I first stepped into Taylor's University in 2011, wary about the course I picked out and the fresh round of socialization that I'd have to take part in. I just left a waitressing job at the local Taiwanese food restaurant, and I was terrified.
I felt extremely out of place during the orientation. I remembered wearing heavy-duty bleached jeans and the blue Mickey Mouse long-sleeve top that I got from a very old China trip, as well as my old Li-Ning's. That was my first contact with my to-be favorite lecturer - Mr Winston Lim.
What Mr. Winston thought was reminiscent of Avril Lavigne - early days of university.
I think that was either a random dress-up day, or a presentation day.
I sat in the second front row - the only one sitting in that row. I was unprepared, I didn't have anything with me, and I was eager to get it done and over with. A girl called Swing made the first move to talk to me, and in a way, I was relieved - at least I didn't have to make all the first moves.
With the FICM group on 19/10 - Xue Ying's, Karmen's, and my own birthday
Class started a while after orientation day, and I still stuck around with Swing. I still didn't have the confidence to make any first moves, though many of my classmates made to talk to me. We entered another assignment group, and it was there that I briefly entered one of the cliques, before moving on the be a 2-girl-mission thing with Su for quite a long time.
That time I twisted my ankle because I was texting while going down the stairs.
Su and I would plan to reach campus at a particular time, and meet at a particular computer lab practically every morning. It was then that I slowly started to meld into the class as one of them, or at least, that was what I felt.
Our new year count down party.
Our group trip to Penang.
It felt good, because people here didn't discriminate as much as they did in high school. I partially thank group assignments for making me know more people. I don't know how, but a larger group formed which included Su and I.
"Model search" day where we all got made up!
With cosplayers after attending an event.
Our clique planned stuff around each other, had lunch together, even went for a waterpark trip together. It was not until we were divided into our respective major classes in our 2nd year of degree that the clique sort of fell apart.
We each knew more people, and the person that stuck with me through most of my university years was Jasmine. Maybe it was because we had the same personality, or that we didn't live too far from each other. We did a lot of things together, and shared more secrets together than I'd care to admit.
My later partner-in-crime during the last couple years of university.
Toward the end of the degree when people flew to UK and left us here, it was just us three - 3 of the girls from the 4 L's. Assignments became increasingly mundane, except for those that needed actual field work, which were more labor-intense than I would've preferred.
That time I had a super swollen eye but still had to glam up for a presentation about euthanasia for a Performing Arts lecturer.
With Media Gates PR Agency - which I joined last-minute, and spent my first overnight at their "dorm" rushing to complete all the presentation material the day before presentation.
Perhaps the craziest, busiest, most stressful, and most satisfying year was our last two semesters in degree. A combination of overwhelming assignments, drama amongst some of our own, and unreasonable lecturers seemed as if university was supposed to drive you to the point of madness.
One exciting project involved KyaniteTV and their newest children's show Chichi & Chacha, and from there I realized the sometimes inconsistent ideas of creative people - it was like however we tailored the proposal to their requirements, they had something to change elsewhere. We made do with what we had, despite our major disagreements and/or miscommunication with the PR team, and we won Best Project at the Taylor's Star Awards!
One of the prouder moments of my life - CEO of Sensation Lingerie for Brasics: Hook It Right.
Then there was our little lingerie photoshoot at Jeanna's place for our press kit and press conference project. Sensation Lingerie (headed by mock-CEO a.k.a moi) was to raise awareness on the implications of wearing wrong bra sizes and how to correct it. Our press kit won best for its category at the Taylor's Star Awards.
My squad for most of the last 2 years.
Although neither of these were personal awards, I was proud to have a team who clicked so well with each other (not all the time, though) to produce award-winning works.
Right after the last paper - we color-coordinated our clothes, if it wasn't obvious enough.
I've learned enough about friendship to know that most of them don't last long - I used to vouch for my high school friends, saying dumb things like "friendship forever". Well, let's just say we're no longer as close as I thought we were.
Many say high school will be the best days of your life, while some vouch for university days. Both taught me new things - things that have molded me to the person I am today, however twisted. And now especially at work, those skills help me through the sometimes unreasonable crowd of feedback.
It was one of those days that I woke up excited, but had this bad feeling in my gut (which I routinely ignore because my intuition is almost always off the mark). My babes and I had a day planned out - lunch, a surprise belated birthday celebration, some assignment work, then perhaps some hookah or drinking later in the night.
So Jasmine and I left a little earlier than the agreed plans to get the birthday presents for Jeanna's belated 21st. I seldom ever take the initiative to get presents for anyone, partly due to the fact that I can never come up with something sensible enough for their liking, and also due to my really limited budget.
