Clothes Shopping

I managed to convince Shuv to accompany me to try out some dresses in FCUK. I've tried quite a few dresses (Shuv too) for a friend's wedding this coming September. I plan to wait for the next season before buying something. Meanwhile, I'm showing the pictures I took. Please try your best to ignore my rounder self. Thank you.

This was worn by the mannequin and I liked it but somehow it looked different on me :(

Different colour combination. I think it was a little oversized.

I was looking for a dress with the same pattern but different cutting but it was not in the shop. So for the sake of trying the colours and design, I put this one on.

It's got a little strip of cloth to tie around the waist

This was really sweet. But a slightly over the budget by £30.

Look so slim hor...hehehe...it's just a trick of the eyes though...

One of my favourites. A bit oriental. :)

Another favourite because it was very comfortable to fit in.

Slightly loose on the top but tight on the bottom :(

Fiery colour, a daring try.

Bare shoulders short dresses are in the season now

I quite like the sewn design on the little dress

Since we were in a shopping mood, we decided to try out some MORE dresses at Warehouse. No, I'm not planning to buy anything from there, but just to try, try only, PERIOD.

It looked better on the mannequin. I didn't do this dress justice.

Oh, this purple thing was pretty! I like :D

Summer dress for the season

So, what do you think?

A Tribute to Friends

As you may have already known, I've been quite caught up with a few things this week viz exams, parties, new subject, preparatory work, court visits, job applications and OLPAS applications, which explains my lack of updates.

I've just read some pretty dramatic blogposts online and I can somehow relate to that. Basically, the story is of how someone wrote something, intending it to be a joke, but ending up hurting someone. It's a common issue and so happened I encountered this similar problem recently.

I've always been aware that I'm a loud, too-outspoken-for-my-own-good person. Since an incident when I was 13, I found out I was too blunt and way too much into myself. I had to consciously remind myself to be considerate and think twice before making a comment.

Unfortunately, it's never easy to change and after all these years, I'm still struggling to be a better person. Less vicious, more polite, more respect for others and more grateful. I always find myself regretting the things I said to others at the end of the day before I go to bed and wished I've just kept quiet. Sometimes, I succeed in shutting my big mouth but most of the time, I fail.

At those times when I fail, I hurt the people most important to me. Worse, I don't realise the mistake I made till it's too late. You see, people don't really tell you: "Do you know what you did was horrible?" Instead, we choose to distance ourselves from that horrible person and keep it in our hearts. Consequently, the friendship fails. I admit, I am guilty of that too. That's why, I always strive to forgive those who treated me awful because I believe they were not aware of it and I know I was guilty too.

But I'm very glad, that since 13, I've met honest and daring friends who are willing to risk the comfortable friendship and point out my faults. It's always difficult to swallow my weaknesses. It's difficult to acknowledge that "I am that horrible person". But it's true, there are many times in my life, that I was the horrible person. And the only way to change it is to acknowledge and repent.

I sincerely thank my dear friends who guided me through my faults and moulded me into a better person. It's through them that I am who I am. I would not have come this far if not for you. Please continue to confront me. I appreciate it very much because I know the reason you do it is because you love me and want to be my friend. And I want to be you to be mine too.

XOXO

The Way

Where, what and how?

Muffins

It has been stressful though it's just the beginning of the week. I had 2 paper exams consecutively since Monday. By the time I came back in my room after lunch, I was exhausted. Moreover, it's the time of the month and I drank a glass of iced water during lunch because I was too thirsty to bother *pain* :(

The only thing to cheer myself up after the exam was muffins!!! I bought them from Waitrose *hearts* yesterday evening. Only 30p each. I bought 3, one for each flavour. It's a special treat for two reasons:

1. Exam mah~
2. I visited Waitrose religiously everyday for the past three days and nice pastries weren't on sale so I didn't buy anything (except a pitiful poppy seed bread once).

