Lumiere and Cogsworth! were absolutely delightful. Lumiere had several sexy hip-shaking, let's-light-up-into-fire moments while Cogsworth flashed the audience! No really, they were amazing and I loved the Be Our Guest scene.
Be our guest! Be our guest!
Put our service to the test!
Beef ragout
Cheese souffle
Pie and pudding "en flambe"
Lyrics made me hungry!
(Chip - the teacup - is SO CUTE!)
Belle and Beast reading together - sigh... It tied in so nicely with an earlier scene when Belle wished for someone who would understand. And the scene was so tender and knowing and comfortable you couldn't help but believe in their relationship.
HE GAVE HER A LIBRARY.
I can't find more pictures of the musical. =(
One of my favourite scenes was of the Beast singing atop his balcony. Despair, loneliness, dashed hopes. The only true solo on the stage and he deserved it. Bravo to making a beast likable.
The classic Beauty and the Beast song was sung by Mrs. Potts, the teapot! Strange choice, I thought. (I'd been looking forward to the song the whole musical!) I would have loved a duet by Belle and her Beast - a simultaneous attraction and repulsion thing - but it was not to be. Mrs. Potts sang it well though, and Belle and her Beast were instead to her side having dinner.
Gaston creeped me out because he appeared in a skin-tight orange vest! Argh my eyes! He was also somehow quite gay... and oh-so uber swarmy-arrogant you can help but roll your eyes - the poses he pulled! He must have showed off his biseps 10 times!
'For you, mademoiselle.'
'A miniature potrait... of you. You shouldn't have.'
'Don't mention it!'
The Beast was marvelous - scary and swooping and menacing at times, frustrated (but she is being so difficult!) and childish at times, sensitive and charming at times, funny, sad, despondent, vulnerable, scared, in love.
Somehow the Beast stood out more for me compared to Belle, even though she appeared in practically every single scene! Scenes with her father with touching, especially when she said 'take me instead'. Her voice is fantastic, but so is the rest of the cast's and together they make for a great show.
And I shall end this with a quote:
Cogsworth
(suggesting things to woo Belle)
Flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep...
The guy beside me burst into laughter. Boys.
The days ring by in a flurry of 'but I haven't studied yet!'s.
Each exam gets more and more hollow. You should see the happy-clappy essays we write, involving everything from ways to curb the rising crime rate to ways to stop global warming, to ways to eradicate poverty, to ways to curing cancer. I swear, if all the bm karangans written in Malaysia came true, we would not only have solved the world's problems, we'd also have a billion campaigns running at the same time.
The sheer irony of writting more and more rhetoric, all the time. Is there any wonder that the country's leaders are more concerned with talking than doing? It's what our education system is teaching us, anyway - gunakan laras bahasa dan peribahasa! The markers know that's what gets you the A1, rather than what your essay is saying. I mean, as long as you don't critisize the Angkasawan or Khidmat Negara, who cares?
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to rehabilitate all the drug addicts in the country. Cheers!
Hope! Mr. Phillip says to grow taller, I should boil the roots of groundnuts and chicken to drink. Also, he says I’m tall. And should put on weight. So I like him now! =)
I just logged my 10th hour of driving. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t like side parking nor three-point turns. They require you to turn the steering wheel until your arms break off. And you can’t even get a guy to do it for you! The sadness.
I’m legally allowed to take the driving test but I WILL FAIL. So I have more hours of driving lessons coming up and I am supposed to take the test next month. WHAT IF I FAIL. =( I will be very sad. Haih I really don’t like the test area – it has too many poles to knock into and too few yellow lines in the ground telling you where to go. There is a slope where your engine might die. =( Then you will fail. There are many ways to fail, really. Don’t touch the yellow lines on the ground. You’ll fail. Don’t drive into a tree. You’ll fail. Don’t roll down the slope. You’ll fail. Very unreasonable.
Mr. Phillip thinks Liverpool is no use. He is a Man U fan. Haih. But he thinks Torres is good! =D He also thinks Fernando Torres should go to Man U. =(
I have no sense of direction. But I think I’ll like this driving thing. The freedom. The lack of expectations.
my favouritest cousins are coming back to Malaysia!
sherrr and kaaa didn't I just see you?
