am i dreaming?

I decided to watch Dream House after considering the movies available yesterday and today. At first Contagion was my priority as I thought that the line of actors and actresses was promising, but then it was it's last day showing at GSC Dataran Pahlawan yesterday. And I was lazy to move, don't know why I'm so tired these days when I'm doing nothing at home.

Image from amtmp3

Dream House was chosen because of Rachel Weisz - the after effects of watching The Mummy when I was growing up :p

Image from thefreestylelife.com

I thought the movie was going to be a scary one based on:

Soon after moving into their seemingly idyllic new home, a family learns of a brutal crime committed against former residents of the dwelling.

Sort of the killer opted to be a serial and hunt the family as his next victims. I couldn't stomach the thought that the two adorable sisters - Trish and Dee Dee, would be killed in the movie. Oh, and when I went in to find my seat, I saw that there were not many people..less than 10 I supposed, first show on the first day. Those I saw were Chinese, two girls in several rows in front of me and a few seats from me, an old Chinese guy. I was thinking, did I go into the wrong hall or what? Because there's a movie in Mandarin about a White Snake or something showing too - checked my ticket to make sure..LOL.

I'm not going to spoil the movie for you guys, don't worry. Just the storyline from Imdb:

Some say that all houses have memories. For one man, his home is the place he would kill to forget. A family unknowingly moves into a home where several grisly murders were committed...only to find themselves the killer's next target. Successful publisher Will Atenton (Craig) quit a job in New York City to relocate his wife, Libby (Weisz), and two girls to a quaint New England town. But as they settle into their new life, they discover their perfect home was the murder scene of a mother and her children. And the entire city believes it was at the hands of the husband who survived. When Will investigates the tragedy, his only lead comes from Ann Paterson (Watts), a neighbor who was close to the family that died. As Will and Ann piece together the disturbing puzzle, they discover that the story of the last man to leave Will's dream house will be just as horrifying to the one who came next.

I think the story could use some work, because there are fuzzy parts. Still, the movie is okay.

not too happy

I know we're supposed to welcome people into our home with open arms and big, H.U.G.E. smile plastered on our face. But we can only take so much, right?

First, this is our rented house..so there's a lot of people. Not actually a one man island, where there's a lot of space that you're free to roam about everywhere and do whatever you like. I know the person staying at our house asked for our permission, but she should've said something in person when she arrived here. She let our housemate (her friend) asked us after she made the call one day before she came - and that was it.

And that's for staying longer than 3 days, right in the middle of our mad exam rush. We have a paper to sit for tomorrow, and another one 24 hours after that. But here I am typing these words to get them out of my mind - don't blame me, I need to vent out.

She used her friend's stuff and also everyone else's (most of the time without asking first). Ohh, she even leave her laptop on power all the time..even when she went out. Grrr..haven't heard of conserving the energy?

The first day she came, she was preparing to take a nap after Maghrib when our classmates (me and my housemates are in the same class) came over. Those who came were the noisy bunch - my favorite ones, if I may add. They 'took over' our house, and of course our attention were directed towards them. Then, the said girl started to whine. She grumbled to me, saying our classmates disturbed her peace when she wanted to sleep, etc. I kept my mouth shut, but was boiling inside. Who does she think she is? To give out comments like that, when she's a guest at our house too?

The next morning I was in the shower when I heard loud noises. My housemate said that the girl's friends came to see her and they were shouting to each other, back and forth. It was early morning for God's sake and the others were still sleeping or studying. THAT is acceptable then?

I'm grateful that she's not around so much..

Image via Pictures of..

girl talk

I was reminded of the old days when I saw my friend tagging pictures of babies' winter coats and stuff to show her mom so that her mom can get inspirations of what to sew for her grandchild. The grandchild mentioned is coming out to see the world in a month or so, insyaAllah.

My mom used to sew clothes for me and she even made a handbag with my name on it. That's why I love being the eldest in my family ;)

Come to think of it, it would be a great thing to be able to sew cute little stuff for our own babies..right? It'd make me one proud mommy if I can make that - Superwoman? Haha. It'd be fun to see them parading cute handbags like Suri. Only better coz it'd be handmade, with love.

