It was rainy today. And being at NUS mugging the rainy day away was fruitful, but not the best way to optimize a rainy day. I wanted so badly to hop on a bus, put on my headphones and let my iPhone do the job – the job of making me an emo girl on an emo day.
I’m a born emo.
Would you lie with me and forget the world?
I do not trust myself.
Should I keep chasing pavements?
I need to move on.
But this time, I’ll let you know how much you mean to me.
Will I ever find another like you, though?
1. Watching movies with a friend
2. Waking up in the middle of the night to a message, then having a fuzzy feeling all over my body
3. Long walks in the park
4. Skipping CCAs to catch up with each other
5. Hearing compliments from you
6. Random questions which don’t really make sense
7. Accidentally touching each other’s hands, blushing, then a moment of silence
8. Stuffing food in your face
9. Butterflies in my stomach
10. Being in love
I haven’t been cooking or baking it a while. And when I do, it’s usually a rushed job that I don’t have time to take a beautiful picture. Last weekend, I found some time to roast a chicken – Southern style!
I’ve always been fascinated by roasted chickens. I mean, there’s no oil involved, but when you roast it, all the juice oozes out and the skin is crisp to perfection. Oh don’t get me started on the meat! Roasted chicken, when cooked properly, will have a tender and juicy meat. My first few attempts of roasted chicken ended up with me eating some dry pieces of meat. Over time, you’ll learn the right technique and oven control to roast your chicken to perfection.
Cajun Roasted Chicken
For the cajun rub, you can buy it off the shelves of your favourite supermarket, or make your own. Here’s mine:
2 tbspn of paprika
2 tbspn of cayenne pepper
1 tspn thyme
1 tspn oregano
1 tspn pepper
salt to taste
dried parsley
Heat oven to 180 degrees centidgrade. Mix everything together in a small bowl, or you can put them in a jar and shake it so the ingredients mix well. Cut the whole chicken into two halves, laying the pieces flat on a roasting pan. Rub the chicken with the cajun, especially under the skin – this will make your chicken crisp on the outside, moist and juicy inside. Sprinkle some dried parsley for a bit of colour and taste.
Put it in the oven for 45 minutes, check if the chicken is cooked by piercing the centre with a stick. Make sure the juice is clear and not pink. If it is, leave it for another 15 minutes or so.
This is great with mashed potatoes or butter rice. Speaking of which, I’ll put the recipes up soon.
Pink maxi – from anywhere (Bugis is my best bet), bomber jacket – Far East Plaza, black shawl – Arab Street/Chinatown/Geylang, Vans – Miz 29.
I am really eyeing those pink Vans! Me love! By the way, I wore this outfit to Purnama 2. Although it’s not considered a red carpet event (there wasn’t a red carpet), I still think its a worthy event for a dressed up day! PS: Please ignore the Chanel 2.55. It’s still a dream of mine to own one. 
Look 2 – To a Pool Party or Pinic
I don’t own everything here, but this look is pretty much similar to what I wore for a friend’s birthday party. Except that my denim jacket is a DIY one that isn’t really faded and washed out as nicely as the one above. I might drop by Salvation Army to hunt for a vintage one.
Look 3 – To a Date
This look is lovely for a date, although as Muslims, we don’t usually date. (Note the word usually – we’re humans and to err is human) I am loving the white rattan clutch bag from piperlime.com and the heels from Topshop. Yes I’m lusting over heels, not Vans, but it would be very difficult to convince me wearing it on a date. I’l be very uncomfortable and prolly go home with blisters waiting to burst. Unless my date has a car, then I would wear pretty heels for the night.
There you go! One item, three looks. Now go shopping!
A week has passed and so did Purnama 2. From rushing for the completion of my Rikyu essay to spending an hour on make up, the Saturday of 17 October was certainly a night to remember. Apart from the rumours running around like wildfire and failed red carpet glamour, Purnama was a huge success.
The Singapore Malay Film Society (SMFS) team arrived early to set up and prepare the necessary items needed for the night. We had a registration table at the 5th level of The Cathay, complete with flowers courtesy of Liz Fleur, programme booklets, tickets and of course, the pretty ladies of SMFS to serve the guests. Reception went pretty well, I must say. 120 seats were filled up, including the guests SMFS invited. We had the honour of hosting Purnama 2 to the J.A. Halim family, Cikgu Yusnor Ef, judges Lim Yu Beng and Sanif Olek. Even Singapore Director Tan Pin Pin dropped by to watch the screenings!
One of the guests signing the guest book.
Even Mr X-Factor Effandi Mohamed came! Read about Effandi’s adventure as a visual effects artist at Dneg here.
This is not staged, I was genuinely ushering the guests over to the other door.
Watching the films, as usual, gave me chills over my spine – in a good way that is. Everytime I watch a local film production, I say to myself, “Heck this is awesome!” If you were sitting next to me in the cinema, you’d probably notice my mouth drooling over the film. Like literally, because jaw just drops each time I watch something that transfixed my eyes. In Malay terms, my mulut selalu ternganga. I’ll post a review of the films in another entry, because I just have too many things about them. OH and I watched Shingoporu Monogatari for the second time! And I met Hafidz again! Hee hee!
Pretty plaques for the awardees!
Among those present – Lim Yu Beng, Rafaat Hamzah and Cikgu Yusnor Ef
If Amalia Yunus were start a whole new series of children show, I want to be part of it! She’s a really bubbly character and her love for children led her to winning the Most Promising Director Award.
Special Mention Awardees: Ghazi Al-Qudcy (left) and Ezzam Rahman (right). But hey, they’re no stranger to local film screenings man! Read more about them here.
