Apologies if this entry came in terribly late. I feel really lazy and unmotivated lately to finish up the novel. Nevertheless, I still have to strive hard and give it my best shot to hopefully finish the novel by the 30th of this month (why oh why doesn't November have 31 days!).

Let's see, there are 10 days more left, including today. I'm about 40 000 words away from the target, so that means I need to write about...

*does the calculation*

More than 4000 words to write per day. Eeeep! *shudders* Wish me luck! And punish me if I do not make it, hahaha!

Click on No. above the Date field to view the story.



If you're eyes tire after reading such long blocks of text, I have divided this chapter into 2 halves for your convenience. Words in bold mark where the anchors lead to.

Quick Jump:
First half
Second half

---------------

Chapter 3

She washed her face in the basin, looked herself in the mirror and cautiously closed the bathroom door. She opened her drawer and picked a floral-patterned headscarf and covered her head with it. Like the more modern Muslim women, she wore it a bit back on her head and made sure her side fringe peeked out underneath the headscarf.

She grabbed the overcoat that hung at her door and projected a fiendish smile. “I’m ready,” she said with a slight hint of Persian accent. She opened the window as quietly as possible and when the coast was clear, she flung the thick brown twisted rope out of the window. Very carefully and gently, she climbed down the rope. She sweated and hoped that no one spotted her coming out of her room.

She landed on the ground with a soft thud, and pulled the rope down with ease. She coiled the rope and hid it behind the shrubbery of bougainvillea.

“It always works. Camouflages too! No one will suspect a thing, no no!”

She tiptoed to the tall gates, and she looked to her left and her right to ensure that no one must follow her. “If not, I’ll be damned,” she figured. Behind the thick shrub of ixora was a relatively small hole, but large enough for a person of her size to crawl through. She bent down and crawled through the hole with some difficulty. She grunted and she pushed herself.

Finally she was out and free once again! “But I’ve got to do something with that hole. It seems to be getting smaller and smaller.”

She walked for a few kilometres, and when she was safely out of sight, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Phew! Almost thought I couldn’t make it there!”

She put on her cheap, tacky sunglasses and blended herself in with the few pedestrians who were walking in front of her. She stopped and looked at the end of the road. A yellow taxi with a dirty exterior turned at the corner and drove towards her. As it neared her, she flagged for the taxi. It slowly halted to a stop, and the chubby driver with a bubbly face and stubbly complexion pulled down the windows.

“Where to, Miss?”

“The city,” answered the young lady. She opened the taxi door and ushered herself in.

“Yea, I know, the city is goddamn big! Can’t you precisely tell me where exactly you want me to send you?”

The woman was slightly taken aback by his rude question, but she decided to shake it off anyway. “The Open Market, please.”

And the taxi drove off, sending the leaves by the sidewalk flying and scattering in the air.

The ride to the city was tense and rather quiet, too quiet, despite the radio blasting some new rap song which words are decipherable to the passenger’s ears. The taxi driver was humming to the strange song while drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

The lady stiffened. She fidgeted for a while before plucking the courage. She sighed and proceeded to ask the taxi driver, “Wait, you actually enjoy this song?”

“Well, yeah! I love this song! And ohh, here comes the good part!”

“Shake your money maker
Like somebody's bout to pay ya
I see you on my radar
Don't you act like you're a faker

You know I got it
If you wanna come get it
Stand next to this money
Like - ey ey”
(© Ludacris – Money Maker)

“What? A money maker and some faker who stands next to the money maker? Boy, and I thought poetry was weird, but this is simply ridiculous!” Unbeknownst to her, she said that out pretty loud.

The taxi driver scorned. “Hey, don’t diss this song, man! It made it to the Top 10 charts. Shit, you conservatives are all the same. Never appreciate song such as this!”

“Oh, I’m sorry! But that is my own opinion!”

“Yea, yea, whatever!”

She slumped on the old taxi chair. She noticed that it was not maintained in top shape and she could already see tears and some stitches coming out. And it looked pretty bad too.

“This guy has seriously got issues,” she thought to herself unhappily.

She stared outside at the bungalows with beautiful lawns zooming past by. She wished that she could stay in such houses though. Unfortunately, that will never happen in a million years, and she is stuck living her rather petite life.

She watched the trees planted at the avenue and admired in awe the way the afternoon sun’s rays streaked through the branches and the leaves. She tried to identify them, unfortunately she have forgotten their names which she have learnt up for a Biology class test a couple of years ago. So much for education.

The taxi suddenly screeched to a stop. The lady passenger nearly hit herself on the front seat, but fortunately her outstretched hands have helped prevented that. She breathed heavily, and instinctively asked what had happened.

“Can’t you see the many cars in front?! We’re stuck in a stinking traffic jam!” Furiously, the taxi driver pressed the horn really hard for the few times. After that, he seemed to calm down and took out his handkerchief from his pocket. He wiped the brow of his sweating forehead and turned up the air conditioner.

The lady was once again shocked at his response. She tried to tell herself that the poor man sitting in front of her was having a pretty rough day, but apparently that did not seem to be a logical explanation. If he did have a bad day, he would not even have recited the satirical poetry aired on the radio.

The exhaust pipe of the SUV in front of the taxi blew out black smoke. How environmental unfriendly, doesn’t he know how to use unleaded gas? Horns and beeps can be heard echoing throughout the congested avenue. She realised that she had picked the wrong time to go out; it was practically rush hour when people are going home.

For about five minutes, the traffic did not even move a budge. Frustrated, the taxi driver cursed out loudly, ignoring the fact that there was a lady passenger behind him. Heck, he wondered why he picked that stray off the street. He should have just left her alone instead.

“I rather lose a customer than let a moron into my car!” he murmured.

The taxi finally moved at last, but stopped again. It barely went an inch.

“Damn! I’m stuck in a massive traffic jam, and I got dinner at six with honeybooch, and worse of all, I’m stuck with an Arab who could be a potential terrorist here! God!” he exclaimed.

“Excuse me, what did you just say?” asked the lady defiantly. “How could you insult me like that, you … you … ARGH!”

The taxi driver went silent. It looks like his big mouth had led him into big trouble, heck, he could even get fired!

“If you don’t want me, just say so!” She opened her purse and handed him fifteen dollars, “Here’s your money, and I need no change. Because I’m not riding with any racist donkeys!”

She opened the door and stepped out in the middle of the road. She purposely left the taxi door opened, why should she bother to shut it? She walked across the congested avenue and got to the other side of the sidewalk. Spying a subway, she made her way down and joined the throngs of commuters waiting at the station down underground.

When the train arrived, she immediately stepped into it. She did not bother letting the other people out first as she was too engrossed with her own thoughts of fury. “How dare he insult me like that! And I’m not even Arab either! Stupid blinking donkey! Urgh! Urgh! I cannot believe how irrational some people can be.”

She found an unoccupied seat and quickly sat down on it. She sat cross-legged and stared the business executives who tried to squeeze themselves into the packed train. On ordinary days, she will stand up and politely offer one lucky tired chap a free seat, but not today. Today, she wanted to be selfish, thanks to some taxi driver who she hoped she will never see again.

The doors closed and she lurched forward and nearly fell off her seat when the train began to run. She managed to grab onto a support and prevented herself from getting into another embarrassing accident. She had enough commotions for one day.

She stared past the man who was reading the newspaper into the running big black tunnel wall that seems to be unchanged forever. Lights in the tunnel blinked as the train travels through smoothly. Another turn here and another turn there, the lady counted the number of turns the train has taken out of boredom, and also to forget about her frustrations that afternoon. The train then slowed to a crawl as it approached the next station. She got up and alighted the train, squeezing herself through the crowd of people going against her way.

With grace, she walked up the steps back to the outside world, where she was greeted by aromatic delicious scents of food. The young woman inhaled the rich smell deeply and enjoyed the sensation. Her stomach grumbled, hungry after a long day. She strode to Sam’s Good-Old Bakery and as she was about to enter, she stopped and stared at the window. She clapped her hands when she saw her favourite fruitcakes still sitting there at the cooling display.

The small bell chimed a melodious ring when she entered the shop. The cashier looked up at her and broke into a smile.

“Hey Zuleikha, how’s it going?”

“Oh Sam, I have a pretty frustrating day. I will have two of my favourite fruitcakes please,” said the lady. She helped herself to a table, hung her overcoat in a rack, and sat. She stared longingly outside and observed how the little children play a game of tag. They seem to have so much fun, and looked happy and carefree. Oh, how she longed the days of her childhood! She will not need to worry so many unnecessary things that only encourage the growth of white hair.

Sam gently nudged Zuleikha’s shoulder. “Zul? Your cakes are ready!”

Zuleikha snapped back to reality. “Oh, really? Gee, thanks a lot Sam! I was looking forward to this the whole day!”

Sam placed the plate and a mug of hot chocolate on the table. He winked at her and bowed slightly to her.

“Sam! You even bought me hot chocolate, too! How sweet of you!”

“Anytime, Zul! You looked pretty down today, so I thought a hot drink might just do the trick.” The young lad scratched his head and grinned sheepishly.

“Sam, Sam, Sam! You’re too kind! Hey, are you free now?”

“Yea, I am. Business is rather slow now, so yes, I can definitely buy some time.”

Before Zuleikha can say anything, the tall blond guy grabbed a chair and sat near his regular customer. In fact, she was so regular that they both have befriended each other over the years.

The young lady took a bite at her cake. She savoured the sweet taste of it. She took another bite and while chewing, she asked, “Sam, do you know how some people can be total idiots?”

“Oh yea, tell me about it. Some fussy weirdo decided to drop by today. Boy, did she make my day when she refused to buy anything at all! She kept on insisting for lobster thermidor when my store sign clearly says it’s a bakery shop, not a first-class takeaway restaurant!”

“Hahaha! Really? God, did you tell her that?”

“I did!” said the exasperated shopkeeper, “All she could do was to show me a horrendous black face, and she stormed off my shop!”

“Wow! She must be super angry and terribly embarrassed!”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Hell yeah!”

Zuleikha paused for a bit. She adjusted her headscarf as she struggled to remember what she was trying to say. She bit her lower lip.

“Right. I was trying to rant to you about the stupid taxi driver who was really being a racist. Goodness! And he called me an Arab, when clearly I’m not!”

“Ouch, that hurts!”

“I got so mad, I made him stop right in the middle of a congested road and got off. I didn’t bother closing his door. Why should I, since he didn’t want to care about me! Arrrgh! Just talking about this makes so annoyed how prejudiced some people can be!”

