One more fable

Day 3 (and all other picture days): A picture of you and your friends

"He's a paragon schizophonic."
"You mean a paranoid schizophrenic?"
"Yeah, whatever."

Christmas was approaching and the children of Pasta Primary were getting very excited. As is the tradtion, many of the little pastas had bought Christmas cards to give to their friends. One such girl was Tortellini.

Now, Tortellini was not a wealthy girl. She couldn't afford any of the fancy Christmas cards, but neither could she make her own cards - being a dumpling shape, dexterity was not her strong point. So, she went to the convenience store and with her pocket money she bought a budget pack of 9 Supr Special Christmas Cards!! Not all of the cards were particularly cute or pretty, but Tortellini knew that her friends would understand; it was the thought that counted, after all.

The last day of school arrived. Tortellini brought her cards in, all signed and smiley-faced, and one by one she handed them out to her friends. The last girls to receive a card from Tortellini were Penne and Spaghetti; they thanked her excitedly and rushed off to open them.

Spaghetti, a wiggly, willowy pasta, was thrilled with her card. Penne was not.
"Look at this," she said to Spaghetti. "Look at the picture! What does it look like to you?"
"It's a, um, it's a winter tree..." stammered the taller girl.
"It's a dead tree in a cornfield!" Penne snapped. "Who gives their friends a card with a dead tree in a cornfield?"
"She, ah, she probably just -"
"She obviously doesn't like me!" Penne cut over Spaghetti's stutter. "She gave you something nice, didn't she? Reindeers in santa hats?
If she liked me, she would've given me a nice card. She clearly doesn't and she just doesn't have the guts to say it. Well two can play at that game!"
Penne stormed past the stricken Spaghetti, and for the rest of the day refused to catch Tortellini's eye.

Tortellini, bewildered by Penne's cold treatment of her, asked Spaghetti if she knew what was wrong.
"Um," wobbled Spaghetti, "Um, Penne thinks... Penne doesn't really like the picture on the card you gave her."
"Oh, is that all?" smiled Tortellini, relieved. "I thought I'd done something really awful! Well, I did tell everyone earlier that I might have to give them an ugly card. I'll go talk to her again. Thanks, Spaghetti!"

But Penne was nowhere to be found; rumour had it she had driven off with a meatball on a motorbike.
Hmm, thought Tortellini, well I'll see her next year, anyway.

Unfortunately, Penne transferred to Carbonara College the next year, and she and Tortellini never spoke again.

Moral of the story:
Trees are not a symbol of regeneration.

As usual, based on a true story. This happened between three friends of mine when I was in year 2.. things like that were such a serious issue back then. But I guess we still fight over a lot of inconsequential stuff :)

Looking back

Day 12: How you found out about Tumblr (blogspot) and why you made one

Well the answer to that can be deduced from my first entry I think? hahaha
Basically what happened is, I was over at Bernie's house, and we ate some of her cake. It had ballbearings on it and it was good.

One of us got a little high, three guesses who :)

We went up to her room and played around on her laptop a lil' bit, then Bernie decided that since Winnie, Steph, YJ, Laina and herself already had a blog, I needed one too. Also, I had already been considering making one before then, but hadn't got around to it. So, she helped me set it up and everything, we wrote the first entry, and as they say, the history is now recorded for eternity by the delightful power of the internet.

Assorted

Dogbert: A disturbing number of you have requested the return of Loud Howard. Loud Howard is one-dimensional. There is nothing clever nor insightful about him. He is simply loud.
It is a mystery why anyone would want more of this guy.
Loud Howard: THEY LOVE ME!

Day 10: Songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, hyped, mad

hmm I don't think I've ever blogged about my music preferences before! Basically:
there is no difference in what I listen to when I'm happy/sad/hyped/mad, except for the fact that if I'm feeling *extremely* something, then I won't listen to songs that are nostalgic for me.

What I listen to in general.. ehh, the radio (top 40 kinda stuff), azn pop, and music that I happen to hear from movies or when I'm out somewhere, e.g., I recently watched the anime movie The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and I like the theme song.

yeah. this is why I've never talked about music. got nuffin' much t' say abowt et.