Images from Google

But no, I'm not gifted in that department. Would mom sew things for her grandchildren then? Should ask her that..later, of course. :p

last Eid celebration

It seems that everywhere is celebrating Eid these week, I saw two of my friends' photos of the celebration at work. And today is our campus' turn.

I went to last year's but not the one before. Last year's was held at a different venue, the parking lot beside the old academic building. Every stall was clustered in one place, so you could go around in one circle and pick which stall has the least people lining up for food food you like.This time it was held at the Admin building - the stalls were everywhere that we had to go this way and that way to see what is available.

And as we've experienced it once where our friends didn't get any food because they went there a lil bit late, we decided to go early this time. Besides last year's celebration was held during class hours (the food were finished up in no time), and this week we're already finished with our classes - you can take a guess just how long the food will be there :p

As early as we wanted to go, we arrived around 10 am and the celebration started at 8.30 am. There  were a lot of food, prepared by each residential college and also the Non-Residents (NR) club. But I didn't look at the stalls' names - only at those tempting yummy food.There were the usuals - nasi himpit, rendang ayam, lemang, rendang daging, Raya cookies, satay...and also other types of food - yong tau foo, chapati, ayam golek, rojak buah, nasi lemak, etc. I didn't get to eat ayam golek and satay...too full with the other stuff and the line was too long.

nasi himpit and rendang

 

I feel that this one is better than last year's because everyone is everywhere and we got to feast our eyes on everyone passing by our spot. There was this one family of 5 or 6 girls (maybe a lecturer's) - that donned the same orange baju kurung. They looked very close in age with the youngest looking like she's 2 - they looked really adorable.

the four of us in line for ice cream

thumbs up ;)

Oh, and our beloved Rector rode a bicycle around the compound - but I didn't take a good look. Last year he rode on the scooter on display :p

Somehow I'm starting to miss this place - even though I can't wait to pack everything up and say my goodbye to this place.

the stars of the event

As I've written here, it's nearing the end of the 3-year term for me and my friends. The 3 years are just for formalities of course, in reality it's just a little over 2 years..but the time we spent together here are full of bittersweet moments.

We were strangers, we shook hands, got to know each other - some become close friends, some fought over something trivial, some swapped friends with others, then we got to know each other again. It's a never ending cycle. A little sneak preview of the world out there. I can be called a veteran already, because I feel like I can understand the gist of the things that happened - well, some of it. If it took that long for me to understand this, what can be said for the world out there? Centuries long before finding the rhythm??

Enough about that. I've been wanting to write about my Pre-graduation luncheon before, but I can only do it now.

The event was held last Saturday at A Famosa Resort in Alor Gajah, Melaka. It was supposed to be held at a different location, but they changed the venue and we had to be content with it. It's nearer to our house and campus..so we didn't have to start off that early.

We had to wait more than 2 hours before the event started though. It's bad enough that we were tired having to wake up early that day, and they had to arrive that late. Fortunately it meant we didn't have to listen to a lot of long speeches.

Some of us

After two speeches and giving away the certificates to those exceptional students, it was time to eat. They prepared a lot of dishes - mutton curry, sweet and sour fish fillet, lemon chicken, buttered prawns, potato masala, squid..but it was as I expected. They emphasis on the quantity and not quality. There were a lot of half eaten dishes left, and not to count those portion meant for all those Mass Communication students that didn't attend because they were busy organizing another event.

That event indicated we're ready to move on to another phase..no matter what we will be doing and where we'll be.

Oh, and I was surprised when a friend told me that I was a candidate for the Best Student for the course too. I thought the others had better chances than me. But she said it was between me and the one who got the title. Blame myself for not being diligent enough and not getting more As in the past..hehe. I wasn't hoping for that, because I knew just how much effort I put in during those times.

