this is the first time i wrote 4 introductions.
for my southeast asian culture and literature module assignment, i wrote a grand total of 4 introductions. this is the first time i struggled so badly with an essay assignment. but i'm not going to complain; at least i didn't write 5.

okay, as if it is of any consolation.

because of my apparent problem in my academic life, i could not put my "pianist fingers" (Ewart, Gavin; Office Friendships, 1955) to typing any blog entries. any other form of writing weighed me down greatly because i figured that whatever writing i do must have something to do with southeast asian/ female oppression/ literary creations. i didn't know writing could give me heart burn. i love writing, but it's the darnest bane in my life right now.

NB RealRun, so real, so real.
i am going to use a lot of 'real' here. so, be real-ly prepared.

the race we faced, the treacherous 4km trail + 0.6km sand road + 5.4km taxiway terrain, the pain of the momentum of 10km, the camaraderie and pride incorporated, the glory of completion and the rheumatism we might develop when we're 30yr-old is real. as real as the calories i have burnt.

i woke up on a sunday morning 4.45am praying that i will have the guts to sms my friends that i won't be going (like every other school day). well, God didn't answer THAT prayer, so i went to the New Balance RealRun 2008. from the small talks we had on that morning, i figured that i wasn't the only who said that prayer.

well, the run wasn't half as bad. it was actually, rather professionally done and well-executed by the organizers (even though the t-shirts' sizes saga was quite sad). the terrain was difficult though it kind of resembles the macritchie trail, just 5times more tiring. it was my first ever run in my life and i thought i learnt a lot from it.

the girls did the entire run together and there were many times we had to wait up for each other, eyeball each other's location and pace up with one another. there were some moments when we lose each other for awhile but there's always a sense of camaraderie that will eventually bring us side-by-side again. and when emma, yen and i ran towards the finishing line together, i could almost hear the deafening cheers we share with each other (though we were really too tired to whoopee together).

we saw a few young children participating in the 10km run too. it was such a heartening sight, when after almost 2hours, we see a small shadow hurtling towards the finishing line with every traces of the exhaustion and morning sun towards the line and into the mother's proud arms. we saw friends joined in hands running together towards the end, couples with fingers entwined urging each other on and many individuals who defied pain, age and the relentless sun. it was a run that displayed the human spirit.

i realized i didn't have to use the word 'real' to portray how real this run was. i think this in itself, is the success of everyone who took to the roads on the sunday morning.

i guess i would go for another run like this, just so i can soak in the Real spirit again.

i coerced someone to lend me his car
oh come on, it was only 2 rounds round st george!

i can't believe zengzi actually kept his promise and let me drive his mazda6! well, i guess when he made the promise, he didn't actually believe i would pass on my first try. so, tada, he doesn't have a choice but to fulfil what i held him to accomplish.

so, dear ladies and gentlemen, i made my maiden attempt at driving a car WITHOUT an L-plate! this is sooooo exciting! i don't think i am so silly as to buy a car now when i am studying (well, that's unless God wants to bless me + pay for the petrol money too) because it is simply and unfortunately, too expensive. but oh dear God, i am so keen to set out to the roads again!

until the day i earn myself a car, i will probably continue bugging my dear friends to give me the privilege of one round.

just one round.

[Ed's note: AND I TOOK TO THE EXPRESSWAY TODAY ON DESMOND'S CAR! whooooohooo, all my friends are so cool!]

the world is divided into two - those who have it and those who don't.
-Lola Wee (she's as quotable as paris hilton)

i agree wholeheartedly with it.

visit http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ and see for yourself which part we have been divided into. it is things like this that make me feel like spending a bomb/ ripping open my pocket/ breaking my mickey mouse coinbank/ rob the bank (dear police officer, i am too wuss to do it) for a retarded turquoise leather jacket which i will never, ever, ever wear in 29years (i may just make it my 50yr-old resolution though, bet on that!). and of course, those oh-so-chic boots, the black widow hat and that piece of bling bling which is probably the cost of my 4-room flat. unattainable luxuries that is defined as tangible lust.

i should never have stumbled there on a fateful, boring break in-between lessons. argh.



i want that turquoise leather jacket.

actually, i don't exactly believe it either.