I tell you what, I'll tell you something else, heh.
The last Saturday of the holidays, we held a combined garage sale with our family friends, in their garage. Wasn't particularly successful (shakes fist at trademe) but it was pretty fun anyway. Highlight of the morning was definitely when the neighbour's kids, Summer (8) and Brian (5) came to visit. They spent aages trying everything out, walking around really seriously trying to decide what to spend their $1 on.

Brian: ooh look it's a party bag! How much is it? Twenty cents? Oh, man, it's too expensive! I only have a dollar!!!
Dixon: IT'S SO CHEAP I CAN'T AFFORD IT!

Eventually, due to their neighbour-inho status, amusing-ness and because they're kids, they got lots of free stuff. Including the party bag. =D

Day 11: Another picture of you and your friends
-story still in progress-

Zirka Circus

Day 9: Something you're proud of in the past few days

Me: Why is there a circus in the middle of Onerahi?
Iz: That's one question for which there are no answers.
Me: It's like 'what's the meaning of life!!'
Iz: *very seriously*. Exactly. Those two questions are on exactly the same level.

^
excerpt from one of me and Issy's bus conversations on the way home from regionals.
I really need to do a recount of this one! *cracks knuckles*

So last weekend, I went to Whangerei with the rest of the Akl squad (there were 16 of us, 8 boys 8 girls) for the U19 bowls regionals. We stayed there overnight, the girls at the Whangerei girls high school hostel, which was really creepily yellow on the outside, but nice on the inside :) although it turned out that every single window and door was locked and alarmed and trying to open them would get the police and fire crew there, costing the offender $1500... this apparently as a result of the boarders sneaking out too much. 0_o. Anyway, I had the best weekend I've had in a loooong time, hanging out with the rest of the team :) I miss them now!! And I've barely gotten to know them~ We had heaps of weird-as personal jokes over the course of the trip, and the training camps before that, good times :) And on the serious side:

Issy and I played pairs together - there were 8 pairs in total, and we had to play every other team in a round robin over the two days and come out either first or second overall to qualify for nationals in Dunedin. We ended up coming third, lost out to the other two Akl pairs. Congrats to them! But we're gonna take this as a learning curve~ Watch out for us this time next year, cos' we're gonna show everyone what we can do!! *does a retardedly determined face*

Yeah, so to answer the question 'something I'm proud of in the past few days' I'm proud that I went up and gave it my best shot, and got to know some awesome people along the way.

Catch-up ketchup

Day 7: A picture of someone/something that has had the biggest impact on you.

It goes without saying that my past experiences have shaped me into the person I am today. If it weren't for so-and-so influencing me here, if this or that hadn't happened, I would think completely differently. So, from that perspective, I am going to take the easy way out and say that my memory, which includes everyone and everything that ever ended up in there, has had the biggest impact on me. Taking laziness to a new extreme here =D



The picture...
I guess it doesn't look like much? What it is, is what the shelf above my bed looked like up until the Sunday before last. On that day, I put a whole heap of toys away to help make room for my grandparents, who are going to stay with us for several months. I stopped talking to my toys a long time ago, and they're very annoying to have to keep dusting, so I was surprised to find how much sentimental value I still gave them. It was very oddly emotional. Anyway, it's a small thing, but what my bedroom used to look like is now only in my memory...

Day 8: Short term goals for this month and why

For obvious reasons: study hard and ace my exams!

Jack-jack attack!

Day 6: Favourite superhero and why

*sucks breath in awkwardly* "Sooo, what's your super power Batman?"
*deep-throated growl* "I throw things."

I've never been a huge fan of superheros. As as kid, I found them too two-dimensional to be relatable - they all have that *one* girl, that *one* fatal flaw, etc.
So today, I'm going to go with... Jack-Jack!!



The cutie. :3

One, two, skip a few...

Ninety-nine, a thousand!

Day 4: A habit that you wish you didn't have

I'll make up for day 3 by doing a slightly different post >< it's still in production right now, and I'm not in the mood for writing
so I'm going to write something else instead! Cos' that makes so much sense :)

I wish that I could use my willpower and do my best all the time. Me not doing so causes a lot of my bad habits, e.g.
getting distracted and forgetting things
procrastination
not properly saying things that I need to say
etc.