(bring me pretty sparkly things and white chocolate. pods! rocky road
actually don't lah I'm feeling fat. pretty sparkly things are all good though!)
haha see you soon!
Love, Ju.
Labels: everyday, unsent letters
I am 78% worried, 21% happy, 0.01% confused, with variable dashes of longing and random bouts of moodiness.
Must be something in the air.
Labels: confessions, everyday
I do jigsaw puzzles because I love them. I love how there's a method to the madness, I love how every piece will fit, I love how (unlike life) there is only one perfect answer and a place for every single one.
They're also good for procrastinating!
Here's a 1000 piece jigsaw I started yesterday.
CK did the ayams for me while we were puzzling.
Will post a picture when I am done.
(Yes of course you want to make me happy!)
Labels: everyday
America needs Obama like the wizarding world needs Harry Potter and Gotham City needs Batman and Malaysia needs another Dato' Onn Jaafar.
We humans need all the hope that's left in Pandora's Box even if it's so deep down we have to excavate it.
There are times I wonder why we can't all be like Calvin with his Hobbes and believe that the cardboard box will bring us back to the past.
Sometimes the sincerity breaks my heart.
Lady
I am your knight in shining armor, and I love you.
- Lady, Kenny Rogers.
Other people may delight in the notes of Ravel, but it is always, always the words that thrill me.
This is why I am an English Literature student, and this is why this blog exists.
Labels: confessions, golden
Hey,
I don’t have the words to say what I mean, but I will try anyway.
Sometimes I forget what it is like to worry. I forget that exam results are supposed to matter and I forget what it is like to be scared. I forget that like me, everyone has their insecurities and their moments of fear. Sometimes the world shrinks down to just me and for that, I am sorry.
I can’t help you, other than to ask you to work harder next time. It is never my right to comment or comfort when it comes to this – it always comes out wrong. Forgive me if it looks too effortless for me. Don’t envy me. There are so many things I would give academics up for, a million things I would trade.
I don’t even know if you’re going to read this.
If you’re thinking ‘this is for him, or this is for her’ – forget them. This post is dedicated to you.
Here’s what I want you to remember: You’re special, and I will always be there if you should need me.
You know, life may not take you where you want to go, but it’ll always bring you to where you’re supposed to be.
Me.
Labels: unsent letters
DRIVING!
is very very scary.
I had my first two lessons on Saturday and Sunday and I have this newfound respect for all the drivers in the world. Because cars, people, are to fetch me around and not for me to drive! I very definitely need a chauffeur but while I am not rich enough the world shall have to deal with one more menace (me!) on the Malaysian roads. Anyone willing to sponsor a chauffeur is very welcome to do so. Please? You might save a few lives!
So the first time I got behind the wheel of the kancil (which is this very tiny car named after the mousedeer which is supposed to be smart and nimble; the car should be smart enough to drive me around automatically don't you think!) the very first time the car moved I thought ohmygod STOP! and jammed down on the pedal again. The car jerked. =(
Boys and girls, you see, are very different. A guy put in the exact same situation gets a rush of adrenaline and thinks YES! and stamps down on the accelerator and the car crashes into the nearest object unlucky enough to be in front of it. Unless the driving instructor (the unfortunate person sitting next to said excited boy) slams down on the extra brake. In which case the car jerks too. =(
So after I was convinced that yes, the car is meant to move so it can transport you from one place to another, I started driving! It is common knowledge that one is supposed to stay within the lines on the road and not scratch objects on the side of the road. What they don't tell you is that it's harder than it looks. I believe the kancil was weaving from one side to another like a drunken turtle as I checked the right mirror then the left mirror, each time swerving to the other side because I wasn't within the lines! I also have the utmost pity for any cars left by the side of the road because I was utterly convinced that I was going to bang into one. Hence I screamed to my driving instructor (Mr. Phillip, who is hilarious and deserves an entry of his own) car! motorbike! person! aah! Then he threw open his door and showed me the amount of space there was. After which I resumed swerving from one side of the road to another and screaming the names of random objects on the road.
I have never realised that there are so many things to look at. Neither have I realised that when driving a car, it is not encouraged to look at pretty doggies. I was checking out a golden retriever when the car decided to turn itself into the next lane. Horrible! Also, the number of things to pay attention to! Back mirror, side mirrors, road in front, road signs, direction signs, gear clutch brake accelerator handbrake ROAD IN FRONT don't look at your mirrors!
