guys waiting for your renewed passports for ONE WHOLE HOUR, did you? No, I waited patiently. I even need to go to the toilet that time but I didn't even need to tell you because I AM TOO NICE.

     It's the crowd that made her like that. Because when we were still outside the bank, her mood is fine like...silk? xD

     When the lady ask me if I already know my bank account number, I tried to explain that all I have to do now is to claim the debit--

     Then my mom cut me off and explained everything for me. -__- Mummy, I thought you wanted me to do all this by myself and "Belajar" but what are you doing? Maybe this is why I'm so spoilt and blur because everything was already done for me. Which is convenient :P but still, sooner or later I have to do it all alone without anyone's help, right?

     Anyway, when I finally got my debit card, I stared at it for a moment. It looked cool because it was black in color. I won't post my debit card here; that would be foolish. And using the ATM machine for the first time (with my younger sister's help) was fun too. I never interacted with an ATM machine before and yesterday was the first time. I deposited the required amount of Ringgit into the account to activate it (or so the lady told me) and I was so...jakun. Starstrucked! Amazed! Like the ATM machine is the most modern and sophisticated invention in the whole wide world.

     I slipped the ringgit note the wrong way at first. I folded it and tried stuffing the note into the slot thingy. Luckily my sister blocked everyone's view so it's not that humiliating. She told me to open the note and slide it in horizontally.

     By then, my mom's mood turned back to normal and she asked me if I wanted to check my balance to see if the amount of ringgit is already in my bank account. So me and my sister rushed to the other side of the ATM machines to check my balance. My sister guided me through the whole process. It was quite fun and I was full of wonder just by pressing buttons and keying in numbers.

     I looked into the ATM screen and marvel at the moderately huge amount of money in my bank account. And I smiled as the three digit number glared back at me. This is my starting money. This is a sign that I am phasing into a new world. The world of adulthood. The world of independence. The world of the unknown. What did I just write... xD

Opening a Savings Account for the First Time

  I have to open a savings account at BIMB (I think it stands for Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad?) at KK and then claiming the debit card at the BIMB branch in Sandakan (I'll write about that later). It was VERY embarrassing on both occasions.
     When I was at the KK BIMB, we had to line up at the front desk. There were so many people and I don't see a proper line so we had to fight our way to get the desk lady's attention. My dad then told her that I need to open a new bank account.
     "Surat tawaran dan IC" she said. So I passed my documents to my dad because I was far at the back of the crowd.

When we were waiting for the form, the lady then asked "Where's the 20 year old?"
     I raised my hand but the lady looked at my younger sister instead. She's fifteen and 162cm and an athlete. When the lady FINALLY saw me (Remember, we were in the middle of a crowd), she was like "Masyallah" or something like that, "Kau pula ni yang kakak" I AM the 20 year old, lady.  

ME.

Yes, I am only 148cm tall but in this country, it's THE average height for 20 year old girls. Maybe. At least in Sabah. I've seen shorter and more petite than me, people! Don't act so surprised. I'm talking to you, lady at the front desk T~T

I keep pestering the lady at the desk (Operation Manager??Operation Officer?) on filling the form for opening a savings account .___. I am so thankful and happy that she is very patient and friendly because I looked like a total blurred nincompoop. And when my number was announced (The TV screen said I must go to Counter 4), I cannot even see the counters anywhere! My dad and two younger sisters were all,
     "What dehell are you standing there for, GO!!"
     "It's your number, pigi la!"
     "GABBY!"
 And I was like, "Where's the counter? What? Where am I suppose to go?" *Blur mode activated*
     They were so noisy they didn't even (hear) listen to me...

People started to stare... I noticed one auntie with a quite impressively stylish tudung and her expression was very similar to this:

 

      I felt my ears getting warm. It means I'm embarrassed. After a few seconds, to my relief, the lady at the desk told me to "Masuk the right hallway then go inside". I dragged my younger sister to accompany me on my walk of shame to my final destination: Counter number 4.

So I found out the counters were placed BEHIND a funking funky wall. It was VERY hidden. You wouldn't even KNOW it was there unless someone told you. It was weird. The lady at the desk, the ATM machines, the tables for filling out the forms, the security guard, the TV screen for showing our numbers and counter numbers are all at the front and visible to the naked eye. But suddenly, the counters were at the back? Blocked by a wall. And the hallway was dark and I don't remember seeing any signboards that say, "THIS WAY TO THE COUNTERS"

     When I gave all the documents and my ticket number to the lady in Counter 4, she started reading the papers I gave her like she's trying to solve a very perplexing matrix equation.
     Several thoughts rushed through my mind.
"Am I at the wrong counter? No, TV screen said it's Counter 4. Am I too late? No, I arrived on time. TV screen still said that my number goes to Counter 4. Then why is she frowning like that? Oh no, maybe I didn't fill the forms correctly. But the lady at the desk said it's all good. WHY IS SHE FROWNING?!"

     "Adik, itu orang kat kaunter depan sana suruh pegi sini ye?" she said to me with a worried look. I tried my best writing down her Semenanjung accent :'D she sounds posh btw.
 "Iya" I answered with my Sabahan accent.
 "Dia ada cakap Biometric?" she asked again, or at least that's what I remembered. I was thinking, what is all this biometric hullabaloo shiitake?
"Uh, dia ada tulis tu di belakang kertas sana," I explained. I succeeded in preventing my voice from getting cracked.

