blackpolkadotts
A sixteen year old blogger with a passion for photography, fashion, web design, watercolor paints, good books and music. She would love to travel the world one day and take dozens of photos.

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reading: the wild sheep chase, haruki murakami
listening to: you owe me an iou, hot hot heat
events: art and design tech exhibition at empire. PROM!

Abdul
Aiesya
Alyssa
Charlotte
Ching
Ella
Fiq
Jane
Jess
Jo
Joan
Ling
Lydia
May
Melissa H.
Melissa T.
Mira
Monica
Nurul
Nurus
Rina
Rowena
Sara
Syaz
UC

Deviantart
Dolly
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Image from: unreflected
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made by yours truly.

July 2007

August 2007

September 2007

October 2007

November 2007

December 2007

January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

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February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

recently

big yellow taxi

outlaws of the border

bad names

playlists,

'every girl is a princess.'

jeepers.

wunderkind

somewhere along the lines, we lost our horizon

elephants are destined to remember

middle management

this week has been a horrible rush, first the cancelled DOE trip, then monday's athletics day and CAT tests, then the social.

You might think that once those exams are over, things would go smooth sailing after that, but it's been the exact opposite. my english coursework is due next week, and the final piece next week, the music performance next week as well as aurals, only a silly bio test this week.
the first question scared us, it was something we'd never heard of before: what is the function of a mesophyll cell?

the social's songs started off okay, but towards the end most of it got more couple-y, with slow songs and less dance music. however, there were some outstanding bands among the bands that played that night.

now that the weekends are here, i'm going to try make the most of it and attack the homework pile. now for today's topic- cute, precocious kids.

i overheard a couple of little kids talking among themselves today, among them was this little girl who was really talkative.

she said, " i have many cousins, you know, and one of them is BOTAK and the other has hair.'
then another one said, 'i only have one cousin'
then she said, 'oh, i have zillion-million-billions- of cousins.'

later she told the little guy who was singing jingle bells beside her, 'aiyah you sing like a GIRL.'
then later she was discussing spiderman and she said a matter-of-factly, ' you can't be spiderman without your suit! do you have the spiderman suit?'

today i got a subsitute cover teacher during tutor group. he told us a riddle-
there was a woman in a restaurant, she died while eating turtle soup.
we found out, so far:

• she died of shock- a heart attack
• the turtle soup killed her
• there was no foreign object in the soup, nothing that was in there that shouldn't have been, it was a soup that anybody could eat and not die.
• not an allergy
• the turtle was properly cooked
• she wasn't poisoned
• she was perfectly healthy.

any conclusions? feel free to post in the cbox =)

one last thing, i have a silly joke: The English teacher asked his 3 students, a German, a Frenchman, and a Chinese, to make up a sentence using the words green , pink, and yellow.
The German student went first, and said: “I woke up this morning, brushed my teeth with a green brush, dried my face with a pink towel, and put on my yellow shirt”.

The Frenchman was next, and said with flair: “I woke up this morning, the grass all around was green , there were beautiful pink flowers everywhere, and yellow sunshine shone brilliantly upon them.
The teacher was smiling with pride, his students have learnt well.

Then it was the Chinese student’s turn. He said, equally confidently: “I woke up this morning, the phone was ringing green green , so I pink up the phone, and said yellow ???”

Labels: funnies, school, thoughts

Hold on a sec. why is rachel blogging when she’s supposed to be at DOE?

My trip is cancelled. Horrible weather we are having on this side of the world. This side of borneo, even. What bad weather? Not rain, not thunder. Just waves. HUMONGOUS waves.

The trip started out okay. There was not a cloud in the blue-blue sky, so it was steaming hot. We got on the bus to the army training camp around berakas and set off.

Mr airdrie the teacher in charge set us off according to groups. My group went off second. Kashmira’s group went first. At first when our group set off we were keen to remain clean. We were walking along the cliff, following the group ahead of us when we encountered our first wave.

Ling and I managed to scramble up to one of what we thought was ‘solid rock’but it turned out to be some funny slippery clay stuff. We managed to gain footholds in the cracks between those clay things, then another wave crashed. This time joan made us wait before we crossed because we were catching up on the first group.

