Livin' La Vida London

I am in London right now completing my three-month course at The London School of Journalism. It's been 4 weeks now and I have to say that so far, it has been awesome. One of our assignments had us set up a blog, in case any of us are interested in the so-called future of journalism - web writing or blogging. So here's a link to the wordpress blog which I named "Livin' La Vida London" (Living the crazy life in London). Do have a look as I will post up reviews of movies, gigs and musicals that I will be visiting while I'm here. Oh yeah, I'll also include recipes that I've tried and will write down tips that I discover! Hope you'll love it and any feedback is much appreciated.

Lotsa love from London! 

Wordless Wednesday

What dreams may come

Open publication - Free publishing - More inspirational

My friend and I started an online magazine to fulfill her wish to be in the front cover of a magazine! :)

While she contributed a large part of the content of the magazine (as you can see), I decided to publish the first chapter of a book that I am writing about marginalised communities - and getting their voice heard. So far, I have finished 12 chapters, which means I have spoken to 12 people. Gosh, I am so proud of myself for having that done in 12 weeks :). Hitherto, editing of the chapters have not been as smooth as expected. For one, after 12 weeks of intense and rushing (not in a bad way) writing to keep to my dateline, I found that after I didn't even want to look at my writing. Rase macam muak like that  ....bleghhhh ... haha...

But now, now I am ready and all revved up. I would need to talk to some of the interviewees again to tie up some lose ends. Thereafter, some guts and glory are needed to submit my writings to an editor for feedback and comments. From my (amateur) experience of working as a writer, THIS is by far the most anxious, nerve-wrecking process of it all. This is when my writing is open and vulnerable to all comments and critics. You must be a toughie to survive in this field. eceh ....

On the other hand, I am also excited to continue this e-zine of ours. I already have plans of talking to some local bands, painters and celebrities as to align with the title of the magazine ... to spark *Inspiration*. Wish me luck ! :) 

This book I'm reading, I know I've seen it somewhere. It was on my mind the whole of last week, thinking 'Where did I see this?" . And then it came to me.. Aha ! Alas, after a few clicks, I remembered. It was here!

After reading Fatma's review, am more excited to finish this. Who knows, I might finish this earlier than I usually do just so I could jot down my thoughts of this book and compare it with her's? We shall see.

The Price

Neil Gaiman is the coolest!

I'm an avid reader of his blog and I simply love how 'normal' his entries are. You see, with him being the 'rock star' equivalent for writers in the literature world, I imagined that his posts would be super-intelligent and deep (not like the current ones are not super-intelligent or deep, but I believe you get what I mean, right?).

So when he posted about a small project being made based on one of his book, I thought I'd give a hand:



By the way, I feel this urge to purchase another book of his for my next read. But alas,that shall have to wait as there are too many books waiting at home to be read. :) 

Wide Awake

" I can't believe there's going to be a gay Jewish president." 

so starts David Levithan's humourous, light-hearted, button-pushing political wallop of a novel. Set in the near future, Wide Awake features Duncan Weiss - a 17-year old gay, Jewish student who is elated when gay, Jewish Abe Stein is elected President of the United States. But all too quickly, things start to go wrong. The election is called into question and Duncan's relationship with his boyfriend Jimmy is called into question, too. 

While I'm not one who bothers too much about politics, I just love the way the author manages to weave in a heartfelt love story with some political action. Of course as usual, I shall take out excerpts from the book that I found most entertaining ... 

 ... When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the Boston Tea Party. We didn't live near Boston, but that didn't matter. From the moment Ms. Coolidge first mentioned it in my third-grade class, I was hooked. 

We were talking about the causes of the American Revolution, and Ms. Coolidge was typing them out on the class screen. 

Taxation Without Representation. 

The Boston Tea Party.

The Coercive Acts. 

The Boston Massacre. 

... and so forth. I know the word massacre is the one that should have told my eight-year-old-boy mind to perk up, but it was the phrase tea party that truly lit up my thoughts. I imagined it as a sort of birthday party where tea was served, and wondered how it had led to a big war. Had someone important not been invited? Was the host not happy with his presents? 

When I got home, I decided to act it out with my stuffed animals. The British officers were penguins, the American revolutionaries were dogs. They were all getting together to celebrate Betsy Ross's birthday, and she decided to serve her special tea. (Betsy was played by Spotty, a beagle; I knew by then that I was a little too old to be referring to stuffed animals by their first names, but since I'd already given them their names when I was younger, I didn't see how I could suddenly stop using them now.) The party started with the utmost civility, with everyone speaking in very clipped British accents. But then King George spilled some of his tea onto Thomas Jefferson. TJ  leaped up, yelling that he'd been burned. Other British soldiers, thinking they had to follow their king, started to pour their cups of tea on the colonists. Ben Franklin had tea poured in his eye, and Paul Revere's tail was dunked in a very large (i.e., adult-size) teacup. Betsy Ross went off to cry in a corner - she hadn't even had a chance to open her presents! - while George Washington (played by a terrier named Terry) charged in and started throwing tea back on the British. Since they were penguins, they were particularly scalded by this attack - and suddenly the whole tide of the revolution had turned. ....