I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!

that's another item added to my "God-done-it-not-me" list. it was completely awesome. firstly, it was the erratic weather. i have had 21 lessons and EVERY single session was sunny and cloudy until TODAY. yes, of all days, the 15th October 2008 last driving lesson before the driving test. but surprisingly, my brain was the furthest from the insane rain. i was thinking more about my rendang lunch than it. it was pretty amazing how nonchalent i was!

when i was practising in the circuit and on the road, i had zilch anxiety okay. it was probably because i REALLY needed to go to the toilet, that's why i was completely uninterested in feeling nervous since i was already breaking out in cold sweat from holding my pee pee. so, i practically enjoyed my driving lesson even though i was going to have my driving test in like 30 minutes time. well of course, other than the holding my bladder part.

fast forward to the test itself. when i was walking towards my car, i still had the guts to joke with the examiner about some stupid nonsense that i cannot remember now. everyone was walking like pale sheets of white and there i was, all cracked up talking to the examiner. i think he passed me because i could still manage a few sentence with him without peeing in fear. i got onto the car feeling like a dream; it really didn't feel like it was real at all.

my whole test was a big joke, let me be frank with you. i just bumped my way through not knowing what happened! all the "right, left, left, right" instructions were making my head spin and i was seriously out of sync. the exasperated examiner was giving me all sorts of comments that indicated that i was going to fail; and the only thing that i remembered was how i kept apologizing to him "opps, sorry sorry sorry". but when i parked my car into the yellow box at the end of the test, he told me: "your driving is not bad, just that you don't check your blind spots. be careful ah, you passed". eh, i couldn't believe my ears you know.

so there's another step of courage i took in life. and guess what, i passed it; not out of my skills or expertise which sadly, remains a far cry from expectations, but by the grace of God.


He was probably the only one who knew what was going on anyway.

i swear off hot doughnuts

never put your doughnuts in the microwave for more than 8seconds - any doughnuts put in for more than that will become a hazard for the eater and will cause serious damage to, in this case, the fingers.

i shall never have jam + doughnuts or jam doughnuts again and if i do, well if i really do, it is when i really can't help it. but oh, for today, i SWEAR OFF these puny hazards! it was such a beautiful white chocolate-coated jam filled doughnut that i knew i had to consume it in that 45degree tilt to the left to achieve the maximum Oooooomph. bad move.

it wasn't until 0.0000000001seconds later that i felt something sensational happening to my middle finger - deep fried is an understatement of what happened to it. the pain didn't register until 5seconds later; before i could scream, i dipped my other fingertips into the boiling jam filling because i was trying to (don't judge me!) stop it from dripping to the floor. it didn't stop there. to my shocking horror, my instincts prompted me to lick the hot sauce off to soothe the pain on those fingers. no prizes for guessing what happened after that.

hungry sarah + hot doughnuts = @#$%^&*@#$ (this is OUCH in cryptic formula)

who is a happy lark? ME!

should i watch painted skin?
there's this movie showing in the theatres right now which i don't know whether i want to watch.

the trailer was so good, extremely thrilling and definitely entertaining as hell. well, literally. you see, there are women with long flustered hair with crimson red eyes, coupled with white pale faces and long nails in the show. they are the kinds who will be screaming with such haunting screech that it will resound in your ears for the next few weeks. apparently, i will also see some interesting biologically-impossible skin peeling (yeah, it's kind of like sunburns and then your skin comes off). and oh, after the show, i'll probably develop some bladder problems because i wouldn't want to go to the toilet alone.

so should i go and watch it and play with my heart?

i need to get a life and stop blogging about these horrifyingly mundane decision-making.

i got my first taste of music companionship after i bought my creativeZEN just one month back. before that, i rely on intellectual preoccupations like staring into the thin air, secretly reading other people's wanbao (cos it's TABLOID man!!), closing my eyes to establish contact with the outer space or just simply, not doing anything in particular. i will never get use to those scholarly companionship again after i found something called mp3.

a usually long and droning journey to school becomes all too easy with music. an insipid walk home becomes too short all of a sudden. a jog downstairs doesn't feel that exhausting anymore. an irritating wait for latecoming friends induces joy rather than rile. and i can't seem to hear very well nowadays.

music, in every sense, has become an essential.

i did it in 30 seconds, or less.

we were tasked to do a short write up for my communication studies module. it was just a simple assignment - it is to write 10 statements about myself. i thought i would need forever to come up with 10; turns out, i took less than 30 seconds to come up with 11. ha. here goes:

i am a strong-minded and ambitious person. i take pride in my drive and my strive for excellence. i take responsibility in my love for Literature and so, i try my best to be a good English student in NTU. i enjoy reading and i make sure i get my literary fix every bi-weekly in a chill-out coffeehouse. i look up to strong leaders who make positive changes to the community they are in and i aspire to be in their league one day. i am very much into the Love of my life, Jesus and we have a whirl of a time everyday! i am a closet F1 fan and i was certainly delighted to see them in the very heartlands of singapore. not only that, i love spice girls and britney spears and i am not afraid to tell you so!

i think it was a pretty real and good attempt for something done so quickly.