Sitting in a Teacup

Lucky much?

2009-08-29T08:30:00.001-07:00

Okay, how could I have forgotten this. It's a story. A story that I could tell to my children and my children's children and their children's children's children. Well, not really. But it's a story nonetheless.

It all began on a mundane Tuesday morning, when all seemed well. After lunch, I headed towards the lecture theater, deciding to take a detour off to the restroom before attending class, since Peggy was heading there as well.

All was well.

Until my handphone dropped into the toilet.

It dropped with a few hollow clangs, each one reverberating along with the pain in my heart as I yelled "Oh my God!" to the whole world (actually just the whole female toilet), disappearing into the disgusting depths, never to be seen again.

I wasn't making a call. I wasn't even texting or... whatever you can do with your phone in the toilet. That's just so unhygenic. I left it in my pocket and it fell out. Just like that. Straight down and bye bye.

That was it: my barely six month old phone was lost in the stinky bowels of the university sewage system.

On a side note, I wouldn't have known whether to laugh or cry if the toilet started singing "Run" by Leona Lewis.

Anyway I've gotten a new phone, courtesy of my mum who didn't nag me too much about losing the almost-new phone.

Ta-da. The new phone.

And I'm gonna probably spend some time next week choreographing a dance with my partner in which I'm the guy for an upcoming dinner and dance thingy we're having. Who says life isn't interesting? =)

Lack of updates, meh?

2009-08-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

It took me about three tries to get my username and password right... but here I am! At least it's the internet, not the ATM machine. I would've gotten my card chewed up already.

And... it's kinda sad to say that I can't seem to think of anything interesting to blog about even though my last post was ages ago. Everything's been pretty routine and busy at the same time. Wake up, go to lectures, hang around with my friends, go home, do some work/stuff/whatever I feel like doing at that time, sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat. I guess some outings, dance class and church would be how I fill my weekends. What is life? Workload may be annoying at times, but still, I think life's treating my fairly well at the moment.

Oh yes, I've been facebooking a lot recently. A lot comparatively to last year whereby I log in to receive an event invitation that passed a month ago. Yes, I was that bad. But now I have joined the social network that the whole world's addicted to! Besides, it's also a useful tool for stalking... mean, keeping in touch with what's going on with my friends. It's also a source for a lot of casual games to waste your time with... which is sort of evil even though I still seem to be going back to it again and again. Facebook is teh ebil.

Current goals:
1. To not get any fatter than I am now
2. To learn how to use Adobe Illustrator and improve my graphic designing skills
3. To maintain my grades
4. To try to not let myself down as well as other people

And thus this concludes my pictureless update.

Introverted? Soda!

2009-03-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

I like to have a little time to myself... which is why I aptly named this blog "sitting in a teacup" I guess. Sitting in the cup and looking up to the world, thinking and reminiscing.

I've been tired for the past week. I realised that "tired" has been popping up in my blog a lot, haha. But seriously I'm the kind of person who needs 9 hours of sleep a day to function properly. I like going out once in a while, and I'm seriously spoiling for some proper shopping soon. Yet, I like being kind of free yet scheduled. Planned, not so spontaneous. Makes me feel secure and content, in that sense. God knows how many of my friends have made me from the rigid, pissed-off, omg-I-must-follow-my-schedule-to-the-second into a middle ground of kind of planning but if it doesn't go it's ok person. And I really thank them for that. Don't know what I'll do without you. But then again I guess I can't really cross over to the 99% spontaneous side because that's just not in me.

I'd like some time to read some really interesting books. Haven't gotten around to reading anything that's not fiction crime related or cheap with Popular's discount card. Something like kite runner and life of pi or stuff like that. It's been a while. And God only knows why I need my weekend shooting zombie sessions to destress, haha. Assignments, dance practice (oh, let it be april 9th please soon), reading, socialising... loads of fun, but it drains me out totally as well. I guess this makes me an introvert. Born an introvert, is and introvert, always will be an introvert.