Zuleikha slumped on the chair and took one large bite of the fruitcake sitting on the plate. How she loved to eat away the stress and fury that got entangled inside her.

Sam was about to console her when a bell chimed. He quickly stood up and apologised to Zuleikha. “Sorry! I’ve got customer! I get back to you later. In the meantime, enjoy the cake!”

Heaving a sigh, he left Zuleikha sitting alone in the corner of the shop. Zuleikha savoured the taste of the fruitcakes as she stared wistfully outside. The setting sun cast an orange blanket over the city. The children that were playing outside began to walk back to their respective houses. Streetlights automatically came on and the lights in tall office buildings shone.

Zuleikha stared in sadness as the now empty plate. I wish this plate could refill itself with more fruitcakes, she thought. In one swift motion, she got up, wore her overcoat and approached Sam. She was about to take out her wallet when Sam, who was busy entertaining the customer, politely refused.

“It’s on the house!” He winked.

Zuleikha broke into a smile. She nodded, and quickly walked off to the city’s subway. She took no chances in flagging a taxi down as she feared her driver might be that crazy racist guy again.


(Catch Chapter 4 soon! Comments and criticisms very much welcomed =). Thanks for reading!)

[+] There's more!

Oh my gosh! I had the most interesting day yesterday! It's really a day which is worth reminiscing to.

Yesterday morning was my very first German class! Boy, I was really nervous when I first met my German 'teacher' when she came over to my house. She wasn't really a teacher but a translator; nevertheless she can teach anyway. Bashfully, I said "Hi!" and showed her to the room. She didn't quite like the small table so she suggested instead the dining table. I don't know why I feel so embarrassed. Hehehe!

So she proceeded to begin the German lessons that I have enthusiastically looked forward to since the beginning of my holidays, and she began by teaching me the German equivalent of 'This is a hat', i.e. Es ist ein Hut. She then proceeded to teach me a few other objects. I didn't quite understand her at first because her English has an eminent German accent (no offense) which took some time for me to get used to, and she "rolled" her German pretty fast, and naturally I was confused and lost.

I noticed that she kept changing the subject from names of objects in German to conjugations in German. I'm glad that I studied my English grammar diligently. I was able to follow without much difficulty of the different forms of have and to be and whatnots in German. I cannot believe there are so many different variations which my German teacher said was stupid. Hahaha! I don't find it so though. To me, they are really unique and simply adorable!

From there, we went on to basic greetings and conversations in German, and I admit this was fun! We did conversations in a German hotel and basic questions that could be asked by ordinary Germans. I couldn't remember much from yesterday (I did write them down), but this is the only Q & A that is permanently stuck in my head.

Wie heißen Sie?
Ich heiße 'that frolicsome kid'.

I hope I got that right!

The Q & A above means "What is your name?" and "My name is that frolicsome kid." in German. Yeah! I especially love this letter ß, it looks cool on its own!

We then went on to do recaps and me pronouncing the German sentences that we learnt. We did that a few times and I find the whole thing hilarious. It's not THAT difficult to sound out the words, but I sounded the words out in an English-Hokkien way. She said it was really good for a beginner, and I was completely taken back by surprise. I have never spoken German in my entire life (okay, I did recently, but those were failed attempts in stammering out some German words). So I was both pleased and excited and I muttered a "Thanks" under my breath. I still cannot pronounce those dreaded umlauts, the same way I have difficulty with pronouncing those English diphthongs. My favourite German word that I like to say it out is eine Landkarte

Overall, I had a really good time learning German, the first lesson wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be. It still wasn't easy though, and I have difficulty in remembering a lot of German words. I look forward to my next lesson tomorrow where she promised she would teach me a couple of words to construct my very first sentences. I like it! Hopefully, I can hold fluent conversations in German in years to come and I hope I don't turn anyone away when this blog will slowly be Deustche-nised. Haha, just kidding!

Okay, so the questions that are playing in your minds now would be: Why German? Why not French, or Spanish (I'm also learning this language ad libitum by myself, with not much progress), or Japanese, or Afrikaans?

When I first heard a German audio online a few months ago (which I somehow stumbled upon), I cannot help but be enthralled by the way the female emcee was speaking. So "harsh and guttural", yet beautiful in its own way. That was my first crush on German. As I became more and more jobless on the Internet, I stumbled on many other German sentences and I like the way how the nouns are capitalized and the way the verb is oddly placed at the end of the sentence. I could even understand some of the words! I later found out in Wikipedia that English shares the same roots as German as they both belong to the Germanic language family. Music theory also contains some German classical musics which I have to analyse and answer, so German might be helpful there. And I just like the language!

All these little reasons ignite me to learn German, but I don't know why I have gotten so insane just thinking about them! It's odd really and I cannot explain it myself. One thing leads to another, and here am I satisfied that I finally am beginning to devour German.

So the next time if you are interested to take up another language, I suggest you do German. Why? Because I'm biased, of course!

Oh, and yesterday, I went out with two of my girlfriends (no, not my lovey-dovey ones) and we window shopped around a place where it isn't infested with teens. I'm so sick of going to the teenagers' hotspot in the country where I feel out of place and feel tired seeing the people I know there. It was fun although we didn't really do much. Mostly it's just bonding time. I feel so out of place standing in expensive boutiques and female shoe shops =\. But never mind.

I can't wait till tomorrow! Tomorrow's the day when I will get my dreaded report book and also my next German class. Yahoo! And sigh, I really don't feel like picking up my NaNoWriMo novel again. I'm really lagging too far behind to catch up, although I feel my story is really starting to shape up. I might try again later. Or not.

I catch you guys later! =)

[+] There's more!

Yesterday, I was unlucky enough to meet two very angry people. Luckily, I was able to keep my cool despite their anger influencing my unstable emotions. It wasn't a pretty sight, and I tried to cool them down.

The first fuming person who I encountered was my team mate in an inter-school competition finals. It was about some computer studies quiz which was pretty tough even for the participants, and the audience there. So this girl here, my team mate, answered questions (in MCQ form) directed at her wrongly. In fact, she didn't managed to answer all of them correctly and she was unable to buzz in quick enough for the speed round. In short, she felt she has let her school down horribly and disappointed with her performance. Her anguish very quickly turned into anger and I think she started to blame herself as our school got last position in the finale, but third nationwide.

I don't blame her for messing up badly on the real day. I really sympathized for her as the questions directed at her were pretty tough, even my brain couldn't process an answer. It was bad, hard really. There was one question which every computer student should know, but she couldn't answer that. It was ironic that she was enrolled into the finals by a computer teacher at my school although she didn't take up Computer Studies. She even questioned that herself. But I think that the computer teacher knows that she has the potential and ability to remember all the computer facts (just because she was competent with HTML, CSS, some Flash and Adobe Photoshop).

So after the result was announced, we went off the stage formally. A staff there ushered us to an exit which no one took except for us. Her face "scrunched up" into many frowns and I was starting to worry that she was about to blow! She hit the door that leads to another room with her fist, pretty strongly in fact. Thank goodness she didn't hurt herself. I can only do nothing but keep quiet and try not to worry too much about her as it was normal for people to let out their frustrations that way. Knowing her tempers, I was surprised that it sort of escalated to that level. Later on, I tried to console her by telling her not to worry too much about it, that everything that we were stressing so much about is over etc. It didn't quite work as she had totally fogged up her thoughts with anger. At least she still can control her temper and talk quite normally, except that she was more frank, direct and a bit rude.

I tried consoling her from time to time after the competition, and I think it sort of worked. She slowly cooled herself down and slowly recovered, although I knew deep inside, she was still worked up. Luckily, our teachers didn't say much. At least they didn't expected so much!

Seeing her getting worked up at how much she messed up the quiz, I can't help but remember what happened many years ago when I was in Primary 5. I could almost relate my experience to hers. It was during an inter-school Maths competition finals. Sadly, I was able to answer one question on the real day and even that question was answered with the help secretly offered by my team mate (he wasn't supposed to as it was an individual round, and no team discussion is allowed). I just stared and blinked for the whole of the competition. It was really embarrassing. I feel so useless on that day. It made the courses on mental arithmetic that I took redundant, and it sort of knocked on my confidence for Mathematics. My school won anyway, no thanks to me.

The next year, I was once again invited or rather "forced" to join the competition but I backed off this time. I knew I wasn't capable for such mathematical-intensive competitions. Indirectly, I told the teacher-in-charge that I express no intention to join on that year. That angered him, and he told me that he would give me several days to think through it. When the days were up, I got pretty scared and somehow I went to toilet and that was the time he came to my class to look for me. I wasn't there, and I remember one of my friends telling me that he was really really mad and even cursed me (or something less harsher, I really don't know). I have never felt so intimidated in my life. He never forced me to join again, as he can't do anything anymore. That really make me start to dislike Maths even more and I felt quite incompetent when it comes to doing calculations. I tried avoiding meeting him as I walk past him. It was scary I tell you. Lucky for me I moved to my present school the next year, and I can't tell you how very relieved I am of not seeing him again.

So yes, I can relate myself to her situation. Teachers who expect things highly from us make situations worse, but fortunately for her, it wasn't really the case. She's okay now, and I'm glad that she is!


The second person who got enraged yesterday was my very own little brother. According to him, he got mad because his online game kept 'lagging' (he kept putting the blame on the Internet connection, but I blame the game's server/spyware/adware) and he got disconnected several times. Finally, his patience running thin, he acted up and hit on his keyboard and system unit very hard. I didn't know what had came to him until he came to my room frowning and in a state of depression and tried in vain the game again with my mother's laptop. I guessed that it didn't work as he stormed out again to watch TV. I scolded him for getting angry over little things. I should have kept my mouth shut.

He wasn't feeling entertained of course. When it was time to go out and cycle, he went out and cycled very very slowly in a bad mood. It was a very endearing seeing my brother who is normally cheerful and happy to be very angry over a game. He's a violent kind of person actually, but he sometimes ensure that his temper is kept in check. I dare not or rather was too lazy to console him, but I was worried about him at the same time. I ended up chatting with him online even though he was a few inches away using the laptop. I felt more comfortable chatting with him than confronting him and asking what's wrong. Eventually, he found other things to entertain himself and he then forgot what got him so worked up!

It's really interesting but scary (of course!) to see how people let out their anger. Some hit on something, some like to shout out, some like to cuss and swear constantly (mantra to cure anger), some rather suppress it and hope the anger would go away (like me), some show anger on their face and stay silent throughout their anger (like me), some like to scapegoat (like me), some spill out their anger on their friends and close ones (like me) and some even want to chronicle their anger on their diary/blog (like me!). I know one who tried to smile when she is angry!