Someone in the first group had fallen into the water. Kashmira, whose bag was soaked by the seawater was trying in vain to stand up. The waves pushed her against the cliff and swept her away. her foam mat that would serve as a mattress was swept out to sea. Later she said that she had lost some articles of clothing and food- including her favourite shirt.

Back to our group. Joan went ahead and gave a signal that it was okay. Wei wen and I went to join her, then she told us to go ahead as she went back. The waves became really strong and wei wen and I were soaked by the waves. We managed to climb on till we reached a little sort of shelter- like a little inlet cut into the side of the cliff. The soil was once again that slippery clay thing, but we managed to climb up.

There sneha, shalabha, sruthi, priyanka were sitting on the cliff. They pulled the bags up the cliff. Round the bend, a few of the guys from the third group had caught up. Shaon, alex, fauzan, james and George rounded the bend, fauzan leading ching and syazwani. They decided that we ought to go up the cliff and swing over the ledge to reach the top of the cliff.

Once everyone was up on the ledge, that became our lookout for about two hours. George went back to inform mr airdrie of our ordeal, while the other guys went around the jungle trying to look for an alternative route. Then we saw a sign that said:
protected place
no entry without permission
by order
commander royal brunei armed forces

It turned out to be some sort of shooting range thing, as we heard guns shooting in a distance. We stayed around a clearing, and sat around in the heat. Several people sat down cursing the sea, some trying to clean themselves. The ground became muddy, as our feet were wet. it made mud which stuck to our shoes, and when we stood on the leaves, it stuck leaves to the soles of our shoes, and made it difficult for us to walk. as ching said, when asked why she was cleaning her shoes 'very heavy bah' we watched the other people at the beach play in the waves, with jealousy.

Eventually mr airdrie arrived and told us to stay where we were. He came and went back to the beach where everyone were, then came back again to tell us we would have to go through the jungle and go down a cliff where miss mcintyre would lead us to safety. we took our bags and went through the jungle. Ching was scared and very sure she would see spiders, as she had just seen one on syazwani's bag.

He led four people ahead of us, and brought them down to the beach where everyone else was. Later he led one us by one down a cliff full of sand that was gradually eroding as each person passed. All in all, there were 13 people who left their rucksacks back there in camp.

Out of the 13 people who got stranded, everyone was safe except fauzan who got stung as he stood in the waves leading people back to the beach.

We stood around after that as mr airdrie managed to contact the bus driver and bring us back to school. Back to square one, from where we started. No camp, no cooking, no nothing. Food all wasted, but I’m not entirely sure that we wasted our Saturday away.

*turns out there’s this cyclone thing coming our way around borneo, causing all this rain and huge waves-

Labels: trips

first i shall post yesterday's belated post. the internet played up yesterday, and stuffed up my hopes of getting on the internet to celebrate. so i ended up spending the whole of yesterday photoshopping.
----
The exam room was so cold today.

The papers were pretty much okay. I thought bio was the hardest, and physics the easiest paper. There were some odd questions but it was mostly okay.

I was in S21, the people in the dance room finished later, again. Before the exam nurul and I stood outside and listened to ‘Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler,’ my new fav song. It sounds lovely and vintage, but according to nurul the lyrics are sort of emo. To me, it sounds like a lady who’s having a lazy day.

It goes something like this:
My room is like a cage
I don’t want to work
I don’t eat
I only smoke my cigarettes

The lyrics may be like that, but the mood, when you hear the song it’s totally different.

After the exam I went to Best Eastern and got my Dolly magazine. I couldn’t find any Stephanie meyer books, but guess what book I found? Meg cabot’s size 14 is not fat either. I found that book in HK, during my December holiday last year (06) the weirdest bit was that this book was but in the new release area. Goes to show how slow things come to brunei. We must be years behind places like USA and the UK.

There were a lot of neil gaiman books though. But mum was in a rush, she didn’t allow me time to decide between ‘neverwhere,’ ‘American gods’ or ‘anansi’s boys.’ Oh well. Those books go on to my wishlist of books to read. If you have them, could you please lend them to me? =)

LET THE FUN BEGIN! =)

It’s only two weeks till holidays. The last day of school I’m going off to perth, so armed with my dolly mag I shall compile my shopping list.