Caviar Mini Bar Volume 2 from the caviar manicure brand
I like the packaging.
The beauty junkies will probably know that Ciaté is the manicure brand that is the brand for caviar manicure kits. I purchased it from Sephora, Sunway Pyramid, and it happens to be the most expensive birthday present I've ever purchased in my 20 years of being a human. We also got her something from Victoria's Secret, and a pretty cake from Komugi.
Stripes.
We were to pick Jeanna up from around Paradigm Mall before proceeding to Betty's Midwest Kitchen for our girls-day-out lunch, when stuff happened on LDP. If you're familiar enough with the section of the highway, the right-most lane of LDP around the PKNS Football Club always slows down (for whatever reason). On this day, it did slow down as usual, to around 30-40km/h, then suddenly down to 0.
Chain reaction a.k.a domino effect - what happens when you're driving in a distracted state.
Jasmine hit the breaks in time and stopped a few inches shy of the car in front, but the few behind us weren't so fortunate. I wasn't able to absorb the full impact of the situation, because I almost got thrown out of the vehicle. LESSON: always wear your seat belt. By the time I came to my senses, Jasmine was already out of the car, and I followed with a phone camera.
After some discussion, we agreed to report the incident, and we spent almost an entire afternoon at the police headquarters at Petaling Jaya. Surprisingly, the one with the least damage taken was the one who made the biggest fuss.
Let the feast begin! And I've learned to have my meat with the super fresh eggs!
hen all was done, all of us were craving for lunch. Jeanna was in the mood for sukiyaki buffet, and so to Suki-Ya we headed to.
Sakura (raspberry) layer cake from Komugi. The lightly sweetened layer cake is coated with raspberry-flavored chocolate and decorated with additional chocolate.
15 servings of beef and lamb in total, and a few squirting beef balls (and some icecream) later, we headed to Jeanna's place, where we had more laughs than any other girls had, and had some delicious raspberry layer cake~
Even after going through so much shit through the years, laughing with these girls are always effortless. We can be crazy together, share pretty much everything with each other, and spam each other with love! Pretty sure I'm not gonna ever let go of this bunch - friends mean the world to me, because family has no choice but to put up with you, but friends go the extra mile a voluntarily take your good and your bad. =)
I've noticed that good English isn't much appreciated in the blogging industry.
ANYWAY.
This was at the end of November. The rave was on 30th November.
Raves (or anything related to EDM, for that matter) was something unreachably distant in the past for me. I mean, my mum is almost adamant against clubbing, so anything merely related to that, I didn't really have to hope for, because there wasn't really hope. LOL
On a last-minute whim, I drove myself to a Rock Corner outlet (and also gave myself a chance to rake up Waze points and drive at a constant 60km/h for about an hour) and got myself a ticket to We Love Asia present Avicii, featuring Congorocks, Martin Garrix, BassJackers, and Chukess (local).
The people I went with. Photo cr.: Rovin.
The people I went with were probably the last people I would have imagined to go with to a first rave - my long-time crush (friend) since primary school, and his mates. Not being racist here, but all Indian. I always thought my first clubbing / rave / bar experience would be with my girls...
Apparently, we were really late, but I met a celebrity up close, and made new friends. And smoked a lot ever since "quitting".
Before this, Rovin did tell me I was missing out if I didn't go to a rave at least once. As it happens, he was right. I can't officially say that I'm a rave addict yet, but I can now say I'm addicted to EDM. It was like when I first discovered J-rock and visual kei - 24/7 non-stop, everywhere, all the time.
Before the rave, while waiting for the others.
I'll not go into the details, but the experience was awesome, and I was sober for most of the rave (at least, what we caught since Martin Garrix). BassJackers was awesome, Avicii blew everyone away - a serious night to remember, and the best first rave anyone could ask for.
That was the first night I went home at 4a.m., and it wasn't for assignments.
A while back, I signed up for a one-time baking class via Jasmine via her aunt via a Groupon offer. We scheduled the baking class for 23rd (Friday) and it was pretty much awesome. The offer was MYR98 per person, MYR90 each if you signed up in pairs.
Original price for two persons: MYR480.
We were late due to the stupid traffic congestion EVERYWHERE just because the SMART tunnel was closed due to rain. Very well done, mein government. We arrived half an hour late to the class venue (Excel College pastry kitchen, Millennium Square, Petaling Jaya), as the class just started to go through the introduction of the ingredients for French macaron.
Insightful and fun would be how I would describe the experience. I didn't know there were differences between French and Italian macaron, as well as British and French creme brulee.
Our macarons and my creme brulee!