How many times did that 'like me' phrase appear? *chuckle*

Anger isn't a very nice feeling to experience, and it's not fun to encounter angry people. I wish I know how to cool people down from their flared anger. I couldn't really do that, and more often than not it only made them more angry! I can get angry pretty easily too, even over the most menial things, I admit. But now, I try to control my anger and make sure they don't affect the people around me but I fail sometimes.

Being angry means that anger can cloud your sane consciousness and you might do really stupid or foolish things that you will end up regretting later. It happened to me a few times.

But then it's only human to be angry, isn't it? Patience is the key to manage one's anger. I salute to those who can do so! I can't! Hehe...

[+] There's more!

I'm kind of peeved that the web browsers in my PC kept on crashing for no reason, and thus the blog post that I have written is lost forever. And I have to retype everything again. Luckily, I didn't say much over there. Let's hope my mom's laptop I'm using now can last.

I'm sorry for not blogging for about a week or so. I wasn't home from Wednesday to Saturday as I went out of country to Sabah for a school holiday excursion trip. It was really fun. And for these past few days, I wasn't really in a mood to blog nor even bother to complete my 50 000 worded novel. That's bad. I feel so unmotivated to come back and find out that I'm already a few thousand words behind the recommended milestone I should achieve, and now it's getting worse. I'm already 10 000 words behind! It's frustrating really, and November is about to reach its 3rd week.

In this blog post, I want to vent out some of the frustrations I had yesterday from chatting with a certain girl. I shall give you some background knowledge on her. Two years ago, I had had quite a crush on this girl and set up a rendezvous with her at the library. In the presence of my best friend (I brought him along to give me moral support), I told her I like her, and she fled the scene. And I was heartbroken of course, as I took it as a sign that she didn't fancy me. So gradually, my feelings towards her slowly dwindle down even though we still remain as friends.

This year, she moved to another school and I remained in my school happily living my life. It was only a few months ago that she IM-ed me, finally telling me that she did indeed like me, but it was really too late for me, us to do anything because I totally have no more feelings for her. I appreciate the fact that she found the courage to tell me after all these years but I wonder what her intention was. She told me all this after she poured over her dilemma to me, saying that some guy 2 years younger than her fancied her, even loved her (talk about instant romance development). So she asked me for advice and I couldn't really give any proper ones because I have never ever experienced having a girlfriend yet. I do have a couple of crushes, but somehow, nothing work (I'm doomed to be a bachelor LOL!).

So I told her to dump him asap, seeing that she doesn't even like that guy and doesn't even know him that well(she knew him through her friend's friend). I really don't know why but she obligingly stuck by to him for a couple of months as she dare not break up with him although I have told her countless times to do so. She kept updating me with the news of how she was still with him and to be honest, I really am bored with hearing it and told her the same thing: break up with him.

She finally did recently, but the poor lovesick boy pestered her by miss calling her. It's sad, really. I wonder if he got the message that the girl doesn't like him. It takes two hands to clap, you know. Yesterday, she went on to tell me how busy she is now after her exams; she took part in many many academic competitions because she wanted her "sports house to win". I admit that it sound really impressive, although deep inside me I was jealous of her. You see, we used to be academic rivals. She took the top spot of the class while I am just behind her.

She got herself into such a busy mess, right? So why, oh why, does she have to rely on me to give her the points for her debate and her speech? I don't get it, she IS indeed smarter than me, so why does she rely on me instead of herself? I know I sound like a selfish guy and not being a very good altruist, but hey, I think she doesn't want to move that big brain of hers up there. Ha, you know what's worse? She decided to call me this Sunday (or some day) and expect answers from me. Whoah, that's getting a little bit too much ma'am!

I don't know why this time, she didn't want to pester other people besides me. I have noticed that she had started to take advantage of me last year (although not as much as others) by copying my homework, asking for help and do her academical whims and whams. Is it because she still thinks I am in love with her? No way, no more!

Okay, this sucks. I don't even know what I'm rambling about. I just don't want to help her at all, since it's her problem not mine! I might help her a little bit if only she already has come up with points and wants my suggestions for more.

In the end, we came to that "agreement" and I closed the chat window. I was busy chatting with some other friends online when suddenly, her window popped up, saying "HEY DARLING, PLEASE HELP ME!" I should be flattered, but I'm more grossed out and I feel even more compelled to not help her. So I was about to tell her off when she said that it was her friend who typed. I was pretty much enraged, but I kept those to myself. First of all, why does she tell her friend who I don't know that she used to like a guy who liked her? Her friend even called me by my name. And her friend went on to ask me what my fancy MSN handle means when I sort of ignored her because I don't get what she was talking about. Arrogantly, she quickly concluded that I don't even know what it means. Hello? I know what it means okay, I just don't get what you're typing! I felt such like an idiot, and was about to ignore both of them when she said bye. So bye, *@#$%!

What am I supposed to do when she calls me? Ignore her? Help her? Say "I havent't thought of anything yet?" (planning to use this excuse)? Arghhh, I'm so frustrated! Since when has her debate became my debate. I feel like a fool. And then on that day itself, her pleading voice might swoon me all over again.

Maybe it's the holiday bug that bit me.

Or not.

I don't feel like getting involve with her life anymore. I know that's pretty mean and drastic and she didn't do anything to "hurt" me. I don't know. Somehow, deep inside me, I just dislike her...

I hope she wouldn't keep to her word and so don't call me. Or even worse, come to my house and ask for help. I would not answer the door but my mom would be there and she will make me entertain and help my guests.

This is stupid...Help?

[+] There's more!

The world has already seen so many violence and disturbances this past few years. World peace can only be achieved if people are willing to give up their own prejudices and accept people as who they are, not what they are. In that context, I meant in terms of race, sex, social status, religion etc.

If only prejudices can be eradicated (or at least minimised), people will be less suspicious of one another and are more willing to open up their arms. If this can happen, world peace can almost always be easily achieved and people can cooperate and work together, we can do so many wonderful things which can make this world a better place to live in.

Happy Dona Nobis Pacem Day, and thank you so much Mimi for thinking up of this splendid idea!

[+] There's more!

Click on No. above the Date field to view the story.

This is an advance update as I won't be here from tomorrow onwards to Sunday. See you guys later!



If you're eyes tire after reading such long blocks of text, I divided this chapter into 2 halves for your convenience.

Quick Jump:
First half
Second half

---------------

Chapter 2

“Good morning, Teddy!”

The lazy youth got out of bed and drew the cute, pinkish brocade curtains away. She opened the rose window and with one deep breath, she inhaled the fresh morning air which scent always leaves a tingle at her nose. She feigned a big yawn and stretched her arms out wide. Rubbing her droopy eyes hard, she managed to open them but squinted as the bright sun rays entered her eyes.

Amy Charming waved happily at the sky. “Good morning Sun!” she greeted. The bird that was sitting on her window sill nearly fell and flew away; probably it was frightened by her loud yapping so early in the morning. The messy-haired girl chuckled at herself.

“And a very good morning to me!” she cried. And she ran towards her queen-sized bed and she climbed on top of it. With jubilance she jumped on it while shouting at the top of her lungs, as if she was having the fun of her lifetime. Like a buoyant person she is, she bounced on her bed and pulled off some pretty impressive stunts which she has been doing almost every morning.

After Amy spent some energy on her daily morning regime, she stopped and sat on her bed. A smile began to purse on her lips and her eyes twinkled with enthusiasm. Cautiously, she tiptoed to her desk and pounced on the blue swivel chair. She sat and played with it for a while and turned and turned until she got dizzy. She then stood up unsteadily and she put her hand over her forehead to recover from her dizziness. After several moments, she managed to set her bearings straight and quietly sat on the chair.

“Hmmm…” she placed her fingers on her lips, “what am I supposed to do again?”

Her eyes averted to the monitor screen. “Oh right…” Immediately, she perked up and moved her mouse with frenzied motions. In an instant, her computer came to life…slowly. She groaned.

“Next time, I just shut down my PC instead of hibernating it. Booting up is much faster than watching a PC processing at a snail’s pace.” She made a mental note of it.

She opened up her favourite web browser, Mozilla Firefox, and typed in the website address of eBay with her well-manicured fingers and hit Enter.

The familiar eBay web page loaded into view. She hovered her mouse over the My eBay link. She muttered a small prayer in one breath, and clicked on it. She watched in anticipation as the ‘My eBay Summary’ page was loading unusually sluggishly. “Damn, can’t you go any faster? I have a busy day here,” she complained at the monitor screen. Her patience was starting to wear thin.

“There it is, the final moment!”

The page was loading, loading, loading and…

“Oh crumbs! Doesn’t anyone like my Gucci original handbag? It’s like, the prettiest thing on Earth, how can any girl resist it and not buy it from me? It’s not like my price was that exorbitant!”

Click, click, click.

“Oh, stupid much?! I can’t believe I accidentally set the price to 10k! No wonder not even one would dare to even have a peek at this world wonder!” She half-wished an idiotic mogul would buy it from her, but alas, no mogul is ever that idiotic yet. They would rather buy ten of those from the Gucci retailers instead of her.

A soft knock came from the door.

“Yes, yes, Fifi! I’m coming down! And yes, I’m aware that breakfast is getting cold, and Mother dearest is pestering me to hurry up!”

“Just how did you know that?” the heavily accented voice asked from outside.

“Well, let’s just say I’m psychic,” Amy rolled her eyes. In one swift motion, she stripped down to her lingerie and stepped into her marble floored bathroom which was not surprisingly bigger than most of her friend’s room. Her bedroom is already the biggest among all of her friends, even her whole school! She took her toothbrush and squeezed the Darlie toothpaste tube a bit too hard. The toothpaste missed the head of her toothbrush and it fell into the basin.

She grumbled loudly and tried again one more time. This time, only a bit of the toothpaste came out. Her patience running thin, she swiped it on the toothbrush and proceeded to brushing her teeth. As she was doing so, she walked to the shower stall. She gritted the head of the brush hard and held it firmly in between her teeth as she tried to reach the shower cap that was hanging high inside the stall. She wavered her arms until she felt the rubbery texture. Easing herself back, she turned on the knob to let lukewarm water fall and caress her naked self. She then gripped the toothbrush that was in her mouth with her right hand, and manoeuvred the brush around her teeth.