I don’t know where to begin this holiday celebration. Should I do art, take photographs, read my haruki murakami books or watch movies?

I haven’t watched stardust, and there are a lot of Korean movies waiting to be watched. Where shall I begin? =/

I’ve also got inspiration for a new blog layout. Maybe I shall plunge headlong into the celebration and see how it goes.

This weekend is my duke of Edinburgh trip. From what I’ve heard from the people who went the previous weekend, it’s a physical challenge. Even the bag itself is huge, carrying it from the hall to the front of school already made my bag hurt. And I’m only carrying the flag poles and pegs and trangea, without my other belongings. It might be back-breaking on the day itself. Apparently the first morning we have to wade through rivers that reach our knees, and walk a grand total of four hours from berakas to muara beach.

The second day is worse, I heard. For the previous weekend’s group, there was rain the previous night, so the river they crossed the next day was waist deep. Just thinking of this makes it more scary. It’s like a jungle sleepover. No toilets, no cooked food. Only seclusion from civilization. No mobile phones either, only cameras.
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today's post
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my maid saw my fully packed DOE bag, and immediately asked if she could go along and help me carry my bag.

of course i can't, but for her to say that, the bag must look pretty big on me. i feel better though, now that i've packed. i hope i haven't forgotten anything.

a funny thought passed my mind just now when i was showering.
i won't get a decent shower tomorrow, so i'll make the most of it today
oh well. no shower cubicles. the sea is the most we have.
i spent a lot of last night worrying.
what if there are leeches?
what if i give up half-way?
what if i faint?

a whole lot of other what-ifs too, but oh well. i'll take precautions. don't know if i can finish the trip though, my stamina is like zero. after the DOE trip we have athletics days.
another thing. i'm scared to bring my camera: what if water gets into it? then no more pictures.

Labels: trips

Exasperated
Annoyed
Angry
She tears the canvas off its frame
‘I’ll start it all over,’
She mutters

I’m not in a particularly good mood now, but rest assured I will be tomorrow,
when I get round to doing other more cheerful and less stressful things. Science exams TOMORROW.
you're only a day away

she said, "enough, enough of it all! ...I'm tired of it all!"
"take this canvas, and paint it pitch black.
hide all the mistakes, embarassments and sorrow,
redraw, restart, redo it all!"


The exams are coming soon. 3 more days.
I think the teachers have made us do all the papers possible.
There's nothing more to do, except revise and hope for the best.

there is a lot to look forward to, after this exams.
a much needed holiday, to get away from this hectic year.

today, i walked into an extremely noisy maths class.
it was shocking as most of the time my maths class is totally silent.
here there were people bargaining from table to table, asking people for cards or something.
i saw nurul telling someone, ' I DID NOT TAKE YOUR B,"
turned out they were playing a game.
the objective of the game was to trade variables around until you got all the ones needed to make a formula of the area of a whatever.
Our table won, but without my participation. oh well. good game.
the team names were funny, though. there was a team named butter monkeys, another 'i don't know' that got an extra 10 points for clue-less-ness. =)

i've noticed that recently many ice-cream shops have opened.
first, there was only DQ.
then swensens
then bakerlyn's with homemade gelato
then dreamcones
then now the florentino one.
it's a trend. before this japanese sushi restaurants were in.

Labels: food, school, thoughts

do you reason to conclude feelings or follow feelings to reason?

only several days more till the science exam. it's on thursday the 22nd of november. three sciences, all in a day. it's only a while more to go, before it's all over.
when the exams are over, i can start reading more of haruki murakami again- japanese literature is just so insightful, simple yet twisted- so interesting. i will go on deviantart more, this time i will try submit more stuff, and try to improve my photography again.

oh, and correction, the social is AFTER the exam. also, it's cheaper for couples to go together. when i told mum this, she said jokingly, 'seems like jis encourages their boys to learn how to ask ladies out...' they do imply this, but whatever- it's only a dollar's difference!