For some very very weird reason I've been craving soda. I don't really go for soda usually, maybe once in a while... And even if I crave something cold it's usually non-carbonated.

SODAAAAs!!

Life is like a can of soda, you never know when it's gonna fizz over.
Life is like soda, it's sweet... except when it goes up your nose.
The good things in life are like soda, it's sweet, but man, can it seriously fuck you up.

And yes, I made those up. Must be the lacking of sugar. Or yay I can get a sugar-high without sugar? xD

Hah! Am i updating?

2009-03-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last post.

Yes, I vaguely remember still having a blog that requires updating.

The holidays were long. Long enough for me to settle into one of those vegatative states that you really don't want to bring yourself out of and drag your sorry ass back to actually doing things. Being back has been quite a whirlwind of activities for me, what with socialising and dancing and uni and socialising more. I'm happy to be around people and having fun, just that I seem to be in a perpetually sleepy state for the past week doesn't help a lot. Blame it on the oversleeping during the holidays zzzzz...

I like dancing. I love my great friends who happen to be in dancing as well. I need to work on my dancing. I've always wished that I had better motor skills... ever since I was young I think. That was random, I know but just because it's been on my mind for the past few days, so I thought I'll just... write it down.

Anyway CNY's come and gone, Valentine's come and gone, and here we all are in March 2009. That was fast. I'm starting to feel old. And that got me thinking about the phases of life. You don't really think about working for your living and earning your own money much when you were in high school, at least, not me. Somehow when you reach that certain age then thoughts of your future start flooding in, and the best/worst part is you're seeing it happen - people going out to work, looking for jobs, prepping you for interviews and communicating skills, having steady relationships, marrying, getting cars and houses... It's just natural, isn't it? I mean about what we do. What everyone does. We just follow what "life" is: getting education, graduating, working, having a family, etc. Or is it just a trend of survival?

Or is it just as simple as "going with the flow"?

Whichever it is, I'm thankful to be where I am right now. I know it sounds cheesy, but I guess life is a journey. It's not really about when you are getting there or what we're going to do when we do "get there" and whether there even is a "there" for you to get to... it's about just getting there.

And I think maybe some of us, but definitely me, needs to remember to enjoy the view while it lasts because you can't really see the very same thing ever again along the journey.

I'm back? For the moment at least.

2008-12-17T03:21:00.000-08:00

Since someone kindly pointed out to me that I was letting the blog die a slow deteriorating death, I decided to give it a little breath of life. I was quite enthusiatic about blogging about my Egypt trip actually, planning out two posts: one being a guideline of the actual trip and the other being my thoughts about the trip. I even saved it in a file called "blogegpyt.docx". Seriously.

Then I got lazy.

The day when I got back from Egpyt, I gave myself a bit of slack - I mean, I just arrived, sleep-deprived in some stinky clothes I wore and sweated in and just recovering from "mummy's tummy" which I gratitously picked up while there. It was either the cheese or the salad veggies, methinks. Ah well. Anyway, first day... no, first two days, actually, I ended up sleeping most of the time. Then it was dance class and going out with friends and spending money on fattening dinners and getting home around midnight.

Okay, so why didn't I bother updating when I got back to Sabah then?

I totally blame it on the games. Not the casual puzzle games that you can finish in a few hours, but those long-winded RPGs and First Person Shooters that I can't get around to playing during non-holidays because this is what happens:

-On holiday-

Me: Oh yay, crisis core is a really great game! ( few hours non-stop gaming)

-Semester starts-

Me: I feel like playing, but I have to finish this crap assignment, or sleep... sleeping sounds nice.

(Sleeps)

Me: Let's play! Oh crap forgot to charge it.

(Charges)
(Sleeps)

Me: Let's play!

(An hour later)

Me: Why am I where I started? What the hell am I supposed to do now again? Crap, I forgot everything. (Gets fed up and sleeps)

Me: Okay, I'm free-ish tonight, lemme play some.