After a minute of brushing, she spitted the contents onto the floor and it lazily drained away. Lifting her face up, her mouth went open and the water collected in it. She rinsed and spitted the water out and repeated this action for a couple of times. She squeezed a small amount of her shower gel onto a sponge, and lathered her wet and now slippery body with her calloused hands. It was done rather too quickly and carelessly, and soon, she stepped out of the steamy shower stall. She quickly dried herself with a towel and ran to her walk-in closet.

“If only mornings are slower,” she complained, “then I can take my own sweet time to choose the perfect dress.”

Fifi, her personal maid, knocked on her door once again. “Hurry up, Miss Amy, she is about to leave soon.”

All Amy heard were muffled sounds, but she knew she was being ordered to hurry up. “I hate to do this, but I’m racing against time,” she told herself.

She closed her eyes and covered it with both her hands. Exhaling, she hoped that she knew what she was doing. Unsteadily, she walked towards a corner of her closet. Flinging her arms out, she tried to feel an outfit, any random outfit that she will be wearing on that day. Her hand touched something smooth, and she gently felt the material.

“Oh well, here goes nothing,” she prayed, and pulled out the dress she had randomly felt.

She opened her eyes, and gasped at the horrendous pinafore dress with a cerulean-chequered design.

“Oh no, not this dress! I so, so hate this dress! It’s like sooo…granny’s time. Is there a way to choose again? And why did I still leave it in my wardrobe collection?”

She stood there for a few minutes deciding whether she will wear the old-fashioned dress or not. “Damn, no time! I’ll have to stick to it. I hate you, FCUK!” she said.

There was not much time left, she felt she was already very late for school. With some difficulty, she managed to fit into the dress, buttoned up the pinafore and quickly brushed her auburn hair in front of the vanity table, and decided to sport pigtails.

“Ouch! Ouch! That hurts,” she winced in pain as she combed her hair.

She tied them messily and left her room hastily. Without meaning to do it, she slammed the door shut really hard, and it closed with a loud “KA-BLANG!” followed by a muffled crash and tinkles of glass. “Damn, that’s the fifth time the door made the stupid flower picture fall on the floor.”

She strode across the long corridor with large tall Victorian windows, and along the way, she met Fifi. “Fifi, oh Fifi, can you please clean up my room now, and oh, replace the picture again.”

“Oui, Miss Amy,” came the curt reply. She bowed down to Amy and walked away to do her daily chores.

“Cut it out with the title thing! Amy would just do.”

Amy walked down the elegant and expensively-decorated stairs, and towards the rather elongated dining room. She walked towards her mother who was sitting at the other end of the room, eating her breakfast with style and dignity.

“Good morning, Mother!” Amy pecked a kiss on her mother’s forehead

Her mother kissed her lovingly on her cheek. “And a very good morning to you, sweetie! Come, you must have your breakfast!”

She pointed to the other end of the very long table, where a plate of pancakes and orange juice sat on the white-laced tablecloth to tell her daughter that her meal was served there.

“Huh? Mother, I thought we were running late. And what’s up with you telling me to eat breakfast when clearly, it’s already late!” exasperated Amy.

“Tut-tut-tut, dear! Calm down! You rush too much,” said her poised mother, “You need to buy some time to eat your breakfast, you know! Breakfast is one of the most important meals that you must never ever miss as it’s bad for your health, and you will feel tired.”

“But you were the one who was rushing me, and now you’re telling me to slow down and smell the … pancakes?” asked Amy, who was now clearly all confused and annoyed.

Her mother gestured the butler to direct Amy to the end of the table. Amy followed him without much protest, and she went to sit down.

“Wasn’t here the place where I came I?” asked Amy to no one in particular.

Before the butler have the chance to politely pull the chair and let her sit, Amy had already seated herself and was seen gobbling down her meal hungrily.

The dignified mother of 50-something curiously looked at her daughter’s table etiquette. It’s so sloppy, so unladylike and so barbaric! She placed her eating utensils neatly on the table, and whispered, “Amy dear! Amy!”

Amy continued eating, but slowed down a bit as she struggled to swallow the large pieces of pancakes she stuffed into her mouth. With one big gulp, the bolus of the pancake travelled down slowly the oesophagus into her stomach by the painstakingly slow action of peristalsis. She stopped, and resumed after her throat was cleared once again. At that instant, she heard her name reverberating in the dining room.

“Amy! Amy! AMY!”

She looked at her mother. “Sorry Mother, I was too busy eating breakfast! Say, this is pretty good! Tell the Chef for me will ya?” The butler merely nodded his head.

Amy then looked at her mother. She was clearly bemused when the fine old queen cupped her fair delicate ears with her hands. It was clear she could not hear her daughter’s voice. Amy tried again, this time a little bit louder.

“Sorry Mother, I was too busy eating breakfast!”

Her mother shook her hands near her ear, gesturing her daughter that she still could not hear her. Amy took a deep breath, and with all her might, she asked her mother, “Can you hear me?”

Her mother gave an excited nod. She then said something to Amy, but all Amy could hear was her moving mouth and changing facial expressions as well as words unintelligible to her ears.

“Mother? Say what?” asked Amy in a really loud voice.

Her mother continued talking away, except that her voice somehow could not reach to the young, hyper adolescent’s ears. Annoyed, Amy called for the butler. The butler saw her gesturing for him, and he rushed towards her.

Amy quickly said, “Can you please pass this message to Mother: I simply cannot hear you!”

The butler nodded, and he ran to the other end of the especially long table, which can seat about 35 people on the longer side. The butler huffed and puffed and finally reached the end of the really long table. In an exhausted voice, he told the queen the message her daughter wanted to convey. President Charming then understood why her daughter was giving her blur looks when she educated her on the importance of having a good breakfast. She summoned up some energy and tried to make her voice a little bit louder, “I got your message.”

“Good!” shouted back Amy, “so what was it you wanted to tell me?”

“Importance of breakfast!” replied her mother. Her voice by now was getting raspier but she continued. “Amy, you know that you have slept through the night without eating anything…”

“Yes, Mother, so that I need to eat breakfast to replenish my body with nutrients,” Amy continued her sentence. She rolled her eyes, and poked the now-empty palette in front of her with the knife.

“Honey, can you speak up? I can’t hear you.”

“I said that I need breakfast to replenish my body with nutrients after a long night of not eating!” shouted Amy, who by now was clearly annoyed that a ‘normal’ morning conversation turned into a cacophony of loud echoes.

“Yes, Amy! You are absolutely right! And also, the breakfast that you take in…”

Before she has the chance to complete her sentence, she coughed hard and quickly downed the glass of orange juice sitting on the table. Amy looked at her sympathetically. I wonder how long will she subject herself to such torture of destroying her voice box, thought Amy.

“Sorry, honey. Anyway, like I was saying…”

She then coughed again. She ordered the butler standing near her to get her another glass of juice, and signalled to her daughter to tell her to wait for a while. Amy shook both her legs under the table and rolled her eyes again, wondering how long this conversation will last.

A few minutes later, the butler came to her and passed her the message her mother wanted to say, “Miss Amy, she said that the breakfast you take in during the day will provide you the energy to keep going during the day. Without it, you will be out like a light.”

Amy stood up and placed her arms in akimbo. “I know! I know! But why must she keep on repeating this to me? And stop calling me Miss, I told you that already!” The butler flustered, and quickly he went to the president to pass her daughter’s message.

Several minutes later, the butler came back saying, “Lady Charming feels that,” he hesitated, “Amy needs to be reminded of this constantly. She believes it’s good for you.”

“Good for me? Well, yeah, I know that like a gazillion years ago!” she snapped at the butler. The poor butler had to go back to the poignant lady again. Back and forth he walked, or rather he ran, as he was ordered to pass messages back and forth a few times before Amy finally said, “No need, I shall do it myself.”

When she approached her mother after what seemed like a long walk, the tall, greyed haired president stood up from her chair. The butler quickly pulled the chair away. President Charming merely gave a nod and blissfully said to her precious, “Alright. It’s time to go to school. Come on!”

“Mother, I hate to be rude. But I feel I must say this!”

The Queen looked at her full with concern. “Now, now Amy, what is it? Does this have anything to do with the breakfast trivia?”

Amy shuffled her feet. Without warning, she cried, “Can’t you do something about the DARNED TABLE? It’s driving me up the wall!”

She frowned at Amy, shocked by her ‘explicit’ behaviour. She half-expected her to be upset about her breakfast talk show. “You don’t need to be so rude, young lady! And yes, I will inform the butler to purchase a smaller table to replace the really long table as soon as possible. It’s annoying me as well.”

“Actually Mother, can’t you just reposition my seating so that I’m closer to you.”

The president laughed at her daughter’s simple, yet effective suggestion. “Now, why didn’t I think of that?”

“But I LOVE your idea SO MUCH! Bye now, hugs and kisses! Mwah, mwah! See you in the afternoon!”


Correction: Towards the end of the Prologue, Melissa was supposed to say “You know what? You're a stinking VIP: Very Idiotic Person!” and not “You know what, princess? You’re a loser!”. I made this change because somehow the story evolved into something else.


(Catch Chapter 3 this Sunday! Comments and criticisms very much welcomed =). Thanks for reading!)

[+] There's more!

Today, I woke up early (at about half past seven), dressed in my school uniform and rush off for an exciting morning. No, I did not go to school! But instead, I went to the town's mall! And why am I there so early in the morning with all the shops closed and wearing a school uniform when clearly it's our holiday?!

It was for a holiday school excursion (boring!) for educational purposes (?), which was planned and proposed so that our 'idle brains' won't rot and decompose during the extra-long holidays.

Oh yea, I guess I ought to tell you guys how long this holiday is. It's going to last for 3 whole months because our school has sought permission from the MoE to carry out renovation etc. So our term holidays in December has been stretched! Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! Horray! Rejoices!

Too bad when school reopens, we will have classes during Fridays. Nothing is wrong with that, right? Well, yes! In my country, working days are from Monday to Thursday and Saturday. Fridays and Sundays are our days off. Unlike most countries in many parts of this world, Friday is reserved for Muslims to pray (it's like their Sabbath day). So we don't work/go to school on Fridays, but instead Saturdays. And since we are going to have school on Fridays, that means 6 whole days of pure torture schooling in a stretch! School will probably let out early though for Muslims to carry out their prayers.

Anyway, so I went to this big and empty mall in town which has cinema. The plan was for us students to watch 2 movies of "educational value" at a very small price, $1! That's equivalent to about US$0.50! Talk about really cheap! I mean, what the heck, why should I miss out this opportunity of enjoying a movie marathon at such ridiculously low price! I seriously need to thank my teacher who knew the proprietor of the cinema and managed to get concession prices for us kids!

