Ukulele shall be my first stringed instrument

I’m going to get myself a ukulele and I already have a specific model in mind! After briefly browsing through both Youtube and written reviews, Makala seems to offer awesome entry-level ukuleles for complete beginners like me. It’s a bon marché, sounds good and most importantly, it’s really cute!

 

Colourful Makala Ukuleles

 

Actually, I’m contemplating whether I should get a wood colour one or not, because that’s how all traditional guitars and ukuleles look like. Given that the co-owner of the Ukulele Movement had a Kala as her first ukulele, their Mahogany soprano is worth considering because it’s so pretty and it’s easy on the wallet too!

 

I love the white binding

 

Then again, I think I’ll most likely stick with a Makala first because it’s half the price of the Kala and it’s super cute! I’ll get a Kala when I decide to start a collection in the future.

You’d have guessed which Makala colour I’m going to get for myself. Prepare to be awed, for my ukulele is going to stand out with its colour and sound quality!

 

The sweetest thing ever!

 

I can’t wait to lay my hands on a pink dolphin soon!

 

♥Michelle♥

 

 

 

比上不足，比下有余

From the perspective of a student,

When you’re high up there, you’ve gotten used to all the praises and admirations. Deep inside, you cringe at the thought of the possibility of losing your ground one day. You fear because you’ve no idea whether you can take it if you fall down below.

When you’re below average, your relatives often make a mock of you, your peers look down on you, your parents are ashamed of you, you feel helpless but there’s nothing much you can do.

When you’re an average kid, it’s the worst. You don’t understand why you can never be high up there, while people below look up to you and hold high expectations of you. You can only wish that you’ll fall down from your bed, hit your head and activate the smart genes (if present) inside. You try out many new things, in hope of finding one you can excel in, I mean REALLY excel. You dream of striking a jackpot and become a millionaire overnight.

Unless you’re born naturally smart or you’ve exceptional talent in a particular field AND you’re filthy rich, you’re bound to get pressure.

I came across this article in my school’s magazine February issue on “How to be Happy”. I really like it because it described almost exactly the way I choose to lead my life after my baptism a few years ago.

1) Don’t compare.

2) Be content.

3) Stop looking for happiness in the future, and start looking for it around you.

4) Start caring for people other than yourself.

My life isn’t perfect. What I’m weighing are grades in school, arts and sports, money and relationships.I may be the dumbest among the smartest students, smartest among the dumber ones, and I’m easily the poorest kid in town. I understand that I’m plain lazy, not talented in any area.  Let’s face it, this is me and I don’t foresee this is going to change much. But I’m thankful for all that I’ve got now. I’ve been lucky enough, been blessed. Stop guessing because nothing dramatic has changed for me in the past few years, it’s just the way I view life.

I’ve a daddy, a mummy and a sister, so I’m happy.

 

要知足，才会常乐。I hope that like me, you can or will eventually understand this too.

 

♥Michelle♥

 

Let your voices be heard

“What I would say is for all the young people in Malaysia…, it is your job and it is your duty as young people to have your voices heard”.

“You must do everything that you can if you want to be liberated by your society: you must call, you must not stop, you must protest – peacefully. I don’t believe in violence. I don’t believe in negativity. There is no reason to be derogatory. You just have to keep fighting for what you believe in.”

 

- Lady Gaga on the censoring of her song

 

 

♥Michelle♥

 

 

 

Ma première présentation française

I had my first French presentation today and all went well

Praise to the Lord!

(Do view the presentation in Full Screen mode in adobe)

♥Michelle♥

Hello Mr Fireman

Hello Mr Fireman! (the one whom mummy said you look like Edison Chen, but the guai version)

Can you help extinguish the fire that is burning in me?

♥Michelle♥

Ubiquitous

On Sunday, I was waiting for the last bus 200 back to PGP after getting out of the NTU alumni club, where my JC classmate had her 21st birthday party. I saw a friend who was also going back to campus as well.

