Tuesday, February 25, 2014

"Pindah je lah London"

... that's what my dad said when I told my parents I was in London for the weekend. I love the city but I don't think I can ever pindah there! Makes me so stressed looking at all the people speed walking everywhere. I LOVE the hustle bustle of the city; makes you feel so alive and busy. But I don't think I can deal with that every single day. Bristol is so chilled, I instantly feel calmer when I'm back here.

Anyway. I went to London for the Pixar Philharmonic show at the Royal Albert Hall. We were like 2 minutes away from missing the first part of the show, which was the music for Toy Story. Basically, they had a screen above the orchestra and the music was played live which was beautiful. Blown away!  I had chills up and down my spine everytime they played something from my childhood days. I haven't watched Brave or Wall-E yet so eventhough the music was spectacular, I had no real attachment to the music and/or movie. But when they played scores from Toy Story 1/2/3, Up, Finding Nemo, A Bugs Life, Monsters Inc., I couldn't stop smiling because they were all so familiar and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Once a Disney kid, forever a Disney kid. It was so nice seeing parts and bits of the movies because it's been a while since I last watched them. And they ended it with the score for 'You've Got A Friend In Me' in which the audience went quite wild (read: excited. No one really gets """wild""" at a philharmonic orchestra lol).

And yes, I cried when the music from Up played. Because they showed the love story that beats all other love stories out there!!!!! It was so sad and so much sad feels. This grown up man behind me also totally cried!! And of course, the last part of Toy Story 3 when Andy left. Oh my God, be still my heart.




We had amazing seats which just made my first experience at the Royal Albert Hall that much better. Had suchhhh a fun time!


My London trip also consisted of gelato eating and lots of laughs with Diy.





My next trip would be for....



..... BEYONCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH SO MUCH EXCITEMENT RUNNIN IN MY BODY!!!!!

Friday, February 21, 2014

Werk

I long for the day where Malaysia turns to be more accepting of a career in the arts and not dismiss them as being simply "Nak kerja jadi apa? Boleh dapat duit ke?"

I've always thought that if every one could have that option of doing something they're passionate about, how much more colourful would the world be.

We'd have more musicians, painters, writers and directors. We'd be that much happier with our choices. We'd probably be living off crap income but imagine waking up and being excited to go and work.

I have a friend who was supposed to come to the UK to study law but she'd make SUCH a great director (I bet my bottom dollar she's as good, if not better, than most Asian directors out there) because she's been responsible for directing her Bangsawan production and the videos she's been responsible for have all been top notch. She's responsible for producing the first Topaz video where it put the benchmark way way up top for the rest of us.

I have a friend who's studying accounting and finance now but has a passion for film and theater and Kaveetha and I would call her IMDB because she basically knows every film and movie out there??? I can see her writing screenplays and directing it and acting in it all at once.

I have a friend who's still quite undecided with what she wants to do in the future but if she could take her illustrating skills to the next level, I reckon she'd be hella successful. Imagining starting a company that specialises in illustrations and artsy fartsy things and putting them on paper and properly selling them. She could be the next Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co. !

It's pretty fun to think what people would really want to do if money was not an issue. If we had no worries and the future was secured financially, I wonder if we would go ahead and turn that hobby and passion into a proper career. I would. I'd dump everything and invest my time and money into something I get excited for. Work won't be work anymore, would it? You'd be volunteering to work longer hours and you'd happily stay back and finish the job. You'd sacrifice your holidays and you find yourselves blurring the lines of business and pleasure.

Sure, money is essential and to be living a comfortable life, you'd need to be doing a job that generates a good level of income and climbing that ladder of success is a tough and long one. But man, how mundane life would be to do a 9-5 job doing something you were only pushed to doing because of societal pressure.

But when an individual puts their heart and soul into something that they're passionate and enthusiastic about, I have every reason to believe that they'll be more happy and joy going around in this world. With God's blessing, there's really no excuse why you won't be successful doing your favourite thing in the world. You'd strive and work the hardest you can to accomplish something you love.

