Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman was the Oxford Street of KL in its heyday so said my parents, back when they were young or something. It looks a little drab now, but still. It was where we headed to buy cloth to make (pink) traditional clothes to wear to big brother’s engagement. My family is supposed to dress in pink.  There are tons of cloth shops, most of them four storeys high. I got distracted by a small book fair with huge speakers playing 90’s techno music and lots of dusty textbooks. I saw a girl camwhore with medical volumes. Perhaps doctor wannabes are into that sort of thing. I bought two Engineering-related books.

For lunch, I ate at the Coliseum for the first time! The interior was very quaint - all tiles and dark wood and warm lights. The waiter who served us wore a name tag that said Captain Ho. Captain Ho is an impatient, wizened old man. I suspect that he has been working at the Coliseum since it opened. The Coliseum’s baked crab was pretty decent. I was attacking the crab when a different waiter, not Captain Ho suddenly tied a bib around my neck and presented the sizzling steak on that black platter thing. The steak had a tomato next to it. I did not enjoy the steak as much as I thought I would. I mean, for RM 37.50  one would expect a steak of awesome quality. I felt rather cheated. The (RM 16) fried rice was good though. Overpriced fried rice always taste good.

We then resumed our search for cloth but I got distracted by large bookstores, one of which I distinctly remembered from my last visit ten years ago. They did not allow children into the basement-like university books section, which had me quite annoyed. I bought another Engineering textbook and the Quran translated into English. I need to find time to read it.

Finally, we returned to our search for cloth. I found nothing to my liking. My family is supposed to dress in pink for my brother’s engagement. Maman preferred lace and organza and brocade. I wanted to get solid-coloured the . After seven shops or so we picked out this gorgeous peachy silk cloth, some yellowy pink plaid silk which my mum hated, and pink and cream songket. I wish I took photos, but we were rushing and I was distracted. The tailor we went to after was very professional and informed us that everything - five sets of clothes if you include my mother’s - would be ready in a week’s time. I never knew people could sew so fast. Hopefully, I will get to put up some fancy photos next week.

This week, most of my lectures began with an ominous congratulatory speech.

“Congratulations for making it to (insert subject here),” said (insert lecturer name here). “It means you passed the prerequisite for this subject.”

By luck or intelligence, most of us have made it to the third trimester of the first year of degree. Yet, the scary thing is that my classes have shrunk visibly. In June last year the lecture halls were nearly full, and now only half the seats are filled. Before long my classes will have, like, four people or something!  Saw one of my senior’s in a classroom with four people. Nearly laughed, then remembered that they were probably bloody geniuses to have made it that far and that the further you go, the less classmates. I am taking five subjects this trimester - all core subjects. I feel like taking up a foreign language, but I don’t have the time. Must focus on being an engineer. My results, according to Maman, sucks. I have to focus. No gaming. Oh God. I miss gaming.

Had dinner with Yong, Lin and Niralji on Monday. Yong declared he would stop going to lectures and study on his own, which is very ambitious and so doable for someone like him. I have the attention span of a pigeon, so I’ll have to make do with going to classes and ogling lecture slides. I dragged the three of them off to the library after dinner. I found a couple of nice textbooks. I wanted an early night so I could wake up fresh in the morning, but heck - it was my first day back. Might as well partake in mindless loitering. We hung out in a lounge which had leather sofas and then had supper.

I have been wanting to shoot the sunset and the sunrise for quite some time. A few of us thought of getting up early in the morning to shoot the sunrise, but things came up and the plan was cancelled. I got my beauty sleep though, so I have no complains. We may shoot the sunrise sometime next week. It would be nice to shoot from a high spot in Putrajaya instead of within the campus though.

I got home and met up with the Gay Squad for obligatory shaved ice. Nanas dropped Zuzu’s laptop charger and it made this crack sound, like someone sat on egg. It no longer works and I think Zuzu wants to sue her. After the shaved ice session we crashed Stepo’s place. She has this adorable pregnant cat named Rabbit who likes Nanas, Putih and I but loathes Zuzu because he is male. After laughing a lot, I went home. Big brother threw a fit while everyone else gave me offerings of food. Big sister offered me creampuffs. Papa bought me cookies.  Maman bought me bread and oranges. I am ignoring the big brother. It is not safe to be within his attacking range. He makes me feel like killing in-game ogres.

So far, my first week back can be concluded as dull, except when this gorgeous boy cat cornered followed Anis back to our room and cornered her. I think he’s after the teh ais.

Met up with Fanna today. In the car, after showing off Depp90, I asked, “So where are we going?”

“Don’t know,” said Fanna.

“Okay just drive. Maybe we should go somewhere near.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to be caught in the rush of people driving home and the rain and we don’t know where we’re going. It’s like a triple terror.”