     Her friend at the next counter then showed her my ticket number and the lady was all, "Astagfirullah" and all other things (I don't even know how to spell it), "Sorry, sorry!"

     Being the laid-back patient young lady that I am (in public), I just laughed and smiled at her for making me worry so much about nothing. "Oh, tidak apa juga ma'am" :))))))) My heart was beating fast and my knees were starting to buckle but I managed to keep a smiling face anyway because I'm good at stuff like that.

     After a few minutes, she told me to hand the documents back to the lady at the desk and tell the lady to say "Everything is already done". I said thanks then gave my documents to the desk lady. Then the desk lady gave me the Deposit Marketing Executive's number and told me to Whatsapp this person after three days to verify whether my account has been validated or something like that.

     I said thanks and we got out of that huge building as fast as we can to prevent any more embarrassments from happening.

A Belated Birthday Gift

     Last Saturday I was at my church's weekly youth meeting and I got this

Photography skills: 8/10 (words are not focused enough as it is blurry)

Editing Skills: 9.5/10 (You WILL notice)

     If you look closely, you'd notice a tiny bit of blueish smudge on the bottom right of the note (where her name used to be). I did my best in blurring it out since she wanted to be anonymous when I told her I'm going to post this. (It's not like anyone's gonna read this blog anyway T~T but yes, I respect her decision)

     This was given to me by my friend. Let's call her Jane, since the name "Jane" is quite common and it could belong to anybody. Actually, the black notebook was originally given to me on my birthday. She only get to give this fabulous novel about four months after my birthday.

     It was really sweet of her to slip in a little note inside the novel. To me, it made the birthday gift much more meaningful. It definitely shows that this gift is sincerely from the bottom of Jane's heart and I really appreciate the effort, the time, and the money she took to do something like this.

     According to the note, I think Jane is trying to say that "Cash as a birthday gift is not appropriate (in her opinion) and instead, spending money to buy something for the people we love and care about is much more acceptable". She mentioned the "money as a birthday gift" thing because I mentioned to her before that if you don't know what to buy for someone as a birthday present, just give them cash because everybody loves cash." Hahaha... I guess she didn't take the hint but that's alright, because I LOVE reading books.

     And she chose EXACTLY the right kind of book for me too! A few weeks back, while we were playing RebirthRO online, she was telling me about a movie she saw and it was based on the Miss Peregrine book. So she got me this book. It was the third novel so it was a little bit confusing to me when I first read it because the plot is kind of in the middle already and I have no idea what happened before that. Still, Ransom Riggs' writing style is definitely my type of thing to read so i enjoyed reading it.

     Ahh, Jane just knows the right things to get for me as a birthday present. I am so, SO blessed to have a friend like her. I have to mention it here, she can be REALLY hilarious at times. And adorable too, especially in the online game I forced invited her to play. She is the type of friend you DREAM you would have because it's really rare for you to find people as honest, loyal and understanding as Jane.

     It's going to take me a few more days to finish the book since I am going through a phase which I would call "The Hibernation Week" because I feel more sleepy and weak and tired (I suffer from mild to moderate anemia) since it's "that time of the month again" and I want it to be over as soon as possible.

I should stop here.

My Form Six Lecturers at SMK Mat Salleh Ranau

     To my Form Six lecturers and everyone who knew them, keep in mind that what I am going to write after this paragraph is very frank, comes straight from the bottom of my heart and at this time of the day (it's 3.30pm now), I don't really give a shiitake mushroom about hurting anyone's feelings so

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

     I'm going to start with my favourite teacherrrrr~ <3

CIKGU FAUZIAH who taught us Geography!

 

She looks like the female version of Alan Cumming. Big beautiful eyes. And the same eyebrows :P She's got the most beautiful eyebrows. The Frida Kahlo (google her) type. *-*

    

     In my entire school life (if I remembered correctly), Cikgu Fauziah is probably the funniest female teacher I had EVER had! There was NEVER a dull moment (I shiitake you not!) whenever she entered our classroom. 

Cigu Fauziah: Ok, kamu tau itu pepatah "Diam-diam ubi berisi" kan? Nah, semua kamu mesti jadi macam ubi. Minda kamu mesti "berisi". Bukan ubi yang sudah kena makan bakas.

Translation: Ok, so you all know the phrase "Quiet-quiet the stuffed potato" right? Therefore, all of you must be like a potato. Your mind needs to be "stuffed". Not like a potato that has been eaten by a warthog/pig.

PS: I suck at translation. It sounds so ridiculous when translated to English >_> By the way, "Diam-diam ubi berisi" is a Malay phrase. I think the phrase is used to describe someone whose superior intellect and "smartness? xD" is not known to anyone and that person kept it well-hidden. Or well-kept it hidden. Or hidden it well-kept. *Sobs*

And this is when the GST (Government Service Tax) was all the rage and we were discussing about it:

Wanie: Cigu, durang bilang GST ada maksud yang lain lagi. Durang bilang GST tu maksud dia "Gali Sendiri Tanah". (We were also talking about real estate and cabbage-planting xD, I think.)