It is to be noted that we are in Malaysia. Not America, whatever your dream may be. So us Commonwealth people drive on the left side of the road. Okay, confession: I very nearly turned onto the wrong lane today before Mr. Phillip took control of the steering wheel. Once we were on the right (left) lane, I looked to the road not taken and saw a car heading in the opposite direction. If I were on that road, we would have had a head-to-head collision, which are proven to be the most fatal (says the undang ceramah guy, Mr. Fatah!). Moral of the story: figure out the right lane to be on, which is always the left lane.
Another embarrassing incident why am I typing this out anyway? So we were at a traffic light - I always seem to be the first car there, not sure why, must be the bad times - and then it turned green. Mr. Phillip said go! I said which way! He said 'there's only one way to go - front cannot, left cannot - you ask which way to turn?!' The correct answer, by the way, is to turn right. =)
For people who have never seen the testing area for driving, this was my first impression: 'Wow. There sure are a lot of cones to knock down. Ooh, there's a slope!' So, on my third hour of driving a car, we went to a hill to practise 'don't roll backwards and crash into the next car'. I then had irrefutable proof that manual cars are not very smart - they roll backwards on hills, thanks to this special thing called gravity. You actually have to balance the car before you get to drive! It's a little like a seal balancing a ball on the tip of its nose: you feel like something is going to go wrong in precisely one second. You either crash into the car behind you, or even better, the engine dies and the car behind you crashes into you, instead!
Fuel prices are going up, up and up. Why buy a car when it's statistically more dangerous than skydiving? Get a bicycle instead! Save the environment! (Or if you're like me and will potentially fall off the bicycle into the middle of the road, save up for a horse-drawn carriage. Make sure you keep an eye out for a fairy godmother while you're at it!)
Disclaimer: I am probably not as bad at driving as I make it sound. Having said that, please do make sure your health insurance is up-to-date before ever stepping foot near any car that will be driven by moi.
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Sunway
what comes back now are the moments.
s} handing out grey RM50 wristbands in front of the gates.
u} expertly hiding sweets in my bag. I was the only one who didn't get caught - the rest stood around gulping down water. The sweets are on the bed beside me and I am guiltily gobbling them up.
n} wandering in and wondering why it was so empty. going through a whole lot of fuss over lockers until the guys came over to hurry us up and steal sunblock.
w} getting onto the first ride of the day and having it obligingly turn us upside down. 360 freaking degrees! =( we hung upside down!! I was hanging on for dear life (not that it would have helped) and someone - don't remember who, I was busy screaming - was waving their hands in the air. Sylvester sat there like he was going to fall asleep. they told me it wouldn't go upside down!!! =( oh did I mention I'm scared of heights?
a} roller coaster that went fast and I felt like I was flying at one point; or to put it better, I felt like the cart was taking off and would crash back to earth in 2 seconds. that strange feeling in your stomach on a fast elevator ride.
y} river rapids because we were hot. river rapids again because we weren't wet enough. 'snake' which has another name and has a torturous climb upwards in the pitch black before it goes DOWWWWN.
l} started drizzling and they put up signs that said 'closed due to inclement weather'. inclement?
a} went to eat. shared nuggets, whedges and fish & chips. stared at the guys who ate laksa. in a waterpark. before going on potentially dizzifying rides. impressive. no one got sick though. boys.
g} changed into swimsuits after lots of procrastinating! the guys changed (took off their shirts haha) after even more procrastinating. we lost them while we were trying to give them their privacy. walked around trying to find them like the wonderful friends we are. we even tailed an imposter! debated the merits of yelling out handsome! or leng zhai! in a waterpark. didn't. =( them guys, meanwhile, took off to have a swim in the lazy river. they of course could care less that they lost half the group.
o} yes they took off their shirts. =D no I don't have photos. damn.
o} found the boys. played in the kids area. waited for a bucket to pour water on us. invaded the slides. run on a net. shot from water guns. haih. kids at heart.
n} went on a few water slides. there was this mat one where I was late. because he said go and I was huh? there was this tunnel one which I loved I don't know why I loved it but it was pitch black and had little glowly lights every so often and then opened into light I don't know why I loved it. swam in the lazy river. the current made you feel like you were flying. the good kind of flying.