The creme brulee part was pretty much short, because all we did was measure out the ingredients, and listened as Chef Ang explained the processes - from measurements, to recipe calculation, to egg tempering, and water baths for the actual cooking of the custard. I got to torch my own creme brulee, which was strangely gratifying (and delightfully delicious).
We did the French macarons more than a few times - about a couple of times during the actual class, then spent some time after class to help with the washing and mise en place for the chef's next class. In total I think we made 6-7 batches of cocoa, coffee, and green tea macaron shells, filled with either chocolate ganache, raspberry cheese, or strawberry Chantilly filling.
Star Trip (soy milk, honey, and pearls) from Little Star Cafe.
It was a quick early dinner at Little Star Cafe before heading home, and continuously getting stuck at red lights. I now have a fairly large container of completed French macarons, and some coffee macaron shells that have yet to be filled~
I haven't had a Sunday out with friends in a long time... We headed to Mid Valley at around 14:00 to get some event info for our assignment. And we did, and that was the most mundane part of the day, which took a maximum of, what, 10 minutes? We just needed a couple of photos...
We found Evan and Jeanna in Bershka, and before that they were in MNG. Overall, I'm not a shopping person, especially if a T-shirt costs over MYR30 in a single boutique (and most of the boutiques we visited in that day were expensive places). Which is why I'm partially bitching about my stupid examination timetable which placed two papers in one day, and the exact time when my mum and sister planned another shopping trip to Bangkok...
I had a choice between red, pink, salmon, gray, white, this baby blue, and black. Cropped T-shirt with folded sleevelets from Bershka - MYR18.90 (on sale).
ANYWAYS, I found multicolored crop-tops on sale at Bershka, and I was like "I NEED DIS SO MUCH". My wardrobe has not really been tailored to my body mods yet, so I'm trying to stock up on more cropped pieces. =P The next thing I've to do is to figure out how to wear this...
I discovered that Topshop make-up is pretty inexpensive, especially when you compare it to The Face Shop. (my opinion LOL) Perhaps that'll be my stop the next time I need to restock on cosmetics~ Miss Selfridge, ZARA, and F21 didn't hold much of my interests.
And my hunt for new oversized aviators is still on - my manliness in handling my bags broke my loyal pair from Nichii. F21 and Vincci Accessories had some I wanted, but over my price budget (I'm a freakin' cheapskate) and not really what I'm looking for (I liked the ones with pale pink metallic frames, though).
Plan b.'s menu - a stack of printed papers attached to an embossed wooden board with thick rubber bands.
We had some sort of a late lunch at Plan b. (a place I've never eaten before this, as with a lot of other places). The stuff was ... expensive, but not bad. Service was alright, quality and taste was good; it's just the price that pretty much puts me off - something like dining at Delicious.
Moroccan lamb meatball (spagehettini) - MYR24.00 (subject to service charge and government tax)
I ordered a spaghettini with lamb meatballs in Moroccan style. I can't exactly pinpoint the taste profile, but it had a very nice, smokey, Middle-Eastern spice flavor throughout the pasta. The meatballs were... perfect. The entire dish was complimented by grilled eggplant and grilled cherry tomatoes. Overall: not too oily, not too saucy, but not too dry, either - a perfect balance.
Italian iced coffee - MYR10
The coffee was a rip-off, though... "Italian Iced Coffee". There was no ice (there's a different between a 'cold' drink and an 'iced' drink), and was bitter for my taste. So I took Jeanna's unused simple syrup meant for her lychee lime frosty and sweetened my coffee. Sorry if I killed any coffee-drinking traditions here... =x
Win Aun's Caramel Banana Chocolate Cake.
Win Aun randomly ordered a caramel banana chocolate cake. It just sounds so... calorie-heavy. It looked kinda pretty, garnished with various caramel-coated nuts (almond, walnut,and macadamia, I think), but I didn't have a taste of it.
We spent the rest of the day watching Jeanna shop. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I'm now enjoying a nice dose of Davide Sonar tracks~
I realize that I'm surrounded by wonderful friends. Friends who would worry about me driving recklessly (Jasmine), friends who go with me through thick and thin (so far, Jasmine), and friends who have talent way beyond human normality.
Mahirah left for Adelaide some time ago, after finishing our foundation course, if I remember correctly. During our foundation course, she was one of the bubbliest, most wonderful people ever. Did I mention she does vocal covers? Previously she did a cover for Lee Hi's Rose. Here's a new cover from her. (link to the original song)
I love her covers, especially the emotion that she's able to convey through her voice. Not the Kelly Clarkson voice, but amazing in its own way. I could sit around all day listening to this, because somehow, it's speaking what's in my heart.