Cikgu Fauziah: Tanah apa? Gali tanah kuburmu sendiri?

Translation:

Wanie: Teacher, they say that the GST has another meaning. They said the GST also stands for "Dig Your Own Land".

Cikgu Fauziah: What kind of land? You mean dig your own grave?

*And we all laughed so hard*

     She was also onced frustrated with me. She gave me a stack of worksheets to hand out to the rest of my classmates and when I placed the extra worksheets on her table, she said "Letak macam begini/ Put it like this" then she starts moving her hands in a circular-like motion but I didn't really get her so I kinda fumbled with the papers for a while, awkwardly turning the paper this way and that. Then she said "Tsk! Bukan...", then she took the papers from my hands semi-roughly and placed it horizontally on the table. 

     Horizontally. (Melintang). Maybe I'm just stupid at that time because it was so SIMPLE~

Okay. She could have just said, "Kasi letak itu kertas melintang/ Place the papers horizontally" and everything will end smoothly :'D 

     I am the easily offended, sensitive type of person. So even a minor frustration from my favorite teacher like that could send my mind off to a different dimension, contemplating the hundreds of possible reasons on why she hated my existence so much that she wanted me to UN- EXIST.  Now that I think about it, it's not really that big of a deal at all (haha....)

      Or maybe she just had a bad day and the whole teacher-work thing is stressing her out and I'm just taking all of it too personally. Which I only understand now T~T

     Cikgu Fauziah, you have brought sunshine into my pale, cloudy, grey heart every time we had Geography. And I am sorry I never got a mark higher than a C- on my Geography tests.

CIKGU SUPRIN who taught us Economics!

     

     Cikgu Suprin has a loud booming voice. During our first semester, my ears can barely withstand his excellent voice projection technique as you can still clearly hear it from the basketball court about 10++ metres away. That's why I sat at the back of the class in the second semester. He has semi-dark skin, pot belly (LOL) and a great sense of humor! He always used the "Langsat" fruit as part of an example whenever he taught us about economics, which is interesting. And we only understand a difficult theory/question when he included the langsat fruit as part of it. "Bayangkan kamu mau beli 10 kilo langsat/Ok, bank ini ada simpan 5 kilo langsat/ Ok, firma ini ada kilang membuat jus langsat/ harga langsat menaik, jadi permintaan langsat menurun" Those kinds of examples.

     He is a very laid-back teacher. And he made our Economics assignments sound so damn easy and he gave us all an A+ on it too (Not that it helps my GPA that much).  Here are his

3 GOLDEN TIPS FOR SUCCESS

1. Do business. Make money. Get rich. Don't work for the government. Make money. Make money.

2. Work at an oil rig for Petronas so you can get big money.

3. Be a singer on Akademi Fantasia so you can get money.

4. Be a Langsat Dealer.

     So basically all he talks about is money. Which is not bad at all since we all enjoyed it because he mentions the langsat fruit at all times.

      Oh yeah, when the rest of the class found the mysterious RM150 between the pages of the attendance file on the teacher's desk in the classroom, they all assumed it was secretly from him. When it was actually ME who put that envelope in there but nobody, NOBODY knew about it back then. Hehehehe... 

     The funniest part is when they confronted him and his face was 

like this   O____O 

to this     :I

and then this        ,':) 

and finally this  :>

     But that's alright. I just love to see the happy faces on my lovely classmates and my teacher's golden expressions. I hope you live a happy life, cikgu!

CIKGU AGNES who taught General Studies!

     This sweet lady smiles 100% of the entire time. I am NOT joking. Even if she's correcting our worksheet she still has a slight upward curve on her lips. Even when she tried to think of a new idea she has this slight smirk which still passed off as a smile. And she always grins and smile. I remember we once failed on a test and she was kinda frustrated so she was all

"Ha? Kamu semua gagal? Cikgu <3 CEKIK <3 kamu lama-lama!" ^__^

Translation: "What? You all failed? Sooner or later I am going to <3 CHOKE~~! <3 all of you!" ^__^

     She's the sweetest teacher I had EVER had. Like seriously, really sweet. Sometimes I just wished she could scold us for a little bit. She sometimes bring her 6 year old son to our afternoon classes and he's so shy with us. He onced tried to scribble on our wall but Cikgu Agnes calmly and gently prevent him from doing so. This one time he didn't want to sit still and kept making noises but my teacher just gently tried to shush him up. Maybe she's trying to set a good image in front of her students. Maybe at home, she whips her son and became the ultimate tiger mom >_> who knows.

      I love Cikgu Agnes. I don't care HOW boring Pengajian Am syllabus can get; as long as I can listen to her talk about ANYTHING related to Pengajian Am, then I'm all ears. 

      There's a downside to her good-natured sweet motherly personality towards us. She didn't really push me or force me to do better at my Pengajian Am assignment. It was horrible T~T I know I don't need to be pushed or forced to do my responsibilities (I was freaking 19 at that time) but I really wished she would still force me to do a better job.

     Cikgu Agnes, I aspire to be a teacher just like you. But I will rule the class with an iron fist in a velvet glove. I hope you have a happy life teaching!

CIKGU ASRIAH who taught us History!

