Monday 30 July 2012

A girl guide to festivals or concerts

the fact that i've been to concerts before, might help to convince u that my ultimate girl guide is a good one! Although most of them concerts i've been to were in Malaysia, but the recent T in the Park was the hardcore one out of them all. It was so hardcore that a girl literally needs to prepare herself for the madness and messiness they're about to witness. But i say u can stay calm, and enjoy the show if u are well-prepared.

Most music festivals in the world, will be expecting rain to fall down at some point throughout the concert. This is when it gets really messy. This is when you should be well prepared in any way that u could. Well girls, if ur main concerned is hygienic, u might wanna pay 'extra' to get into an exclusive toilet, where water flushing toilet  is available, the toilet seat is still white and there's basin to wash ur hands. Also its good to be able to reserve a very nice and decent accomodation. After a long day outside, dirty and tired, these rooms will makes u feel better for a good night sleep, hence all ready for the next day.

So girls, u might wanna make sure u copy these down for ur next music festival experience

1. Wellies

- Make sure ur wellies is comfortable enough to get u through the day. It will be a very long day, so u need ur wellies to be as comfy as possible. And dont bother buying £200 Jimmy Choo's Hunter for this, cause at the end of the day, no one knows urs worth £200 cause it will all turn muddy, and urs might as well looks like any other wellies which costs probably less than a tenner. 

2. Poncho / Raincoat

- Get a raincoat and poncho with u. Its ESSENTIAL. Buy two or three from poundland cause one raincoat will probably last only for one day, but since its cheap get two or three of them, one each day. Also, u might wanna make sure that ur poncho or raincoat, is indeed WATER RESISTANT. It should made of PVC or plastics. 

3. Plastic bags / Black bags

- This is a good emergency kit. I had them plastic bags with me at all time. I use them to avoid trench foot. I use them to keep me dry. I use them to put my wet clothes in after changing. U can also use them as a mat especially the black bin liner.

4. Toilet paper / Wet tissues

- You will need this. Toilet paper tend to finish every 5 minutes. Not because these people actually use them, but because they throw them around. Some idiots are just disgusting and stupid, that they think we wanna be like them. U can see a new toilet paper on the floor, all over the place, unused! Wasting away the toilet paper for nothing.

5. Dry clothes

- Although u have poncho or raincoat covering u up from the rain, sometimes it just doesnt help as much, and u still get wet in the end. So its best to bring dry clothes with u, including ur under garments for a fresher feeling. Remember, the festival is a whole day event, u dont wanna get wet, feeling uncomfortable and complaining (like i did! regret not bringing the whole clothes but shirt).

6. Sunblock / sunglasses / hat

- Usually, music festivals will be held over the summer. Regardless the rain like the one we have here in the UK, its pretty hot when its summer. I know we love the sun, but im convinvced we dont want any sunburn, maybe a little bit of sun-tanned. So, although the weatherman reports on rainy and wet festivals, u might wanna bring them sunblock, sunglasses or hat, just in case.  

7. Miscellaneous

- There are other things that would be very useful to bring along like the duck tape, the safety pin, paracetamol, and of course cash. U will want to eat or drink or even buy souveniers at the festivals, so its important to have cash with u. Although there are ATM available, but u dont wanna fuss urself with simple thing like this. Well most festivals wont allow any foods and beverages in, u just gotta be a little bit cheeky, to try to sneak in a few FB so that u dont have to spent so much on those over-priced food at these festivals. Most importantly, dont forget you tickets ladies.

  wearing a black bin liner

tickets

muddy wellies

I would also like to gently gushed u girls about some UNNECESSARY stuff to bring along to the festival.

1. High heels

- Ladies, no high heels anywhere in the concert. Not just music festivals, but any concert. People dont dance at music festivals or concerts, they jumped! When they do, ull be wishing u are on a more comfortable shoes. Save it for a night in town ay?

2. Fake eyelashes / fake nails

- A big N.O! no fake eyelashes or fake nails in the concert. Those nails could 'kill' people. Those fake lashes, can u actually see in them? hmm.

3. Expensive bags

- Well we know ure rich, but dont have to parade those bags at those nasty music festivals. I bet if the bag can talk, they will be begging u to leave them at home.  