Day 5: A picture of somewhere you've been to



This was taken in Thailand, at one of the many temples that are open to the public
:)

The truth

behind the lies behind the truth behind the man behind the bushes.

Day 2: What is the meaning behind your tumblr (blogspot) name?

My blogspot username actually does have a couple of reasons behind it:
First, I am an entity
Second, I made it back when I had just finished reading The Bartimaeus Trilogy (which is still my favourite children's books series; go read it if you haven't already) and there are some seriously badass spirit/demon djinni characters in it who like to refer to themselves as entities.
Third, there is an e_e in it, which is a very ambiguous expression that I just thought was quite amusing.

My blog title.. just changed it, seeing as it was a completely random phrase before. I'm using 'to be continued' atm because I write a lot of one-off stories here, and also because my blog is always going to be one step behind my life so will always be unfinished. I suppose you could say that my life itself is currently "to be continued" as well..

Alleyoop!

So it's been a couple of months since I last updated, and with exams just around the corner, what better time is there to ressurect my blog? And what better way to beat the writer's block than with a pre-formatted meme?

*cough* yeah so I'mma take up this 30 day challenge as well. Not 30 consecutive days, though. And no photos neither =)

DAY ONE: 15 interesting things about yourself

1) Sometimes, the reason why I
type
like
this
is not for effect but because it saves me trying to figure out which punctuation mark to use. I dunno about you but sometimes, full stops feel like Serious Bizness.

2) I like Oreo wafers. Never been a fan of Oreos themselves (they get stuck everywhere, and they don't taste good enough to justify that =P) but the wafers are yum

3) I have a soft spot for cameo cats. And all cats in general.

4) I catch myself zoning out a lot these days

5) I quite like reading books more than once.

6) My favourite colour as far as I can remember has always been greenish-blue, although the exact shade keeps changing.

7) I fall asleep easily.

8) When it's pouring with rain and I'm walking home, I start singing.

9) I'm a Pokemon fan still. I made a note of the Pokemon party I would have if they somehow became real. Starting with Aerodactyl, so I could fly :)

10) I go on tv tropes sometimes.

11) I haven't yet seen a shooting star. At Kahunui, every single time one was pointed out, I was playing with Hoki.

12) My bowls are purple. (running out of things to say here lol)

13) I have a lot of things that I wish I could change/am trying to change about myself..I suppose that's more 'normal' than 'interesting' though

14) 14 reminds me of how in primary school, we used to stand in a circle and play Buzz Lightyear. Rules: Starting from 1, count consecutively around the circle. Multiples of 3: say Buzz, Multiples of 5: say Lightyear. Multiples of 15 get the cool phrase, ofc. What does that have to do with 14? I don't know. I should have left it for

15) I have suddenly become very aware of my blinking.

Would you care for a

Marshmallow?
No thanks, I'm a vegetarian.
...
...
...
you're against the killing and eating of marshmallows?

^ A snippet of conversation that occurred the first night of the tramp, because someone was trying to get rid of their marshmallows and reduce bulk/mass in their packs. It was pitch black and cold but it was only 6.30, so we were all killing time by talking and sending murderous glances at our watches (are you kidding? it's still 6.45?!) Anyway, as it turns out, marshmallows contain gelatin. And gelatin is made from horses' hooves and other such delightful ingredients.

After being told that, only four of the nine people in our circle took a marshmallow.

Which got me thinking.
People like to say profound-sounding things like "you are what you eat" but if that's the case, none of us knows what we are. Honestly. Who bothers to read the ingredients on the back of packaged foods? And even if you do, do you really know what all that stuff is made of?

We should not worry so much about what is in our food, I think. We should all just either become 100% self-sufficient farmers or..
something.
Because (s)he who buys free range eggs forgets to abstain from mayonnaise.
And it does not occur to (s)he who refuses marshmallows that jelloplanes are exceedingly likely to also contain gelatin.

I know that from a vegetarian's point of view, you would want to stay away from absolutely anything that was made from an animal's body. Being a collection of gazillions of molecules though, we can't keep track of everything and we would go insane if we tried.

yum.