Movie watching was never that cheap! I'll say it's once in a lifetime!

It was decided that everyone should watch You, Me and Dupree" before watching another movie of their own choice later. I never regretted watching that comedy movie, it's really hilarious! I seriously cannot imagine inviting my best friend who is a vagabond to come crash in my house with my wife and I. And this movie created exactly that scenario! How a best friend actually can mess up your whole house when there is leniency. Also, it teaches me how marriage can just fail if you aren't careful enough. And there are some really funny dirty scenes in this movie (nothing too dirty to bar your kids from watching this movie). A must watch if you are planning to go to cinema!

After an hour and a half of incessant laughing (not really!), students divided themselves into 2 groups; those wanting to watch Open Seasons and those who prefer The Devil Wears Prada instead. I decided to watch that 'chick flick' since I have heard rave reviews from friends who have watched that movie. Okay, I admit, I sort of like watching chick flicks after cartoons. Hahahaha! I take the opportunity to watch such shows as I don't really watch them. And the devil's fork in the red stilleto grabbed my attention.

This show is good, and I want to give notable mentions to the seriously extravagant fashion designs, the wonderful clothes, the fantabulous accessories and the wicked ladies; boy, are they wicked! I like the beginning part though, where they show 3 unrelated ladies' daily tasks early in the morning, i.e. wake up, changing clothes, breakfast, commute to work. I'm not sure how the other 2 ladies besides Andy (the main character) fit into the story though. I don't remember seeing them. But nevertheless, it still was a good beginning.

This movie's about how some university graduate wannabe journalist grabs a job working as the assistant of Miranda, the owner of Runaway, a fashion magazine. Her job was one of those which many girls would die for to work. The first impression I got when watching the movie was "Why was there so much bitchiness?" No offense, but that was how it was portrayed. But soon, I realised that it was just what the movie depends on. Man, that Miranda actress is really good for being really evil that can drive anyone, even Andy, mentally insane.

That was Andy's major setback, and being an aspiring journalist, she feels that this job would help in her journalism career. So she face many trials and tribulations in her job and her friends until finally...

I think I shall stop there. I don't want to give the spoilers out. But yea, it's quite a good show to watch if you haven't read the novel yet. My friend said that the movie wasn't what she expected (that means, she found the movie only so-so). I did some research on Wikipedia and found out that there are some differences between the novel and the movie. That's interesting! Maybe I should add the novel to my shopping list the next time I go visit the bookstore.

And that was how I spent my morning, watching movies! It was loads of fun, especially if you watch it with a large group of people whom you know.

And now, for the NaNoWriMo dissection! I've just realised that I'm 2000+ words behind the daily word goal. This sucks, lol! I am going to spend my time tonight on editing my Chapter 2 (the chapter's pretty messed up and vague, and if my beginning was messy, the story flow will be spoilt) and finish up Chapter 3 as well. I just realised I actually forgot to describe the looks and physique of my characters. How could I forget! Hahaha...

It's just great that I'll be off on Wednesday for four days to another school excursion to somewhere out of country. The trip promises loads of fun though; let's hope that it is! So Chapter 2 will probably be up tomorrow instead of Saturday depending on circumstances. ;)

Man, I just realised I need to pack my luggage. And then there is this computer quiz rehearsal again tomorrow morning. What an utter dud! Let's hope I can make it through tomorrow.

Oh yes, I hope I'm not too late for saying this. I've stumbled upon Mimi's blog a couple of days ago. And it seems like tomorrow's Dona Nobis Pacem Day (the Grant Us Peace day), and she hopes that other bloggers will dedicate tomorrow's post on world peace. Which I think it's really cool and awesome. It's like promoting world peace online peacefully, through blogs. I hope you guys can participate in it too.

That's all for today, I will talk to you guys later tomorrow! See ya!

[+] There's more!

Click on No. above the Date field to view the story.



If you're eyes tire after reading such long blocks of text, I divided this chapter into 2 halves for your convenience.

Quick Jump:
First half
Second half

---------------

Chapter 1

The few days dragged very painstakingly slow, yet so much had had happened. The crashing of the plane, the texts messaging, the utter disbelief, the grievances and of course, the shattered hearts of the four family members.

No one could believe what they saw. The covert, mixed emotions all make so much sense now. It was actually all tied together. “Dad…dead…” murmured Kinderella. Mdm. Sweet immediately broke down and fell into despair. How could he, her husband, abandoned them and have left them vulnerable to the harsh reality?

“This can’t be true; it can’t be him!” She felt so foolish to tell her son so confidently that his Dad will survive. He never did.

The twins Dean and Aesop bowed their heads down. Their father had just walked out of their lives, just like that. The word “Goodbye!” echoed in their heads. Great! It’s just great that was his last words, and he actually kept to his word.

A still turmoil hovered about the ‘former’ White family. None of them could take in the fact that Mr. White is now long gone. He had died for his country. It is just unfair. Why couldn’t he have died normally, peacefully with a smile on his face? Why must his end be so aggravated? And why must he die now and leave a very beautiful wife and three kids?

All these questions swam around the young teenager’s head. Kinderella thought life was seriously unfair, but he did not know how even unfair it would treat him later.

The memorial took place three days after Mr. White’s death in a funeral home a few kilometres away from their home. Mdm. Sweet decided to hold the memorial privately, inviting only a few of her husband’s close friends and family members. Kinderella could only remember very vaguely about the incident, as he spent most of the time weeping and mourning for his dad.

A couple of months have passed. Kinderella and his step-brothers managed to cope with their father’s death, but Mdm. White could not seem to get over with it. In fact, the few days after his death, she went into a severe state of depression. Kinderella pitied his step-mother and brought her for counselling by the local counselling therapist, hoping that she will be back to normal. Things did not turn out too well as Mdm. Sweet was not too fond of sharing her deepest emotions with a total stranger. She thought it was a waste of time and money to vent out her frustrations and worries at a random person who only nods, write reports and then send her home for a day. So she stopped seeing him.

Mdm. Sweet’s state of mind was getting worse day by day. Kinderella sympathised her and decided to let her rest up and recover by doing most of the household chores for her. He washed and dried the laundry, cooked meals for his family (despite him being a really bad chef), swept the floor and cleaned the house. His step-brothers even offered their helping hand to him initially but decided to leave him alone to do the whim-whams. At first, Kinderella did not mind them not helping at all as he was sure they were tired and that they were just taking their break.

That was not precisely the case. Dean and Aesop decided to let their step-brother do all the housework since he kept on insisting that he can do everything himself and that they do not have to work so much. Seeing as their step-brother is such goodie two shoes, they decided to leave him alone.

Seeing how hard her step-son was working, she tried to take advantage of it and asked him to perform more chores for her as she was ‘too sick at the moment’ to do so. Kinderella, being the nice person he is, obliged to her every little command.

“Kinderella, do you mind folding the clothes for me?”

“Darling, can you please fetch me a glass of water?”

And pretty soon, these petite requests turn into more demanding orders. Even her step-sons followed their mother’s footsteps, trying poor Kinderella’s patience to cater for their every need. The word please gradually was omitted from their commands, and their tone of pleading turn into loud aristocratic naggings.

“I want you to prepare dinner for tonight Kinderella, and make sure the seasonings are right this time!”

“Kinderella! Ah-chooo! Give me the box of tissues over there as I’m having the flu. Clean the house more thoroughly, I want this place of ours totally spotless and dustless.”

Mdm. White deliberately trailed her finger along the dusty window panes and nearly poked Kinderella’s eye by placing her dusty grey finger near it. “How many times must I tell you to clean the window panes? Dust shouldn’t harbour in it. I forgot how many times I have sneezed every time I walk near the window!”

Mdm. White feigned a sneeze, which does not sound like a sneeze at all to Kinderella’s ear. It is very easy to distinguish one that is faked and one that is for real. Kinderella merely gave a nod and mumbled his apology under one breath, and proceeded quickly to dust the window panes until they were spic and span. After receiving a nod of approval from his step-mother, he quickly walked out of her room. He assumed that she must have woken up at the wrong side of her bed, so he decided to forget the matter and focused on doing his assignments since he was done with his daily chores.

Kinderella recalled the other time when his step-brothers started to mistreat him like he was their slave. He was about to prepare for dinner when Aesop asked him to assist him with his homework on Mathematics which was on algebraic methods – factorisation, expansion, grouping and the inspection method. His step-brother was practically making him do his homework for him. Most of the time he gave Kinderella quizzical looks when Kinderella explained the concepts of algebraic problem-solving to him. He pretended he was blur. As the clock ticked closer to dinner time, Kinderella had no choice but to directly give Aesop the solutions of the said problems so that he can quickly get back to the kitchen and rush his preparations for dinner. Needless to say, his step-mother was not very pleased with his cooking style that day. Just in case you were wondering why she was not doing the cooking, well, let’s just say she’s still ‘mentally unstable’.

And there was also the other time while Kinderella was cooking the food in the oven when a sudden heavy downpour developed. Kinderella ran out frantically to collect the clothing articles that were hung to be dried. As he was running out, he slipped and fell on the hard ground, bruising himself. Kinderella quickly got up as he lacked the time to nurse his wounds and bruises and dumped all the clothes into a basket. He carried them indoors. Needless to say, most of the clothes were damp and need to be rewashed. He cursed silently and headed back to the kitchen. He was taken aback when his really peeved step-mother gave him her signature stare while holding a plate of burnt salmons in her hand.

Mdm. White snorted, “You were expecting, maybe this?”

Kinderella breathed heavily in short spurts. Oh no, he overcooked their dinner!

“But Ma, I can explain!”

“Yea, yea, you went out to play in the rain again. How could you? You’re too old for these childish pastimes!” Her voice was rising as she spoke.

“But…but…the clothes, they…”

“But, but, but! That’s all you can say, Kinderella, that’s all you can say!”

Kinderella clenched his fists. He could not take it anymore. Every time he messed up unintentionally, he was blamed. Even for the slightest mistakes, he was blamed for it. The twins did it, and all fingers pointed at him! Kinderella had had enough. Time for Plan B.

“Look, Ma! I had to get out of the rain and bring the clothes indoors. I was rushing as I didn’t want the salmon to be over-roasted, and I accidentally slipped and fell. I’m sorry if I wet the house in the process, I didn’t have time to dry myself!”

“I’m sorry if I have ruined your dinner. BUT PLEASE? CAN’T YOU RECONSIDER IT?” Kinderella immediately covered his gaping mouth shut with his hands. He cannot believe he actually yelled at his own step-mother. Now he’s going to get it.