Also, at one point in the book, I can't help but feel how much the paragraph below resonates in our current political scene / life. The last sentence, especially, really hit me.

... Other people pushed and prodded around us, trying to get nearer to the front, stepping over people's blankets and bags to get there. Something about all the movement and the closeness of it started to make me nervous. It was, I guess, another remnant from the Reign of Fear, when crowds were made to seem like dangerous things, vulnerable to the actions of a single person with a weapon and a willingness to use it. If isolation meant safety, then this was a high, high, risk. We'd been taught to never trust strangers. ...

Overall, it was a light read - just exactly what I was looking for. I think I might just be in to the 'young adult' literature scene for a while simply because of its simplicity.

Thumbs up for David Levithan!

Mastery - The Master's Journey

Meet the Dabbler, the Obsessive, and the Hacker.

The Dabbler

The Dabbler approaches each new sport, career opportunity, or relationships with enormous enthusiasm. He or she loves the rituals involved in getting started, the spiffy equipment, the lingo, the shine of newness.

When he makes his first squirt of progress in a new sport for example, the Dabbler is overjoyed. He demonstrates his form to family, friends, and people he meets on the street. He can't wait for the next lesson. The fall off from his first peak comes as a shock. The plateau that follows is unacceptable if not incomprehensible. His enthusiasm quickly wanes. He starts missing lessons. His mind fills up with rationalizations. This really isn't the right sport for him. It's too competitive,  noncompetitive, aggressive, boring, dangerous, whatever. He tells everyone that it just doesn't fulfill his unique needs. Starting another sport gives the Dabbler a chance to replay the scenario of starting up. Maybe he'll make it to the second plateau this time, maybe not. Then it's on to something else.

The same thing applies to a career. The Dabbler loves new jobs, new offices, new colleagues. He sees opportunities at every turn. He salivates over projected earnings. He delights in signs of progress, each of which reports to his family and friends. uh oh, there's that plateau again. Maybe this job isn't right for him after all. It's time to start looking around. The Dabbler has a long resume.

In love relationships (perhaps an unexpected place to look for the signs of mastery, but a good one), the Dabbler specializes in honeymoons. He revels in seduction and surrender, the telling of life stories, the display of love's tricks and trappings: the ego on parade. Then the initial ardor starts to cool, he starts looking around. To stay on the path of mastery would mean changing himself. How much easier it is to jump into another bed and start the process all over again. The Dabbler might think of himself as an adventurer, a connoisseur of novelty, but he's probably closer to being what Carl Jung calls the puer aeternus, the eternal kid. Though partners change, he or she stays just the same.

- Mastery, George Leonard 

* This book I am reading is homework for a retreat am going for this weekend. Interesting read I must say but more than anything else, I'm just looking forward to playing the Samurai game !

dum dum dee dum, dum dum dee dum

My london trip was awesome. I did a lot of outrageous and fun stuff, among others were:

1. Spontaneously bought tickets for the musical 'We Will Rock You' based on Queen's musical. Loved, loved, loved it !
2. Took a stroll down Portobello Road's flea market and swam in the sea of trinkets, antiquities and old books (sigh). Thereafter, shared a hot steaming Chicken Paella (rice cooked in tomato, chicken broth and seasonings - a popular Spanish dish) with my hot London guide... :)
3. Visited the National Art Gallery and basked in rooms full of beautiful paintings. The one thing that came across my mind was how intricate some of the paintings were and how much time spent and above all preseverence these painters had for their passion. Amazing lah, simply said.
4. The National Library. Sighhhhhhhh. They were displaying original manuscripts by great writers and musicians like Jane Austen, Mozart, Handell etc. etc. My favourite has to be Jane Austen's writing desk that was recently donated by her great-great-great-grand niece. There was also a whole stretch of Lewis Carrol's work on Alice's Adventure Underground (i.e. Alice's Adventure in Wonderland). Having just recently finished reading his book, I was of course thrilled to read about the history and making of this amusing story about a young girl and her somewhat of-the-wall adventure in where else but Wonderland! As I was slowly scrolling and scrutinising the pages of the original manuscript and the diary of the author, an older middle-aged gentleman, standing next to me, suddenly whispered, "Read this page here -- it was when he decided to publish the story. I've never seen this before. It's just fantastic!". He smiled excitingly and walked away. Oh, I just loved how the energy at that moment just completely shifted - even if it was only for a brief period of time.