I long for the day where when asked "Nak kerja apa buat tu? Boleh dapat duit ke?", we will be able to answer with every ounce of confidence in our being, our accomplishments in tow. So what if we don't get as much money out of it, at least you know you're doing something you've always wanted to do and as long as your heart is full and content. Besides, who's to say you won't be successful if you put all your effort into it. InsyaAllah, God gives His blessings to those who strive for what they want to do.



Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Spend And Sensibility

I'm in such a great mood today because the weather was so nice and sunny. There was no rain, no wind; just good ol' warm sunshine. I love how it's not already dark by 4:30 pm now. I've grown to be more grateful for the sun since I got here. I'll probably complain about how hot it'll be when I come home but for now, I really miss warmth and selipar jepun.

I have some plans for the Spring and Summer time; including my sister !!!!! If all things go well, Tania will be coming here to visit me! I haven't seen family in SO long so I'm really really really looking forward to my sissy's company.

Sometimes I feel like Tania is the elder sister because she's so annoyingly sensible all the time. Sometimes I'd have to hide my shopping because she'd go on an endless rant about how I'm wasting money and I really didn't need another black blouse. And she can back most of her arguments because she's so thrifty and I'm so not! Thing is, we share clothes anyway so I always see my shopping as a form of good investment. And if you split the cost of something in half, it's not really that bad. And so concludes my argument for the motion why This House Believes Buying Another Black Blouse Can Be Seen As A Smart Investment in The Long Run.

So I was out in the city the other day and routinely went into Topshop and found this really sick snake-patterned top in which I snapped a photo of me trying it on and sent it to Tania. Kind of like me asking permission from my sister rather than from my mum which is bizarre.


........... But it was really nice...............


Thursday, February 13, 2014

Phoenix

So I went to my first concert here.

PHOENIX!!!!!!!!! I've only started listening to them a few years ago from their song 'Rome' but it didn't take long for me to get hooked on them. I was BEYOND excited when I knew they were making their way to London. Naturally, I got tickets with Sofia and on Wednesday morning, we got the bus to London all the way singing to Phoenix's songs and getting hyped up.

Unfortunately, London decided to be really really annoying with its tube strike. Lemme tell you, the tube strike is seriously effective and I think people realise just how important it is to us commuters. We had to resort to the bus but the traffic in central London was so crap that what could have been a 15 minute walk turned into a 40 minute bus ride. Ridiculous!! I'm going to forever and ever avoid London during a tube strike.

Anyway, moving on! We reached the venue just 15 minutes before Phoenix showed up which was ace. We got pretty close to the stage as well which was cool because I never thought I'd be the type to be in the standing pit of a concert. But I just had to!

Sofia and I went pretty wild when the band came out. Screamed and jumped and sang to the songs and just occasionally looking at each other and saying things like

"OMG WTF THIS IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
or
"WEI TAK LAWAK BEST DIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hahahahaha if you're anywhere near a Phoenix fan, you would have LOVED the whole show; the lights, the songs, the music, the singing. Thomas Mars SLAYED the whole show throughout. Bloody brilliant!







Soooo good; they sang all my favourite songs and then some! Everytime I think about it, it gives me a certain high. The show was seriously so good and I'm so glad that this was my first proper concert; what could have been better?

My next concert is in March and it'll be freaking Beyoncé. I know right, I still can't quite believe it. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm going with my 2 Beyoncé MEGAFANS! Cannot imagine a night any more fun than that!

Stayed in London for a bit after that because I had no classes in Bristol. I always love London so it's always really fun to be there; despite the whole tube strike ordeal.

Spent some quality Diy time at Oxford Circus for some lunch and for some window shopping. Had Ben's cookies which were out of this world. Of course I took the orange chocolate cookie. So good, man! I shall make it a point to makan that whenever I'm in London.

Sat at St Christopher's Place and devoured our cookie and talked like ol' times. Missed her quite a whole lot so it was a really really great evening.





xx