Window

This is a first,
blogging in the morning.
My stats class has been cancelled because all the girls are doing background studies, so here I am.
(but where is here?)
I've been wanting to blog for a while
but now that I have the chance, what do I say?

I am cold now. why is it winter. What do I like about winter.
I like that it is never too hot.
I like that we get to have soup for dinner more often.
I like that my yoghurt stays cold all day.
.
.
.
-out of ideas-

haha
I've been happy lately
happy
and holding onto the feeling.
But somehow, I always feel more like writing when I'm sad.
so this post is flighty and
fragmented ..

Let's do more likes.
I like the disobedient robots at the physics day; so cute =)
I like rippled instant noodle flavour sachets (stress concentratorsss)
I like the likeposts that have been going on recently, both the giving and the receiving
I like the feeling of getting along with everyone
I like the heater that warms up my room in the morning. dunno if anyone remembers my post from ages ago, "what would YOU like the weather to be?" that ambitious lil' heater is doing well. good heater *patpat
I like my scarf. I never knew that scarves were so useful.

so much for the theme having nothing to do with candy.
sweet dreams~ <3

a delayed encore

don't act so distant, autumn.
you're one of a family of four, you're not a guest.
we shouldn't have to say goodbye so
soon; we shouldn't have to say please
pleaseplease make an appearance
next year.

Response: Blue bird

I know why the caged bird sings
Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange sun's rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.

I also really like this poem, having only read it once (twicethrice) on Winnie's blog.
I guess it's true what they say:
though the typical response to "poetry" is, "bleurgh" or "do we have to" or "i won't understand it",

Everyone likes poetry.

It's true, it's true, it's true.

Dolls House allusions aside, here's my response, which is not actually an unfamiliar close reading because
1) I googled the author,
2) (Amongst other things) Weezor's already covered contrast, which is basically THE biggest language technique in this poem. Anyhow

First thing that struck me about stanza 1 is that there is not just imagery of the sky. Consider the phrases, "floats downstream", "dips his wing". It's more evocative of the sea/water, as if the bird has the sea as well as the sky.
Plus he has the land... he has memories of 'trees' and access to 'lawn'; that's all three points of the land of the living, pretty snazzy. And the caged bird? Nothing. He can barely see.

So why does he sing?

The author/poet, Maya Angelou (1928-), wrote a series of autobiographies, the first of which (and the most highly acclaimed of which) is ... three guesses "I know why the caged bird sings."
And she uses this idea of a caged bird throughout. But not a passive bird, a struggling bird, one who wants its voice to be heard. Hence the singing. The entire poem, in fact, is an extended metaphor
with the singing representing the fight against the racism and the oppression which the author had to cope with as she grew up.
The contrast? Her society was black and white in more ways than one. There was very little 'social ambiguity' - not just between the blacks and the whites, but between the men and the women. (I guess this also relates to Grace Nichols celebrating that which is most disparaged in her fat black women poems, ne?)
Although,
I think here the focus is only on the racial difference, since both the birds are 'he', and since we get those contrasting images of light/dark.

Another thing:
Angelou was inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar, esp. this third stanza of Sympathy:

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings--
I know why the caged bird sings!

Aaaand
This is a poem written by Tui Boyle, who was 11 at the time
(This was my favourite poem in the whole 100 poems collection. What is it about birds in cages? Even the pioneer girls made paper illusions to do with them.)

Like a bird in a cage
Got nowhere to fly,
Nothing to do
Just sit there and cry.

Like a prisoner in his cell
Just sits there and waits,
Hoping that someone
Will open the gates.

Nothing to do
Not a thing.
Feeling quite sad
And got no song to sing.

Looking outside
It's a bright sunny day.
The door has been open
So I can fly away.

which seems to also relate to oppressed humans in the wider world, especially with that first person "I" and the use of the simile "like a bird in a cage" at the start, both of which clearly show that we're not actually talking about a bird here.
Most probably a person
not defiant like the original caged birds
an opportunist, this one.
Funny how it can still be analyzed a bit. Like that "nothing to do/not a thing." Read it and you get that expectant 'I thought there was another syllable coming' uncomfortable pause.
Silencenothing.

