Chinese New Year Memories: Nga Ku

When preparations for Chinese New Year comes around, there are always recurring things on the to-do list: cookies and tidbits for the onslaught of guests, spring-cleaning, and decorating to name a few. But one of the tasks demands planning ahead; that is, in order for it to step up onto the stage when the big day comes, it has to be dressed and rehearsed a good while before.

This task, which my parents are excellent directors of, is the planting and cultivating of the arrowhead plants. To green-thumbed aficionados and botanists, this plant is called the sagittaria latifolia, to most laymen over here on this side of the world it is called 'nga ku'. In order to plant them, one has to place bulbs into shallow water. According to my parents, the bulbs have to be placed in sunny areas until they began to sprout shoots, which is a sign that they need to be taken away from direct sunlight or the leaves burn.

What my sister and I are assigned to is 'dressing' the 'nga ku', which obviously occurs after the 'nga ku' has reached its optimum beauty (glossy, bright leaves and strong stems that insist on reaching for the stars). We pinch off itty-bitty bits of red paper, wind them around the stems of the 'nga ku' and glue them to place. The result is a gorgeous contrast of bright green and red, perfect for jazzing up a living room corner or as a centre piece on the dining table.

I think the sight of a pot of 'nga ku' all decked in its red finery is one of the nicest sights of Chinese New Year. And like how the pointed leaves represent growth and continuous improvement, I hope this year will be better than the last for everyone! :) Have a happy Monday.

2014

Happy 2014 everybody! The merry month of January has already passed us by, and I hope that it was a wonderful month for everyone! For my part, the first month of the year brought me more experience as an intern in an ad agency. There were fun times and there were hard times, so I guess I hit 2014 off well ;) .

The Lunar New Year of the Horse is in full swing and ye gods, has it been busy! I had a time of it; yearly visits from family friends and relatives, constant house cleaning, and snacking on yummy homemade cookies! Will upload photos soon, so do look out for them. I'm also in the midst of preparing some double happiness for the much missed Wallpaper Wednesdays. It's going to be absolutely peachy!

See you in the next post, friends! Have a groovy Saturday night.

Childhood Treasure: What A Doll!

Collected some goodies from my old place the other day, and I'd like to share this with all of you. My mother especially requested I brought back a few of her childhood trinkets. Among them was a 1950s/60s tin doll called Annie!

I find it incredible how my mother could actually preserve the box Annie came in, moving from one house to another when she was a child. Annie's dress is somewhat faded and spotty, and her hair has been sprayed into an unruly helmet (hairspray courtesy of my grandmother *ahem ahem* the things you used to do, mother), but on the whole she is absolutely perfect.

The best thing about Annie is that she serves tea! Plop her yellow teacup on her serving tray and she whirrs to life, moving and turning independently. Even better? She actually works, after all these years.

Happy Saturday everybody! :)

Let's Go To The Zoo!

 Early this year (during the long long semester break), I took a trip to the Melaka zoo with Esmond! The zoo just recently underwent a change of management (it was privatised after having being a government body), but honestly a lot of work still needs to be done. It was a quiet weekday when we went, and coincidentally the Chief Minister was there as well, due to a rather serious case that happened the day before. 

The zoo is the second largest in Malaysia, after the National Zoo. I found it a bit disappointing, though, because there were far more deer species than any other animal on exhibit. We didn't even see the flamingoes or the tigers D8. We did see a few large iguanas roaming the grounds freely, though. Large enough lizards to make us run screaming when they came too close. Haha. 

Here are some snapshots I took of the other animals! Photostyler is great for jazzing up the otherwise afternoon-sun-harsh-shadows.

Happy Monday! :)

Double Act

From the rocky beginnings of time... when lightning bickered with ground, the waves argued with solid stone. Tempers and glasses and boxes flew left, right and centre. It was a warzone!

But now the opposing forces have declared peace, the elements sighed and fell into the arms of the other. And today marks the second year of peace and fruitfulness! :D

 I was just rereading old conversations, and looking at old photos, and maaan have we changed XD. It's almost as if we went through a second growth spurt! Blossoming from awkward teenagers into lovely young man and woman. Certainly a tad abusive and vulgar, but lovely all the same :D. I mean, seriously, can't you tell how much we've aged over the course of just two years? We turned from this:

Into this!

