cleo and the rabbit

Cleopatra Mokhtar

This is cleo. she was welcomed into the family as a kitten when my mom plucked her from a medan selera near our house.The rabbit

This is the rabbit. My uncle gave it to us just a couple of days ago. i call it the rabbit because as of yet, he doesn't have a name. I want to call it hannibal(as in, hannibal lecter from the silence of the lambs),because he has red eyes, as dr. lecter. Also, i like it because instead of hannibal the cannibal, this hannibal will be hannibal the herbivore. do u see the beauty of the irony? do u? DO U?no?sigh. My family didn't either.

At first encounter, cleo was fascinated by the rabbit. She still is. the rabbit, however, is somewhat reluctant to layan kerenah cleo. He seems more interested in eating, sleeping, and scampering about the lawn once in a while. Unfortunately, due to cleo's insistence, he has become her unwilling new playmate, whereby she'll creep up to him(in predator mode) from behind or hidden from view, and then she'll jump out and buat2 pounce on him. The rabbit always keeps a cool head though when she jumps out and usually reacts by nochalantly nibbling on his kangkung or just walking away. Cleo enthralled by the rabbit's herbivory appetite.

p.s: if you notice, beneath the 'about me' section, there's a box with a list of song titles. That's an ilike box, which keeps track of the songs on my itunes. anyways, i'd just like to mention that if the song title is blue and has a play signal beside it, that means u can click it and hear a preview of the song. so, feel free to click away, if you want to. cheers.

Pics of Cambodia

Welcome to Siem Reap, most famous for the magnificent Angkor Wat.
Hopped on a flight from the LCCT straight to siem reap. First thing we did after arriving and checking in at the hotel was going straight to tonle sap lake. Took a boat ride to see the floating villages.
Saw these kids playing around the lake. They just use a basin and a paddle to get around and entertain themselves. They coordinate their paddle strokes with their body movement to propell the basin super quick.

Next day, headed to angkor. All this while, i thought siem reap was famous for the angkor wat temple, and that was it. Boy was i wrong. Angkor wat is just part of the whole angkor city. It's actually a humongous area, like a park, covering a couple hundred km and and throughout this area old angkor temples, royal residences, hospitals and any other building built during the angkor empire are scattered around. The place is beautiful, filled with giant ancient trees. The pic above shows the alley leading to angkor thom, which used to be the capital city(for which king's reign, i'm not sure, could be indravarman or suryavarman)
The west entrance, i think, to angkor thom. see the carving of Buddha's face? There's actually 4, one on each side. The carvings are beautiful. All the carved Buddhas smile serenly.

More Buddhas.
Thr Bayon temple. One of the more famous temples inside angkor thom.

We visited a bunch of other places within the angkor thom. One of them was this one shown above, the phineakas and the royal palace. It is said that an angkor king usually had around 250 concubines. Every night he would come and um,do it with one of his concubines in this monument.
Another temple we visited was this one, the ta promh kel. Saw a show on national geographic about this place once. It was built in 1186, and the place is crumbling apart, so foreign experts are working at restoring it. What stands out about this temple is the giant ancient trees that have grown into the temple. Bloody awesome, i tell you.

We saved the best for last. Our last stop before heading back to the hotel was the beautiful, the magnificent, the amazing angkor wat. Supposedly, the best time to see the angkor wat is at sunrise and late afternoon. Don't go visit it in the morning because the sun rises from behind the angkor wat, therefore it darkens the building.
There's actually the main entrance, then you have to walk along a causeway, then baru you reach the interior where the famous towers lie. The angkor wat has a few levels. The highest level is where the 5 temple domes, 4 arranged in a square, and one built in the centre, the highest one, are.

To actually climb up to the towers, you have to ascend a staircase. This pic shows one of the towers. Trust me, those stairs are STEEP! At each stairway they placed a 'climb at your own risk' sign. not exactly comforting.in fact, all the temples' stairs are steep. If you ever visit the angkor wat, and you're about to ascend the steps, here's a tip. Crawl up, using all hands and legs, and don't look down.
A pic of one of the hallways inside the highest level of the angkor wat

A view of the main entrance from one of the towers of the angkor wat.
When you're all done and you're heading back towards the entrance, you can't help but glance back at it. It's brilliant. it's amazing. It makes you wonder how it looked like when it was first built. It makes you wonder how the people during that period actully lived.

A pic of the sun going down on the tonle sap.

The next day, visited a couple other places like the cultural village and the old market, but none left an impression like the angkor wat. All in all, it was VERY good vacation. Cambodians are soft-spoken people, did you know? Quite friendly. in fact, our taxi driver cum tour guide took us to his house to see his wife and newly-born daughter.

I had fun on this trip. Next vacation destination i'm hoping for:Istanbul(me and my mom are trying to persuade dad it's a good place to visit)

you know times have changed when....

1. when you realize that wow, you are ACTUALLY driving! even though you've been driving for a few months, sometimes, you have this jolt of realization that you're actually doing what you used to dream of doing back when you depended solely on your mom and the lrt for transport. at that moment, you can't help but feel you're still just a kid playing grown-up(look at me,i'm driving,wheeeee!!)

