My 2014 So Far Pt 2 : UK Trip Pt 1

So like I mentioned in my previous post, I flew over alone to the UK for an interview with Manchester Dental School in February. Yes, just the one. Yes, it was a huge risk. 

Hollaaaa at yur cabbage bitjyvhtyjvh

                                             

At the time, I'd been rejected by 1 dental school, interviewed by 1(a phone interview), awaiting a response from another and was invited for this interview. I pushed my interview date for the one of the last dates allocated for international students as a result, hoping that I'd hear back from the last one. This would've allowed me to fit both interviews in one trip, because it costs soooo much to fly over.

And guess what? I screwed up booking the flights. By the time I realised, it was literally FOUR hours til I was supposed to leave KL enroute to Dubai then London. And I was still at home. In Kuching.

Anyone who knows me personally will know that I pretty much don't swear at all. All the times I swore 'Fuck' and actually meant it (as in, not because somebody asked me to say it to see what I sounded like.) are extremely sparing. 

This incident is definitely one of them. I just kept going 'Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!' Because it was for sure that I couldn't make the flights.

The worst bit of it was telling my parents. They didn't even scold me, they just went silent and walked away for a while. Gosh, my heart sank :( 

Long story short, I went into crisis control mode and called up the airlines so I could get the refund. And gone online til 4am searching for flights over instead. 

Everything worked out in the end and I flew over 1 day later than I'd planned. 

A very expensive lesson learned : Just arrange flights with the same airline or just go to the travel agency next time. Or take a dang direct flight. 

I checked and double-checked and triple-checked and...yeah. Guess sometimes you just see what you expect to see, and not what's actually there *shrugs*

Honestly, felt damn stupid la. You'd have thought all the time-telling and problem solving in primary school would've prepared me for that moment :\

So after about 20 hours of travelling and transits, I finally arrived in London Heathrow all greasy and groggy and cranky. Couldn't get any sleep on the plane so I watched lots of movies and shows - including 10 episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is sooo good. It has Terry Crews aka Latrell from White Chicks in it, so how can you possibly go wrong? 

And it wasn't over yet, I had to go through immigration and take a 30 minute ride on the tube to central London. I swear I almost DIED lugging my 20+ kg luggage up and down all the flights of stairs in the tube. No escalators :( And this was at several stations, because I had to make an interchange. Travelling so far away alone was, of course, pretty scary at first, but I dealt with it okay. It helped to know what to expect and to know to be ready to be resourceful, and at times, just go with the flow!

Finally made it to Goodge, where I met my best friend, Yong, whose place I was staying at for the couple of days I was in London! After a goooood shower at her place and settling down, we set out to meet Florence and Sharon for lunch. 

It was soooooo cold, like 10 degrees at the time I think. And the wind was so strong and dry. I now understand why authors use the phrase 'the biting wind'. 

                            

Cue the epic Sherlock intro music

My mom bought this down jacket in Singapore for me without asking me -___- Thanks, mom, but, really? It's puffy and glossy... Photo cred to Sharon

Let me just say, it's bloody hard to find a toilet in the UK. It's not like here in Malaysia or Singapore where every overhead sign in the mall will point you to the nearest toilet. Also, shops in London are shophouse style, and not in a mall like we have here. Hence, no public toilets. Sorry, this bothered me a lot because I REALLY had to use the toilet!!

I'm thinking of YOU, Harrods, and your hidden toilets

Took this photo of a street directory to make our way to Harrods on foot

Random statue at a park lol sorry

Half-assed shot of Buckhingham Palace 

While it felt so surreal that I was across the globe from home and in an entirely new environment for the first time aaaand it was London, arguably one of the most exciting and iconic cities in the world, I don't think I appreciated it as much as I should've. Guess it was due to all the travelling and the pressure building for the interview. In hindsight, it was really a shame. I went to see a lot of touristy spots, like Trafalgar Square, Oxford Circus, the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and I just took half-assed photos :( My body was just rejecting the weather, man, I guess. Not to mention, I was fighting jetlag. I  honestly felt so drowsy and my stomach was hurting and it was soooo cold I used my scarf to cover my face like up to my nose. Sharon even lent me her gloves because my fingers were about to fall off. Looking back, I really wish I put in more effort to properly document my trip.