Steam was coming out of Mdm. Sweet’s ears. “How dare you, you disrespectful bastard! Shouting at your own mother like that!” She accidentally let go of her hands and dropped the rather overcooked dish of salmon onto the floor, and the china plate shattered into pieces. Pieces of salmon and food scattered over the kitchen floor. She crept close to Kinderella and lifted her right hand. With it, she pulled and twisted his ear very painfully.

“OUUUUUCCCCCHHHHHHH! Please stop, Ma! It’s really painful! I’m soo…r..ry…”

Dean and Aesop quickly rushed down from upstairs to see what the commotion was about. They gave a huge sigh of relief when they saw Kinderella being given a harsh physical by their mother.

“Oh man! Can you look at that sissy screeching with such a high pitch. Why, he can even qualify to be a soprano opera singer!” exclaimed Aesop.

Dean punched his brother playfully. “Man, that’s priceless!”

They both burst into laughter and gave each other a high five.

“How dare you make fun of your own brother like that! I’m just teaching him a lesson he won’t forget! I’ll deal with you naughty brats later,” hissed Mdm. Sweet when she saw her own children, of her own flesh and blood, laughing at their own scumbag. Satisfied of giving Kinderella the experience of excruciating pain, she let go. Kinderella rubbed his ear feverishly with his hand while gasping in pain.

She gave Kinderella a smug, satisfied look. Kinderella frowned at her, but Mdm. Sweet ignored it. “Clean up the mess on the floor this instant. I shall give you another chance to redo the dinner. Now, scurry and clean!”

Tears streaked down Kinderella’s face as he tried to recall since when has his step-mother was so cruel to him. Wasn’t she always a caring and loving mother who treats him like her fragile child? What was going on? Afraid of receiving another scolding and possibly a harsh beating from his ‘dictator’, he swept up the mess Mdm. Sweet made.

He crouched down and investigated the mess. Carefully, he grabbed a plastic bag and carefully picked up the pieces of china and disposed of them. A sharp pain suddenly shot up from his rear through his spine and he cried in horror. He turned back, half expected to see the devil cooking up another ‘capital punishment’ for him, and was surprised to see Dean smiling at him sinisterly.

“Hey scumbag! What have you done to my clothes?”

“Yea,” echoed Aesop, and he stamped on Kinderella’s foot really hard, “What’s the big idea of ruining our clothes?”

Kinderella was exasperated. What are they talking about?

“This!” Aesop lifted up his favourite T-shirt which has shrunk, and placed it in front of his torso as a comparison. “You ruined my favourite T-shirt. And you must pay!”

“It’s not my fault that you put it in the wash,” answered Kinderella defiantly.

“Oh yea? And how do you explain this, huh? Huh? HUH?!” asked Dean angrily. There was a tear at the side of his shirt. “I didn’t do it.”

“Boys! Please don’t disturb Kinderella! Unless you want to have a very late dinner,” shouted Mdm. Sweet from upstairs.

“Look, sissy man! We shan’t say anymore! We shall just take your pocket money as compensation for the damage, and leave you for now.” Aesop gave a dramatic sinister laugh which Kinderella thought was pretty lame, and the twins walked away, leaving him all alone in the kitchen.

Kinderella sobbed silently. He wished his life didn’t turn out like this. He wiped his eyes and tried to compose himself. He finished up cleaning and quickly took some ingredients from the cupboard. And that was when he saw blood stains on his hand.

“No, it can’t be!” whispered Kinderella.

He quickly ran into the toilet and shut the door. He stared at his own reflection on the mirror. What stared back was a face streaked with lines of blood. He washed himself up. The china pieces must have scratched his face when his face fell flat on the floor when his step-brothers pushed him roughly. Now I wouldn’t need to worry about acnes, thought Kinderella sadly. He stared at himself again intently on the mirror nursing his scratches when he realised he had spent a considerable amount of time in the toilet. He rushed back to the kitchen and quickly served dinner. Thankfully, no one was there to torture him once more when he returned.


Kinderella wiped the sweat off his forehead when he thought back of the beginning of his abuses. He closed his eye shut tightly. My whole life has become a complete mess ever since Dad passed away. Why must this happen to me? When he came back to the present, he realised the fire in the fireplace cackled, and was still washing the room with a bright orange glow. Great, I haven’t finished my chores yet.

Kinderella got up slowly and held the feather-duster tightly in his hand, as if he did not want to let go of it. He strode towards the fireplace and lovingly grabbed the picture frame of him and his dad many years ago.

“Dad, I miss you, where are you? You promised to come home and always keep a lookout for me, but you never did. You broke your promise Dad, how could you? How could you?!” Kinderella breathed out the air he did not realised he was holding in his lungs.

“Dad, I have tried my very best to take care of Ma, Dean and Aesop while you were away. So much for the gratitude! They now treated me so cruel and harsh now that you had left Earth. Where have I gone wrong, Dad? Wish you were here to see how screwed up this family is,” voiced Kinderella dejectedly.

Kinderella stared at the photograph lovingly. He placed it in his arms and brought it to his hand, knowing that someday, things will turn out for the better. A rugged voice broke the silence in the room.

“Well, well, well! If it isn’t the big crybaby thinking of his Papi!” Dean walked towards him nonchalantly. Kinderella quickly put back the picture frame back in its place.

Dean grabbed his step-brother and shook him. “Hello, brother! Dad is long gone, you’re just wasting time looking and talking to something which didn’t exist! Man, and I thought you’re supposed to be more mature about it.” Kinderella looked at him silently.

Dean shuffled uncomfortably, “What’cha looking at? Get back to work or I will summon Ma!”

Kinderella fearfully resumed his chores of cleaning the library. Like a ghost, Dean left the room as quietly as he came in. Kinderella detested his step-brother for treating his Dad who was no longer here a thing! Had he forgotten his Dad, Kinderella wondered while he was dusting the bookshelves.

He reflected on himself. He doubted himself that his situation will improve anytime soon. Besides, happy endings only exist in movies and fairy tales. Unfortunately, reality is not anything like them. “Not even close!” said a frustrated Kinderella.

He slowed his dusting to a halt as he looked out of the window and caught a couple walking lovingly hand in hand in the moonlight. Deep inside, he envied the lives of the two people who are really lucky to have found each other, and he wished that he was in the place of the man instead. An escape from his horrid life he is going through. Love, he languished, where is it when you needed it the most?


(Catch Chapter 2 next Saturday! Comments and criticisms very much welcomed =). Thanks for reading!)

[+] There's more!

Hi guys! I have decided to share with you a chapter from my NaNoWriMo novel every Saturday and Sunday. I shall upload one each on these days and put it on display here at this blog! Constructive criticisms are most welcomed, as do comments! =) Here's some information about this novel I'm writing.


My Novel Information:

Name: Kinderella

Genre: Other Genres/General Fiction

Written by: Me

Synopsis:
Tired of reading the many different variants and versions of the popular fairy tale of Cinderella? Then look no further as this novel presents you the everyone's favourite classic tale, with a modern twist. This story focuses on a young male, yes a male, by the name of Kinderella who desperately hopes that he could finally see the bright light at the end of the tunnel of his life. Kinderella's constant wishes of getting out of his miseries will be granted, and soon he realises his life will never be the same again. Will it end with a happily ever after, or is reality not so kind? Find out by reading Kinderella, the Cinderella story as retold by me.


Click on No. above the Date field to view the story.



If you're eyes tire after reading such long blocks of text, I divided this chapter into 2 halves for your convenience.

Quick Jump:
First half
Second half

---------------

Prologue


As the flames of the fireplace flickers its orangey fingers, Kinderella was there dusting the bookshelves full of meaningless scholarly books which have been collected by his step-mother over the years. The full volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica, National Geographic magazines and pamphlets, The Times, The Economists, Oxford English Dictionaries; you name it, she has all shelved meticulously in those rather antique bookshelves.

If you think she’s a bookworm with lots of free time, think again. Visitors and guests came and admired her amazing collection of books. “She must be a bibliomaniac,” said the Duchess who visited her house when her stepmother celebrated her 50th birthday. But oh no, she did not keep those books for her pursue of knowledge. She treated books like assets, something that’s worth showing off and something which earns you respect from others the more you have in collection. Why she does not collect diamonds and jewelleries, like any other noble rich ladies, instead of books leaves me baffled too.

Kinderella shuddered when he recalled how some people have praised her for being very knowledgeable. “These people do not know, but they have wrongly equated books with knowledge. They have been deceived by the sheer amount of books,” he added with a sigh. He shook his head pitifully at how these books are being treated. Never before opened books lay waiting in that bookshelf, hoping that at least someone can open them and immerse himself with copious knowledge.

“KEEEN-DERR-EELAAAAAAA!”

Kinderella gulped hard as her feared mother approached him. Things aren’t going to be pretty from here on!

Mdm. Sweet loomed over him, and gave him the scowl that sends chiver down Kinderella’s spine every time without fail. Kinderella gulped hard again. I didn’t do it, he thought, whatever that he had done.

“Stop loafing about and dust harder! Save your dreams later for tonight! We, or rather…” she added menacingly, “…you, need to keep this house in top shape! Christmas is near, and I command you to clean with all your worth.”

Kinderella hesitantly nodded. Like it or not, it’s an order from the great queen.

Without warning, Mdm. Sweet pulled Kinderella’s collar. “And you had better do a good job. Else, you shall be banished to your room for the whole of Christmas!”

Sweat dribbled down Kinderella’s forehead. “Don’t make eye contact, don’t make eye contact!” shouted little Kinderella in his head.

Unsurprisingly, he looked at her beautiful stepmother. And he saw the glare. It is an unmerciful glare which can forever imprint in anyone’s mind. Mdm. Sweet released Kinderella and walked off, leaving a very dismayed-looking Kinderella.

Kinderella gave a very long sigh. He did not know what to do. He half-wished that his dad had never died. He was the only one who can control his freaky wife. If only he survived; if only he could have a vision and warn his dad beforehand of the impending doom…


“Bye Dad! Take care and be safe!”

Mr. White hugged his son lovingly. “I’ll miss you so much son. Please, take good care of your stepbrothers and my wife too.”

“What if you never come back?” Kinderella choked back his tears. He was fighting the urge of crying. He though it was unmanly for a young adolescent male like him to cry.

“Don’t worry. I’ll always be there for you, I promise,” were the last sincere words of Kinderella’s dad.