Well, maybe its not a complete guide, but if u follow them, i'm POSITIVE u'll survive the madness and messiness of the festival. But the most important thing is to have fun! just get out there and have fun, ure not there to remain static so that ur make up wont melt or ur hair stays as it is. Ure out there to enjoy, and let loose. After all, u can always wait for ur weekly visit to the club if u want to remain static the whole night. This is probably once a year or even once in a lifetime experience. So chill out!   

-lady-

Friday 27 July 2012

Ramadan Kareem

Is it a wee bit too late? Nah! Its only coming into the second week tomorrow. So there's 3 more weeks to go. Had a little hiccups on first few days of Ramadan. Crazy headaches and stomach ache. No, i DID NOT made that up. Pfft! And NO, i DID NOT break fast, as i continue to survive up til the last 19th hours. Man it was hard, but hey, i'm a survivor!

So being a typical Malaysian abroad, we took a "Raya di Perantauan" pictures during a break fasting session at Zaty's. Yes, that serve the purpose, as pictures of foods are out of sight, as "cam-whoring" session mode is on for the sake of one small piece of article with picture of us all sending out our love to family and relatives back at home (as if they will go through every single newspaper every single day just to check out our picture in the paper), ALTHOUGH some of us ARE ACTUALLY going back for Raya. cheeky people! hi hi. 

We did enjoy the food that night though, except my "Karipap Sardin" which were a little bit out of tune. Sorry people *sad face*. Other than my failed attempt, we had good food, thanks to our pretty chefs who stayed in the kitchen all day long just to feed us hungry monkeys. Thanks mamas!

Since its Ramadan, its a good month for me to say sorry for all my wrongdoings, my nasty words, for being cynical and sarcastics to all you who "felt affected" by it.

"I hereby, pleaded guilty for all the wrongdoings, intended or unintended."

Let's enjoy Ramadan for it only come once a year. Although its not as good food as Bazaar Ramadan back at home, but we get to enjoy Olympics 2012. NOT! £1,000 to watch the opening ceremony, and yet you'll see nothing? Thanks, but not thanks mate! Unless you're a "somebody", you lucky b*****d, then its FREE and on top of that, an effing good view! But if you're a nobody, then stay home and you'll still get a good view from the telly, but sadly not that been there to witness it "Olympic feeling". Fine, my rant aint going no where. Does this means i have to apologize again for being.."absurd"? Well alright then, SORRY!

So, you'll see it first here. Smile!


candid

Happy Ramadan

Abir / Me / Keker

Sani and his "ladies"

*awww*
 
the odd one

Those are not quite the actual picture we send in, but its something like that. So, watch out! Get it now at your nearest newsstand *all drama*.

Happy Ramadan to all my muslim brothers and sisters. "Play it fair and square", if you get what i mean!

"O who believe, fasting is decreed for you as it was decreed for those before you; perchance you will guard yourselves." (Quran: Al-Baqara, 2:183)


-lady-

Wednesday 25 July 2012

I will be waiting umpy..

After Sunday, it will be just me and myself. No more "just the two of us". Umpy will be going back for a good 1.5 months at least. After more than 4 years, i will be on my own. Umpy literally take away half of me with him back to Albania. There are mixed of emotions inside of me. I am happy that he's finally going back after postponing each visit year by year. I am also sad cause that means, ive lost another part of me while hes away.

He may not be the perfect boyfriend material, but he is my imperfect boyfriend. Those little things that he did for me will makes it worse to be living without when hes gone. I can list lots of things a typical boyfriend will do for his girlfriend, but its those little things like calling me twice a day, or even peeling the apple for me that will make me miss him even more. Like a normal couple, we fight. We had this annual big fight which is really big, that both of us will end up getting hurt, but we sort it out eventually. It might look bizzare to outsiders, but thats our fight of the year, so it gotta be..big? (ha ha)

My daily routines revolve around him. Its especially that twice phone calls a day everyday since the first day we met that will probably makes me feel empty when im at work. We spoke on the phone everyday although we "see" each other everyday. Those questions like "hows your day?" or "whats for dinner?" will be ringing in my ears. That excitement feelings everytime the clock ticks 6, knowing i'm minutes away from going home to umpy will be the hardest part of it all. Will probably try to find that familiar face among the crowd like i did most of the times when i got to Manor House Station will break my heart, knowing that i am searching for an absence person.