To London, I heart you.
To my hot and sexy guide, I heart you even more!

XOXO

I write like David Foster Wallace

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

What happens during ejaculation?

I choose

I choose love over lust

I choose to be in love

truly, madly, deeply

I choose to be alive

I choose not to be a zombie

I choose passion

I choose patience

not losing it when it is being tested

I choose to be mad, unreasonable

if only it is to light the fire

I choose to keep my words

I choose my family

to cherish and love them above everything else

I choose to be beautiful

gorgeous, intelligent and sexy 
I choose to be a dreamer

I choose to care 
above all, to care for myself 

I choose to be imperfect

I choose to be human

Hi, I am Hana and...

I am a loving, caring, passionate, courageous and responsible woman.

Amin.

lovestruck

I can't wait to watch this:

I’ve watched every episode of every season (only God knows how many times) and know all four characters like my life depended on them! Haha, I know it sounds a bit exaggerated but I swear that its true..

However, despite my fanaticism for the tv series, I have to say that the first movie was a slight disappointment. I thought that the girls were too ‘dressed up-ish’ and lacked the ‘realness’ that they so successfully weaved into the glitz and glamour of the tv series. But hey, who am I to complain? I still loved it ! ;)

My favourite part from the movie has to be the part where Carrie reads a love letter to Mr. Big, written by Beethoven, from the (non-existent) book “Love Letters of Great Men”.

This, I dedicate to my other half: 

Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us -
     I can live only wholly with you or not at all -
     Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits -
     Yes, unhappily it must be so -
     You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never -
     Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves.
     And yet my life in V is now a wretched life -
     Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men -
     At my age I need a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection?
     My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once -
     Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together -
     Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell.
     Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.
     ever thine
     ever mine
     ever ours
L

 

- H

What's for lunch today?

Once upon a cupcake (our first attempt)

a

(my close friend) Zapa (Zahiid) masa kurus and rambut panjang lagi....hihihihihihih his face that digs that cupcake is priceless !

Guilty Pleasures

Ok, here are some songs that I like to hear tapi tak pernah nak mengaku kat anyone that I listen to them. Malu la konon, because I'm suppose to be this intelligent, non-conformist woman! Kunun la...

1. Awas, KRU (teringat zaman melepak kat sekolah lepas UPSR dulu)
2. Apa saja untukmu, KRU (best love song ever! syok habis...)
3. Janji Tinggal Janji, KRU
4. Most of KRU's ballads actually.. tee hee hee.
5. All Backstreet Boys songs. Actually, not all. Only the earlier ones, circa 1995-1997.  Sigh, teringat zaman sekolah dulu melalak lagu BSB dalam dorm. Paling tak boleh blah sekali, buat BSB-inspired opening gambit and deco for Talentime! Masa ni walaupun I bukan dalam Kelab Seni (I Kelab Matematik tuuu) tapi sebab best friend I masa tu deputy president of the club so I boleh la menyibuk nak jadi committee jugak kan. Lol, that was good fun, indeed. 
6. Err, anyone remember 911? 
7. Britney Spears. (Shut up la)
8. Kanye West. But only his upbeat songs  which I listen to when I workout. Walaupun I banyak kutuk dia ni dgn my best friend. He's a gayfish, what do you expect?
9. A lot of hip hop songs especially by Eminem, 50 cent, Lil' Jon etc, etc. But these are also only because I need music to pump me up when I'm running on the threadmill. (Nak cover jugak tu...)
10. Rocky Balboa: The Best of Rocky Soundtrack!
11. Avril Lavigne. Best lah melalak to her pseudo-angry songs while driving back home from work.

But the guiltiest of all the guilt in the world would have to be… Jeng , Jeng, Jeng: 

Siti Nur Haliza! Perfect for relaxing okay because I usually put my brain aside and layan je her voice. ;) 

Maxis, Schmaxis!

Thank you for your continued support for Maxis services. We now have new rates for International SMS:

RM 0.50 / sms - All International destinations excluding Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia & Singapore.

RM 0.20 / sms - Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia & Singapore.

 

Rates for international SMS has gone up more than double of what it used to be. Which means I have to cut down on my sms-es to my other half. Sorry sayang =(

Conversations in the sauna

Scene 1

As I entered the sauna ... 

Woman: Come in, come in..join me!

Woman: .....yesss.. kita kasi keluar semua peluh ni .. all the toxic2 .. and burn the fat ....

Me: (angguk and senyum je lah)

Woman: This is equivalent to doing 100 lunges, 100 step ups..squats .. ..bla blaa bla 

Me (thinking): Wah, that easy ke to burn fat ?? aih, mcm tipu jek makcik .... 