They hugged each other for the last time, and Mr. White stepped out of sight in the busy military airport. Kinderella could not take the sight of his father leaving him, and he ran to hug his stepmother with tears streaming down his face. She lovingly patted him, while his two not-so-nice twin stepbrothers mimicked him. Their mother gave them a smug look.

“Oh honey, I’ll miss you…”

A few long minutes passed slowly. The family watched as the aircraft took off the landing strip which Mr. White boarded. None of them knew of what was going to happen to them, especially the naïve Kinderella whose life would soon turn for a worse.

As the day wore on, the invasion of Iraq was getting worse with many soldiers grisly deaths reported every passing day. The White family stared at the television set in horror as they watched the bombings, the shootings and the fights which took place in a foreign land miles away from their home.

“Is Dad going to be all right?” asked Kinderella’s step-brother, Dean, woefully.

Mrs. White pinched him playfully. “Of course, dear, he will always be safe and sound.”

Kinderella wistfully stared at the television, hoping that his step-mother was right. He suddenly didn’t feel good and was breathing heavily. Strange, he thought, what’s wrong with me?

All of a sudden, an explosion ripped through the land below, and black sooty smoke bellowed out. The reporter can be heard gasping and immediately gave a report, “It seems like the Iraqis have mined their own oil wells with explosives. Their motive could be due to disguise their troop movements and distract air forces.”

The camera zoomed back to the scene. Minutes later, the black smoke had risen to the sky. Some fighter planes came from the corner of the screen and were heading towards the smoke. They quickly averted, but one pilot did it too late. He flew directly into the smoke.

The household went quiet. Dean gasped in horror while his siblings covered their eyes. Mrs. White watched with bulging eyeballs. The aircraft showed up a few seconds later, but it was spiralling down to the earth…

“Oh God!”



“BAM!”

Miss Laudette slammed the blackboard duster on her table. Her pupils reeled in horror as they were shocked that their normally nice History teacher reacted pretty aggressively. The class went silent for a few moments.

Miss Laudette broke the silence with a relatively short sentence, “Class, please give me a chance to emphasise how very important the downfall of Malacca is. Questions based on this topic keep recurring every year in your exams without fail. Now, let’s get back to our lesson, and I want complete silence from…”

“BRR-RINN-GGG-GG!”

The young and slim History teacher sighed loudly. “So much for the silence,” she rolled her eyes, “Class dismissed!”

The door flung open as the hyper teenage girls storm out of their classroom. It was just like any typical day at an all-girls school; girls sharing juicy raucous gossips amongst themselves, the vain sorority ladies flinging their hairs about with some staring at their too perfect reflections in their compact mirrors, and there are the cheerleading girls having a meeting just outside their classroom. And of course, there are also the outcasts who are the brains of the class.

The chatterboxes suddenly quieten themselves when the ever unpopular smart alecs casually walk past them. The bolder one of the group, who has curly long blond hair and eyes that many boys die for deliberately walked towards one of the girls and “banged” her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” asked Mary, who apparently was the victim of that day.

One of the nefarious girls pretended to mimic her, exaggerating her reaction as much as possible. “Oooohh, I’m sorry,” she put her hands over her mouth, pretending to gasp, “did I hurt you?” she squeaked in a sing-song voice while flaunting in a very clumsy manner.

Stifles of giggles came from the students around who were slowly gathering to witness another ‘Desperate Nerds’ scene, so aptly called by one of the girls there. Definitely better than watching the ‘Desperate Housewives’ show, one exclaimed the other day.

“Hey, dweeb! Watch where you are going! Seriously, your specs are oh-so-thick. Do you want me to get you a new one?” taunted the blonde, who goes by the name of Melissa.

“I can get you a brand new Versace specs for you birthday!” she exclaimed loudly. The crowd oooh-ed and ahhh-ed at her sudden generosity.

“You will?” Mary asked hopefully.

“Sheesh, and a gullible dweeb too you are! Why should I waste MY money on buying that for you? You’ll probably trip over something and break them. They’re too fragile for an uncultured lady like you.”

She gave her horrible snicker. Nobody got her pun, but they follow suit anyway. Soon, the hall echoed with roars of laughter.

At that very moment, Amy could not take it anymore. She had had enough of that Melissa blondie trying to insult her group of friends almost everyday. Being a loyal and faithful friend, she stepped out in front of her friend and put her arms wide.

“Look Melissa, stop bothering my friends. Seriously, don’t you have better things to do, like flirting with that macho wacko who you considered ‘cute’?” defended Amy.

The crowd gasped. So this is where the famous Melissa does every time after school. Flirt with the icky guy at the neighbouring school.

“Amy! You…you don’t have to pub…pub…public…cise that out loud!” stuttered Melissa, who was clearly embarrassed now. Amy gave a victorious grin. Surely she did not just sent the school’s biggest bully into embarrassment? This is too good to be true, she thought. Her girlfriends gave each other a high five.

The hall buzzed with new activity.

“I cannot believe she has such bad taste in men!”

“You mean Miss Popularity hung out with a guy totally engrossed with muscles?”

“Double yuck!”

“SILENCE!” shouted Melissa, who clearly cannot take it anymore. Everyone stared at her.

“Amy, one day I am so going to get even with you. You could have been popular just like me, maybe even as cool! But nooo! You decided to spend your time hanging out with these useless dweebs of yours instead and poke your nose into books all the time. You already have the opportunity to do so, but you ditched everything! You swapped popularity with…” Melissa shuddered, “BOOKS! And a bunch of crappy friends who are so weak to defend themselves!”

Melissa signalled her clan to leave. Amy could not say anything but just stare at her, giving her the fiercest frown she had ever frowned. Unfortunately, her intimidation failed to have any effect on her.

As Melissa walked out, she paused and spun around to face a very antagonized Amy. “You know what, princess? You’re a loser!” “You know what? You're a stinking VIP: Very Idiotic Person!” (Dialog edited 7/11.)

“LOSER!”

Her clan gestured the L-sign, and left behind four very embarrassed friends and one very enraged girl.

(Catch Chapter 1 tomorrow! Comments and criticisms very much welcomed =). Thanks for reading!)



P.S. Man, this Blogger Help topic here really helps me in condensing this post. Check it out, it might be of use to you!

[+] There's more!

Yesterday, my family had an after-dinner conversation. It began with my mom updating us with our enrollments to extra-curricular classes. I was about to leave the table when she signaled me to have a seat. Rolling my eyes, I sat, but deep inside I really long to have conversations with my parents. The conversation then took a turn with my mom's question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Groans from me, but somehow, I just smiled. =)

My little brother: "I want to become an architect."

Me: "I probably want to do something in the Biology or Psychology field."

And there was some discussion on that. My parents just nodded their heads, happy that their sons have at least some idea of what they want to be. Then came the interesting fact.

My mom: "You know what, I always wanted to be a nurse as I wanted to help people in this world. My greatest idol was Florence Nightingale (Wow, I definitely didn't know that!). Unfortunately, because of financial difficulties, I did not manage to become one, so I decided to sell medicines and health food."

My dad: "I used to want to sell vehicles to people, like lorries, tractors etc. I never did because of financial difficulties as well and I couldn't get the proper education. I then worked with Shell in the airport for a couple of years until I quited my job and became an insurance agent. I simply dislike the rigidity of the job. Working at specific hours of the day and sometimes working overtime is really getting my nerves, and the pay was low as well. As an insurance agent, I have the freedom to work whenever I want, work hard to earn commission, and my daily commission was higher than my former monthly wages."

That's really interesting, as that night I realised each of my family members has different pursuits and interests which moulded them into the person they are today. I definitely learned something from that conversation! I look forward to have more conversations soon!

Today was a pretty tiring day. I don't know why, but I was more tired today than any other day. Still, I managed to drag myself away from my PC and read some seriously confusing and monotonous musical theory and a vocabulary improvement book. At least I sort of enriched myself with something today!

And speaking of enrichment, my little brother has just had his first Art class today. I found out that his art teacher was actually my former PE teacher teaching in my school! Cool! And after his class, I took the opportunity to look over his drawing. It was nice! And his art teacher left some really encouraging comments which made my family smile. He also gave my brother an assignment of drawing 8 characters.

I later approached him and teased him about having homework for the holidays. And his reply was seriously unexpected and also pleasantly surprised me.

"Aww, it's okay! I like it!" was his reply. He gave me his big grin. He was never the person who like doing homework, yet he said he will enjoy doing it, at least more than piano. I'm so sick of listening to him groaning and moaning about piano everytime we have classes. So this was definitely music to my ears! And my mom decided to let him drop piano too!

Okay, I just realised my November is going to be a pretty hectic month for me. There's the school holidays excursion, and there's some stinky inter-school computer quiz (Hello! In the midst of holidays?) and there's a party and I need to catch up on Sociology (I took it as an extra O Level subject on my own and my school doesn't offer it. Man!). Oh did I mention I have just signed myself up for yoga and German classes? And finally there's Nanowrimo!

Oh dear! I landed into a big fine mess myself! I hope I can make it to the end of November and also finish up my novel. I have completed 2% of novel, and *sigh* I still have like roughly 48,000+ words to go! That seems a lot, argh! Oh for your information, my novel is titled Kinderella, and you guessed it, it's a modern-twist to the old fairytale Cinderella story. The plots are vaguely the same, but the storyline is definitely a lot different. I hope that doesn't count as plagiarism... *shudder*.

I shall post up the story here very soon when I'm ready to do so. Let's hope I don't procrastinate again, that's like my worst habit of mine =(. Hmm, I'm so pepped up now to continue on my novel and I shall do so after my shower. So I will stop here for now and continue to update this blog later.

[+] There's more!

I've just enrolled myself into this NaNoWriMo Challenge. I hope I am up for it. I only learned about this competition only today, and it sounds challenging and fun. I hope I am up for it! Writing 1000 words isn't an easy task for me, not to mention 50,000! Oh man... And I have absolutely no idea on what to write. I hope that the idea will flow to my mind tomorrow. *Gawks*

Wish me luck!

[+] There's more!

So, I have a weird neighbour who lives in front of our house. She's an old lady who is in her eighties I guess, and surprisingly she isn't frail! I think she suffers from some mental disorder, I'm not too sure. But from what I've remembered vaguely, she has been shouting out really loud at odd hours (be it morning, afternoon or night) almost everyday since 1997 or so!

And funnily, some of my mom's friends has hypothesized that the more she shouted, the longer she will live! I don't know how true it was, but it does seem to make sense.