     Now this is the type of teacher who rules with an iron fist in an iron glove! (Like Cikgu Felicia (I hope I get her name right) our History teacher when Cikgu Asriah was on leave) She has the most beautiful skin ever. Very fair. She has a fairly ectomorphic body. She asked each and every one of us questions about the topic she was teaching. She forcefully asks for our opinions about the historical characters in the textbooks. She never leaves anyone out. She forced us to do a good job on our History assignment and I really did my best but I think I only got a B+ T~T Damn you, MPM... 

     She has this catch phrase whenever there's a test coming up or when she's giving advice etc:

"Kalau kamu tidak ingat fakta-fakta ni masa menjawab soalan nanti, kirim salam saja la"

"Kalau kamu tidak hantar itu proposal sebelum hari Jumaat tepat jam 12 tengah hari, kirim salam saja la"

"Kalau kamu gagal STPM tidak dapat masuk U, kirim salam saja la"

     Salam diterima, Cikgu. T~T PS: Too lazy to translate)

     We were all so afraid whenever she ask us a question on the History topics because it's so difficult to answer and we always had to find the facts in the textbook and present it in a professional way but I think we got the hang of it starting the second semester so that turned out fine. 

     Oh yeah, her face is VERY similar to the actress Lucy Punch from Bad Teacher. 

 

 She looks like this whenever we didn't live up to her expectations. Which is scary.

     So you can imagine how pretty my History teacher is ^_^ If she dyed her hair red or blonde, she would definitely look like Lucy Punch.

     Thank you for you tough love, Cikgu Asriah~

SIR DUANIS who taught us MUET! (Basically English)

 

     He looks like this. Not the kid. The grandpa. But with darker hair, darker skin and more fit-looking. But somehow he walks just like the grandpa haha... Sir Duanis is (or was xD) an athlete, I think... So I assume he's physically healthy. He has a WIDE range of vocabulary and that's why I am impressed by him. But sometimes he mixed things up. For example, the topic that day was about Synonyms and he tried explaining the word "burrow". He taught us that "burrow" means digging/rabbit hole or whatever xD and that there's another meaning for the word "burrow" apart from "digging/rabit hole or whatever". Then he wrote "wheelburrow" on the whiteboard underneath the word "burrow". Maybe he did in on purpose to see if anyone is smart enough to correct it? I cannot remember anything else after that moment because I went blur and speechless.

     Sir Duanis is very strict towards us students. Since I was a new student in that school and didn't know anything, the rest of my classmates were all so worried about our upcoming first MUET class and how unfortunate we are to have Sir Duanis as our MUET teacher. 

     To me, I think Sir Duanis as our english language teacher is the best thing that ever happened to us. Oh yeah, he also has a catch phrase. 

     "If you don't pass the test, I WILL KILL YUH"

     "If you cannot answer this simple primary school english question, I WILL KILL YUH"

     "If you don't come to school tomorrow, I WILL KILL YUH"

PS: YUH= You. Sir Duanis pronounced it as "ju:h" instead of just "ju:"(Ignore this if you don't know what phonetic symbols are)

     

     I love it when Sir Duanis taught us MUET. And he's so funny especially when he walks. It's like marching mixed with stomping while stooping.

     I hope, in the future, I will meet another english teacher who is as awesome as you, Sir Duanis. 

     So there you have it. All five of my Form Six teachers/lecturers/sensei/guru/shifu. I really wished I could just go back to our first day of class and experience the wonderful joys of being in each and every one of these teachers' class once more.

     Sooner or later, they will find out about this blog and they will start sharpening their samurai swords, reloading their bakakuks (it's some kind of a shotgun hmm not sure), hiring assassins and hitmans, meet up with a shaman to curse me, hone up their choking skills and death glare--

I should stop here.

The CATS Musical

     So I visited my hometown Sandakan a few days before and I found this in our old house

(my photography skills: 10/10)

     This is a musical about the life of cats (in my opinion)... I think. It's the longest-running musical in the history of West End and Broadway Theatre set in 1981. I think it went for about two hours? Yeah. The performers have high stamina and great technique, which impressed me SO MUCH.

     My mother bought this when I was around 7 years old. During my entire childhood (when we still lived in Sandakan until 2006) my mother always plays their hit song, "Memory" (sung by Elaine Paige as Grizabella) on the piano every Sunday morning while waiting for us to get ready for church.

    . The costumes (*^*) Oh my goodness, the costumes! And the makeup! These are one of the things that kept me from pausing the video to go on a toilet break. I went to the toilet when the first CD finished, though.

 

(Courtesy of Google Images :P)

     The musical involves a lot of ballet dancing and a little bit of tap dancing as well. All of them were so graceful and they really DO move around like cats. Not to mention the funny facial expressions they made.

     The characters that caught my eye when I was watching the musical are:

CASSANDRA

 

      Cassandra is one of my favourite cat in that musical. Her voice is one of the most unique voices I heard among the rest of them. It sounds so mysterious and alluring! I wished she got more screen time because she had such a beautiful stunning singing voice.

RUM TUM TUGGER

 

      You take one look at this man candy right here and I bet you already know what he sounds like. I really like the way he danced in the musical. Lots of hip-swiveling xD And his voice definitely fits his personality as Rum Tum Tugger. He reminds me of my cat back when I was in Form One, Lee Cho Long! Dark, sexy, muscularly lean, and probably gay.

