Friday 8 January 2016

Hello, 2016!

Some days, I feel like I thrive solely upon the smell and taste of heavily-sweetened coffee.

I think this is something most students can relate to- the absolute power of coffee. In fact, I do recall most of my blog posts during undergraduate days being absolutely littered with caffeine-related words and descriptions.

Some of my best works were caffeine-fueled.

What progress have I made so far since the last post?

I have entered a new year. Hello, 2016!

Prior to that, I learned a new skill- I learned to knit, with the help of one of my dearest friends. I quickly learned that such a skill requires physical teaching for anything further than the start. When I made mistakes, any attempt to correct them (with the help of video tutorials) ends up with me unraveling my entire work, sometimes worth days. That is NOT cool. So I did what any sane person would do when faced with this situation- I leave the mistakes be, and hope that they are not disastrous enough to be corrected when I see my teacher again.

Prior to that, I went to IKEA and with the help of my faraway sponsor (i.e. father) bought so much home stuff, I was surprised. Like, 4 full IKEA bags' worth of assorted knickknacks for the home, and an entire furniture trolley filled with furniture- so much that the bulk of it had to be delivered to my current home, as I do not have enough space in my car for all of them. Granted this was split two way (the other way went to my brother and sister's shared uni accommodation) but the main bulk of the stuff belonged to me.

You see, I rarely shop for anything other than books and essentials, but when I do, I tend to go really big. And then I will cease almost all shopping activity for years.

Did you know that there are now 2 IKEAs in Malaysia? Rumour has it that there will be a new IKEA somewhere in Penang as well. It would probably be profitable, as all IKEAs tend to be. It's not all about the furniture, either. IKEAs are famed for their food, and both for their very affordable snacks and also the more costly but still rather affordable proper Swedish-based dishes.

Although, I do not understand the hype around the meatballs. I had some, and though it wasn't bad, it was personally not worth the hype. I did, however, enjoy their baked chicken leg with some sort of minty, clear gravy, which was surprisingly as refreshing as it was savoury.

The novel thing about IKEA, I believe, compared to other furniture outlets is the accessibility to the living spaces in the showrooms. You can sit on the chairs and beds, and feel the furniture; walk around the multitude of living, storage, and dining spaces almost as if they were your own (ignoring the masses of people around you). No one would tell you off for these actions. The sheer amount of different places to chill is almost enough to psyche anyone. My brother and I sat down on almost all of the chairs and beds, and approved several ranges for their comfort and design. We even spent some long minutes just sitting in several of the cozier, quieter living areas, pondering life, and no one shooed us away. This experience must be one of the reasons that makes IKEA so popular.

And yes, as you may be able to tell, I rarely go to IKEA.


The prospect of being able to choose my workplace for the next two years is becoming more and more imminent. I am scared and excited. I am anxious.

I hope I will be strong enough to face what is to come.

For now, I have registered for a preparatory course for my HO stint soon.
I dearly hope that it helps, at least in kick-starting some serious revision, and at most in preparing me for the worst of what's to come.


As for now, I shall continue doing some minute revisions here and there an trying to finish off several more books in my TBR list before my book-reading days are over!

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