(An hour later, looks at the clock)

Me: What?! I just beat a tinsy-winsy little boss! That took one hour! Damnit I really need to sleep.

(Sleeps)

And hence, I tend to be able to complete games during the holidays only. So I love to make full use of it.

You know what, I blame it on everything except me (although I'm blaming it mainly on laziness, does that count as "me" or another entity entirely? haha). And to compensate for the lack of the long, lovely holiday post, here's a picture of the pyramids - I TOOK IT WITH MY OWN CAMERA. SRSLY.

Whee, the pyramids of Giza!

Anyway to sum up the trip: very very interesting, loved the history even though I wasn't a history buff at all, hot down south around Luxor, not a place to go for fun but rather more for experience. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the trip, but it's not exactly the place to go for kids, or if you're looking for someplace to unwind and have spas... or maybe go to amusement parks and shop and things like that. The culture is rich and so different and the ancient civlisations are amazing though.

So I'm taking up a month's job at my cousin's firm at the moment. Growing sideways, trying to stop eating and complaining about being fat but still refuses to go exercise. And apparently losing a bit of my sanity - judging from the way I wrote this post, haha.

Exams are over? Like, really?

2008-11-12T04:53:00.000-08:00

I'm back here to bore you with details of my life, haha. We'll start with a short and sweet recap of the melaka trip we embarked upon after our exams. I'll spare you the excruciating details =p

We took two cars to malacca, and guess what, both drivers were the guys and they had the responsibility of driving their dad's cars. Jo male's mum mentioned something about the two 'dum dum's tagging along as the girls' drivers. Don't worry, we appreciate you guys -- as great drivers and cameramen =p. Poor johnson even had to become a handbag rack for us when the girls were taking their photos.

Anyway it was overall a great trip, even though I don't think I have recovered from my sleep deprivation yet as of now, haha. On the first day we had fish head noodle soup around Jo male's place before leaving towards malacca. Arriving there -- after a while of turning around in the jam and the one-way streets -- we managed to make it to the town centre where all the tourist attractions were. Visited the usual Stadhuys, Christ Church of Melaka which was unfortunately under renovation, and took a trishaw ride around to see the sights.

So, this is a photo of day one -- the only photo, I think, that has all of us in it. The guys had fun taking pictures with the cannons there *ahem*. Went to the supermarket to get us some groceries.

Then we headed down to Muar, where Peggy's grandma kindly lent us her uncle's empty house to wreck, i mean, stay in. We all decided beforehand to do a steamboat thingy so the moment we got there we had to prepare all the food and ting's multi-purpose cooker.

Do note the amount of cabbage sitting there. Tijo, you sure got your fill of A LOT of vege. As usual, we bought too much food and ended up finishing the vegetables by playing the "killer-spy-civillian" card game thingy and using it as punishment. Alcohol, check; water, check; this was seriously the first time I've done it with vegetables of all things! Hahaha.

On the second day we drove down to A' Famosa to do all the touristy things. Paid RM38 for the animal safari thing where they lock you in a caged trunk to be brought around and seen by the animals in the zoo. Being science people, we just had to make stupid comments about the animals , haha! It was cool, but I had this sad feeling that the animals weren't that well-kept and were stressed, but that's just me. Since we had this huge breakfast at Muar, we decided to drive down to malacca to eat dinner. Had the famous chicken rice ball and strolled along Jongker Street. Then headed to a "satay celup" place to have supper. It was my first time trying it out and I enjoyed it a lot. I think I almost exclusively ate "yao chao guai" -- deep fried dough -- with the sauce.

Woke up around noon on the third day. Had bak kut teh in Muar as lunch before heading back. Johnson had a bit of misfortune with the dad's car, so we got delayed a bit before leaving. We stopped by Port Dickson, per suggestion of Jo, for the beach, and took a load of silly pictures. By the time we reached back we ended up going for dinner in SS2 together before going our seperate ways.