MUNKUSTRAP

 

     He seems to get more screen time than the rest of the cast. He also reminds me of one guy I knew from church but of course I won't mention him here. I mean, how ridiculous can that be? Anyway, this cat seems to be the protector of their entire "cat posse" and whenever the cat villain, Macavity shows up or when Grizabella starts walking around, he's the one that tries to shield the younger cats from danger and he's the one who fought Macavity one on one but he lost anyway. Still, I think he's one of the most striking character in the musical.

     VICTORIA

 

     Victoria is presumably the youngest of the cats there. One thing that stands out is her screen time which is a lot more than any of the other characters there. And on top of that, her timing seems to be little teeny tiny bit off than everybody else when they were dancing. When I was a kid, I always imagine myself as Victoria. I even messed with my mother's makeup to look exactly like her. I remembered I did a pretty good job (for a 7-8 year old little girl) except for the fact that I had to use talcum powder to dust my entire face white in color. I even put some in my hair! >_<

     So there you have it.  Most people I know wouldn't even care to watch stuff like this. I don't think they even KNEW this wonderful play even existed which is sad. All they know is Kim Kardashian, Korean Pop Culture, Upin & Ipin and some other tasteless junk that I might loathe. Maybe I just haven't met the right kind of people yet. I know my cousin Nancy would like this kind of stuff :D She's amazing. I'm gonna post about her soon.

Reminiscing My Form Six Classmates (The Good, The Bad, and the Fugly Side)

     To my Form Six classmates and everyone who knew me personally, I apologize in advance if I wrote anything insulting or insensitive about you or the people and things that you love. So if you don't like reading about the bad side of yourself, type Alt+ F4 immediately, turn off your computer/laptop/phone, then go back to sleep and continue on with your dream called "[Insert your name here]'s Kingdom of Non-existing Desirables and False Expectations".

     I mean it.

     Leave if you don't want to struggle with heartbreak, guilt and sudden low self-esteem

     Ok here we go! (I'm so excited I never rarely talk about ANYONE behind their backs! I will describe each and every one of them by seating arrangements in the 3rd Semester of our Form Six. In my next post, I shall write about my Form Six Lecturerssssss haha....hahahah....>:D....MUAHAHAHAHA --AACCKK!! aaak!! *Cough cough*

Nabila the Sweet and Graceful

     Nabila is such a sweet person. She is also very pretty. One of the prettiest faces I've seen in my life. One thing I love about her is her cute adorable laugh. It's warm and nice like...honey? XD Her laugh definitely fits her personality well. Unless, she has a darker side that nobody ever knew >_> She's so cute especially when Faizil flirts with her whenever he had time and then she would just ignore him or turn away haha. Poor girl >_< Really, I cannot even think about ANY bad thing to say about her because she is so nice. I never see her get angry or lose her temper before. And damn sure I don't ever wanna see it!

Fharina the Smart and the Hardworking

     Fharina walks to the bus stop with me and Vianna after school. When she was waiting for her ride, she opens her textbooks and start reading them. It intimidates me of how much highlighting she did on her books and she reads that thick-ass Geography textbook so damn religiously like her life depends on it. So yeah, of course she gets excellent grades! Fharina has one of the most beautiful faces too. (Seems like EVERYONE in Ranau is physically attractive.) She's a really nice and caring person because she kinda helped me a bit every now and then. She's also one of the very few people in class that I am comfortable with so whenever it's just the two of us waiting at the bus stop after school, we'd talk about anything and I don't have to hold back because there's no one around to judge me! :'D Fharina just started her degree a few weeks ago and I am really happy for her.

Jossfella the Wild Child

This pretty lady seldom goes to school once we started our third and final semester (a bit like me but I have health problems :P) She also did quite badly in her previous exams (like me too!). The rest of my classmates always talk about her when she's not around. Most of them not really good stuff and even I don't want to mention any of those things here >_< Even though she's the "problem child" in our class, she is still a good friend to me. I remember she is the one who was worried for me the most when I almost fainted after we had our blood drawn for a blood test in our first semester. (I blame my phobia of needles, weak pale body and peer pressure)

Ferma the Motherly

     Ferma is very skinny to the point that I'm worried for her but I think she's alright. She is also fairly pretty. I like her because she is so motherly towards everyone in class. She has the most motherly and most gentle touch ever because whenever she wants to remind me or tell me something or just greet me casually she always hold on to my shoulders and I feel so warm and safe LOL wuut... She also helps me a bit on my Geography assignment. She is awesome!