That said, I'm happy that I can understand myself better this time. Looking forward to an adventurous future ahead ;)

 

too excited :p

With the Rector

The finishing line

I can see the finishing line, but not the path in front of it - I'm talking about this period of less than a month before I can toss out every single book that bears titles with words like Marketing, Investment, Finance, etc into a box and put it where I don't have to see them again for a long, long time.

Right when the clock stroked 4.30 pm local time today, I'm officially finished with classes. No more looking at the fine prints while covering my yawning mouth, no more rubbing my tired eyes, no more trying to decipher what the lecturers were trying to pour into our brains..no more.

There's four subjects that need to be studied in this little period of time. But I'm thinking of the end of the period, not the things I need to do to get to the end.

I'm one free bird with one of my wings clipped.

My class is not this big, and besides we never really took photo without some people MIA..

Image from here

but I can't wait to do this..

Image from here

it's okay

I watched It's okay, daddy's girl (Gwaenchanna, appa ttal) starring Moon Chae-won as the main character. The drama was okay, but the character Park Jeon-seok was really scary when he stalked Eun Chae-ryeong and did everything just to make her fall for him. He even paid a guy to scare her and planned to act as the 'hero'.

That started the problems in the drama.

I love the two guys in this drama (although there's a whole load of 'em cute guys) Kang Sung as Jeong Jin-goo and Choi Jin-hyeok as Choi Hyeok-gi.

Kang Sung

Choi Jin Hyuk and Suju's Donghae as brothers

I did not favor Jeong Jin-goo at first as he seemed to be some sort of a rich jerk who can't stop drooling at girls, and preferred Ae-ryeong (Chae-ryeong's unni) to get married to Dr.Hong (the one who treated their father). But as Jin-goo and Ae-ryeong started living together after their marriage, Jin-goo became a changed man and he made me fell for him :p He was very protective of Ae-ryeong and her family...and his sunny disposition is just addictive.

Choi Hyeok-gi, although different from Jin-goo..is attractive in his own way. He's an upright person and very attentive towards Chae-ryeong. He's always running towards her direction whenever she's in trouble and that made him so sweet.

I want them both <<<<<<< greedy :p

Images from Google

long-time friends

I haven't had this much fun catching up with friends for a while. Yes, I've always been busy whenever there's a gathering of some sort..

Usually I'd meet close friends only and get to know what already happened in their lives - and that opportunity doesn't even come often.

I applaud the guys for always initiating these gatherings - they're really great at organizing these things. There were two three events that they did in the past, but I didn't have the time to join them. They met up for an 'ikan bakar' dinner at Umbai, they organized a bowling match, and they even held an iftar session.

So this time I'm really glad that I had the chance to attend the Eid gathering with them ;)

My friend, Wani picked me up around 11 in the morning and we went to pick up another friend, Dayang before making a pit stop at Mariyah's house. Her mom's Nasi Lemak was delicious but we had only a small scoop of rice as there were loads of food waiting at the gathering. Then we picked up another friend, Fatin before heading to the location - one of the guy's house in Batu Gajah.

We were the second to arrive after our friend, Fairus..who were helping out in the kitchen when we arrived there. We decided to watch Cake Boss, though..since there wasn't much left to do.

 

Then we started eating since the sticks of satay were cooked and kept appearing on the table ;) There were ketupat, beef rendang, ayam masak merah, fried vermicelli and cake alongside the satay of course. I didn't eat much, and listened to the gossips and updates by the new arrivals..

We really had fun, alas for the part when the engaged-and-to-be-married-soon began asking us singles when will be our turn. That would be the downside of gatherings..definitely. We can stand it if people ask once or twice ONLY..but my friend had had enough of that question when it came repeatedly from the same person and she already said it's not time yet when asked for the first time.

They just need to be more understanding for that part.

raya at home

my relatives came over today, so mom cooked some dishes - yummy. It's a mix n match menu, but delicious nevertheless ;) My mom's popiah are the best and that's what's left after only one batch of relatives came. The Laksa Nyonya is also a must have dish for every Raya.

popiah

pizza

laksa gravy

salad