Woman: ..bla bla bla bla bla bla ....this is another way la to burn fat... that's what Mohan told me ...

Me (thinking): kayy..and who is Mohan again..?

Scene 2

Woman 1: Haishh.. Panas ek ....!  (sambil tutup muka dgn towel)

Woman 2: Ha ah, this one dry, tak sama macam tadi dalam steam room tu ...

Woman 1: Hmm...... tadi steam, sekarang grill...tinggal nak letak pepper and seasoning jek....

Tapi yg paling sakit hati skali  dengar....

Scene 3 

As I was laying and relaxing on the bench, enter two mid-twenties girls.
 

Girl 1: I pun tak tau la kenapa.. Takat ni dah 3 org ajak I kawen tapi sume I tolak .... 

Girl 2: I pun macam ni je lah .. kerja, gym, makan tido.. kadang2 husband I balik keje penat jek ye lah sbb asyik meeting je kan .. 

Girl 1: My ex-boyfriend pun dah berapa kali ajak I kawen tapi ntah la .. 

Girl 2: I kadang2 bosan lah duduk rumah sorang, semenjak kawen ni ... 

.......bla bla bla bla bla bla bla pot pet pot pet  ........

Contrary to popular belief, the sauna is not going to help you burn fat, nor is it a place where you talk about your marriage life (or the lack of)! It is in fact, largely used for relaxation and therapy for your body, especially after a hard day's work or a vigorous work out at the gym. As such, conversations like in Scene 3 is highly unappreciated by patrons like yours truly. Hmmmpph!

Brownies galore !

I don't know what got into my mind yesterday when I asked my bestfriend if she was up for making (baking) brownies. The thing is, I've been wanting to bake these heavenly-crunchy-chocolate-y bites since for about two months ago. My hands were itching to bake something so I cruised the internet for some easy-to-make recipes and found one for the ULTIMATE BROWNIES. Seriously, that's what it is called. The ULTIMATE BROWNIES. So here are some photos of the ULTIMATE BROWNIES. (Haha, suka the drama effect from the BLOCK LETTERS) hee hee hee...

We made two batches of these and  this (above pic) is the second one. The first batch turned out pale and the top not as shiny and crispy as the second one (above pic). We figured out that I underestimated the amount of chocolate used because the measurement was in ounce (oz) and I gladly converted it to kg in my mind (tu la pandai sangat). Plus, we used cheap chocolate at first (Coklat brand K*jang..hehe). Oh, the horror, the horror!

It is true what Nigella Lawson proclaims (and I'm paraphrasing here), " .....you must never compromise on chocolate. When it comes to sweets and desserts, use only the best!...". Oh, how true.

Hence, with that in mind, Rini whipped out a bar of Vanh*uten cooking chocolate plus an extra bag of Vanh*uten Chocolate Chips and we went to work, yet again, to create the ULTIMATE BROWNIES.

These (above pic) are the pale brownies from the first batch. I think it also had something to do with the way we mixed and beat the eggs. But, fret no more, as we learned the second time not to compromise on chocolate and to pay close attention to the mix (sebab borak je kerja kan)  ..... and voila... !

Hmm... crispy, shiny-brownie-top and dense, fudge center chocolate brownies.....d'lish ..... ;p 

So, lesson learned for today is ....if the Domestic Goddess says not to compromise on chocolate, you DON'T COMPROMISE ON CHOCOLATE! 
 

Blonde moment

I have a story to tell and it goes like this:

One time I was driving back home from a hectic day at work. As I reached the first toll, I remembered that my SMART TAG device's batteries were running low and contemplated entering the Touch N Go lane instead. As I was really tired from the day's work, I really wasn't in the mood to stop, wind down the window, tap the card, wind up the window and then drive away. Yes, I was THAT tired.

So in a matter of a split second I made the decision to brave through the SMART TAG lane and hoped that my device was still working. But just as luck had it, the barrier did not lift up. "Shit", I thought, "don't tell me the batteries are dead". But that shouldn't be the case because my Smart Tag device was blinking, signaling that the batteries were still usable. I started to drive back and forth and back and forth, thinking that the sensor did not capture my device (all the while holding the device high in the air, out the window, above my car). I sighed a breath of relief when I saw one of the staff walking towards my car as I thought he should be able to help. As he approached my car, he smiled and said to me, " Kak, ni lane 'Touch N Go' .....bukan 'SMART TAG'". Suffice to say my face went completely red as I tapped the card on the machine and drove away as fast as I could.

It didn't help that when I told my boyfriend about the incident, he laughed and jokingly said, "Mak aih, dumb blonde nye you!". Siot btul! 

Have you had any of these moments? .... C'mon now ;)