The lovely darlings *hugs*

My favourite!! Oh, the chocolate chunks~

Blueberry

Carrot, pineapple and nuts

A moment of perfect bliss

Waitrose Raspberry Puff

I bought this cute little pastry from Waitrose yesterday. Waitrose's bakery section reduces its prices after 7pm for most of the pastries and bread. The best time to go is about 7.30pm because that's when they really put up more reduced prices for pastries.

Raspberry puff (so cute >_<)

Only £0.15 each. I bought 3 :D

First Debit Card Transaction

Today I had two firsts. One, I made a post by Registered Delivery (costs me £5!!) to send my application for Call Night. Second, because I didn't have enough cash with me, I had to pay by card.

I've always avoided paying by card because it just doesn't feel the same as seeing the solid paper money leaving my hands into the hands of another. It doesn't even show how much I have left in my bank account. No figures except for a receipt, which shows the amount charged.

That's why, I never knew how to pay by card. I made some silly mistakes at the post office and therefore I'm writing my experience here for the benefit of anyone to avoid making the same. Back in Malaysia, we pass the card to the cashier, who will then print out some sheets of paper to be signed and returned. Done. Here, it's different. No signature needed.

Firstly, the cashier will pass you a little machine with number and buttons on it. What you need to do is slot in your card (the slot area is on top of the machine) with the black line (at the back of the card) facing upwards on the left (total opposite from slotting the card into the cash machine, why they make these things so complicated???? And there's no instructions to show you which way is the right way!!!!!). Slot it hard until you feel a slight click. 

Then, press the green "ENT" button on the bottom right corner. Wait. Insert your 4 coded password. Press the green "ENT" button again. Wait. It should then display "Successful". Collect the receipt from the cashier.

The mistake I made was pressing the red "CAN" button on the top right corner after inserting my password. I didn't read the instructions properly and I thought "CAN" means "can" lah! But to my embarrassment, the transaction failed because "CAN" actually means "cancel" so I had to do it all over again :/

To You Who Feels Stuck

You think you could have done more, you think you are going nowhere. You wonder what life is all about and what else is there installed for you. You are aware that there are more to life than this but you are afraid to make a change. You are basically stuck in between "going for it" and "just be contented".

Let me tell you this: you will never feel contented because you know life must hold more wondrous things for you than this. Don't waste your time agonising in this "stuck" period. Life is too short to wait. Move it! Buck up! If you don't do something now, you will never do anything. Time flies by just like that and all of sudden you'll realise it's too late.

This is the time. Now or never. Life doesn't wait. It continues, whether you lived it or not.

DIY Fringe Cut

I've been itching to cut my fringe slightly shorter. My hair is so boring and so am I. Yesterday, while talking to Bf on Skype, I decided to grab a pair of scissors and snap of some hair off.

First, grab some hair and pull it over to the front.

Start from the bottom, in case it turns out horrid.

First snap. It was still too long so I decided to cut more.

It took me less than 15 minutes to finish cutting the front. I've always had side parting so it's quite easy to cut. This is the end result:

Right. I prefer this side.

Left

Centre. So chubby :(

Chocolate + Yogurt

This yogurt was first recommended to me by my flatmate, Titi. Ever since, I've been craving for it but because of the price, I've only managed to buy it once. I enjoy eating yogurt, especially fruity yogurt, but this is even better than any normal yogurt because it has CHOCOLATES!

Mind you, it's 50p each :O

Yogurt at one side and chocolate biscuits at another

Fold the container and pour the chocolate biscuits into the chilled yogurt

Woopie!

There you go...

Grab a spoon and start mixing

Make sure the chocolate biscuits are evenly spread out. This is a crucial step because you want to ensure every mouthful has chocolate bits in it.

yum yum~

Loughborough

I had the best weekend in UK last week at Loughborough. It's a little town about 20 minutes train ride from Nottingham (roughly £10). It felt like going back to Ipoh, laid back and extremely relaxed. I stayed at Sek Hao's place where Sainsbury's is just a minute away and the town is just round the corner.