Those silent nights will be the worst part of it all. No more laughter while watching silly Will Smith on fresh prince of bel-air or simon and friends in the inbetweeners. No more debate about everything from politics to sports to craps at works to bull shits. No umpy this or umpy that. No more smells of smelly feta cheese and olives for dinner. No more changing channels looking for a good movie after a hard day at work. No more silly arguments. No more shoulder to cry on when days went really bad. No more ranting when only he would listen, and yet not understand fucko. It will be a long lonely 1.5 months day and night.

I can list thousand things about umpy, good and bad, but all i want is for him to come back as soon as possible so my day will be brighter when the sun refuse to shine and warmer when the rain refuse to stop. Ive said it on twitter, that i will talk about umpy even more when i miss him. But this time around when i do, stop me cause the only thing it will bring me is tears to my eyes.

We only got few more days to go before he goes back, i will cherish this, cause God knows what will happen in the future. He looks so happy and i just dont wanna ruin this for him. Dear God, please take care of my umpy whereva he will be and whateva he will do, and please bring him back to me in piece.

Umpy, thanks for being there for me always. U made a promise to come back, and so i shall hold on to that promise. Please take good care of yourself, and please remember me if one day u decided to leave it all behind. U are the best thing that ever happen to me and i thank God for that.

Until we meet again...in 1.5months time! I love u Asllan Ahmati.

Thats me and my umpy

faces of my umpy

nothing's gonna change my love you!

-lady-

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Nine days

Last week was the busiest, "funnest" week ever! 3 events back to back after every 2 days. It was crazy hectic, and yet it was fantastic. I am contemplating, should i or should i not put a sub-title on each event that im gonna blog about. oh what the heck!

it was 11/07/12, and its a Race For Life day. Race For Life is a charity event. Its an all-girls/women running for a charity event. Its a charity that support cancer especially. One of my friend's mom died of a cancer two years ago, so she decided to run this year, and so we say why not? Its a charity anyway, you're running for fun and you're running with your friends (although someone is being a bit too competitive, he he).

I even bought a new pair of trainers for this, which was months ago. And like everyone else, i am pretty much excited about it. We've decided to go for a 5km run, well its either 5km or 10km. Even if i say 10km, would you actually believe me if i say i'm doing 10km, so yeah..NO! I still remember the day i bought my new trainers, it was noon time. Right after i had the shoes in my hand, i told umpy 'i'm going for a run today!'. Ha ha. I kid u not, i actually did say that, then umpy went laughing and said 'u're crazy, go tomorrow umpy. just relax today, its Sunday! do it after work!' and i actually hate this day too, as this is the day Man United drew with Everton 4-4, and it costs us the Premier League title. That actually the reason why i stressfully said  'im going for a run'. Ha ha. Emotions running high. Well, i did went for a run the next day, and day after and few weeks after that. Then no more running for a good few weeks, as the excitement level slowly drops. No motivation to run whatsoever, in short..I AM A LAZY ASS!

So the day came, the sun is fighting to come out, but the dark cloud is stronger than the sun, well them dark clouds won. We literally run under the rain. Almost 3km running under the rain, the sun finally make a breakthrough at about after 3km of running. I always thought that i ran 5km everytime when i went for a run at Finsbury Park, obviously i was not, because that run felt like forever. I stop training, as in running weeks before Race For Life. It was the longest 35minutes in my life. Imagine, no train, no gym, no jog, and then that day, i just threw myself out there and ran the whole 5km, non-stop! I was running all the way to the finishing line. I am so proud of myself, i really am. I will definitely do it again next year, but Suzanne said 'let's do 10km next year!', i said 'are you crazy woman?'

To all cancer survivors, fighters, keep fighting and surviving. You are the real hero!     

Race For Life

2 days before we actually ran for Race For Life, we went to a music festival at Balado-Kinross, Scotland. It was T in the Park 2012. I grew up listening to alternative rock n roll musics, watching people attending cool music festivals, from Glastonbury to T in the Park to Coachella to Woodstock. Then finally this year, i manage to persuade few of my girlfriends to come and experience the quirkiness of the festival with me. Ive been planning about this for months, i literally do all the bookings, from accomodations to transportations, but i dont mind cause i am the one who wants them girl to come along with me.