Well, okay. You get my drift. XD.

Anyway, a happy happy two year anniversary to Esmond! \ ^O^ /. The days have been perceptibly brighter and optimistic after I met you! My blog may have remained luridly red if we never got together! Our forces united, we shall rock the very foundations of the Earth! We were born to do great things, and ever greater things together! 8DD

On a side note: Crash-learning a new program is certainly not the way to go, especially when there are many things to be done. Worse still is at the height of it all, I de-stress by acting out affected scenes from the now popular Kiyomi/ Gwiyoumi in a futile attempt to act cute. I shall at least appropriate scene 2 for the day's festivities.

Cauliflower the broccoli says hai!

And now, we SLEEP! 8D

(This is a scheduled post, it was completed at 4am. Thank you for your time!)

Clippy Clips!

I suppose one must get used to the idea that whatever you've thought of, there is probably something somewhere on the Internetz that shares a similarity with it. This idea of painting clothespins with nail enamel has been featured on many blogs in the past, but in the one fit of boredom that got me doing it, I really thought I'd hit on something very profound. Oh well, the feeling was nice while it lasted :P, and no prizes are given out or anything, so, yeah. Heehee.

Anyway, yes. I was in a fit of boredom before dinner yesterday, and unearthed old bottles of nail enamel and a box of mini clothespins. So of I went and painted a good number of them. I later used some pretty cool lace stickers on some plain ones (pictured up above). Finished the whole lot off with a coat of clear varnish apiece :).

It's been a cold day today, and yet for all the life in me I can't seem to be productive enough. I must strive to make use of the days of pleasure while they last! Hope everyone had a great Sunday!

Flagship From The Past...

Made a pretty string of buntings yesterday! I messed up the first time; the little triangles whizzed about independently on the line. I did it properly the next time, using vintage-ad inspired wrapping paper. I like looking at the companies and recognizing the names, and looking at where they stand now.

It matches the old girls on the postcards very well, albeit they are a bit monochromatic. Maybe I'll do something more fluorescent next time round :). Have a happy Toosday everybody!

Cork Board : Fish scales float my boat!

Ta-daaaa~!!! Check you out my gorjas corky cork boards :D.

I made only one grave mistake (and maybe a few little ones). I should have cut out each row of fish scales, and not just alternate rows. But what the heck, the end result still makes my heart flutter so it doesn't quite matter :P. 

I like fishy scales! Can't you tell? I will never get over my lost love for a certain pair of fishy shoes, never. My heart still bleeds when it's not fluttering over the nice-ness of my cork boards. 

Anyway, a lot of DIY tutorials I've looked at on customizing cork boards (or just painting repetitive patterns in general) called for stencils and/or templates. There aren't fancy things like stencils and/or templates here in Melaka, and anyway I was doing this with whatever I had on hand. So I stole got this fishy scale design from (shh!!) depositphotos. It didn't really matter if it was slightly pixelated or in black and white.

My cork boards were about A4-sized each, so I printed the designs out on normal A4 papers, then arranged them on the cork boards and taped them up. I then proceeded to cut the scales out with my happy knife, then stapled the makeshift stencil onto the boards and taped up the borders. I then mixed a mint green and pink (I wanted a more coral pink, but it turned out more cherry blossom. Still looked pretty though :D) in my cupcake-tin-palette and got straight to painting.

And when it all dried I decided to add one more last touch...

Gold paint! I dithered over stripes and dots, but in the end I decided I didn't want to overdo it and just went for a mock 'distressed' look. This I achieved by simply dabbing a corner of a dry rag and 'wiping' the gold paint onto the painted scales, removing any excess with another rag. I think the result came out just peachy :).

The edges of the boards were a bit flaky, so I painted some gloss varnish over them and it's worked a treat. Mounting it was easy: foam tape attached to the four corners of each, and aligned to the wall. Perfection!

Haven't quite pinned anything nice up, as I am still appreciating the shiny scales. But soon enough only a hint of sherbet and gold will peek from under the inspiration overload, I'm sure. For now I've just pinned up two postcards, bought from my uncle's antique shop. 

