november

it's been exactly a week since i submitted my 20k-word thesis. 8 months of slaving over journal articles and doing readings after readings, the stress and effort of planning, researching, interviewing fashion bloggers/readers and analyzing the barrage of collected data, finally bore fruit. when my course coordinator asked me how i felt as i handed to him 4 printed copies of my thesis, each consisting of 125 pages of the labour of passion, stress and late nights, i let go a huge sigh of relief and merely replied "i am...very relieved", and i smiled the widest smile, ever. he said i would probably be notified of the result somewhere in january next year, and everyday since last week i have been hoping for the best.

having barely slept the past month trying to get my shit together and to make this thesis work, for the past 6 days i slept whenever i have the time to, which is the entire day! my routine was: wake up for lunch, go online, play with the cats, watch some dramas/series, sleep until it's time for dinner, and then watch more dramas until it's again time for bed. 

will be diligently editing photos from november. although i have been on a "thesis-lockdown" the entire month, november was still an eventful month; his graduation, the malacca trip with his family, and other miscellaneous happenings, like finding the most amazing pork burger at ninja joe and photographing (before devouring) a whole box of macarons he got me from levain. these pictures are a preview of what will come in future posts, if i dont procrastinate any longer.

his graduation ceremony on the 3rd of november.

one of the landmarks of malacca, the christ church.

this is the big boss.

macarons from levain boulangerie and patisserie. 

i took tons of photos (like these) of every individual macaron. i think they are the most photogenic of desserts.

i shall leave you with a self-portrait of a very hagard-looking me taken on the day before i submitted my thesis. amazing backlight in the honours room, and i was waiting for about 250pages of paper to print, so, anything goes. and just because i have not updated this space for so many days. just because.

oh, hello

met my supervisor today and got quite positive feedback for the first draft of my thesis. not completed (at all!) yet, but at least i'm in the right place, and that puts my heart and mind at ease. will have to finish everything by tomorrow night/friday morning - (1) cut out about 10k words, (2) rearrange sections and add some stuff in if i can do (1) - and send it back to him. and the rest will kinda be history. his "with some editing this is actually worthy of getting published" comment makes me wanna do cartwheels the entire way back from uni, so if you see a girl with messy hair and a big grin on her face walking along sunway, yep you've spotted yours truly.

here's to another week of sleepless nights, beautiful pictures taken while i was drifting off into the land of no-thesis. 

2 - that's a bird's eye view alright.

3 - "whatchalookinat? never seen someone just hangin' 'round?!" 

4 - meet peep the singing owl, he's singaporean

5,6 -10days ago, with his family - we chartered a bus, there were about 25 of us - at malacca.

waiting for the train to take me home

having completed 2 of the 3 main chapters of my thesis and submitted them for feedback from my supervisor, i decided that i deserve some down time after working non-stop for the past 10days. i am now leeching off the starbucks wifi, i guess this is a down time meant to be, cuz when i was purchasing my usual mocha praline frappe, i was told i m the lucky customer of the day, and that there will be a complimentary tall beverage waiting for me within the next 14 days. nothing is more awesome than free drinks.

new favourite cross bracelet from autumn ripple, been wearing them all the time since i got them. and notice the cat prints laptop sleeve auntie su made for me peeking out there. love it so much, thanks auntie su, if you are reading this :)

sitting at the train station waiting for my 2pm train to get back home. and am seriously loving how the pictures that i took a few days ago turn up, while i was up all night and was able to catch a glimpse of the first rays of sunlight at 7am. and also feeling all warm inside seeing pigeon couples enjoying each other's company in the early morning hours. makes me realize that despite all the stress i put on myself for this thesis, there is still magic around me. i guess creativity translates itself best during times when one is at peace with oneself. 

trying to take baby steps this weekend, and also aiming to finish the last main chapter of the thesis by next friday. hopefully i can fit in the conclusion by then too. keeping my fingers crossed and heart calm.