S: “You were at Harbourfront right?”
M: “No, I didn’t come from Harbourfront.”
S: “But I saw you at Harbourfront?!” (insisted)
M: “I didn’t go to Harbourfront at all! I came from home.. JB!”

S then gave me that kind of look of disbelief. But he was too bothered by missing the last 95 that he didn’t ask further.

◊

Two days later, another S guy (no pun intended) from my jc gave me a nudge on msn.

S: “Hi michelle, was surprised to see you in the class.”
M: “which class?”
S: “counselling.”
M: “huh? whr?”
S: “SY1111. On friday morning.”
M: “eh..  u mean jcu? nope nope i’m not in jcu..”
“u mus hav seen the wrong person”
S: “yup i guess so..”
“really looked like u”

As if I’m ubiquitous. Or maybe I’m a just-so-average-looking girl that people see me everywhere. *shrugs*

♥Michelle♥

God loves a girl like me

 

Just after I freed myself from a whirlpool of dilemmas

A good news came into my inbox!

 

♥Michelle♥

 

 

She’s simply perfect!

I’ve made a discovery which I myself thought was the greatest, at least for a night lah.

It’s actually a long story.

I was listening to Chérie FM online, Zazie was singing the song “Je suis un homme”, which contained the word “révolution”. Then I suddenly felt like finding out more about the French Revolution cos I admit I know nothing about it. When I came to the wiki page, I spotted this news about the demise of our Sultan (Johor). So wanting to learn more about him before I go on to the revolution, I went on to read his page and found out his successor would be his eldest son Tunku Ibrahim Ismail who has 6 kids. Realising that he’s born of English-Malay ethnicity, I was curious and googled for his pictures. Then I found one, of his eldest son, whom he happens to share the name ‘Ismail’ with, posing with his girlfriend Raline Shah in 2006.

This name “Raline” immediately rang a bell in me. I remembered very clearly that I’ve seen this name once before and I know where. Basically, my French lecturer showed us this file in french class in 2008 to urge us to take part in this french singing competition organised by the Alliance Française Singapour cos she had won the first prize and made NUS proud. Madame sort of played her recording of La Vie en Rose for us, it was near professional!

So indeed, she’s the same Raline I recalled. Apparently, this pretty lady has gone famous after she graduated from NUS! According to several online sources, she used to study in Malaysia before she went on to study political science and communications & new media in fass. That would be double-major, whoa~ But she has graduated. More recently in 2008, she represented north sumatra in one of Indonesia’s national beauty pageant and won the ‘Miss Favourite Indonesian Princess’ title, as I roughly translated. Besides beauty and brains, she also appears to have a well-to-do family background. Her dad is also a famous person, being the owner of Rahmat International Wildlife Museum & Gallery in Medan, ”which is probably the only private wild life museum in Asia”. Another big whoa~~

 

Elle est belle, elle est intelligente, elle a du fric et elle peut chanter très bien en français.. Elle est simplement parfait!!

With so much research done, I also found out that this very lucky lady has got her own website set up. Shall keep track for updates

 

Bisous

♥Michelle♥

 

 

Satu Malaysia?

 

He vowed the government would not tolerate any threat to
racial harmony.

Alas

I should have trusted no one, but myself.
I should have set my own alarm.
But this blunder woke my senses up from within.

As I trudged to the bathroom,
I caught sight of the hot steaming pink kuehs
that Grandaunt made on the kitchen counter.
And that, struck me again.
Just like a gap being filled in between DNA bases.
Or a last missing jigsaw piece found.

Now I know the ultimate root of our misery.

The keyword is DISCIPLINE

You said you want to make the kuehs,
you gave excuses.
You said you don’t have a car,
though when you’ve one, you refused to fulfil the obligation.
That, is an excuse.

As for you.
It’s never wrong to aim to reach for the sky
but if you failed to land on the clouds whenever you fell,
that you landed hard on the ground instead,
it’s time you tell yourself to climb up the ladder decently.

This is probably the common trait amongst us.

Now I know.