Did you notice just how lovely the glitter pushpins look on the board? Make some for yourself- or for a corky friend today!! :D.

Glittery Push Pins~!

I wanted to clean out my cupcake-tin-palette from the glitter animals, when I took one look at the leftover glitter and thought, 'I should use them for something if I'm too lazy to pour it back into the bottles...'. So I did exactly that.

I got a box of large-headed push pins, and slathered them with Modge Podge then spooned glitter liberally over them. I spread newspaper out on the lawn, then poked the pins through the paper before going over them all with clear lacquer spray. Easy, delightful, and perfect for your daily dose of glitter ;). These are going to look perfect on that cork board of mine, pictures of that coming real soon!

Happy Sunday everybody! Tis the last Sunday of January so go crazy! :D

Quirky Corks

madiganmade.com

Been mooching about the internet in search of decor ideas for my bedroom. I don't intend to have many ornaments, because I'm going to be away most of the time in uni and dust settles faster than an upset stomach (whatever that meant). I do want a good framed picture or two, and after some thought, a cork board wouldn't be such a bad idea. And maybe one or two little terrariums...and bookends for some books...and maybe a pinball machine with matching jukebox and retro popcorn maker...

Okay, maybe a few of those ideas are a bit too far fetched. But I was pretty serious about the cork board. I am honestly not at all keen with blu-tacking pictures and notes all over the wall (bad experience in my old place). The classic cork board is functional and can actually be a pretty interesting focal point, as many crafters over the net have proven.

I particularly liked the idea of painting cork boards. Some crafters opted for wrapping the boards in scrapbook paper, but I can't imagine how awful it'll look like after several pokes. 

the happy home blog

Look at this! Talk about cute! It looks like a pretty doable equation: 1 exacto knife + 1 piece of cork board + 1 tube of white acrylic = a very adorable cloud cork board! 

seejanework

 This one is pretty interesting, because it's a rectangular board instead of the usual square. It leaves enough wall space underneath for hanging notes and whatnot. This one is supposed to be a weekly planner. I like the little metal name plaques!

pottery barn kids

Right about now I'm imagining an incredible neon colour that takes one's breath away, but first! A pattern! A design! Tune in to next time folks! Who knows what Joanne's next quirk will be? ;D.

Nylons and Peonies...

 Hello there! I'm afraid I've not been at all productive this first month. This won't do at all! I have been busy indeed with moving into my new home. It's very pretty, but my room is bare still, and I plan to take some photos after I've done a bit more decorating ;).

Anyway, Chinese New Year is around the corner! I have shopped for new clothes, and today I decided to try my hand at tattoo stockings to glam up an outfit or two. I decided to do a design that is oriental and festive, so I drew a cluster of peonies based on Peranakan porcelain ware:

I basically drew out the design the same size as the cardboard backing my stockings came in. I bought a pair at Daiso for RM5, a steal, really, because it's not too bad quality and very comfy. Also I wouldn't feel too bad a heartache if I messed up ;).

After I had my design, I just marked where I wanted it to be on the stocking, then slipped the cardboard into the stocking! I didn't have fabric markers or the right coloured Sharpies, as many DIY tutorials suggested to use. But surprise, surprise, Joanne just happened to have a box of rainbow-coloured Copics at her disposal and that was what she used! Of course, I don't intend to wash the pair out, and even if I did I don't believe the colour would run too bad as they are not washable (I've stained a shirt or two in my over-enthusiastic past, yes.). The myriad of shades I have meant that I could add some shadows and details, and not just settle for flat colours. Which was exactly what I did!

After a good long while dabbing, completion! I was very happy with how it turned out; it was exactly how I wanted it to be. I am glad of the Copic markers, particularly the brush nib. It made fine lines so much easier compared to the normal small nibs. The black outline was put on last, and I found that dabbing tiny dots with the brush nib is a lot easier compared to drawing long lines. 

I can tell this is not a very good show of my photography $k!lLz, but this will have to do for now. I was just too excited with how the design came out XD. It matches the flamingos swimmingly well! I was planning to make a matching phoenix on the left leg, but I'll need a bit more time to figure out how to simplify and position it. Try your hand out at tattoo stockings soon! It's really easy and fun! :)

By the way, have you voted 5 times for Limkokwing University today? Only 3 more days to vote! Thank you everyone for your support! Tune in to the next post when I unveil my next crafty project! ;D

Re : Cycle

turkish lamps | dear world, you're pretty!