2.when you start caring about what other people think. kalau dulu, you weren't even the SLIGHTEST bit concerned with what other kids thought about you. ade orang kutuk? AH! aku tumbuk je dieorang.( kalau tak tumbuk pon, paling kurang jeling lidah,or, when you remembered your ustazah saying that people who jeling lidah would get their tongues chopped off in hell, you'd settle for making ugly faces). sigh. you remember how nice it was to be confidently uncaring about other peoples'words. kalau skarang, you can't help but feel slighted even at the smallest hint of malice, cynicism, or disrespect from other people.

4. when your music tastes change. when you were younger, you were the biggest teeny-bopper ever. you adored the backstreet boys and british boybands such as code red and 911. heck, you even had 911's cassette and listened to it earnestly all the time. now, when you think of 911, all you can hear is 'gay,gay,gay...' ringing in your head.

5. when you have an atm card. kalau dulu, you'd be arguing with your sibling over who'd get to help mom take the card, cash, and receipt from the slots and handing it to her whenever she withdrew cash from an atm machine. now, you're punching in your own pin number! unbelievable.

6. when you become tech literate. if before, whenever your dad brought you along to the pc fair, you'd just be bored out of your mind, all the while having to act as your dad's flyer-pamphlet-brochure holder, while he browses through the fair, stopping to ask the attendant questions you couldn't understand. Now, not only do you WANT to go, you're even disappointed when you find the fair's not as big as last time. you're not exactly tech savvy, but at least you take a little interest in computers and gadgets.

7. when you take interest in grooming yourself. if before, you'd hardly glance at the mirror before going out. now, with your mom's enthusiasm of supplying you with compact-powder, lipgloss, and eye-liner, you're starting to act like those girls you used to roll your eyes at whenever you saw them touching-up their make-up in the bathroom. in fact, you're beginning to LIKE grooming yourself. you like having make-up stuff to fill you hand-bag with.


yup,yup. times sure have changed.

how to get out of a funk

i, for one, am NOT good at dealing with bouts of moodiness/grumpiness. just ask my sister or any other member of my family. if i'm in a bad mood, i tend to get snappy. Snappy leads to anger. anger leads to hate. hate leads to SUFFERING....(i'm saying this in yoda-like mode). i'd like to imagine i've matured a little into someone who can take reign of my emotions(i'm 18, i can watch movies 17-year-olds and below aren't supposed to watch, for goodness sake, takkan tak boleh kawal emosi kot?) , but i think so far i'm nowhere near that yet.

however, i've managed to construct for myself a particular series of steps to help cope with a bad mood. depending on the cause of the bad mood, the steps may vary, but the basic core is the same.

• STEP 1: Listen to music. i find music a tremendous source of comfort, so kalau i'm feeling particularly depressed over something, i'd start off with very depressing music (e.g: '3 libras' by a perfect circle or sheila on 7's 'berhenti berharap'). kalau boleh, find a nice, calm, spot to listen to this music(i spent half and hour sitting out on the back lawn with gloomy about-to-rain clouds in the sky n pushing-rain-clouds-in-your-direction wind with my earphones stuffed in my ears and 'when you were young' by the killers on repeat, whilst everyone else was inside taking a nap. perfect). then, when your mood starts to shift towards higher ground, do the same with your music selection (e.g: 'bittersweet symphony' by the verve, 'i've got a dark alley....' by fall out boy', 'the sun' by maroon 5'). as your mood gets even better, switch to suitable music that complements your mood until at last when you've managed to achieve a cheerful disposition, play stuff such as james morrison's 'wonderful world', jamiroquai's 'love foolsophy', or 'amame' by juanes.

• STEP 2: eat. i'm not encouraging anyone to gorge or stuff their faces with the entire packet of oreos, or the whole pint of ice cream. that,(in my experience) will just make you feel bloated/fat and you'd end up being in a worse psychological mess than before. but if you're in a bad mood, some comfort food would be just that--> comforting. currently, i fancy a bowl of coco crunch with slices of bannana in it when i'm feeling down. eating such foods while watching tv is bloody therapeutic, for me at least.

• STEP 3: excercise. ahaha, i'm really NOT the sort of person who exercises on a regular basis(kakak, stop snorting). However, i've found that doing some sort of activity that makes you sweat/burn calories makes you feel much better afterwards. i'm pretty sure most of u must know this. it has to do with endorphins, i guess. how did elle woods from legally blonde put it? 'excercise releases endorphines, endorphines make people happy. happy people just don't kill other people'.it was something along the lines of that,kan? heh. so what i'd do is, i'd usually dance. ok! please don't start picturing me dancing, you'll just have nightmares when you tido malam nanti, but really,it's a great stress-reliever! of course, i don't REALLY dance, i just jiggy-along with the music. recommended songs include 'son's gonna rise' by citizen cope, 'she wants to move' by n.e.r.d, 'give it to you' by jordan knight, and of course, 'no tomorrow' by orson.