Labels: school, thoughts

i cut his hair myself one night
a pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
and he told me that i'd done alright
and kissed me till the morning light

i went to the hairdressers today, after not going for a haircut for about three months. the science exams are coming soon... and there are so many activities- first the social, then international day, then the toyota concert thing. three things all before the exam, just brilliant. they can't expect the year 10's to all attend when they're supposed to be studying hard.

when you're in the hairdresser's chair, don't you feel like you're at the mercy of her pair of scissors? rest assured at least your hair will grow out if it you think it looks horrible...





oh, and you'll finally realise how much sleep you've been lacking lately if you fall asleep while the hairdresser is washing your hair.
images from selected artists from deviantart

Labels: art, thoughts

i've had a bad day, i'm in a terribly bad mood.
first thing in the morning, i got victimized by mr L again.
then later for art we had a switch-around, a musical chairs game round the class.
for the lazy people to 'get inspired' by the other hardworking ones.
then for pe we did a 1.2km run. not fun.
then in maths we did surds. can't make heads or tails of it, so i got in a bad mood again, as i always get annoyed when i can't understand things in maths.
then after that i got my shirt dirty during lunch. stupid, huge pasta things that ought to be in a lasagne instead of being in big chunks put with sauce. blame the canteen food, once there was even kueh tiaw passed off as linguine as someone's meal. ugh.
then in music we just sat around, but after school was when things started to get worse.
i went to teh office with sarah and found camille there. then i decided to check my phone.
this was when i found out MY RABBIT IS DEAD, according to my sister who had sms-ed minutes ago.
more specifically, one of them.
when i got home, i found it on hutch lying as though it was sleeping, but it was not.
its breath was coming in ragged gasps, and its mouth was stained with blood.
the worse bit is when i saw its back side. apparently covered in mucus, and it seemed that its guts had been forced out of its bum. its bum was swollen, the rest of its body where you'd expect the guts to go was just airplane runway flat.
the other rabbit was just looking on. i don't know if animals can sense the coming of death, but it seemed to be saying last goodbyes. but even with that, my other rabbit must be devastated his hutch-mate is dead. he sniffed the other rabbit so now the maid says he's 'unclean.' but anyway, we brought him into the house. now we've got to take him to the vet.
now the thing is... you might ask why i didn't take the other rabbit to the vet.
firstly, again- i can't drive, really wish i could.
i didn't believe the maid when she said the rabbit looked sick. the rabbit had always been skinny. she belonged to a maid next door who had to leave. since we had just one rabbit, and a guy, why not give him a companion? the maid next door had fed the rabbit like veggie leftovers, so it wasn't fed well and hadn't a good started in life in the first place. but it did fatten up after the many meals a day the other rabbit ad been having.
according to the maid's kampung views, it appears the rabbit must have had a miscarriage of some sort (it's a girl) but it didn't work out, so the dead foetuses* must have 'poisoned' the body in some way or another. what a way to finish off a rabbit. now i don't know whether the other rabbit's going to die missing the other rabbit. im mad at myself too, because now i can't even find a picture of my rabbit to finish off this blog post.

Labels: happenings

oh one more thing before i go. football funday marks my second year in jis. my second year. it's been a year- that quick.

Labels: birthdays

Who made up all the rules
We follow them like fools
Believe them to be true
Don't care to think them through
Is it because it's true- that ignorance is bliss?
----jem, they (i'm sorry) - a song from the radio

i haven't posted for quite awhile, i guess. i've been busy, really busy. i haven't even time to do any art, so i might spend this weekend catching up on stuff.
stardust came out thursday, so i might go watch it. the book was great.
stardust- neil gaiman.
and it was halloween this wednesday, the day before yesterday. Halloween. when people go trick-o-treating, almost like the equivalent of the chinese 'ghost festival' thing. i didn't really remember it until someone said, 'oh! and it's halloween today!' then i remembered it was my kayaking buddy's b'day today.
so in big print.
HAPPY B'DAY MAY!
so, next thing. on the theme of halloween and unlucky black cats. here are some pictures of some just downright cute cats.


Caption- My new kitten has acquired his first camera already. I have enrolled him into The Brooks Institue of Photography. Classes start this fall.


Hershey's Kitten Kisses

My kitten Houdini who we rescued in July from a highway where he was abandoned only an hour old.

The sweetest little kitten I fostered over the summer.

selected art from deviantart, captions of kittens by photographers.
oh, and guess who's birthday's coming very soon, ching? ;)

Labels: birthday, cute animals