in battle

posting up some pictures from my phone and camera to prove that i am still alive, and eating and kicking. and grasping a little for air along the way 'cuz everyday is filled with writing and writing to get that 15k words out there. and in the process, pray for a first class at the end of this journey. meanwhile, last week back at penang,

this quiche from delicious is just, delicious!

gracie the cat-with-numerous-homes decides to sit pensively on the pastel coloured floor mat in our kitchen

then moves to sit around some more in our living room

back here at dread-land sunway,

i finally made grilled cheese sandwich! filled with tuna and capsicum and cherry tomato slices. a little burnt but still a success considering it's my first try :)

oh well, back to being digitally anti-social and also to continue ransacking my brains, i m sure my intelligence is hiding somewhere under its many folds of skin/nerve/brain cells. need them badly to write up this damn thesis. deadline in 16 days.

iwantitalloveragain

just had the most relaxing weekend ever, although part of me is still stressed out for my thesis, but at least i got to hang out with my family and loved ones for the past 3 days. mum, dad sis and him came over to attend the scholarship and award ceremony and we all stayed over at kl plaza, chilled and did some shopping. the ceremony was really quick and painless and we headed off to lunch after lounging around in the honours office for quite a while. it was mum's, dad's and his first - and probably the last - time in monash after so many years so a family picture was definitely necessary.

posing before the school of arts and social sciences pillar with mon and andrea with our certs. was wearing mum's mango blazer and shoes are gift from friends from agape boutique

also, we finally set foot at the new h&m store at lot10, it was packed! we all had so much fun (and hauls!) but it would be a much better experience if the place was better organized, seeing the shoes all strewn around the shoe wall and people trampling all over the sandals and wedges, i lost appetite. but the clothes were amazing, mum bought me a jade green lace dress that i absolutely love!

okay, back to organizing my thesis now, reluctantly. the plan at the moment, is to pull an all-nighter on getting the 3000+ words of this chapter done.

all black

it's world press freedom day, so what better reasons to go all black! 

thanks monwei for the pictures! thanks also to the american ethnologist journals on the honours room cabinet for providing support for monwei's phone!

or get inspired by pictures of all black outfits,

\ 

or all black cats.

sorry for not updating frequent enough, thesis work and procrastination has finally caught up on me, and slowly kicking my ass.  

pic 2, 3, 4

rainbow cat

ahhhh nyancat desktop for the computer at my workstation in uni. i think it will only be temporary though, at least until i log out of this at the end of today.

my weekend

consisted of developing a perpetual craving for sweet anythings and everythings, and stalking/trying to communicate with a black cat under a lorry who stares back intensely with his/her piercing golden eyes. ah and also perfecting my slides for an article presentation in class tomorrow.

see it this way

week 3 of school has just begun to end (?). okay my first sentence indicates high level of stress stemming from the demands of honours year. spent today researching, meeting up with my supervisor, more researching, eating lunch at 4.30pm and dinner at -- oh, okay -- and attempting to water marble my nails whilst reading an article on how to undertake qualitative research on the internet. and taking pauses in between to rest my over-saturated brain by swooning over sweater and pleated skirts from the n21 2012prefall collection and contemplating on whether i should get that gold cuff. i have thin wrists so it is almost impossible to get a cuff to stay put, but this has chains connecting the gap...that kinda explains my obsession with it. oh and forever21 at sunway pyramid is having massive sales on sweaters -- rm40 for a sweater with lace panelling? score.

 

reminiscing

the last two months of year 2011;

   

i graduated

i witnessed (and caught on camera -- thanks to dad's bulky 300mm lens) a lunar eclipse

i saw the eye of singapore and the marina bay sands AND a convertible vw beetle all at once.

i was mesmerized by a real life moving painting from the song dynasty. surreal.

i tasted the best satay yet.

swooned over cute painted united buddy bears at pavilion kl and agreed whole-heartedly with this quote.

and, i shot this picture of a no-eared xiaoxiao. she is getting fat isnt she?

and uh, i got hospitalized for viral fever, kthxbye :)