• STEP 4: pray. have a good cry, if you must.

• STEP 5: ooh yes, blogging may help.

Of course, there are other methods too. you can go for a drive, or you can opt for retail therapy, or you can go on a spring-cleaning frenzy. however, these methods, for me, are usually a waste of gas, money or energy. i usually just stick to the aforementioned steps.

and if all else fails, just plug in your ipod/mp3 player/radio and try to get some sleep.

a tentative look into relationships

since i've entered sunway, a lot of people(oklah, not A LOT, just a few, but still a substantial amount in my standards) have been asking me, 'dah ade sesiape ke'?takkan takde kot?' (for those of you that might not understand, they're asking if i have a boyfriend yet :p)

well,no,as a matter of fact i don't. and when i say so, usually, the next question to come up is 'takkan ko takde suke sesiape kot?'

ok,let's be honest here. i'm sure at some point we've all liked/like someone. in fact, i used to like someone some time ago(that's all i'm saying and i'm not telling anyone who that person is and when i liked him, because it was a long time ago, so i'm not telling, even if you interrogate me to the point of being like the Inquisition,so there).

and i'm sure most of us entertain the idea that somewhere out there there's this person who is 'the one' for us. and in between all this is of course there are the temporary infatuations, the brief attractions to certain people, etc.

i've never had a boyfriend before, and oklah,since we're being honest here, i'll admitt it. i DO get jealous sometimes when i see other people with their partners. this envious feeling usually occurs a)when i'm alone and wished i had someone to talk to, b)when i see friends getting cool presents from their boyfriend on their birthday and c)when i'm stuck hearing lovely sentimental love songs.

but i've been thinking bout it lately, and what exactly IS so special about having a boyfriend? looking at other couples(i'm not referring to anyone specific, just in general from what i've seen), having a bf means going out together, holding hands,combining your names together (example: aminah couple with ali-->amali) taking pictures to put up at friendster, sending each other mushy testimonials using terms such as 'cayunk' for sayang and saying i love you to each other for the whole world to see! for God's sake, kalau dah kahwin takpela, but at our age, do we even know what love is? but oklah, this is just a surface view, maybe my pandangan is wrong.

if i ever have a boyfriend(which so far seems quite unlikely, seeing how i can't even talk to the opposite sex properly), it would be someone i could TALK TO, about anything. anything at all! we could discuss movies, music, books, religious issues, world issues, my problems, his problems, life, studies, anything. he wouldn't be someone i would be awkward around, the type yang kalau keluar sesame nak decide tempat makan pon would be an awkward affair(you know what i mean.or do u?). instead, he would be my best friend. the best friend i could go out for breakfast with and over nasi lemak and paru or roti canai or whatever we'd just dissect whatever topic at hand. but even as my best friend, he'd still be someone who gives me flutters in my belly. does any of this make any sense?sigh. i'm rambling, aren't i.

some of you may already be snickering 'hohoho,ade orang yang NAK ke couple dengan die ni? Perasan je lebih'. well, sod u. nah,i'm just kidding.

sheila on 7

Duta from sheila on 7 must have one of the best voices ever. I don't understand why sheila on 7 isn't as well known as peter pan here, i personally favour them over the latter.hmm. maybe i should get their new album.

i've been looking high and low for kings of covenience's album. the 'riot on an empty street' one.(yes, i noe u have the cd kak, but i want it NOW and i want the original one :P) i've searched all of midvalley n klcc for it. all the stores i've been to, semue takde stock, apparently. i asked the salesman at rock corner kat midvalley if they had it, and when he asked me the name of the band, i had to repeat it twice, to which he replied 'ade!', tapi skali tgk, takde. he said to me 'kings of lion adelah', by which, i think, he was actually referring to another band called 'the kings of leon'. haisy.

i stopped by the pc fair just now with nani. it was ok, i was expecting it to be bigger, but oh well. there were tons of ppl, so my excursion to the pc fair mainly involved squeezing through thick crowds while hearing ppl shriek 'buy computer get free laserjet printer!!' or 'thumbdrive!thumbdrive!'.


oh yeah! watched casino royale at the cinema the other day( i don't know why i'm just posting about stuff i've been doing,it's not even remotely interesting, but oh well) with college mates. i liked it! true, there weren't much gadgets in it, and the ending is a bit blah, the plot can be a teeny bit annoying at times,but in general i think it's a movie that was worth my 7 ringgit. plus, i must say, daniel craig's eyes are arresting!

received a tiny assortment of gifts for my birthday, so here i must again thank jia yee, diyana, wui ling n jarjar binx for the prezzies and for the smashing outing together hari tu. i had fun! dad gave me some money, but he specifically said it is to be deposited into my new savings account. before this, while you guys have been atm card holders, dengan bangganye able to withdraw cash kat mane2, i was still, at 17, a proud member of maybank's 'yippee club',which is for kids. now that i'm 18 baru boleh tukar to a proper account :p