Happy National Day!

In honour of Merdeka day, I'm posting a poem I wrote for cultural diversity for a school as a favour for a friend, sometime ago.

I isn't technically patriotic, but hey, national spirit and world cultural diversity go hand in hand, don't they?

A red hibiscus sprouts 
In scarlet glory in East Malaysia,
A cherry blossom blooms beautifully
In Japan's rooted trees,
A colourful collection of orchids grow in floral fantasia west of Hawaii,
A field of tulips flourish in rows on the countryside of Holland

Beautiful these flowers do grow,
Though different,
All are magnificent,
As they sway with the wind to and fro

People all across the oceans,
Are different in our notions,
And beliefs and cultures and motions,
But are all beautiful and unique creations

Like flowers, we differ
In the way each of our petals are arranged 
In the way our colours shine under the sun
In the way our leaves sway in the breeze

There is strength and wonder,
In our cultural diversity,
We should not be put asunder,
But instead band together to overcome adversity

We stand uniquely as different colours
But stand united as one
Meeting at an intersecting point 
An array of colours through a prism

The flash of a kimono's silk in the sun 
The billowing of a baju kurung and
The sanguine sway of the saree in the wind
The clanking of clogs near the windmill

Greetings are exchanged in every corner 
Each with a different lilt and intonation 
Konichiwa, howdy, how d'you do,
Bonjour, aloha, ahlan wasahlan

The swaying coconut trees of Hawaii welcome your stay
The sun kissed sand softens as you cross Saudi Arabia
The snowflakes of Switzerland land gently on your skin a surprise
The smell of croissant greet you as you arrive in France

Diversity extends its hand in all places
Malaysia is no exception
Its sundry and colourful collection of people 
Rejoicing in indifference at their differences

Diversity runs in its entirety in Malaysia 
Where one may find delicious dishes
In every turn
Nasi Lemak in one stall, muruku in another

The smells of Indian spices mix with the sleek aroma of Chinese delicacies
The Malay gerai serve national tastes influenced by
Hands of friends of mixed ethnicities

Cultural diversity lives where it is made allowed to
So hand in hand do we join 
Putting aside our differences and embrace our diversity 
In love and longevity.

She says she's a rebel but she's way too sentimental

So sometime in the last three months, I've inherited a lovely white bookshelf for my room the width of five people. Thus I'd taken the liberty of cleaning and organizing the said bookshelf, when I realised, "I have too much clutter, goshdarn it!"

I had so many other books I wanted to get, and yet I hadn't much space left to welcome them. I decided it was time to say goodbye to some of the books. Thanks to the influence of some of my more financially shrewd bookish friends, I started to open a Carousell account to sell off some of the books that I may not have enjoyed that much personally. *squints at Looking for Alaska*

You can find me here!

title; Crazy Beautiful by Andy Grammer ♥

Birthday Book Haul

So last month I turned nineteen years old, and this is when it hit me that I was an adult. Supposedly.
The slow and dreadful realisation that I had to start adulting when I couldn't adult was alarming.
So what did I do?
Escape, of course!

This year, I was gifted many books, and I also spent my birthday money on some more, so this is probably (haha definitely) my largest book haul to date.
I got a total of 16 books this month!

So the beautiful books I'm adding to my shelf are:

• Peter Pan by J M Barrie
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• The Tell Tale Heart and other stories by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
• Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
• A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
• The Rosie Project by Graeme C Simsion
• Landline by Rainbow Rowell
• City of Bones by Cassandra Clare 
• Half Wild by Sally Green
• The Ocean At The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
• Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot
• The Fangirl's Guide to The Galaxy by Sam Maggs
• Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews
• The School For Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
• The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

I've wanted these books for so long now, and am so excited to read them once my internship ends (soon, my little precious ones)! A lot of them are written by my faves; Poe, Rowell, Cabot, Meyer and Gaiman, but a lot of them are new authors who wrote highly acclaimed debuts, so I'm super pumped to find new loves this year.

In addition to these things of wonder, I also got non-bookish things too!

Pots of paints and things

I was cleaning my room when I came across my sewed cupake. Then I decided, hey, why not do a throwback post? Random jumble of photos coming up!

  Genting was pretty cool because it was so vibrant and alive! I couldn't resist stopping a few times to snap photos (only to be abandoned by my fellow compatriots).

The hotel we stayed at was pretty rad too, so I thought it deserved some love too. 

Travelling trips

I've been on an extended hiatus, and the only reason for that is that I forgot to update. In honour of my hopes to travel somewhere again soon, (and some people's hounding, cough) I've decided to put up the photos I've taken during my trip to Japan late last year. It was an amazing trip - truly surreal, albeit ephemeral.

Just a very, very brief sequence of two of my 8 days touring through the cities of Japan. These are unedited photos, mind you, so if the exposure or contrast isn't that on point, it's totally because I haven't had the chance to touch them up yet.

We went during the spring, the season during which the cherry blossoms are in bloom, so naturally, we went touring around the local parks for them.

Being a sushi enthusiast, it is not difficult to imagine enjoying the food there, either.
And yes, I'm one of those insufferably annoying people who snap photos of their food before eating (please don't shoot).

The best part for me though, was definitely Disneyland, despite being a would-be adult.

Honestly, it was one of the most humbling experiences ever. I can cross off Japan off my travel bucketlist. 13 down, 5 to go; Insyaallah.

Holiday

So I went for a holiday recently, and took some polaroids while there :)

I'm gasoline and you're the spark

Been pretty busy, especially before, during and after my most recent finals. But, knowing my professionalism at the art of procrastinating, of course I found the time to squeeze in some futile activities as well.

For example;

1) Re-reading books I've read a million times, but somehow felt compelled to read over and over again, just in case the ending were to abruptly change itself. (Ha ha)
2) Watching Disney/Pixar movie marathons for 3 nights in a row in jammies, and fuzzy slippers.
3) And then deciding that it isn't enough to watch Disney movies with wee little cousins literally half my age. (Yeah, no, scoot over, lil' munchkins, I am NOT too old, I assure you)

This is what I have so far for this onee. It isn't quite finished, but it will soon be. Andand, it's a bit blurry, and too bright; just cause I took it with my phone camera.
Aside from that, can we please stop to appreciate what a nice movie Peter Pan was?

"You know that place between awake and asleep, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you. That's where I'll be waiting."

Also, you are lying if you say you don't like Disney (at least be honest to yourself, homie).

title; Hearts Go Crazy by Parachute ♥