Special Mention Awardee: Hafidz Senor. If you haven’t read my interview with Hafidz, then read it here.
Wan citing his reasons for choosing a Chinese actor to play the part of a Japanese soldier, when at the same time, using English and Australian actors to play the part of British and Australian soldiers respectively.
Yazid aka Farid came down for Purnama 2 as well!
Isnor giving away the token of appreciation to Cikgu Yusnor Ef.
Awardees with Cikgu Yusnor Ef.
A film screening is not complete without a photo-taking session!
For a film festival that is only in its second year run, Purnama 2 is certainly a motivation for us to continue our efforts in bringing back Malay films to the silver screens. Our efforts may be small, but we’ll get to our dreams someday. For now, it is important that we have faith in our community to produce more films, be it short or feature films, so that we can say Malay films in Singapore still exist.
Insyallah.
For excessive snorting. I was watching Adam Cinta Siapa on Suria (Hasnul Rahmat!) and I couldn’t stop laughing because the girl Adam’s parents were trying to set him up with kept snorting! I bet you, if they saw me snort naturally, I would have been casted in that series.
That’s besides the point. I’m trying to make that monthly emo post into a happy one, hence the snorting issue.
I got this quote off another blog, but it’s quoted as Rumi:
The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
I know I’m supposed to wait, but sometimes don’t you wish you know how the future is like? How different life would be if you were… in love?
This is just a random thought I needed to rant about. I think being artsy fartsy is too draining on the heart. Help?
So Purnama is baaaaaccckkkkk!!!!!
The Singapore Malay Film Society (SMFS) had its annual short-film festival last Thursday, and Purnama 2 is set to be even better than last year’s Purnama! This year, SMFS is holding a three-day screening to showcase talents from our Malay community on 8, 12 and 17 October 2009. Here are some snippets of the first screening held last Thursday at the Substation.
Pretty Purnama 2 programme booklets!
Posing/Cam-whoring while briefing.
Pretty, right? Done by yours truly, sponsored by Linda!
Audience! Spot Sarah, Nani and Izzati!
The QnA Session led by our curator, Ghazi Al-Qudcy. Catch Ghazi’s directorial debut on Suria’s Sewa on Monday Nights and 9.30pm.
Filmmakers, actors and funnymen. Second from the right, Hafiz Huzaifah, the director of Stress Management. A funny Mat instructional film that led me questioning the Mat culture.
Crew!!
I’ll leave you all begging for more, so in the mean time, come down to the Substation today at 7.30pm for the round two of the screenings!
Tickets for the finals cum awards screening on 17 October 2009, 1930 hrs, can be purchased at the Substation today, or reserved via email to shamsydar@smfs.sg or roslinda@smfs.sg.
Hope to see you there!
No, this is not a post about Beyonce’s number 1 hit. This is about BEING a single lady.
Back when I was younger (chey step aku dah tue giler), I found it difficult to get used to the idea of being single. I mean, all my friends were somehow attached – somehow because some had their relationship under wraps, while others went public with it. It was quite a fear to be in a relationship that teachers knew about, especially when you had an aku-abang-abang kind of male teacher in secondary school. Come on, coming from a guy who got married to a childhood sweetheart, I think you’re not in a right position to tell your students off for being in a Boy-Girl Relationship.
Oh yes, the feared topic of BGR. It was hot, I tell you – as hot as fire! The moment an adult mentions the term BGR, we would all groan in dismay. But hey, we were young, carefree and pretty much ignorant.
So back to the topic of being single. I have always been single, that is, no flings, no official “let’s go steady” kind of thing and whatnot. I never liked the idea of being single, though. I dreamed of sitting down in the school canteen and talking the afternoon away with a boyfriend. But I never could find a perfect boy.
Come on! Cut me some slack! I was fourteen! If I believed a Harry Potter enrollment letter from an owl awaits me, what more a ‘perfect boy’?
Anyways, I am still the most single yet unavailable sister/girlfriend around – I think. Perhaps I was a guy’s girl then, that’s why all the guys were freaked out by me. Okay fine, not were, but are still freaked out by me. But somehow, I morphed into a girl’s girl. Not that I hate it, but at times I find it difficult in coping with girl politics, or break ups. I would love a lepak session at Simpang Bedok drinking teh tarik with some guys once in a while. Its my way of winding down, I guess.
Recently, more and more of my girlfriends are becoming single. I mean, I’m not ‘happy’ for them, but I am happy for them. Us girls use more instincts than rationale when it comes to relationships, and most of the time, our instincts come true. It’s not the best way for ending a relationship, or trying to cover up a bad break up, but instincts help.
My advice to girls who are trying to get over a failed relationship – embrace singlehood. Yes it might get lonely, but being single would mean making more friends, and keeping in touch with old ones. It would also mean spending time with family, and fulfilling your own wants and needs. And of course, Allah will always be there to listen and answer your prayers. The good thing about a break up is that you’re making a step further from Haramville and a step closer to Jannah.
So yeah, its 1.30 am and I’m still awake trying to finish this piece. Single ladies, love your status.
Salams and may you be in the best of health, Insyallah.
Firstly, Eid Mubarak to everyone! I hope this will somehow entertain you while I start writing some proper entries about Ramadhan, Eid and whatnots I have been involved in. I really miss writing from the heart, but you get to a point in life when you just want to write but not let anyone read.
I’m going through that now. But I’m trying my best to let it happen over here.
In the mean time, enjoy eating pineapple tarts and other kuihs that will make you bloated and puke.