Vianna the Tukang Complain and Funny Gal

     According to my classmates, this girl was once a delinquent before she entered Form Six. I just CANNOT believe it because she is such a nice person. She also has a great sense of humor sometimes. Vianna is the type of person who complains a lot about everything that happened. But that's not really a bad thing for me because she is funny that way :P In fact, I really like her talking about anything at all. She also walks to the bus stop with me and Fharina after school. Sometimes she can be quite scary especially when she's mad at Caesarina disturbing her or annoying her. She was all "Jangan kacau aku bah, Caesar!" with her manly booming deep but still femininely badass voice. I try not to get her mad Q_Q

Angelica the Mature

     Angel and I never really talk to each other for two semesters. Not until the third semester where both of us had to go to the school library to get the teacher's signature for some form about our Unit Beruniform Stuff. She is a very nice person overall, I love it when she starts to tell people her stories because she is funny like Vianna. She is also one of the few people in my class that actually speaks proper English (sorry ya yang lain :P) and I love her for that. I really, REALLY want to talk to her in English since I communicate better that way but I'm too shy LOL. *Slaps myself*

Chrysaliz the Leetle "Feisty tapi nda menjadi" Chibi-chan ;3

Chrysaliz is the smaaaallest and shoooortest person I ever seen. She looks so adorable when she gets mad and she wants to look tough and badass but I ended up stiffling my chuckle because she just looks ridiculously cute. She also has one of THE. MOST. FLAWLESS faces I had ever ever ever seen!!!! When we were at the weekly assembly in the school hall every Monday morning, I stood behind her and when she turned around there was not even a single pore or blemish or really anything at all. Not even scars >__> I wonder how she took care of her skin... She could be modelling for Nivea face products because she is a LIVING PROOF!! \O/

Ellysherah the Smart, Ayu Gadis

     Sherah is one of the twins in our class. To be frank, she is smarter than her twin and much more feminine. Chrysaliz once got mad at her because she didn't throw away her food and keeps the leftovers in her desk leaving it to rot and smell. Once, when we were in our second semester, she fell sick and was admitted to the hospital. Her condition was so bad that she got sent to the ICU. I was really scared for her that time until I even dreamed of her dying in Cikgu Agnes' arms. It was pretty scary that I woke up crying. Though, in class, when I heard the news, I somehow kept a bored straight face that when you look from afar, you'd think that I don't even give a shit. You were fucking wrong. I cared for her very much that after I finished drying my tears, I prayed for her to get well soon so she could continue her Form Six with the rest of us. This is a true story and I'm not lying.

Ellylisrah the Semi Tomboy

     Lisra is the first person I made friends with when we entered our class for the first time. But we kinda drifted apart a little bit when we started our second semester because our seating arrangement changed. We still remained good buddies, though. Lisra is more of a tomboy than her more feminine sister. And in my opinion, I think Lisra is the hotter twin. Just saying. Sometimes, she bullies her twin sister by pushing her head away roughly and then Shera would push her head back two times rougher.

LOL sisterly love.

Emelda the Smart and the Funny

     Mel is also one of the smartest students in the entire class. She always got higher marks than anybody else in pretty much every subject (except for MUET ahem!! ahem!! oh man im being such a dick -_-) Emelda is hilariously funny in a witty kind of way so she remind me of my younger sister which is great. Emelda always studies. I once sat at her table and I saw these yellow sticky notes all over her textbooks with neat little notes. I aspire to be like her one day. She is a very good role model. I think she entered UPSI with a degree in Early Childhood Education or something. I hope she would succeed in life and I hope she's happy there.

Azwanie the Smart and the Witty

     I like Azwanie because she REALLY reminds me of my younger sister. She's just like Emelda but more naughty and mean towards her friends. Azwanie and I had nothing in common  except for the fact that we love Maid Sama. I would love to have a friend like her someday because she is so fun and crazy. She once told us about her experience with bullying and discrimination so I can really relate to her because I've been dealing with it pretty much my whole life until I turned sixteen. :T

Caesarina the Straightforward

     Caesar had problems with almost half of the girls in my class. She is known to watch porn and she isn't ashamed of it since she always talked about the 50 Shades of Grey movie and singing that annoying theme song from the movie by Ellie Goulding. (I'm so sorry Caesar but I just had to write this down ahaha...) She is very frank person and says what is on her mind. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad. She isn't afraid to say things other people wouldn't dare to say. Overall, I think Caesar is still a good person. She cares about her friends a lot. Especially me (hohohoho perasan saja kau Gabby) She told us she is never on good terms with her mother and that made me feel really bad for her. I once thought she could play the drum because she kinda reminds me of Ritsu the drummer from K-On anime and I saw her doing some kind of drum movements when she sat on her table in front me in the second semester. :P

Christine the Feisty and the Sassy

     This chika is one feisty mamma mia codatorta (LOL what did I just write). She is quite rough especially with the boys but she's not  a tomboy. I am a little bit intimidated by her most of the time. In our third semester, Eva always ship her with Jack and I thought it was a joke (It was a mean joke -_-) But somehow Christine seemed to accept it and I realised they were both really dating? Hmm not sure. Faizil always judge her whenever she let her fringe down saying things like "Letting down your hair so you could look prettier? Hm? Is that it?" Seriously I think Faizil is super mean sometimes. But the truth is, she DOES look better when she lets down her fringe. It frames her round face perfectly and it made her look cute.