Thanks everyone for making it such a great trip. Wish you were here with us, Crystal, and we did miss having you along!

I'm going on vacation with my family starting tomorrow. I'll try to get souveniers for you all, baggage permitting =) I'll be back in KK around beginning of December to start rotting. That's all for the update of my post-exam life at the moment. Ciao.

Break time?

2008-10-29T05:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

Due to the recent exams and the fact that I'll probably be gallavanting around not-so-aimlessly after the exams, updates will be postponed til later. Does not mean I'm dead (not yet, at least)

Thank you.

-Patricia

What is this life?

2008-10-14T02:55:00.000-07:00

What is this life, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
-Leisure, by W.H. Davies

One of my favourite poems is Leisure, by William Henry Davies. It truely speaks of the society today that seems to be forever chasing that ubiquitious goal of success while feeling unfulfilled in the 24(+3) hours of life they managed to pack in a day.

I feel stressed. We all feel stressed. Maybe it's not more than just another word to toss around these days. 'Oh crap, my car broke down, I'm so stressed. Now I've got to go get it fixed and I'm late for work/uni/whatever already'. Or 'I got a crap mark on my report, I'm so stressed out now'. Or the bus had a flat tire, my wife had a baby, the bus had a baby...

I'm not challenging the fact that we're stressed, nor do I say that there isn't stress in any of those situations. It's just... I feel that where has the simple joys of life gone? Where has the feeling of grass between your toes and catching tadpoles in the drain... or sailing paper boats down the sidewalk... where has it gone?

Instead people go for spas, and relaxation sessions and all. I don't know about you but I'll feel stressed the moment the bill comes. I don't mean to say they don't work. It's just that I feel that we should stop and take a breather sometimes.

Bake a cake. Watch the rain fall outside the window. Read something silly.

I try to tell myself that when you stop and look sometimes, time doesn't run away from you. In reality, it doesn't stop. It doesn't let you cram in that last bit of Chemistry that you can't remember, or let you get more chores or errands done. But do I really want to go through life not feeling pleasure in seeing how the raindrops can race themselves down the glass window pane in such meandering streaks, or how the squares of streetlights race by at night in the car, flickering by like a warm illumination to tell you that you're not alone?

I like that little crook of time to yourself.

And I think standing and staring -- and letting the time pass by, sometimes -- is just fine.

Desktop Wallpapers Post #1

2008-10-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the post about life and thoughts in general didn't materialise. Hopefully the food for thought will come to me soon. BUT, this is what happens when you feel like taking a break in between studying and don't know what to do:

These were made using Adobe Photoshop CS2 and credits to various brushes from deviantart.com and www.obsidiandawn.com. All are for personal use only.

Blue Floral - Full size here

Retro Girl - Full size here

Chinese Panda - Full size here

Awe of Nature - Full size here

Where has the week gone?

2008-10-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

Where has the week gone?

I mean, seriously, where has the week gone?

This few days, and perhaps the following weeks I suppose, would be a hectic rush to cram for the upcoming examinations. And yes I haven't updated because I was a) too tired to think, b) overwhelmed by the amount of stuff to study, c) too tired to think, d) would rather sleep and watch something that requires me not to think, and e) too tired to think.

Yes, I realised I counted "too tired to think" three times.

Anyway, here's the "what has been happening last week" report.

Jo's birthday. We planned very much ahead for the surprise party and it worked! Haha. Jo was so surprised. A few of us conned him into staying back to study, and dragged him out on an errand, only to end up at Yuen Steamboat where the others where there to yell surprise at him. We got him a beanie and *ahem* some gag gift.

This was the apparent lovely, organised way we set about starting the steamboat buffer dinner.

And as you can see here, this was the disaster that resulted in the end. Stacks of plates, chopsticks and debris strewn in almost boiled-dry soup. Yay.

Anyway, Jo, hope you had a great birthday. Rock on, homie! Haha.