r} played in the POOL! It was all quiet and disciplined until we jumped in! and splashed at each other! and dove for legs! and tried tag! and splashed at each other! and splashed at each other! and made noise, basically.
o} wave pool was sad because the waves were smallish. and we didn't have tubes to sit on. and it was full of people and tubes which were tempting us to steal them. and tubes which wanted to crush me. =(
c} I got a tattoo! how cool is that! I was bored and it was random. abstract wavy/bird/heart pattern. I like how it can be so many things at once. it took about ten seconds.
k} we went to the scream park! dark and scary and forbidding. had real life actors who were SCARY in the dark. especially when you can't see them until they jump at you. or worse, walk up next to you. and stare at you. creepily. don't touch the ghosts and they won't touch you. so we couldn't whack them... secret doors, hidden windows, loud bangs - amazing how what is so normal can be terrifying in the dark. especially when you know they're people in costumes. walked past a 3D tunnel which was spinny and dizzy. they had this prison break area, where 'prisoners' yelled at you. they all had streaks of blood on their faces! it had a strobe light effect. blinkdark blinkdark blinkdark until you went mad. some of them actors follow you around when you insult them! we were doing lots of screaming. and laughing hysterically. and yelling back. credit to the guys who ended up in front because we declared 2 guys in front 2 at the back girls in the middle! poor guys in front got the worst of the screaming and the sudden ghosties!
s} sunway closed all the rides so we wandered out. took some photos outside the ghost house we 'conquered'. took photos of the blue sunway duck! the left one, we abandoned the right duckie. took photos of our circle of wristbands. so tired we could barely walk. made our way to the pick-up point and stopped at cushions along the way.
thank you to Gowrie, Jia Wei, Syn Dee, Chee Kong, Lester, Sylvester and Yoong Chieh for making this happen. you rock too!
Labels: everyday
Angry.
1. What the hell happened to meritocracy?
You know, what our history text books taught us was that Islam introduced the concept in Spain. They introduced 'greater social freedom' by judging people not based on their wealth, or who they knew, but by knowledge and skill.
The UMNO Youth Education Bureau commented today that "PSD scholarships are being taken from the bumiputras to be given to the non-bumiputras. The quota for non-bumiputras has increased from 10% to 45% but the number of total scholarships has remained at 2,000.We object to this move because it now means that 700 scholarships for bumiputra students are gone."
WHY is it that race counts when you are applying for help in furthering your education? Surely the powers up there don't want us to think that a certain race is better than another? That would be wrong because that is precisely the mentality that brought us the Holocaust and the Second World War. Racial purity as a philosophy failed the moment Adolf Hitler decided to act on his delusions.
There are plenty of criteria you can use for the handing out of scholarships. Academic and cocurricular accomplishments, background. People who need help and deserve it. Don't give it to the datuk's son, damn it. If he can buy a datukship, he can afford to send his children to uni. If he didn't buy the datukship, then he is doing well enough to send his children to uni anyway.
Give it to the teachers' children, give it to the police force's kids. Give it to the repairman's son helping out at the garage who dreams of breaking the cycle of poverty and could do it, too, if only you gave him a chance. We hear the stories every day. Our seniors we live in awe of because they seem to have done everything and more - yet they don't get the scholarships they deserve. No, they don't have ministers for uncles or neurosurgeons for fathers or society women for mothers. They are normal people who have worked hard, and dared to hope.
99.9% of our DNA is identical, yet we spend most of our time focusing on the 0.1% which is different.
Race is not a factor. Yes, you say that the bumiputras in Sabah and Sarawak need a quota or they would not get into our local universities. They cannot be left behind, you argue. The truth is, if they had proper education and the facilities we do, they would do just as well. They could do better. They are being pushed aside. You point at the quota left for them in universities but how many students with bright futures give up in primary school and secondary school? Help them. Help them before they become disillusioned with the country and give up. Don't you dare say there is no money. You sent an Angkasawan to space. He came back and the experiments were destroyed on landing.
2. There are so many things wrong with the Malaysian education system. It would be supremely ironical if we produced successful, respected graduates in spite of the flaws like Singapore does, but no, the sad truth is we don't. When something is broken, fix it.
One example: I was sitting in a theory class on driving the other day when the instructor posed a question, told us we were all wrong, and proceeded to tell us the answer. I filed it away, then an automatic response popped up in my mind: that's not going to come out in the test.