For those of you who know me well enough, and if I've shared it with you, I met someone at the end of 2012, and he's been amazing so far. =) I guess you could say this is the song I would send to him (the cover version, mind you, so that I can spread Mahirah's awesomeness!) right now.
Like I said, I'm surrounded with amazingly extraordinary people - all in their own amazing way.
To Mahirah, I'm especially ecstatic about the "I'll love you" part at the chorus. =D
Perhaps I should change my blog name back to Journal of a Procrastinator, because I'm seriously procrastinating way too much at an inappropriate time. I have like 2-3 more pages of a textbook to summarize (again, I shall leave the slandering for a much later time, if it's necessary at all), then I still have to make the slides for it. And this is what I pay RM3k per subject for: a lecturer who only wants us to read from the textbook and slides, and nothing else.
I've been going through a medley of fattening stuff the entire day - Nescafe with extra cream, mee siam with a fried egg for lunch, finished up the soy milk, had some delicious sinful chocolate, mango ice cream for dessert at dinner, and now I'm slowly polishing off an entire bottle (1.5L) of Ribena.
And I told myself when I first registered for the gym membership that I'd never let myself go anywhere near 60kg ever again, and here I am, 58kg. And I was about 55-56kg a couple of weeks ago. Dilemmas... THEY'RE FUCKING EVERYWHERE! Even when I'm deciding which flavor of ice cream to eat. =__=
On a completely unrelated note, check out my friend Maira's cover of Lee Hi's Rose. She's an awesome babe with an awesome voice! She has a SoundCloud page too, I think. Give her your loves!!!
The thing is: we skipped class. Excuse me, but we didn't pay you to read from the slides. And if we're not supposed to take notes while you're reading off the slides, then WHAT'S THE POINT IN ATTENDING CLASS?! I could very well read the slides at home by myself without having to listen to you recount your youth for the 1358th time, thank you very much.
Back to the point: a bunch of us went to Bangsar for sort of a food adventure, I think? I didn't know what the main item on the itinerary was, but I think I'll just call it the Bangsar food trip. =D
Quinie and Sindee gave us a lift there (6 persons in total), and we first visited the First Impressions Beauty Salon for some *ahem* brow threading. The process was an eye-opening experience, since I've never seen it before. It's basically the same as using tweezers, but faster, and a little more dangerous (risk of cutting the skin).
Nirvana Maju was our destination for lunch. For those of you who don't know, there are only certain mamak restaurants which serve banana leaf rice, and it also depends on whether they make good banana leaf rice.
I had my rice drowned in dhall curry, with two extra pieces of radish. The condiments from left: deep fried battered bitter gourd, pumpkin mash, and cucumber salad.
Basically, the rice and condiments (curry, deep fried battered bitter gourd, etc) are served on a cleaned sheet of banana leaf, which adds to the flavor of everything you put on it. For an even better eating experience, ditch the cutlery and use your hand (traditionally, only the right hand is used)!
We walked around some outlets, with rejected Burberry, Calvin Klein, Juicy Couture, and other branded items. Just not my kind of shopping. As it is, I go to point A to get item A, and get out, usually missing out a lot of other awesome stuff.
High tea has never been included in my itinerary throughout 20 years of my life, and while this doesn't constitute as a proper high tea (comparing with information I got from friends), the cakes were delicious. Some people may know the popular (but expensive) patisserie called Les Deux Garçons (Google translates this as "two boys"), which is popular for their delicious macarons.
The display counter offered a variety of cakes, mousses, and pastries (I saw different varieties of eclairs), as well as a pretty display of French macarons. Four cakes made it to the table...
From the mint green one clockwise: wasabi macaron, vodka lime, green tea, salted caramel, truffle, and all topped with a cherry macaron. The truffle macaron has some gold dust on it...
Macarons never really made it to my favorite foods list, but the macarons from LDG made my list... Crispy, fresh, delicious creamy filling, and all without getting too chewy.
Gold flakes. On a cake. Which costs RM14 a slice... Most luxurious cakes I've ever had...
The cakes were awesome, too... Too bad they're so expensive, but you pay for a decadent dessert experience!
Refer to this post for some background information. And by the way, no bashing on guys using make-up. I mean, c'mon, basically every male celebrity has some make-up on them. So please - I don't comment on how cynical your logic is, you don't bash my friend for doing what he likes. =)
So now that Kah Yeng and Ken Min has their make-up, it's time for some practical work. Sure, you could explain a million things to anyone, but if you don't really do it (especially that make-up has to adapt to different features), you won't learn.