I attended Sunday mass at St Mary's in Loughborough. It is situated 5 minutes away from Sek Hao's place. The morning was perfect for a short walk. St Mary has a small congregation of mainly children and elderly members of the community. The church building has a modern design, a bit like SFX back home. I like!

The altar: It's interesting that they had the statue of Mother Mary beneath the Cross. Normally, there's only Jesus on the Cross in the altar.

The pillars outside St Mary's. Lovely spring sunshine~

I visited the town with Shuv, Sek Hao and Shu Yee (Shuv's sis). We strolled through a nearby park on the way. If I stay here, I promise to run in the park one round once a week. It's really pretty and because it's spring, the flower beds were blooming! Unfortunately, the wind was quite strong that day, else I'd like to spend some time rolling on the green green grass, Bollywood-style.

Everyone, meet Shu Yee!

We're suddenly in Japan!

We came across Coombs' bakery on the way. Chris, we NEED discounts!

*There's an accessories shop on the same row, which I really liked because it's so pretty and cheap, but I was too broke to buy anything*

One of the things in my "must-do" list is to visit this legendary tasty-yet-cheap-cheesecake-shop known as... The Cheesecake Shop (-____-"). They sell the BEST cheesecake for such a minimal price! Generally in UK, a normal cake costs somewhere around £30 (most of the time it's a lot more than that) but here, a whole cheesecake is around £10!

How can we not camwhore in THE Cheesecake Shop...

Ah, tastes of heaven~

We bought 2 different flavours: Mango and Mississippi cheesecake :q Their cheesecake was sooooo goooood! It'll be even better if they use fresh mangoes but ah well, this is UK after all~

On Sunday, Shuv and I spent sometime baking! We made Portuguese eggtarts and strawberry muffins (No pics for muffins because I was too busy eating to take pics). Although I used the word "we", it's more like "she" because I didn't do much. Baking is quite fun when done with friends :) The smell of freshly baked pastries is absolutely heavenly~

See, I helped press the dough on the tray. The dough is sold in Sainbury's, don't have to make it from scratch hah!

Shuv preparing the contents for the eggtarts

Accomplished!

Freshly baked Portuguese Eggtarts. We made 2 batches of them, I ate so much! :D

No, it's not the way it seems, I didn't finish the entire tray on my own. (I know what you're thinking!)

We spent hours playing Scrabble and one round of Cranium. Gosh, the Too-sisters are good at Scrabble! I didn't even come close to their scores. Oh, Shu Yee and I won for the game of Cranium :D Shuv and Sek Hao was on the lead but we overtook them halfway through, hehe...

That's Shaheer, Sek Hao's housemate, who is awesome~

Scratching my head trying to figure out how to draw "lie detector". I still don't know how. Any ideas?

A random shot. That's the couch I sleep on when I'm there. It's quite comfy and warm :) And Shu Yee's face is blue, hehehe...

Our dinners were prepared by Sek Hao. He's got excellent culinary skills okay~ *hint Bf* He made paella and roasted chicken with vegetables for the first night. And the second night we had pasta with Cajun chicken. So delicious I tell you! I helped him stir the paella. XP

The chicken before roasting.

Pasta and Cajun chicken. The chicken was so nice loh~ I want to buy that Cajun thingy.

Happy satisfied me

That night, we went out to Reiley's for pool. Oh, how I miss playing pool! I used to play pool with Bf before we got together. Brings me fond memories of the past :) It didn't feel like I was UK, I thought I was home when I was playing.

Pool centers are universal. Looks the same anywhere.

Camwhored with the Too-sisters :D

I think I'll go to Loughborough again very soon. I must visit Chris and Estelle at their new home and Digby, their lovely fat cat! Loughborough is such a peaceful place to be in. No wonder Shuv calls it a second home. This time, I'm going to bring my Young Persons Railcard with me, humph!