Sharon's super kawaii gloves aka my saviours

The very next day, after a much needed, heavenly night's sleep, Yong and I set out for Manchester by train! Since my interview was set in Manchester, I stayed there for much longer than London.  I'll save that for my next post :)

July : TFIOS, Haircut, Popping&Locking?

Jocelyn and I spontaneously watched The Fault In Our Stars just the other day. Like I woke up at 11.30am, checked the times and decided to go for the movie just an hour later. We both read the (e-)book and were really looking forward to watching the movie together. While she loved the book, I felt it was mehh. To be fair, I don't really read romance novels. I did, however, want to watch the movie and see if I'd cry or not (Plus the actors playing Gus and Isaac are cuuuuuuuute). The waterworks started about halfway through the movie. I teared up but Jocelyn, who is a crybaby at the movies, started tearing up and making weird whimpering sounds. Damn bising la, this girl at the movies. The other time we went to watch X-Men, she kept gasping and going 'Oh my God, Oh my God'. 

The movie was alright, I quite enjoyed it. I'm not one to analyse movies, either I enjoyed it or I didn't. Sometimes if you look too deep into something, you kinda spoil for yourself. 

That night, we went to play badminton with Yong! Sweated it out real good...and then we went for McD after to catch up and eat. Hahaha, way to waste a workout. 

I considered putting a giant cat face over mine, but ain't nobody got time for that. 

I also got a haircut the other day, while I accompanied Anlia to get her hair dyed. Now, I've always been reluctant to get my hair cut because hairdressers in Kuching are too damn snip-happy. They always cut off more than you ask for, especially when it comes to layering. In Form 3, I think, I had my hair layered and it came out all lala and apple-shaped, and I grew out and kept my hair one length ever since. 
Do hairdresser aunties ever give you exactly what you want? 

Circa 2009, something like this ^ ugh

So this are my Before and After shots. Kept the length pretty much, but had it long-layered. On  one hand, I feel as though the aunty layered and chopped off too much and the bottom layer is too thin now. On the other, my hair feels so much lighter and manageable - it used to be an absolute bitch to wash and dry my hair. 

I actually asked for this -___-

On ANOTHER hand (?), from the front, the layers are going like a 1000 different directions. Well, I guess I could fix that with a straightener or by blowdrying my hair inwards, but again, ain't nobody got time for that. I might just get sick of the layers and chop them all off again soon *shrugs*

Sent this snapchat to Chik, saying I cut my hair short again.

He actually loved it! And now I'm thinking...HMMMMM

After I got my haircut, I went to meet Joce, Yong and Chung Han for...wait for it...POPPING CLASS. Yes, I do mean popping as in popping and locking. It was Yong's idea to take some dance lessons for fun, which I'm totally on board for! Wasn't expecting popping class, but heck, why not, right. It was the funniest thing ever because our swag level is 0, and I'm pretty sure there were guys laughing at us. We totally sucked.

But hey, sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something. Some Adventure Time wisdom from Jake the Dog.

We're going for some trial classes to try out different types of dances before we settle on one we wanna take classes for. Up next? Maybe street jazz or hip hop. 

Aaaaand, she's gone. After 7 months of bumming out in Kuching together, Joce flew off to Singapore for good today :( 

Being Adventurous Alcoholics

...sort of! 

Hiao cha bo welcomes you to my blog

I was working on my UK trip post, which is proving to be quite a chore. So! Instead of getting sick of it, I decided to blog about something fun that we were up to just last week. 

Yong, Joce and I were having waffles at Dots Cafe, ST3 last Tuesday. The waffles were okay, I guess. A bit too airy for me though, I would've liked it to be more chewy and milky inside. Sigh, I guess it's hard to find a waffle that will live up to the Belgian waffle I had in London with Yong.

Wafflemeister on Pancake Day. Close enough!