Months of planning, the day finally came. I am not the only one who got all excited, all them girls are (i would like to think so). Well, the only uncool thing about the festival BEFORE we get there, was the weather. The weather was so dissapointing. So the first day, we hopped on the train to Perth, cause our accomodation is at Perth, and its the closest available accomodation around, and we were super impressed with it. Please, if you lot are planning to visit Perth, please stay at Rosebank Guest House. It was superb. Done refreshing, we walked to the bus station which is around 10minutes walk from the hotel, to get a bus to T in the Park. It took us 30mins from Perth to T in the Park which is located at Balado Kinross. So we were excited, but also really tired (everyone kept quiet about it, ha ha). We've been up and about since 7am in the morning, and the whole music festival is a one whole day event. What help us is the weather, i would like to think if the weather is as sucks as the second day, there's a possibility that we gave up on it right at dusk. But, we decided to called it a day at around 930pm. We were like 4 walking zombie that day. 

Second day was disaster. Torrential rain, the whole day. The green park on Friday turned into a battle mud Saturday. What i dont understand is how people love to play with those disgusting mud? They were running on the mud and splashing them like everyone else loves the mud like they do. Twat! Although the act gets better by day, but being wet the whole day really dampened my mood. I kept complaining that i am literally wet the whole day, but dude i am fucking wet that u can actually squeeze the water out of my dungaree. We paid £5 to get into an upgrade toilet, and start 'hair-drying' ourselves! it took forever, that one of the lady who's waiting in line tried to be cynical and its not working. 'bitch, wait in line u twat!'. But this time, we manage to stay up till 1130pm, the line up was awesome anyway. Tried to brave ourselves for Calvin Harris, ended up bailing out and move to the side of the crowd. It was terrifying that its not fun no more. They were pushing you hard, and you can't breathe like you're drowning in the sea of people. The mood was more upbeat on day 2, compare to day 1. It ended on a high note.

Day 3 was the best of all days. We had fun. The idea is, to stop moaning about the mud, and to just get the fuck on with it. Care less about fucko, and we did just that! We really had fun on the very last day. Stop moaning about the mud doesnt mean we ran and splashed the mud like everyone else, but we care less about mud splashing on our body already. Plus, Sunday's line up was the best line up. We sing, we dance, we ran around, we scream, we had so much fun. Day 1 and day 2, i could hear the saying "thats it, no more music festivals bla bla bla!" On the way back, reminiscing the weekend, it wasnt that bad to be honest. I will definitely give it another go for Glastonbury next year..anyone?        

T in the Park 2012

A week later, after T in the Park, Zaty celebrated her birthday. It was held at St. James hotel and club. A close birthday party among good friends. It was really nice and decent. Everyone dress up to the theme which is Mad Men, but i think i kinda get the wrong theme, and came as Alice in Wonderland. I honestly didnt think of that, until they told me. In my head, 50s, big skirt, 50s, big skirt. Ha ha. They also included headpiece as part of theme. Suzanne and I, went out a day before her birthday to get everything. Dude, it was a full fun packed week, no time and no chance to go shopping for that. 

It was a tea party. We had sandwiches, macaroons, scones and tea of course. The scones are the best. I love them scones. I never eat macaroons before, that was the first time, and i quite honestly dont understand the fuss, as i dont find it as deliciously amusing, but that's me! She had a beautiful birthday cake. The cake is delicious, but because we're still so full of the scones, macaroons, sandwiches, the cake was not a hit among us. Then we got a goodie bag which is very cute and i love the disposable camera idea (i like it so much im gonna steal the idea, thanks Minaji. He he). My favourite of all was the cupcakes. Oh dear God, the cupcakes were so so so so so so good!

Thanks for hosting the party Jihan. Happy Birthday Zaty. (sister power! he he) Love you mama!

Happy Birthday Zaty

Well i actually wanna write a lot more than this. Its just so much fun that i think it deserves the joyness feeling from you lot. But i am just too tied up at the moment, hence the summary of the whole nine days. After a long busy week, its time to put my feet up. Plus its Ramadhan. Need to slow down all these "wasted" activities. But hey, hope its not too late to wish all of you a very happy Ramadhan. Its 19 hours over here in London. Wish me luck!


-lady-