"Then both were silent once more."

u been SHEEPEd

Time started: 7.21
Name: Kim
Single or Taken: Single
Sex: Female
Birthday: July 24th
Sign: Leo
Eye colour: Dark brown
What are you wearing: pyjamas - "refill theme" pants + handmedowns ^^
Where do you live: Akl
Righty or lefty: Lefty

FAVORITE
_______________________________________
Where is your favorite place to shop: Malaysia
Color: Blue/green
Number: 6, 342
Boys Name: ... Pierrot haha
Girls Name: idk
Animal: atm, snow leopard, Japanese serow, and just cats in general
Month: depends on what happens during that month =)
Movie: I Not Stupid 2 comes to mind... I have others though
Juice: Apple or grape
Breakfast: pancakes/waffles/really eggy French toast
Favorite cartoon character: Tino from the Weekenders

HAVE YOU EVER
_______________________________________
Given anyone a bath: Yes
Smoked: No
Bungee Jumped: No
Gone skinny dipping: No
Eaten a dog: No
Put your tongue on a frozen pole: I put my tongue on an icecube. Then I ate it.
Loved someone so much it made you cry: ...because I missed them?
Broken a bone: No
Played truth or dare: Yes
Been in a physical fight: Not a serious one
Been in a police car: No
Been in a hot tub: Yes
Swam in the ocean: Yes
Fallen asleep in school: Yes
Ran away: No
Broken someone’s heart: Not as far as I know
Cried when someone died: Yes
Cried in school: No
Fell off your chair: Yes
Sat by the phone all night waiting for someone to call: No, I've waited for a few hours during the day though
Saved AIM/MSN conversation: Yes

WHAT IS
_______________________________________
Your good luck charm: Don't have one
Best song you ever heard: -
What’s your room like: Very neat, with 60+ toys slouching around
What kind of shampoo do you use: A mixture, still experimenting =)
Do you believe in karma: No

HAVE YOU HAD
_______________________________________
Chicken pox: Yes
Sore Throat: Yes
Stitches: What kind of stitch =P
Broken nose: No

DO YOU
_______________________________________
Believe in love at first sight: Nope
Like picnics: Yes
Like school: Yes, except when there's something to dread
What schools have you gone to: Halsey Drive, KTS, ANI, STCC
Would you eat a live hamster for $1,000,000 dollars: No
Who was the last person that called you: Mum
What makes you laugh the most: Lots of different people.. brother?

LAST PERSON
_______________________________________
You yelled at: I dunno, it was ages ago. Someone in my family
Who broke your heart: heart's pretty untouched
Who is your loudest friend: Everyone's loud when they want to be. Beware the quiet ones =D

DO YOU/ARE YOU
_______________________________________
Do you like filling these out: Yeah, I like it better when they're original though. Lot of recycleds in this one
Do you wear contacts or glasses: Yes
Do you like yourself: Sometimes
Do you get along with your family: Mostly
Obsessive: Only over some things
Compulsive: No
Anorexic: No

FINAL QUESTIONS
_______________________________________
What are you listening to right now: The Simpsons
What did you do yesterday: SPCA/bowls match/went out for dinner (they ran out of their specialty dish hahaha fail)
Hate someone in your family: definitely not
What car do you wish you had: -oblivious about cars-
Where do you want to get married: somewhere pretty
If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be: lots of things
How many remote controls are in your house: 6, including lots of unnecessary ones to operate the dvd etc
Are you double jointed: I have a hitchhiker's thumb? lol
Last time you took a bath: not since I was about 4
The last movie you saw at the cinemas: Valentines Day.
Do you like scary or happy movies: Usually happy, but depends how happy. If it's "The life of the cheerful elf in the sunshine" sort of happy, I prefer scary.
Black or white: Both
Root Beer or Dr.Pepper: Root beer!!!
Vanilla or chocolate: chocolate (but vanilla's good too =))
Silver or Gold: Silver
Diamond or Pearl: Diamonds
Sunset or Sunrise: both
Sprite or 7up: meh
Cats or Dogs: Cats
Coffee or Tea: Tea
Phone or in person: In person.
Are you the oldest, middle, youngest or only child: youngest
Indoor or outdoor: Depends on where exactly

One week to go! My brother left this morning (I wrote this yesterday haha). We saw him off at 6.45am. I went back to sleep afterwards, which as it turns out was not such a good move, because now it seems like the whole past week was unreal. It went fasst.