I really dreamt about this waffle!!! I dreamt holding it in my hands, chocolate sauce and all, and just eating it like nobody's business. Inner fat kid fantasies, omggggggg.

Been trying out waffles all over Kuching ever since. Bicycle Cafe, Georg Peck, Sweet Flavours...all blehh. Magic Bite still best! 

Anyway, Yong saw a plate of chicken wings walk past and she started feeling hungry! They were from The Library just next door, so she was like 'Let's go eat there and drink something la, on?' 

We went through the menu and she found the Blowjob in the list of shooters. She made Joce order it, and it was the funniest thing ever OMG. Okay for backstory, me and Joce are super sakai when it comes to drinking. Neither of us have ever gone clubbing, much less have we ever gotten drunk, or even tipsy. We've gone out to drink with friends a couple of times, but that's just at pubs/bars, and it's usually just ciders...and we usually share :p Hahaha, are you shaking your head at us? 

I don't know about Joce because we've never made her drink that much, but I turn red soooo easily. Major Asian flush! A bottle of Sommersby apple cider with like 4% can turn me red, less than 1 bottle of Smirnoff Ice turns me red. Malu lah, so lousy. 

All the stuff about turning red easily being a good thing/indication of good blood circulation is total bull though. I Googled it, and turns out it's bad, like cancer-causing bad. So, in people who have Asian flush, they have overactive alcohol dehydrogenase (enzymes that break down alcohol) so the alcoholwe drink gets broken down into this toxic, cancer-causing substance called acetaldehyde really really fast! It is this acetaldehyde that dilates the vessels in our face to dilate, causing blood to be nearer to the surface so we appear red.

And guess what? That's not the end. Turns out 'Asian flushers' also have inactive acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (enzymes that break down the bad acetaldehyde into harmless substances). This means that the faster-than-usual build-up of acetaldehyde will be broken down much slower than usual. Double whammy! 

So if you have the Asian flush, don't drink too much or too often, okay? Or you'll risk getting gastrointestinal problems and even stomach cancer! 

Kinda sucks for me, because I do wanna know what it's like getting drunk.Probably just the one time. I wonder what it's like, and what kind of drunk I'd be. Hmm, well, all in good time, I guess. And also only with people I trust to take care of me. Otherwise, I'm not into the clubbing/drinking/partying thing, I guess. Gone are the Interact Night days where we could just have some good clean fun, dancing around and singing til we lose our voices,huh. That's one of the things I miss most about high school. That footloose.

Okay, okay, so Joce had to make the order. She leaned over the bar with the menu and said 'Uh..one plate of spicy chicken wings..and...one of this' and pointed to the Blowjob. Couldn't bring herself to say it hahaha. The bartender smirked and laughed and brought us this hilarious, phallic looking drink. We just stared at it for like 1 minute and Joce went, 'How do we drink this ah? Should I ask?' HAHAHA omg Joce ah, I love you. Oh, she didn't ask in the end. Wasn't bad, by the way, mostly just Bailey's with a bit of banana flavour.

The next night, Sharon, Joce and I went to the Library again because Lester invited us out with some other people. We're not so 'on' lah, it was spontaneous after we had dinner with Yong and Jessy. And luckily so! Because it was ladies' night, so all the girls got free cocktails (Wednesday, by the way). Joce and I were itching to try another shooter, so we went with the Orgasm. I know right, the names of these shooters are, as Yong puts it, damn sohai. The Orgasm, however, was a let down to the name. It was basically just Bailey's :\ 

 

Ain't gonna lie, I thought The Library was an ahbeng/ahlien watering hole. Found that it's actually pretty chill there! And they played really good 90's songs. Can't say no to this rarity!

The cocktails we had are called Aviation. Asked the waiter what it's made of and he said gin, lemonade and violet liqour, which made it a pretty, clear lavender colour.
Lester had Sex on The Beach. On the menu, the virgin version of this drink is called 'Very Safe Sex on The Beach'. Hahahah what the heck, is that legit? Or is it just this place?