It's been such a busy busy last-month-of-2012 for me, to the point that I barely saw December passing me by. Before I knew it, it was suddenly my birthday and suddenly it's 2013 and it's another whole year to my birthday again! 2012 has been filled with so much activities, and yet I still have so many ends to knot before I can sit down and find time to collect my thoughts and look back over the year.

Well, it is the beginning of the new year, and, to quote from I Capture The Castle, 'beginnings are good times'. The year will begin very happily for me indeed, for it may be nice to know that I am moving house! It is obviously the main reason why I only have a single blog post in December, amongst other things. I'm very excited as I'm finally having a room to call my very own. I have much plans to spruce things up for it, but I can see that it will take a long time and determination and hard work for said plans to succeed. 

Anyway, for this new year, I hope that all undertakings will be safe and smooth-sailing for everybody! If there was something I learnt from 2012, it'd be to embrace the moments. Don't worry so much about the future until the present slips away from you. At the same time, plan ahead; do things now that your future self will thank you for later. And I suppose for me, a new year resolution is to earn money, and keep a tight leash on my short temper! It won't be easy, especially when my imagination and thoughts are apt to spiral completely out of control before I can even stop myself. But even so, I will try, and remembering how much I love those I care for will help me through, I'm sure :). What are your new year resolutions? Here's to hoping we will succeed in fulfilling all of them!

Reinitiating countdown! Happy New Year everybody! 

Flight of Fancy

Hello everybody! It's the weekend for me again, and what's more, I have the whole of next week off! Really nothing much to that though, because the whole week shall be spent finishing assignments, overcoming frustrations and trying frugally to live on the last bits of food I have until Tuesday comes. But anyway, yes! A holiday! :D.

Something fun for everyone to do when they're feeling a bit down during the assignments-overload. I discovered this beautiful site called Fancy when I was looking for useful apps for my phone. Fancy is a website very like Pinterest, whereby you can browse tonloads of pretty and inspiring things. It's wonderful how there is just so many pretty things to find here!

The Fancy

What really sets Fancy apart is that it's not just a pool for pretty ideas and pictures. Almost all the items come with prices, or links to places that you can purchase them. And I think this is just fantastic because a lot of the time the most annoying thing about finding something beautiful online is the question "Omg, where can I get one? Where can I buy something like that?" With Fancy, you can even check the price out of the item before you even think about "hey...I should get that". 

Of course, most of everything is in USD, but it's still a simple, no-fuss website with a gorgeous array of delectables. And sometimes it's just nice to go window shopping and not buy anything =). 

There are hundreds and hundreds of things to look at, with more coming in every day. Here are some of the few I really fell in love with!

This is a USB Turntable. LOVE IT!! It reminds me of Simon's birthday gift to Cassandra in I Capture The Castle. I feel like crying with joy just at the sight of it. The colour is lovely, and it looks so beautifully made. To own something as beautiful as this! I even love the pretty bunch of flowers in the mason jar beside it! ^O^.

This wall of suitcase-shelves is such a quirky centrepiece! I especially love the turquoise one. It seems such a shame that all these pretty suitcases are being cut and mounted to a wall, but hey, it's pretty- AND functional! 

 Look at the gorgeous turquoise tiles! I'm falling in love over and over again. Maybe it's just a bit too much; I would probably prefer either a dark wood wall or table. Even so, this is just fantastical.

And look at this! Such a neat way to have some green on your desk when it's too cluttered for potted ferns of a vase of flowers. There's a tutorial here that shows you how to prepare your lightbulb to house little green thingies. I'd love a group of five or more hanging in a sunny corner of my patio. Ah!

That's all for tonight folks! You can sign up to Fancy for free, so why not whip yourself an account and start fancyin' things! You could share your favourites here too if you like =). Till next time!

Redeeming Malaysia

Dear family and friends, 

It's that time of the year when we celebrate the birth of a great nation! We may not be blessed with an amazing government, but what we have is a nation teeming with diverse cultures and traditions, and yet in our hearts we are united.