Her shouts can come in many forms. I really don't know how to put these sounds into words, but it's something like "Eee-yahhh" and "Arrrrrrrghhhhhhhh" and "Ooouuwwwwwwwwww" and she even can sing some old Chinese songs very loudly. Oh, did I mention she talks loudly too at times?

Surprisingly, she doesn't know that she shouted. Sometimes, when I observe her shouting, she can just resume back to whatever she's doing. To her, it's like nothing have happened at all! It's strange, really. And doesn't she feel thirsty at all after all shouting? She's old, and well, she's all right. I guess it comes with "practice" from all the shoutings she had done all these years.

There was once when my other neighbour couldn't take it anymore, he decided to call the police. So the police went to investigate the matter, and they interrogated with this old lady. They left the place with confused expressions but decided to drop the matter. According to what I've heard, she managed to talk her way through to make it sound like she is innocent (she doesn't know that she did such things) and she pulled it off very well with her very fluent Malay.

And the other day a year or two ago, my neighbour decided to take things into his own hands by throwing a stone which broke one of her house's windows. The old lady had a grudge against my neighbours from then onwards. Sometimes when he drives to work, she will shout at him or rather the car, and give him a scowling expression. It happens to my parents too, although it's not as serious as them.

I guess maybe that's what compelled her to do this today. My maid ushered me to the window to see what she had done to our gate. Luckily, she did not vandalize it or did something horrible to the gate, but instead she threw and scattered tree branches and rubbish in front of our gate this morning. I don't know what is her intention, but all I know is that she had brought things too far. And she looked guilty too. She seemed to look in our direction of our house once in a while, probably to make sure no one cleans that up or something I don't know. All I know is that, the rubbish is blocking the very narrow street of mine and my other neighbour. And they can even poke tires and burst them.

I decided to call my mom and told her about it. I suggested calling the police, but she warned me not to, as it might only make matters worse and it's also going to be a long and endearing process for us, e.g. filling in a statement, getting interrogated, giving evidences etc. So she instructed the maid to just clean up the rubbish away.

I really don't know what is up with her today. Why is she doing this to us? I mean, what harm have we done to her; we even put up with her shoutings day and night, yet took no action. And this is what she has done? I don't know, something tells me something is not right with her. But thank goodness she is like a decent old nice lady at other times who looks harmless. She reminds me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde LOL!

Creepily, she did this during Halloween. Heck, her shoutings had sent chills down our guests' and visitors' spine, as they have never heard such odd noise before.

To us, that's just like background noise which doesn't register in our conscious minds! How weird are we! But I guess we, or rather I, have got used to it. Oh well, Happy Halloween *shrugs*.

[+] There's more!

Hi guys, sorry for the lack of updates here. I've been pretty busy chasing my holiday fun. Hehe... So I decided to say bye-bye to the former layout this site is using, and now it has a notice-board theme! I hope you find this layout alright and not too distracting. I shall blog more later after I take care of my needs. I owe a lot of blog posts, heh, to make up for the lack of updates. See you later!

[+] There's more!

To you, an IGNORANT Additional Maths student:

Stop dissing Geography! Seriously, I don't get you! Yes, you! I can't stand it if you continue your incessant nonsensical rambles about me. "Hey, why you drop A-Maths?" and "Hey! You betrayed us!" I don't mind these questions that I won't answer anyway. It's only human curiousity. But what I can't stand is that they have continued even until now! It's annoying and to tell you the truth, my eardrums bleed after hearing them for countless number of times.

No, I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about this!

"Without A Maths, you have NO FUTURE!"
"Without A Maths, you shall fail in life!"

Seriously mister, why do you keep flinging these remarks to me? Do you think I have not considered MY decision of dropping Add Maths? You think I just, "Oh! Today I shall drop Add Maths and go to Geography!" NO! I have spent a few days thinking and even rethinking my decisions that could probably alter my entire life. And in the end, I have decided to pursue Geography. Sure, I did not struggle as much with Additional Maths unlike others (I still find it hard though), but I feel that Geography is more of my type.

And stop dissing Geography will you (plus another creep who joined in the conversation just now)?

I have always liked Geography ever since I started learning it. How can I help it? It's not my fault that I liked it. It's one of the most interesting subjects that I've ever studied (and that probably contributes to the reason why I took up Geography: I can't stand the thought of not spending my 2 years studying it). Yet, you keep rambling about how I have "failed" to meet up "your expectations"!

Another reason why I dropped Add Maths is because I will not be persuing careers that are maths-intensive. I know I cannot deny the fact that Maths is inevitable; you need some basic Maths wherever you go. Yes. But I wonder how you got normal Maths WITH Additional Maths messed up. You made it sound like I have sinned so badly!

And I cannot believe that you are making me want to regret my decision. What's wrong with you? Why are you being so sadistic to see me going doubtful about my decisions and go on regretting it?

DO YOU EVEN OWN ME, SO MUCH SO THAT YOU HAVE TO DECIDE FOR ME, NOT FOR YOURSELF?

Why are you so ignorant? Why do you say A Maths is the centre of the universe? Why do you say that people will frown upon those sinful and "stupid" idiotic people who dropped Add Maths, and thus make it difficult to even get a job? And you think I will end up penniless and broke and lonely just because I have dropped A Maths? NOOOOO!

I can't stand the way how some Asians have this "stereotypical" thinking mindset when it comes to education. And the way how they can be so majorly pessimistic! I hate it! It's really ironic that how some people seem to have high intelligence and act very civilised, yet underneath all is an ignorant soul with a very narrow mind which dates back to 2006 BC! They think science and maths rules over everything. Yes, I agree. But not totally.

Asians frown upon those who astrayed from Sciences and Maths. They think these people are useless and too pathetic to take up the more "enriching" Sciences and Maths. You got to change your mindset I tell you and be more open!

Note: The above is a fact. I'm not kidding. I've seen it myself. Aunties and uncles bragging about how their sons and daughters have become surgeons, scientists, doctors, lawyers and countless other prestigious jobs. I can't believe how some can sometimes treated their children like their assets!

Geography ain't easy, I tell you (although it's easier than the you-know-what subject). I can't stand you trying to tell me "Oh! Geography is an easy subject. You know, like anyone can pass it!". I know you can and you have the potential but stop saying that to me, please! It's completely pointless and it takes a lot of effort to remember facts. But I'm glad I ended enjoying doing so more than doing Add Maths.

But most importantly, I ENJOY what I am doing now. So to hell with your remarks please! Spend your time doing something more "productive", like locking up in your room and doing some Phd. Maths questions.

Oh no! My future is doomed? Yes? NO! I have spent some considerable time doing my research on careers that don't require so much Maths, and there are indeed a lot out there! I can name you some, like artists, musicians, writers, lawyers, teachers, historians, archaeologists, TV broadcasters, actors, environmentalists, geologists, GPs etc. etc. etc. This list is non-exhaustive! I suggest you do your own research before saying things out of the blue!

So yea, you say I can take Add Maths as my ninth subject? Yes I can! But I have other plans so that's a no go to me! Besides, I don't want to give myself the extra pressure. And a fool said:

"It's better to do more subjects. The more you do, the better it is! That's what employers want!"

What a load of bullshit! I've never even heard of such statements before! I need statistics, brother! And also quotes from respectable employers too! Get your facts straight before saying something so unrealistic! It all comes to waste if you can juggle 20 subjects, yet you are a loser (i.e. lazy, don't know what/how to do) when it comes to doing your job. You dig? Besides, employers are more interested in your university degree, not what you did some 7 years ago. GCE O Levels is the gateway to further education and possibly a job, but doing more does NOT give you an added advantage (unless one is doing so if he or she is really interested)!

I don't like it when you guys are SOOO ignorant of Geography too. And you even classified it as useless! How dare you! Geography isn't useless, it teaches you about the world and its physical features and how humans interact with it. If it's that useless, the Ministry of Education would have scrapped it off the syllabus eons ago. Sheesh, how wussy can you get?

Bottom line is: Respect my decisions. I've made it, I've done it and I'm committed to it. You have no right to influence my already firm thoughts. You may comment once, twice, thrice even, but not everytime! Besides, who am I to you? Why do you care SO MUCH about how my future will be? So unless you're Raven Baxter, I advise you to keep your mouth shut if you still have nothing nice to say about my choice. You don't see me dissing Add Maths, huh?

If you meant it playfully, I wouldn't have make such a big fuss about it but you have turned it into some kind of serious discussion. Sheesh. Male chauvinism. Pfft.

Oh yea, and the "talk" went somewhat from A Maths - Geography into how brainiacs are conceived. My goodness, how lame can you get? You suddenly say M's father is [I can't remember his prestigious job] and his mother is a physiotherapist, and that's why they conceived such children of high intelligence. And then you used again the example of N, saying that his father is a chemistry supplier (I don't know how they put it) and his mother is an A-Level Physics teacher. That's one one's a scientific prodigy, while the other can take on 9 subjects and remains sane and intelligent.

And you went on to ask me who my parents work as?

My god, you thought that this decision I make, which you feel stupid, makes me stupid? And you proceeded to ask who my parents are? And you dare to compare me with these people?

Who am I, huh, A PRODUCT IS IT????????

For your information, my parents are both hardworking businessmen, and my mom's also a manageress and so is my dad, a manager. So what conclusion are you trying to reach? Intelligent parents make intelligent babies, and stupid parents make....... (dear readers, please continue)?! Insulting, really...

An incohesive conclusion I'm afraid. And you made these gene inheritance thingy sound so ... mechanical and artificial. All these are decided by God I'm afraid. You can't just conceive designer babies! (The 21st century brought a change to that though =\)

I dare not say my parents' jobs, for you may ridicule them ruthlessly, which I do not allow!!!!!! And I'm not a genious okay (I wish I was, but I would be misused and abused), I'm just like everyone else! But there are certain things in me which makes me different, in a way.

Sometimes, I don't know what comes to these people's minds, turning them all weird suddenly. I don't hate them personally though, it's just that these things they do and say can really get on my nerves.

I wish I could say more to them to defend myself. Unfortunately, humans don't take that lightly and they interpret it as a cue to start a tongue-forking argument (sorry, I can't think up of the correct..."phrase"). I know I do =\. Anyway, I wouldn't want that to happen and it's only making matters worse.

On the brighter side, few days are what separates me from exams and freedom. I can't wait!


P.S. I hope none of you Add Maths students and teachers take this post seriously. I'm not directing it to anyone in particular, except for the people I mentioned above. So don't worry, I have nothing against you people or the subject! Key word: ignorant.

[+] There's more!