I also had lunch with a bunch of my college friends. It's funny that it's so hard for us to get together even if we're in the same city and country. I guess everyone has their own lives and timetables. Went back to Asia Cafe for lunch to enjoy the "noglastic" feeling of being back at our college area, and had dessert at Subang Parade. Then back home to hit the books again. I enjoyed myself. You guys are loads of fun xD

Oh yes, and I joined a walkathon to Go Green. Why I don't know... so just... go green! Woohoo.

Besides studying and complaining about studying, I guess there isn't much else left to "report".

Another post coming up on thoughts and things in life in general =)

What about kids?

2008-10-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

I used to hate kids. I mean, because they used to like me. They like to sidle up to me quietly and watch me at my table like some kind of zoo specimen, or they'll just run around wildly in circles before stopping before me, say something apparently rude or friendly and laugh. In both cases, they would end up with their mothers calling them sharply by their names and they'll run back.

That, sort of freaked me out. I usually don't know what to do except stare at them and smile. It's like I don't have a proper response to them and they are so... unpredictable.

But now, I think kids exude some kind of feeling and emotions inside you that only they can do. Maybe it's their innocence or their sense of awe. I think it's the sense of awe.

People plod through life day by day. Even in uni, we just wake up, stare back up to the same ceiling, do the usual morning routine in the usual place - be it showering, brushing teeth, going through the hassle of dragging an outfit from the closet that hopefully wouldn't look too horrible. Anyway I suppose people do go through days in a sort of a blur, just doing what they need to do, getting to places on time and having lunch and sharing talk with friends. Then you go home and sleep and start all over again.

Kids see things differently, I feel. A small thing to them is a surprise. That mum brought back dessert tonight, or you could stay up 10 minutes later to watch television. Simple pleasures, I think. Or have we lost the awe at discovery because we have nothing to discover anymore? Or is it the burden of organising your own life that you never had as a child?

Also, the frankness of declaring their feelings and attachment. I think, as we get older, we start to get afraid of revealing our feelings, because that gets you judged and might say that you're "weak". Children yell out with suprising gusto and hug you so tightly when they really love you. What ever happened to that as we grew older? We stopped loving? I don't think so. It's just that we get afraid of saying "I love you" because we don't know what's going to happen when you lay your heart out. But kids do that, they tell you when they love you, that they need your touch and reassurance. Even when they hate you they still love you. Do we all really want to be strong by not caring, by looking like you won't be hurt by anything? That means we're independant and strong right, not being attached or caring?

Oh yes, I still think of the kid who got his lollipop stuck in my hair on the plane. That, was not nice.

But really, we should see life more openly, more honestly, I feel. Just one of those thoughts.

What's up?

2008-09-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

It's morning! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and I am curled up in my bed groaning and pulling the covers over my head.

Lovely image.

Been waking up increasingly early these days. I think it's the subconscious feeilng that I need to get up and "do" something, although I usually end up slouching over my laptop and doing some nonsensical, non-productive things anyway. Which is rather ironic because I get sleepy around noon again and continue to be unproductive anyway.

I had fun last night dancing. It didn't rain (According to the Jo-N forecast which insisted that if she says it won't rain, then it won't rain. Wow, dear, you can control the weather!) and we all had a fun time on the rooftop dancing and having barbeque dinner. Michelle had an obsession with the barbequed chicken wings, I found out Jo can really shake his hips, and I felt underdressed. Anyway thanks to everyone for making it happen, and especially to my friends who made the night really fun.

And yes, somehow I was really blue yesterday, as in literally. I wore a blue top and blue yoga pants, then later changed into a blue dress. Reflecting my mood? Haha, depends on how you look at it.

Hm, a week's break for assignments and getting my arse into gear for studying for the finals. I shall punctuate that with some shopping, doing the "blues" and making jokes about sharks. I know this post is rather narcissitic... I guess I'll be more philisophical and deep the next post or something, if I ever get to that stage.