Something is different today, though. Today, a couple of video enthusiasts are battling on the front line of the Canon Legria video competition, desperate to represent their nation, to prove that Malaysia has something to show the design and film industry. 

In one week, this ambitious men have attempted to prove themselves worthy by filming, acting, video-editing and music-composing. This video entry is completely, 100% original. 

Redemption

Do you think they deserve to win? I don't know, you'll have to watch the video and decide for yourself. But I know, I firmly believe that they do deserve to represent Malaysia. These are high words, but you may watch and see for yourself. In fact, go ahead and watch the other videos that are catching up to this one on votes. Go ahead, make a comparison. The answer will be clear to you.

Voting may just be a tad fussy: you have to register your email, and once verified, you have to log in before you can vote. But the entire process takes less than 5 minutes, probably just as much time for you to scroll down your facebook timeline and refresh for updates. 

If you like what you see, please, vote and share to your friends. Do this for glory to Malaysia! Let's all have one more thing to be proud of, for you to proudly declare, 'That is my country, and I am Malaysian!' :D

That said, happy Merdeka and happy Friday everybody :).

Click here to register, log-in and vote!

Longitude

Longitude

Just a random thingy I did the other week. I was bored and in the mood to draw something. It's weird, though. Back then I got all hyped up drawing and drawing without a care in the world. Whatever I wanted I just doodled down however I fancied. I didn't give a toss about things like composition and complimentary colours and linear weights and what-have-yous.

Of course, looking at it now there's good and bads to just drawing however you want. Of course you want to make it visually appealing, get the message across, evoke feelings and emotions from whoever is viewing it. For that to happen you need to follow some basic rules. 

But then I remember when I was doodling and messing about with my markers and paper and pencils, I was happy. Very happy indeed. Of course there were certain little hiccups here and there, but I felt a genuine sense of accomplishment when I'd completed some drowned-in-colour thing. It was kinda like me, my ideas, paper and music. Nothing in between, nothing that can create some sort of distraction.

Right now when I look back at my old works, I can find fault in every single one of them. Of course, every creator will do so. But at the same time, I can't seem to find that blind, mindless drive to just doodle down everything and anything. I'll start to think about all the rules, and how to break them or bend them in different ways. Not like that's a bad thing, but of course you can see for yourself just how unproductive I've been since I started uni. 

My theory is this: back when I was completely oblivious to the foundations of design and art, I was like some wild monkey with a pencil. I threw everything down without putting much thought into it. Could you say my artwork then was and is shallow? Most probably. Because there isn't a rationale or a reason for it. It exists because I wanted to create it. That's all. But now, with the metaphorical chains of knowledge, I know better than to just go gadding about. I suppose, with more hard work and effort I won't call the knowledge chains, and instead call them steps and ladders to creating more beautiful and meaningful artwork.

It's like the transition of child to adult. When the world was so innocent, and when you reach that certain age, you just look at the old things so, so differently.

Excuse me for the big big wall of text. That's enough rambles for one night I suppose.

No Shyt, Sherlock.

Disclaimer: I don't dislike KPop, neither to I have any animosity towards Shinee. Thank you for your understanding.

And, no, I don't plan on making this a KPop blog. I just like to rant, and when I rant, there are very little topics that I don't stray to. 

Anyway, out of curiousity (wow!) I decided to watch Shinee's Sherlock MV and then I realized one of the many things I've realized about Shinee (sorry, did that confuse you?) : a lot of times I can't ever catch the tune of their songs. Except for the more popular ones like. Lucifer. And that Ring-a-ling one. And Hello. But seriously everything else just mushes together and I can't make anything out of it. 

And then! It just amazes me! How entertainers nowadays just take inspiration from almost anything! Okay so that has been the case from when the Earth was still in its diapers and God was pregnant (ignore that, please), but still! The desire to be different is continuously evolving, and somehow these KPop bands are completely innovative when it comes to their methods of entertainment. Like this:

dailykpopnews

 Like, wow! They hipsterfied Sherlock Holmes! What would Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have to say about this I wonder? I look at this with mixed feelings, honestly. I think it's, in a way, awesome that they can help spread awareness so kids will broaden their literary horizons and maybe feel compelled to pick up a copy of The Hound of The Baskervilles, instead of Twilight. On the other hand, I feel as if their take on the whole British-mystery thing is awfully shallow. But maybe it's just me. At least they're not wearing houndstooth and deerstalker hats, eh? =P Don't get me wrong. I think the oversized black frames and Doc Martens look very nice. Much better than the starry shorts that, I swear to God, popped out of nowhere just for the lulz.

koreansound

Yes, you heard me. Starry shorts. With the Doc Martens. Holy good God.