Clancy the Tiger

     Of all the students in my class, Clancy is the most intimidating person. I am SO. FUCKING. AFRAID. OF. HER because she is so scary T~T She reminds me of my super strict Chinese language teacher in kindergarten. I am dead sure that she secretly loathes me even though she didn't really show it that much (unlike my bullies in my previous schools. PS: I move a lot) because whenever I am mentioned she had this really evil look on her face that is just so scary. I did try my best not get on her bad side or make her mad. But she is still nice to me because she sometimes gave me a ride home when I missed my bus, she personally sent me my class t-shirt  to my house because I went home early that day, she drove me back home and waited for me to change into my sports attire because I didn't know that day was some kind of Sports Day for the entire school. At the start of our semester, she is pretty nice and everything. I wonder what made her hate me so much Q_Q

Eva the Queen Bee of 6A3

     Eva is our class monitor. The cute, cool, and popular kind of girl. She is beautiful, smart and hardworking. I look up to her during the first semester and I aspired to be like her because she inspires me so much! But she changed once our second semester starts. Her grades started falling bit by bit, she made fun of almost everyone in class and toyed with Jack's feelings by flirting with him. It's probably because of her stupid boyfriend, Albert or whoever. He's poisoning her mind and destroyed her T~T What happened to you Eva?! She can be annoying sometimes because of her high-pitched voice. She is friendly with everyone and I really like her for that. To me, she is the perfect person to be college material. She's just so perfect :D

Chong the Asian Stereotype

     Even though her name is Chong, everybody seems to pronounce it as "Chaah-ng" which is weird. She is smart, wears glasses, she is also gentle and motherly. She's good with numbers haha. No one ever had any problem with her because she is so easy to get along with. Sometimes my classmates make fun of her voice because it sounds so nasally and cute. She loves to help anyone and I think she the most responsible one in the entire class. She's very reliable too. She's a good candidate to be class monitor. Just saying :P

Felianah the Petite and Patient

     We became close when our second semester starts. She begged me to sit next to her so we became friends instantly. Felianah is shorter than me (I think), really petite,  bit pale, but she has the most mature voice that really doesn't fit her body at all haha. She is also quite beautiful. We heard she scored 5As in her SPM *^* She helped me A LOT in our second semester and I admit I was a BURDEN to her at most times. She never loses her temper or gets mad though so I am grateful for that :P She's also very funny until I ALMOST cannot tahan my laughter so I just let out a small chuckle. But when I get back home, I thought about her jokes in class, then I started to laugh like a maniac.

Fredika the Kawaii and Unduk Ngadau material

     Even though she is the tallest girl in our class, she is like the baby of the family. She has the cutest voice ever (like Yui from K-On it sounds EXACTLY like her it's creepy) and it's a bit nasally but she sounds so cute and she talks like a little kid. She has a very adorable face as well and she has this big brown eyes. She is also smart and is good in History. She's really funny especially when she sings. She can be very charming when she asks you to do something. She does this really cute face and smiles a lot and she would be all "You can help me right? Riiight? :3" and how could you ever say no to that? xD

Ewanie the Rebel

     Wanie is the epitome of an hourglass figure especially when she wears our Red Crescent uniform. She has big boobs, a little curvy but not fat or chubby. She has just the right amount of fat on her body which is okay. She has a noticeably small waist which I envy :P She has problems with the students in the lower forms and she gets angry pretty quickly. Before we were classmates, I was afraid of her because she looks so scary during the Form Six Orientation Week. Like a beautiful mean girl that you don't want to mess with. But once I get to know her, she's REALLY funny, loud and friendly. She always tried to speak English to me which I appreciate very much :D

Jacklechin the Not-So-Funny Nice Guy

     Ever since the second semester starts, this guy became the butt of every joke anyone came up with. Even our teachers always teased him because he's not handsome at all which is just mean and it could affect his self-esteem >_< Overall he is a nice person but not that smart (like me.) Even though Eva played with his feelings and playfully fliritng with him every single day, I think he secretly likes it. He was pretty good in English though when I was grouped with him and we had our Speaking Test. He was never good at making jokes because all of it is lame. Like, really, really lame >_< No one laughed! You hear just one joke from him and you jus want it to stop because it sounds so sad. But he's still a good person. :P

Weally the Laid Back and Caring Dude

     Even though he doesn't look or acts like it, Weally is pretty smart. According to Eva :P He is also hilariously funny and we all had a great time when he cracks some of his jokes. He seems to be having some coughing problems since the second semester and his ankles were swollen after a football injury so he had to hobble whenever he walked. Sometimes I worry about him. He's really caring towards everyone in class. He also loves to eat cup noodles. The hot and spicy-flavored ones. I still remember the time when he provided me with extra supply of graph papers and tell me to eat well befor exams. He's a cool guy.

Faizil the Self-proclaimed Alpha Male

     Ever since Reo and Andy left us, Faizil seems to get more cocky -__- Of all the three boys in our class, he's definitely the most handsome. (Not that there's any competition going on since it's just the three of them haha) Even though he is dark-skinned, he's pretty hot I have to say. I think his dad is from Brunei or somewhere. In our third semester, my seating arrangement sucked because I had to sit next to his table. He kept disturbing me when I do my work and he won't shut up. It's driving me insane. I know he's just trying to be friendly and I really appreciate him for that. Still, he's a good guy. He helped me with my extra-curricular papers when I really had to go home and I can see he's a little bit annoyed and disappointed when I left the papers with him. Sorry Faiz >_< If I remember correctly, he flirts with every girl in class because he thinks that we like it. 

And finally.... ME!!!