It is not my desire to be as shallow as that. In fact, it was to my complete horror that it happened. It was a piece of info that was going to be useful when I got on the road, and it might save my life one day. Yet my brain labelled it insignificant because I was fairly certain it would not appear on a test. This is ingrained in the system of almost every student in Malaysia, people. It is wrong. This results in people who will never go beyond what they need to know into what they could know. This is a closed mind: there is a box, and there is nothing outside the box.
3. Chinese is our mother tongue, yet everywhere in the nation, people are struggling to score an A1 in SPM Chinese. Surely we are not that incompetent? After all, we have mastered your mother tongue: Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia (which have you changed it to this time?). We have even, lo and behold, mastered notoriously difficult subjects like Additional Mathematics and Physics. Why is it that a mastery of Chinese eludes us? Would you care to explain why an A1 in Add Math and Physics only require scores of high 60-s to low-70s when Chinese requires us to score, at the very lowest, high 80-s? The requirement for an A1 has even jumped to 94%. But of course you knew that. You drew the graph that year, didn’t you?
The Chinese language is the language of the future. The whole world is fighting for the chance to learn Chinese and grab a piece of the China pie. Why are you stifling the growth of Chinese in your country? You have countrymen who are willing to teach you the language. Why are you stabbing those who will help you in the back? You have to believe. You have to accept that we are Malaysian. We were born here, we grew up here. Whatever you do, we will always have love for the country, patriotism, loyalty. We will come back and we will give back. Have some faith.
Keep doing what you’re doing. One day the Chinese will all fly to Singapore, to Australia, to Hong Kong, to America, and you will beg them to come back. When they stay where they are, you will be angry. You will blame them and call them disloyal. This amounts to treason, you will say. And you will forget, like we always forget when we are in the wrong, the day when a member of parliament stood up and declared, ‘If you are not happy, then go back to China.’ You will forget the day when leaders of the country swore that the keris would be soaked in Chinese blood. You will only be angry because regret is not in your vocabulary.
4. This is an appeal to the Education Ministry. Moral education is a waste of our time. We are not learning to be better people. There is no meaning in memorising definitions of moral values. It is negative psychology at its best because memorising it? makes us hate it. Believe me, the integration of moral values through the subject Moral Education is flawed.
If you disagree, please TELL us how it is benefiting us and the country. Issue a memorandum, make a statement, hold a press conference. Don’t ignore the problem like it isn’t there. What problem? Interview any secondary school student in Malaysia. (Did you know that nowhere in the 36 moral values is ‘honesty’ mentioned? One would think honesty is the first value we need to learn as a nation – the reasons for this statement need not be elaborated. Besides, Lincoln has his own legend about honesty! You don’t hear stories about moderation, do you?)
5. Replace Moral with Geography. Somehow, someone decided long ago that Geography is not a required subject for students above the age of 15. It is an embarrassment. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell you where Turkey is, let alone the name of its capital. Who was the person who decided that knowing about the world around you is not important? Our three years of Geo were dedicated to Malaysia. Somehow the other 194 other countries in the world never made it into the picture.
6. Deciding to teach Math and Science in English was the best decision you ever made. Don’t shake things up by proposing to change it back every few months. Don’t give people false hope that it’ll all go back to BM; how are they going to accept facts if you keep feeding them lines about reviewing the system? So certain people have problems with learning in English. That’s why it’s called the education system, so they can learn. If not now, then when? You surely don’t expect them to miraculously become masters in English after they move on from secondary school? This matters. Please don’t produce another Nur Amalina who went to England as Malaysia’s top student and failed a basic English test.
Please. We criticize because we care.
Your children have been sent to Australia. Have you no faith in your education system? Then make the changes. They might not benefit your children, but they will benefit the children of the nation.
Surely you care too.
I'm thinking driving =) what car would you get if you were me?!
Oasis. Chitty chitty bang bang! says:
Porsche
juvern.blogspot.com says:
yay
juvern.blogspot.com says:
you're going to buy for me!!!
Oasis. Chitty chitty bang bang! says:
nope lol
Oasis. Chitty chitty bang bang! says:
im gonna give u
Oasis. Chitty chitty bang bang! says:
toy car
juvern.blogspot.com says:
=(
Labels: chatlog