I like how Taemin looks just fabulously colourful and pretty. But then I am reminded he is a he and suddenly I feel all wrong in the stomach. 

I don't know why, but I get all discriminative when people go about saying 'oh I like so-and-so' because  they've watched the movie or their idols made a song inspired by the book. But then they don't read the book. In fact, they are familiar with the name but are probably clueless to who or what Sherlock Holmes is. For all they know he's another KPop artiste that flips his conditioned locks and swings his narrow hips to a crowd of adoring fangirls. You see how discriminative I am. But, really. How many people have read the books. Huh? Huh? Go read them if you haven't. At least get a concrete idea of what is behind the Hollywood blockbusters...and under Taemin's black top hat.

Oh, and Taemin is not actually the only guy I can name from Shinee. I know that there is Jonghyun, Key, Minho, but unfortunately that other guy is lost to me. It could've been worse. When I first got to know about the boys I couldn't tell them apart even if you paid me a kimchi load of gold. And that was a very shallow thing to say.

I'm sorry for the nonsensical KPop rant. I shall return to more normal topics in the next post. Thank you for your time. 

O.G.S

 If you actually understood what the initials stood for, well, good for you.

Hello everyone and welcome to the beginning of the week-long Raya holidays! Here's to much celebrations and well-spent hours. No wasting time doing nothing, as I am about to do right now =P.

No, really, what's the entertainment industry doing these days. Has our mentality stooped so low, to the point that anything can be counted as remotely entertaining? Is a slightly tubby man prancing about pretending to ride a horse considered hilariously entertaining nowadays? Is everyone so bored that as long as someone is doing something weird and making it look good, it's going to be a major hit and start a new trend with rabid fans everywhere?

Imaginary iGallop via sassyjonghyun

You thought you've seen everything the internet has to offer, but you haven't.

I can't be the only one who watched this video and got a first impression that the rhythm is almost exactly like Big Bang's Fantastic Baby. Except that when Big Bang is singing about....well, whatever they were singing about, this PSY (I can't be the only person who thought it stood for something incredibly wrong) guy was singing about...Gangnam style. Which according to the explanation of my dear Korean friend Cheol is a district in Seoul, Korea where the wealthy and affluent live. It's kinda like the brothers rapping about 'da hood'....only this guy is in a suit and shades and prancing about on an apparently very energetic, very invisible pony. Of course, there's the crazily catchy beats, with the senseless tagline thrown in at all the appropriate intervals, with a snazzle of English words for good measure. 

Oh, and then there's the poorly timed explosion. There must always be a scene where the main guy walks away from an explosion. Besides a scene of said main guy prancing on top of a building with a skyscraper in the background (refer to top). Yes, this...thing has all the ingredients to make it the next '...huh?' sensation. 

via seoulsveil

Like it? Hate it? Each to his own I suppose. All I know is that there will be a new tune dominating the Raya medley for awhile. 

I need to do something a bit more productive than this. Farewell everyone! And don't forget to play this song on full blast the next time you clamber onto your iGallop. At least you'll look a lot more sensible than this man.

Blue Skies and Sunshine~!