Right now I shall just enjoy the laziness of a Saturday morning.

A Lost Cause?

2008-09-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

I lost my purse yesterday.

Granted, it was my so-called contingency purse. I don't usually like to bring my important stuff like my IC out most of the time, but going out with no ID on me makes me feel nekkid. So I just use a small little purse to put some money, student ID and resident cards, things like that.

And I dropped it. So much for "contingency".

I kept berating myself for being idiotic, how could I have dropped it and so on. I only realised that I dropped it when I was walking through the cafeteria in search of my lunch.

And things only got worse.

I had a fifty ringgit note (yes, contingency again. I'm paranoid =p) in my bag, so I was like okay, I'm gonna use this to buy my lunch. And only when the lady had served me the chicken rice on a tray then she told me she didn't have change for fifty. Neither did any of the stalls in the cafeteria either. I was thinking, great, lost my purse and I'm going to have to starve today. (I could have borrowed from my friends, but those were just my cynical thoughts at the moment)

And then she just told me to take it, eat it and pay tomorow.

Truth to be told, I was a bit stunned. I mean, I could have just walked away with the unpaid tray, eat it and not pay her at all anyway. Apparently I look like I have a concsience, haha! I think it was the matter of trust I suddenly felt there. I know that it's a small thing, but somehow in this dog eat dog world, I felt like this lady was trusting me, a total stranger, to pay her back later without even hesitating.

Anyway I did borrow some change from my friend and paid erm, Chicken Rice Lady back a few minutes later.

With a tummyful of chicken rice, I went for lecture, feeling a bit down to have lost my purse. I was quite sure I had dropped it in some untraceable place, that my purse would be doomed to an eternity of lying on the ground, degrading, maybe left there by someone who took the purse, took all the money and tossed it back wherever.

Only to hear that someone had found it!

It was with student services. Apparently someone had found it lying around somewhere and brought it to the reception, who handed it in to student services. And, lo and behold, all my money, down to the last cent, and my cards were in there. I wanted to know who returned it so I could thank him or her, but the receptionist couldn't point me to anyone. I guess, thank you whoever it is.

It sort of just renewed my faith in humanity. Not that I don't believe that there are good people out there, but somehow some... evidence was very nice to know.

Why Sitting in a Teacup?

2008-09-22T01:52:00.000-07:00

I'm Patricia and this is my fresh, new blog -- Sitting in a Teacup.

Why sitting in a teacup, you ask?

It's certainly nothing to do with the rides at Disneyland, trust me.

Not exactly about cute little animals sitting in teacups, although I wouldn't totally rule out any influence from that possibility. I am a sucker for little fluff balls anyway.

I'm being totally random because I couldn't come up with other blog names? Partly.

Well, mainly because I like tea. But why not just tealeaves or teacups? Why sitting in a teacup out of all things?

I believe there's a huge world out there and part of being human is wanting to see as much as they can in life, but people hardly ever sit down and look around and be content once in a while. I'm not saying staying around and not exploring options is good, just that sometimes I feel one just needs to take time and appreciate the things around you instead of rushing off trying to get something better, something stronger, something newer. And I tell myself that sometimes too.

Hence, me, sitting in a teacup - symbolising a comfortable place where I can be content and appreciate things, sort of isolated from the outside world, but when I look up I can still see the sky...

Okay, maybe it wasn't about the whole "being content and appreciating" thing, maybe it was about the little animals in teacups. =p

So yes, this is how the name came about.

And this blog, is mainly describing my activities with my friends, or anything that happened to me in one day - sort of a personal blog, I guess. Since I've been quite a failure in the updating sector for my previous blogs, I'll promise myself to update this blog at least once a week, even if it means blathering on about random stuff. I might include my opinions on show episodes, words or basically anything else under the sun.

And it's a way to (*cough*annoymyfriends*cough*) connect as well =)

Do let me know if you want to link me, or if you want to be linked. Thanks! And that's all for now.