I never thought that I would have need of so many of Winnie's DO bookmarks, but I'm now using about 7 of them at once for conceptual physics haha I keep switching between chapters and marking things I want to look up.

lol Mum just rang me purely to tell me that her colleague has a plant which attracts monarch caterpillars (because they like to eat it), "It's like they're harvesting butterflies!"

*cough* completely unrelated topics in the same post again..

yo.

Hello, blog.
I've been neglecting you.
Good thing you're non-living, otherwise you would not be living.

Well,
as we all know,
tis' holidays.
I actually feel like I could've coped with another week of school. This term felt really short.
-that's because it *was* short-

But I'm glad for the break,
glad because of the extra sleep
and because there are no consecutive internals
andandand because my brother is back =D

I learned how to play mah jong on Friday.
It's interesting. I want a mah jong set now =P
pity it can't really be made, unless you have some random chunks of plastic.
lol if I made mah jong cards out of actual card...hmmm

ooooh and I just checked the external timetable (shush lol)
Mine's sooo much better than last year
Stats and English are over and done with first
and everything is nicely spaced, yay

wow this was a really jumpy post
then again, I'm not in a blogging mood.

Reflect\/tcelfeR

It's coming.
The end.
The beginning.

And what have I done these holidays?

I don't feel that I have changed at all in terms of personal growth. Everything I've done has been pretty tangible..

1) Learner's licence
I probably over-studied for this, but actually, I was learning for the sake of learning as much as to pass the test. E.g. now I know that park lights are compulsory in many European countries, but are mostly illegal over here. Also I got better at recognising car brands this summer (still really n00b though), mainly through the help of my dad and brother, who randomly said, "What's that car?" every once in a while.

2) Bowls
Joined one club and withdrew from another.. it was actually a good decision though; I've met heaps of new people who are all friendly and interesting, although I wish there was someone there around my age.. Been going to practices every Wednesday since I signed up. The most recent one was funny =) there were eight of us playing noughts and crosses (four per team) and we each had four bowls.. we were supposed to bowl so that the bowl would stop on the squares in the grid which was at the other side. By the end of the game, only three people had managed to get a bowl on the grid XD it was so fail.

3) Calculus
Can this even be counted as an accomplishment? lol well we did work very hard. I'm happy with what we did, and I'd definitely do it again if I went back in time. LUB says I'm a good teacher, well, she's worth teaching =) But it was challenging. I never realised what it would be like to tutor someone completely on your own, without a pre-made syllabus (except my notes) and the support of other (better) teachers nearby, like in Abacus. I'm definitely not going to think twice when random people ask me to tutor them anymore.
(hope this isn't making you feel bad, btw, cos' I really did like having you over =])

4) Met lots of people
Yeah I don't think I made any friends this summer, but I did make a lot of acquaintances, and not just in those last day of the year bbq things etc. Everyone seems very nice =) looking forward to maybe getting to know some of them better. Also caught up with a couple of good friends =)

5) Rabbits
Yesterday was the first time that I had to make use of my rabbit training at the SPCA, and go work in the Rabbitry (lol steph: ohhh, looking after rabbits, i thought you meant making rabbits jump through hoops or something)
After about 10.30, nobody was available to help me, but I survived =) Collecting grass is fun. Still can't pick up the rabbits though. Cats are like, "yeahhhhh, HIIIII" but rabbits look at me like, "OMG is she gonna try and kill me?" Hopefully I'll get better with more experience lol.

Mentally, I'm ready for school now =)
Physically (is that what you call it? lol) I have to find my sandals xD and take care of some other stuff.