Sex on the Beach

After making Joce down 2 cocktails, and having a second round of drinks, we left to fight another day. 
Til next time! 

My 2014 So Far..Pt 1

While I'm getting my blogging mojo back, I thought I'd blog about my year so far.

Since I completed my A-Levels at the end of 2013, I've been bumming out in Kuching. In between bumming out, I've mostly been private tutoring, keeping fit, catching up with friends, driving wherever my mom needs me to. Yes, I do mean since January! And I don't even feel guilty about it! (Fine, a bit la) See, I figure that once I start university, it's full steam ahead. I'm gonna be slaving away for 5 years in dental school, and then serving my bond which will last basically foreverrrr.

So why not chill kao kao right now?! 

To be honest, when I was studying for my A2, I couldn't wait for 2013 to end and go home, because it was a pretty shitty year. January launched a slew of relationship problems and we broke up by the middle of the year. Naturally, this took its toll on my studies for a while. When I got a colourful ABCD for my A2 trials and a lousy forecast result, I told myself to get my shit together. And well, yeah, with a great support system made of amazing friends, I was able to focus 100% on A2 and, thankfully, everything worked out :)

What kept me going was thinking 'This is all gonna be over soon and 2014 is gonna be an amazing year' 

And so far, 2014 has not failed me! Sure there were a couple of bumps, but they smoothed out in the end (will blog about this next time)

The best part of 2014 was reuniting with friends you grew up with. First, there's my best-est friend, Jocelyn, who left us after Form 3 to Singapore. I mean, yeah, we always made it a point to keep in touch and meet whenever we were both in town but THIS time, oh this time, I've been seeing her like almost everyday for 6 months. Bestnyeeeee! In the beginning of the year, there were the guys back from Australia and New Zealand. My lovely Chik, Edbert and Mike were back from Perth, and my bro for the longest time, J.Loh, from NZ(we were classmates and friends since Primary 1 til Form 3 when he left).We had 3 Jonathans in our class at one time, so the nickname stuck haha.

Because God knows the next time I'll be able to meet the boys again, here goes!

Chubs x3

'Dawn, I'm gonna buy you the most feminine drink they have''

For most of January and February this year, I spent evenings with the guys. We'd go over to JLoh's house and figure out what we were gonna do that night. This mostly ended up with dinner, bubble milk tea runs and watching TV. Every Wednesday was my and Mike's night to hog the TV, forcing JLoh and Edbert to watch Asia's Next Top Model too. It was fair play; while JLoh forced us to watch My Wife is a Gangster 2, I (mightily supported by Bert and Mike, I might add) forced him to watch Frozen. Heck, at 12.15am, I wanted to go home and finish Frozen the next day, but JLoh wouldn't let us leave, 'NOOOOOO, we are NOT stopping this goddamn movie. We are gonna get this over with TODAY' so we all stayed til 1am -___- 

Arguably the only guy who didn't like Frozen. And the only 20 year old guy that still plays Chopsticks. Like seriously, Jon? Then again, I always lost. Pshh, Chopsticks is a stupid game anyway.

Chik was busier though, mostly with church/youth. But that didn't stop us from meeting up. I'd ask him over to my house and we'd just sit on the couch all afternoon watching TV. Reruns of ANTM, especially. I would bring out all the food and whatever I'd baked recently, and he'd complain that in one bite, there were no choc chips, and the next was ALL choc chips. Oh, and he'd verbally bully me in front of my siblings too. Ahh, best friends...

Nehh, this one lah.

Went to Singapore for CNY. Spent it with some family over there. Because of CNY, we couldn't go anywhere for a couple of days. Instead, we went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens for a stroll, hiked up a hill to cross a canopy bridge, chilled by the pool and walked down the east coast pier at night. It kinda sucked that I wasn't able to spend CNY back home with friends, but turns out, a chill one away from home was just what the doctor ordered. 

OMG, love love love the red bean Taiyaki at Takashimaya's food court

So I spent my birthday in Singapore too! By visiting the SEA Aquarium! 

Pointless photo, the fish swam away.