Triple terror. Oh snort. I have never heard anything so cheesy in months, in fact since I last met up with Fanna. So we talked over sandwiches, because there is not much else to do. We made ourselves at home at this sandwich shop which I love, because their bread is epic. Then there was the usual discussion about life, the universe and everything. Very private, confidential and occasionally funny stuff that I cannot share with anyone else.

Fanna also offered me questionable Advice. With a capital A. Marriage Advice in fact. I shouldn’t have mentioned to her that my brother was getting married. Fanna launched into this whole lecture about how we are already twenty (despite the fact that our birthdays are in April and July respectively), and we should start looking for partners in life, or the future will be Bleak. With a capital B. If we do not consider this matter seriously, we may end up

1. the second or third wife of some man,
2. marrying some centenarian douche,
3. marrying some a divorcee with three kids, or
4. single while everyone else is married.

The last morsel of optimism I reserved for journeys in love disintegrated just like that. I feel as though I am thirty, and going through an angsty midlife crisis. Anyways, thank God I am at home now, safe in my bubble of ignorance.

I had a nightmare. My brother moved out, just before our house got seized. We were neck-deep in debt, or something. There were people after us. My parents and I had to escape. I distinctly remember idling in my room when my mum shouted for me. I grabbed my laptop and scrammed. We ran like mad. I had never been so scared in my life. Suddenly, one detail stuck out. For some reason, very elaborate dreams often have the biggest facts wrong. My brother was still living at home. My family is not in debt. We still have our house. And it all sounded too much like the beginning of Dragon Age! (Big brother leaves for war, little sister and everyone else gets attacked at home, big fat castle is seized.) I realised it was all a dream. Once I gained consciousness, the dream took a different turn. I played Dragon Age.

Instead of concocting a dream about  fighting dragons or hunting down golems, I traveled to this city called Denerim, to buy a book. Even in a game in a dream I like shopping for books. The graphics were pretty good. It definitely looked a lot better than what my sad excuse for a laptop can muster. Sadly, back in the real world, I have lost interest in the game for reasons that would be too embarrassing to mention.

I resumed my life - the proper one - after I woke up. Fen and Nanas crashed my house just after I showered and got dressed. I thought they were joking about coming over. They were not. I was duly grabbed from my house and we went off to watch The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.  I assumed it would be something like The Fall but it turned out to be weird beyond belief. Lily Cole looked utterly gorgeous in the movie, but there were only ten minutes or so of Johnny Depp. Heath Ledger appeared a lot though. I did not understand the movie.

After the movie we crashed Borders. These days I only buy bargain books on impulse. Everything else I cannot find for cheap I will buy. However, we saw a set of Sherlock Holmes novels with rather nice covers - all eight volumes and 30% off. Half an hour was spent on wondering whether to get it or not and then arguing on who should get it first and then we decided to reserve the books. The Borders boy called me later and said that only one set would be available by Wednesday. Nanas said it was okay if I bought the set before her. ’tis very sweet of her.

It creeps me out.

Happy new year everyone! I am looking forward to an exhilarating new year, and trying my level best not to be sarcastic! Here I have a list of resolutions - although I think it looks more like a to-do list. I will

1. be a better Muslim,
2. study for at least one hour everyday,
3. improve my photography,
4. write more often,
5. save lots of money,
6. spend less time on the Internet,
7. keep my room tidy,
8. read a book every fortnight,
9. blog every week,
10. try something new every week,
11. learn a piano piece every two months,
12. learn to read Katakana and Hangeul smoothly,
13. work on my websites once  a month,  and
14. be a nicer person.

Oh yes, study. Since Yong pointed out some kinks in the subject Electronics, I am starting to like it. In fact, I might become a fan of transistors on Facebook! Or not. But I really need to improve myself if I am to advance as engineer wannabe. What I am truly looking forward to is more challenging programming next trimester. I miss feeling like a smart-ass.

Since I have this utterly divine camera (excuse my gloating), I have no excuse but to use it, and use it well. Nikon user’s honour. Basically my list is filled with me having time to be creative instead of mindlessly having drama marathons or watching excessive anime. Nothing wrong with that, really - but living days on end without doing anything sends me into a stupor.

And something new here - I will try something new every week. (I think Rinny tries something new daily, and I am not up for that much adventure.) It can be something as minor as wearing leggings or something life-changing like … playing futsal, thus declaring myself the national laughingstock. Perhaps I should just shy away from sports.

I will attempt to be a nicer person. I definitely do not want to “improve” myself simply because I get shunned for being weird. I am not even that weird, for God’s sake. Besides, if they shun me, it’s all right. I … I don’t even know their names anyway. It’s just weird to be shunned by people whose names you can’t remember.

All I intend to do on my part is tolerate and forgive them (for their stupidity). I will rant, be done with it, and not take it to heart. And try not to laugh at them after that. Or something. But I also intend to give up this resolution a couple of weeks back in university.