"Today is the start of the new semester. I'm gonna give it my all!" - Tenma-chan =)

We're going to the

edit: just noticed the white rhino photo didn't turn up. it's there now =D

I went to the zoo with my dad on Sunday =) it was really cool, and I was meaning to blog it with a photo bomb but the photo uploading took so long that it put me off
so
I'm just gonna put my favourites here, and ramble about the rest haha

We got there at opening time, 9.30 (nobody ask am or pm =P) because last time, we arrived at about midday, and all the animals were going blearrrrrgggh *snooze* Even so, the closer it got to midday, the sleepier the animals became.

I was thinking, do any of the animals realise that people love them just because they exist. Anywho

In chronological order, this is where we went:

Kiwis (they were very active and chasing each other around), red pandas

Tigers: they made a new enclosure, and all the tigers (there are three) were walking back and forth in front of the glass.



Birds: they're so pretty =) there were heaps of different species, including some that are becoming popular as pets now e.g. the lovebird, sun conure, white cockatoo, macaw (google the sun conures) but my favourite was the congo African grey parrot haha cos' he/she made really random expressions, which I always missed =.=



Giant tortoise

Lizards: These three, I can't remember their species names, have pro camouflaging skills.



Primates trail: gah it's so hard to take pictures of monkeys. They have so much balance 0_0 just casually walking across the ropes. One of the siamangs was sitting right next to the glass, and he/she (probably he?) was squatting on a thin rope. He's really muscular haha but his arms were wrapped around him like he was cold and he seemed kind of sad. He looked at us when we said "salamat pagi"



Sealions: Two of them were doing laps around the pool, one of them was sunbathing and also looking at the fourth one, which was turning over and over on the spot.. strange.



Meekats: so cute! For some reason, the meerkats were lazing around in the porcupine enclosure as well as their own.. Winnie told me she saw them in the tiger exhibit once.



Pridelands: We went to the giraffes for the feeding encounter, and as always there was a massive queue, because it's the only encounter where you can feed the animals rather than watch the keeper feed them. But the giraffes didn't come (playing "hard to get" lol) so in the end, we were allowed to take a carrot/apple piece and chuck it over the sides to the zebras and ostrich.



By the time we went to the white rhinos, it was almost midday, bleearrrgh time.. haha



The lions and the cheetah were also asleep, so we waited for the elephant encounter, which was cool. The keeper explained how elephants can't sweat so they need to regulate their body temperature with their environment *cue Burma throwing mud and dirt over herself immediately after her bath*



We left to see the orangutan encounter, and then we went home. It was a good day =)

Beginning

Today is the second of January.
- sarcastic applause -
The holidays have been really fun recently. I hardly ever go out this often, so I'm gonna enjoy it while I can =)
Last day of the year bbq was good, even though I was only there for the actual bbq thingy. Me and my parents were going to go celebrate New Year's at Sky City with some family friends, but it turned out that they were making the entire building R20 at 8.30pm, so we had to leave.

Also, even though it was only 7.30-ish, once me and my brother went out the doors, we wouldn't be allowed back in (so many security guards 0.0) so we ended up having to have dinner inside the building, which left us with a grand total of two restaurants to choose from, one of which was full and had a queue of people waiting to get in.

yes.

The restaurant we ended up going to was "white food with soy sauce on top" style as Alex put it haha
My brother drove me home, and then went to his friend's New Year party
so,
I celebrated New Year's with Jason Gunn's countdown variety show.
haha
Mum called me regularly and told me to go to sleep, but I stayed up out of habit/tradition anyway.

And today, I went to the SPCA
we got 10 kittens and 2 cats adopted out this morning, which is really good
There were five pure white, deaf cats there - one cat and two pairs of kittens, and three of the kittens have one green eye and one blue eye; it was so striking.

Then we went to a family friend's 50th birthday party
Her husband had spent six months organising all her relatives to come from around the world *cough Malaysia*. There were so many people there, it must have taken some crazy skill for all her closest friends and relatives to keep the secret. She said in her speech something like, "I'm so overwhelmed... I talked to my brother just two days ago and he said, 'I'll put aside five cents a day and come visit you at the end of next year'"
Since nearly everyone was Malaysian, they were all happily speaking in a mixture of English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka and Malay
*nods politely*

lol
look at the general trend of my posting numbers.

New Year's Resolution:
"Grab opportunities by the throat and don't let go."