The place was breathtakingly beautiful, goshh. My favourite part was this huge room which was basically a viewing theatre. Instead of a movie screen, the whole length of the theatre was glass, behind which was a whole array of fish and manta rays and sharks. From the floor to the ceiling! I swear, it was the most magical thing ever. And I don't even like fish.

Besides that, I guess you could say my January and February were really happening lo, because I had dental school interviews to handle too. I managed to scrape 2 out of 4 interviews with schools I applied to in the UK. Boy, did I have to do some research and prep, since I didn't have any idea what to expect. In January, I had a phone interview with Cardiff University. Also had to complete a situational questionnaire that they emailed to me, and that was it! In February, I flew to UK for an interview with the University of Manchester. 
But I'll save that for my next post. Til then!

Reviving my Blog

So...how should I start? 

My name is Dawn Jerah. I turned 20 this year, born and raised in Kuching, Malaysia.

I used to have a blog throughout Form 1 and 2, when the blogging trend had more or less just started. And it was loads of fun sharing my thoughts and documenting all the stupid stuff that happened in school. As you'd expect from all the blogs managed by pubescent kids, my blog had those music players that would just automatically start when the site loaded, then you had to search and search for that tiny pause button (I switched between many Taylor Swift songs). And I remember it having a black background with multi-coloured paragraphs - yes, I mean like having one whole paragraph of text in hot pink, and the next in lime green. Pening betul, oh my lord.

Form 4 charity drive. All this feels like ages ago, and I can only remember so much from that time :\

Sadly though, I shut down that blog when my dad found out about it. It wasn't that he didn't like my content or didn't like me putting myself on the world wide web. Just that, then, I felt super uncomfortable with the fact that my dad (who would then share it with my buta IT mom) would be reading my journal. Okay, I know a blog is already public but if you were ever a 13 year old kid, I'm sure you'd understand.

Now, I really regret shutting it down. Would've been great (and embarrassing in the best way) to look back on old posts to see what I was like at 13. Not to mention all the great memories I shared with friends that I still have and love to this day. 

Sleepovers with the girls

Parties

Playing

More recently, reunions

NEVER AGAIN! This is me, now, not allowing that to happen again. 


I've put off starting this blog for AGES! I was actually really looking forward to blogging again after I finished my A-Levels end of last year. Well...some circumstances put a damper on my post-ALevels mood this year. But that's for another post.

Travelling and doing fun bucket list-worthy stuff (we were still ascending okay)

Going for science competitions

Performing, which we did a lot of throughout high school. Best memories!

So why revive my blog after so long?
Like I said, I want to record me being me, embarking on my 20s. I want to document everything I'm gonna experience from here on out, and be able to look back on those experiences exactly as they were. The good and the bad.
In Psychology, I learned that when we try to remember something, we never remember it exactly as the last time. Our mind reconstructs memories each time we try to recall it, from bits and pieces of information. Heck, sometimes our mind subconsciously (or after sufficiently convincing yourself with practice) leaves out stuff we don't want to remember and emphasizes the stuff we want to remember. And this is exactly one of the main reasons I want to blog. While I'm at it, perhaps I'll write down some stuff I'd like to remember from the past, for years to come. This blog is gonna be my memories in black&white, unedited and not something reconstructed years after.

Also, I used to love writing. It used to be a personal thing to me, a way to express myself and get those creative juices flowing. Well, government examinations killed that. Sure I was heavily involved with writing in high school, but it was never the same. :(

I think myself to be a rather scattered-brain person. Unless I put my thoughts down visually, I find it hard to string together my thoughts, and hence sometimes, hard to express myself in speech. It gets frustrating, so sometimes I don't follow up on my thoughts or even form opinions on things that I feel I should. Since I find I express myself best in the written word, I'm pretty sure blogging is the solution! 

Do I care about who and how many people read my blog? Not particularly....it is for me after all. But I don't mind sharing what I blog about with whoever cares to read about it. I did level up my friendship with some people when I blogged previously after all!


So here goes..I am committing myself to documenting what may well be the best years of my life!