Well, there hasn't been much of them these days. It's been cloudy and cool for the past week, but hey, what's there to complain about that? :D

Yes yes, I know I'm three freaking years behind time, but The Princess and The Frog is so pretty and colourful! I think it's one of my favourite Disney movies. And the songs are stuck in my freaking head. I hear it in my ears when I'm about to sleep and wake up to it in my head. Haha. And Mama Odie is so adorable! With her happy pet snake Juju. I have a soft spot for slightly crazy old women, yes XD. And New Orleans suddenly seems to be the most alive and romantic places of all time, by the way it was portrayed. Now if only Disney made a movie set in Malaysia...we'd be the top destination of the world. Haha.

cinemasquid

Last Sunday was the reunion of the beautiful and the crazy, literally (pun wholely intended). It was more or less a party, with presents, food, games and of course, camwhoring =P. But twas nice to be together again after all this while. It's almost as if we barely changed. I use the word barely, because some of us may just have gotten prettier (*pointstoself* 8D) and some of us may just have gotten a tad bit more narcissistic, but owh well. As long as we're all still together, right? =P

Anyway, I will be returning to the nowhere in a while more. This is my last week here, just so the world knows (not like you all care). It's been fun while it lasted, but I need to push the switch from 'holiday' back to 'hard work' so that I don't get back to class with the brain of a beached jellyfish XD. See you all soon!

Huggles!

"Dear friend, when was the last time you hugged someone?"

A parents' love is when they buy you books in languages you don't know, and then they translate and read it to you afterwards. It's not an easy thing to do, but that's love. And that is apparently how far my parents love can extend.

Even without anyone translating for me, I'm quite content to just admire the pictures, because Jimmy Liao is amazing ^O^.

So his new book (40th in the series of books) is called Hug, and it's about a sleepy lion with a red mane. Much huggles is given out in this book, involving a great variety of animals, from a pink elephant to a starfish. I've gone through half of the book so far (courtesy of my dad the translator of course), and I'm enjoying it. I want to know what happens to the lion in the end, though right now I can only guess what will happen.

I find it peculiar though. Somehow, the structure of the book reminds me of the fictional book in the book 'I Capture The Castle' (confused yet? =P); the one that Cassandra's father wrote: Jacob Wrestling. Hugs is oddly cryptic- or maybe I am thinking too much, haha. There are little twists to the story; not in plot, but in the way the words are presented. One page is written in the form of a song, and in another the sentences are arranged to form an 'X' shape. And some characters are not typed, but 'written', not sure if just a stylized whim or it has some sort of meaning to it. But anyhow, it all seems to set the mood just right, and the result is a pretty, colourful book that is just brimming with Jimmy Liao's amazing style and characters! I especially love the pastel mint and pink of the front cover. So so pretty ^O^.

Popular bookstores always has a promotion whenever a new Jimmy Liao book comes in. This is the only book of Jimmy's that I got in hardcover, because!! It comes in this gorgeous plastic folder with all the huggable characters on it! Also, inside is a detachable poster with said characters and a printed autograph. So happy ^_^. If ever I have kids, I'm going to read Jimmy's books to them. Of course that means my dad has a serious translating job to do =P. That or my husband has to be proficient in reading and translating Mandarin, lol.

The holidays are almost coming to a close! I hope everyone's been enjoying themselves. I've been watching a hell-load of movies. The Princess and The Frog was really good! My sister and I howled in laughter almost all of the time- the other times were just wowing over Disney's classic ingenuity and creativity. I am very much looking forward to the Dark Knight Rises. It's probably the only movie I've urged and pestered my sister to go watch (usually it's the other way XD).

It's the weekend again! TGIF everybody! Go hug someone! Your parents, your dog, the person sitting across you beating yo ass out at chess- anyone! Have fun ^O^.

Ah ah ah!

Oh noes! It's so quiet here, and suddenly it's July O_O.

It's only quiet because I haven't been doing much except holing up with the computer and refusing to partake in most social activities, or anything that involves me stepping out of the house. I'm turning into some sort of recluse or invalid. Consider this my hibernation period =P.

It's weird, because I see a lot of people on holiday and all they ever seem to do is go out with friends and shopping (heck, I know people that aren't on holiday and still do that almost every night). But that doesn't seem to work for me, no. I'm sorry dear friends, when holidays come I become more of a loner than I already am. Haha.

Anyway, how's the holidays treating everyone else? Been up to awesome things? I've been so unproductive the only thing I am willing to present to the world is my excrement, the more solid forms coming only once every two days. Haha. Okay you didn't need to know that =P. Anyway, to quote from that one great person: 'Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted', eh? So I'm going to continue being unproductive and enjoy it while I still can :D.

Happy holidays everyone! It's nice and rainy today, hope the weather's nice over there too!