After a nice lunch at Padi House (bland cappucino ice, and the usual pesto fondue grilled chicken), and a stop at Chatime for some drinks, we went back to my place. Pulled out the low table in the TV room, and I started moving every piece of make-up I had up to that table (too bad I didn't get a picture...).
I think it would be safe to say that my entire vanity is more than both of their make-up combined. But no worries, when one gets the hang of make-up (of course, along with the interest in the art), they'll start getting temptations to raid every single cosmetics store everywhere. I still get pangs of them when I pass by M.A.C, shu uemura, even just the cosmetics rack at Daiso...
I think we spent a good 4 hours - just experimenting, sharing opinions, and basically anything you could do with make-up (except Jigglypuff-esque face paint). This is what I came up with:
Look quite similar because of the wing...
Something more like a random demo-ish thingy that happened, but on my right eye I did a basic brown smokey eye, with lightly arched brows, spot-concealed under-eye circles, and sheer red lips. On the left is more like a Korean liner look, with straight and thick brows, along with full coverage foundation, and nude lip gloss.
Left: smokey; right: Korean-style.
For the smokey look:
Apply base, then a wash all over the lid with a champagne shadow with a pink undertone.
Neutral brown over the lids, then gradually build up the color to the desired intensity. Move from medium to darker browns (black, if using).
Key to this look with the blending, so take some time to go over the harsh lines and soften them for a smouldering effect.
Line eyes with eyeliner of your choice (waterlines as well!)
Curl them lashes and hold their perk with mascara.
I took one band of a false lash, cut it in half, and applied it to the outer corner as demi-lashes. Remember to blend the real and false lashes together!!!
Trace over the spine of the false lashes to blend, winging out if desired.
Fill in brows with a slightly stronger hand, arching the brow a little more for that sexy, questioning eyebrow. =D
I just used some foundation on the under-eye circles (hence the red splotches).
Contour the nose, temples, cheeks, and jawline.
I used a shimmery translucent powder to highlight the C-zone (slightly above the brows, down to the cheekbone, and very lightly under the eye), and bridge of the nose.
Finish off the look with either a nice nude color, or make it more dramatic with an eye-catching color (I used red, but a burgundy would give a more gothic feel).
For the Korean look:
Apply base, then a wash all over the lid with a vanilla color (this will help even out the color of your eyelids).
Use gel or liquid liner, start tracing out your line. Make it thick, and pull it straight out (no wing).
Slowly thicken and darken the line, and connect the top and bottom: from the end of your eyeline extension, draw a tapering line toward the middle of the lower lashline. Fill it in.
Set with a black powder, and smoke out the harsh line if you wish (which I did).
Curl and mascara!
Straighten and thicken your brows. I noticed Korean pop stars usually don't match their brows with their hair color, so use a dark brown or gray (no blacks). If you have an arch, try darkening the area below the arch to bring it down slightly.
Foundation all over for that flawless-looking skin.
Contour the nose, temples, cheeks, and jawline.
Highlight at the bridge of the nose, an inverted triangle at the apple of your cheek, and lightly on the C-zone. This will give that glowing look.
Finish off with a pale pink or nude lip color.
While the smokey eye look pretty much just plays with the color and blending to create a sultry effect, the Korean-style eyeliner actually stretches the eye horizontally, lengthening it, and thus giving the illusion of a slightly smaller, but mesmerizing gaze.
Even with my fringe down, it's quite obvious how the different styles of make-up produces different effects.
To be honest, I prefer the Korean liner look over the smokey look. Maybe it's because I've always liked more dramatic looks, and I've done the smokey eye in so many colors that it's become a TEENY bit boring (but it's still the classic go-to look, and the easiest to create).
And the style of the make-up... The typical smokey eye focuses on pulling the corner of the eye upwards, lifting it visually with the blurred shadow. The Korean eyeliner style pulls the eye outwards horizontally.
After I did mine, I did Ken Min's eyeliner. First was pencil, because he only had pencil liner (I find that it's the best to start with, compared to liquid and gel). Basically just tightlined his upper lashes, then a little bit on the lower waterline. Especially that his eye crease is higher (more eye space visible), just that subtle darkening at the roots of the lashes made his eyes look even more animated. Then he wanted to try liquid eyeliner...
Bad lighting and editing, but you can see the subtle lines (I extended the liquid eyeliner by about 1-2mm). And here he is enjoying some homemade black sesame ice cream.
I tried doing a smokey eye for Kah Yeng with black shadow, but it turned out... a little lacking in SOMETHING. And since I used black, her fine lashes were not really visible. MORE PRACTICE!!! And until then, ciao! A fashion post coming up soon, as soon as I organize everything!!!