Gabrielle the Quiet

     Gabby never really mingles with the rest of the class. She just sits at her place and calmly observes everyone on what they're doing, what they're like, wondering if the rest of them are happy, sad or angry. She never got mad about anything because she is very patient but sometimes I worry if she is mad about something but kept it hidden really well. She's good in English so everybody kind of took advantage of her during MUET classes. But when there's no more MUET classes to attend, nobody really paid her that much attention :P But I know she's cool with that. She has some kind of health problem during the start of the third semester and didn't attend school that much so everybody thought she wanted to quit.From afar, it doesn't looks like she even cares about her classmates or anything at all. But deep down inside her heart, she cares for them deeply. Probably more than anybody else. PS: She is the one donated that RM150 to the class savings for the Year End Form Six Party. Sadly she didn't attend the party because she was lazy to wake up early and played video games in her house all day. Or was she sick at that time.. I think both.

     So there you have it! My classmates! Some of them are gonna hate me for this if one of them reads this post. News and gossips get around pretty fast between these people, I tell you that. They're not good at keeping secrets. Muhaha... If they read this and get mad, I would probably get kicked out of the class' Watsapp Group.

The Ranting of a Legendary STPM Loser

  

          So the month of September is nearing to an end and you’re still stuck here in mommy and daddy’s house. Most of your classmates, including you, didn’t get a spot in any university. Too much competition, they say. On the happier side of life, most of your friends are ecstatic with their offer to public universities while you just stand there on the side lines cheering them on without showing any negative emotions because you don’t want to rain on their parade. That’s what you do best, right?

            But what about your other friends? The ones in the same lame-ass dingy boat as you? Where are they heading? You know some of them can’t afford private universities. If you felt so down and depressed because of college rejection and feeling like there’s no hope for you anymore, you could just imagine what it would be like for them. They must have taken it way worse than you do!

            Failing my STPM made me depressed for months. But now I feel a little bit better. Time heals all wounds, they say. But back then, I felt like such a failure. I realised I’m just not college material. Too stupid. Too incompetent. Too weak. So if I’m not college material, what material am I? (Probably the “recyclable” ones so I could be recycled (hopefully) into a much more successful person in my next life.) 

            Just hearing the word “college” sends me spiralling deep, deep down into something I would call the “Abyss of Melancholy”. On and on, going down. Never knowing if I would ever reach the end; never knowing if I could get back out of there again. I’m just stuck there in the blackness of that abyss. Staring into nothing because it is dark. Maybe there IS something uplifting there but my blindness in that abyss prevents me from doing so.

            I guess we really ARE “eating, sleeping, and waiting for a miracle.” (To quote my friend from my Form Six days). But come on! A miracle? For slobs and losers like us? We don’t deserve miracles. I know we didn’t take our STPM seriously. We were lazy, we procrastinate, we wasted time, money and energy. We lacked motivation. Why would rare, precious blessings such as MIRACLES want to happen to the likes of us?!

            And now we pay the price; a heavy price. A price that will affect our future greatly. A price that will stick with us for the rest of our lives. I know all of us wished we could start from square one. Back to the first day of our Form Six Orientation Week. If we knew then what would happen (or not happen) to us now, we would have worked our ass off trying to get the highest GPA we can possibly get. We would do everything in our power to make sure we can make it to college.

            But Form Six is no “easy peasy lemon squeezy”. You need your:

TEN FORM SIX CHECKLIST FOR SUCCESS SURVIVABILITY

1.      Willpower

2.      Discipline

3.      Hard work

4.      Passion

5.      Commitment

6.      Dedication

7.      Resilience

8.      Energy

9.      Optimistic and Realistic mind set

10. A sliver of God-like good luck charm to even MAKE your GPA past 2.00

Maybe I exaggerated a little bit (or a lot) but you get the picture. It’s fucking difficult. Almost impossible. Especially for a below  average plain jane student like me.

 

            And they say those who entered Form Six are losers who couldn’t get into universities. Yeah, they were right but not really. Because Form Six changes you. It moulds you into a much better person. Did it mould everybody enough to qualify for a degree? Not quite. Did it mould everybody enough to face the real tough, cruel, unfair world like a boss? Fuck yes.

            So whether you successfully entered university for a degree or not get accepted into any because of a low GPA, you successfully finished your Form Six without quitting halfway. You didn’t find an easy way out because you wanted to fight this battle through to the end. Maybe you even knew you’re not gonna make it in the end; yet you kept on going anyway.

            And you came out of this battle as a survivor. A survivor that went through a lot of shit and still kept on fighting. Even if it means you might get all the cuts and bruises from the gruelling syllabus, assignments and responsibilities chucked on your weak shoulders. But those cuts and bruises would later turn into badass-looking battle scars. And when you look back at those scars, you would think, “Wow. Did I just make it out of Form Six alive? That’s so surreal. Almost as if I was in some kind of epic dream. I shall treasure all of its warm comforting bittersweet moments to thaw my cold dead heart forever” You know, something like that.
 

            I believe we can all find our niche in life someday. Failure in obtaining a high score in our STPM is just one of life’s challenges in the “Petty and Beginner’s Level” category. Probably just a small one. It taught us a good lesson. It would prepare us to face the more challenging obstacles we would face later in life that would make our STPM failure look like… potatoes? XD

            I don’t normally use swear words. I never utter one in front of anyone except when I’m alone and that I only mutter it under my breath. So I apologise for the foul language.