I think that life's too short for this.

Sunday, August 12, 2012 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Edit This
 Blow Me

by P!nk
White knuckles and sweaty palms from hanging on too tight
Clenched shut jaw, I've got another headache again tonight
Eyes on fire, eyes on fire, and they burn from all the tears
I've been crying, I've been crying, I've been dying over you
Tie a knot in the rope, tryin' to hold, tryin' to hold,
But there's nothing to grasp so I let go

I think I've finally had enough, I think I maybe think too much
I think this might be it for us (blow me one last kiss)
You think I'm just too serious, I think you're full of shit
My head is spinning so (blow me one last kiss)

Just when it can't get worse, I've had a shit day (NO!)
Have you had a shit day? (NO!), we've had a shit day (NO!)
I think that life's too short for this, I want back my ignorance and bliss
I think I've had enough of this, blow me one last kiss.

I won't miss all of the fighting that we always did,
Take it in, I mean what I say when I say there is nothing left
No more sick whiskey dick, no more battles for me
You'll be calling a trick, 'cause you'll no longer sleep
I'll dress nice, I'll look good, I'll go dancing alone
I will laugh, I'll get drunk, I'll take somebody home

I think I've finally had enough, I think I maybe think too much
I think this might be it for us (blow me one last kiss)
You think I'm just too serious, I think you're full of shit
My head is spinning so (blow me one last kiss)

Just when it can't get worse, I've had a shit day (No!)
Have you had a shit day? (No!), we've had a shit day (No!)
I think that life's too short for this, I want back my ignorance and bliss
I think I've had enough of this, blow me one last kiss.

Blow me one last kiss
Blow me one last kiss

I will do what I please, anything that I want
I will breathe, I will breathe, I won't worry at all
You will pay for your sins, you'll be sorry my dear
All the lies, all the why's, will all be crystal clear

I think I've finally had enough, I think I maybe think too much
I think this might be it for us (blow me one last kiss)
You think I'm just too serious, I think you're full of shit
My head is spinning so (blow me one last kiss)

Just when it can't get worse, I've had a shit day (No!)
Have you had a shit day? (No!), we've had a shit day (No!)
I think that life's too short for this, I want back my ignorance and bliss
I think I've had enough of this, blow me one last kiss

.………………………………
To be clear, I also think I maybe think too much. My posting frequency appears to have lessened considerably as the summers have passed. In all honesty, I'm not surprised. I definitely didn't expect this blog to last forever. But if I can, I'd like to keep it another 4 years. 4 years because a) by that stage, unless I do a BMsc I should, hopefully, have a medical degree (if I do decide to do a BMsc I'll only have another year left inshallah and that's still pretty damn cool) and b) It will be 2016 and time for the olympics in Rio (which I would like to go to... my dad is in accordance, let's see what happens.) I've already had this blog 3 years and I remember writing some of my very first posts about YSP in Canada. And this year I went back to Canada and wow it was strange to think all that was three fucking years ago. It feels like a lifetime has passed. I'm really not the same person I was back then- I want completely different things all of a sudden. But that's not surprising either. I want completely different things now... than say... last year. In any case, I want to keep up with occasionally writing here because when I went back and read those YSP posts... I had forgotten so much. I mean obviously I remembered the main things, but lots of funny occurrences and things I had thought at the time... I just had no recollection of. So while updates are unlikely to be frequent, I hope that there will in fact be some. 

I'm sure things will change over the coming years- I'm already growing increasingly cautious with regard to privacy and my online identity. But trust me, it's with good reason. Not gonna lie, I am a really really good facebook stalker. Seriously. Not going to 'fess up to all the really incredibly stalking discoveries of mine, but I will say this- U.S. swim team... I know too much random information about you. I will say no more. It will just get creepy. So my point is- if I can find out stuff about other people, you can find out a whole lot about me. I know that if people are actually reading these posts- they are more likely than not my friends. But I also know that wow you can leave a serious trail of clues on the internet. (Which is why I've gone ahead and taken my last name off twitter.) However, it would still be extremely easy to figure out who/where I am and track down my facebook profile and such things. So this blog shall remain free of all patient related stuff. And so shall my tumblr (with the exception of non-patient-related-witty-banter.. because that stuff is funny.)


Ok so now that I've rambled about stupid stuff everyone knows for quite a while, I am going to go on and describe the highlights of the Canada trip. Yes, just the highlights. No more daily diary writing like I did at YSP and in Italy. Pssht. 


So we kicked off the trip in Montreal. Which was a nice place. The street arrangement reminded me of San Diego. Is that weird? Probably. Normal people most likely see no similarity. Whatever. I have limited experience in North America. So anyways, I like Montreal. Cool place. Just... I don't see what all the fuss is about. A couple of my friends seem to love it and sing it's praises and whatnot... I'm not saying it's not a nice place... just it's not on my top five favourite places at all. Probably not even top 10 :O Oh well. So cool things in Montreal...let's see. Well the hotel was fucking awesome. I mean it was the Ritz so I guess it was going to have to be posh but god I could live in those bathrooms. Really. By the side of the toilet there was this remote control thing with a variety of sprays (for rear cleansing and front cleansing) and a dryer. That's right, a dryer. To dry your bits. I don't know why this is one of the most memorable parts of Montreal for me. Evidently I am finicky about bathroom hygiene. I'm going to stop talking about this now... because it's weird. We also got to experience this Quebec national day thingy parade. Which was cool. But all in French. Which supposedly I understand. And I guess I do... if I pay attention. In any case, with regard to the city itself- I really enjoyed the old part of town. It reminded me of Covent Garden. And if you know me, you know I love Covent Garden for a multitude of reasons. (Like because I went on one of those bungee trampoline things there and did lots of flips and also because I used to always go get my hair thread braided there.) Anyway, it was a cool place. I saw the McGill campus. It was pretty. I am glad my friends live in pretty places. They deserve it. They are pretty inside and out.


Anyway, after that we went to Quebec city. (Please note, we went in a tiny plane. Not as tiny as the ones in Tanzania but honestly these were more bumpy. Africa: 1 North America: 0.)  Quebec City is nice. (See left upper middle) Not my kinda place to live, I don't think, but still, nice. It reminded me a lot more of Europe. That may or may not have been related to the fact that we stayed in a castle. In any case, I think I was more entertained in QC than Montreal. Anyway, outside our hotel, there was like this 'square' I suppose. And they had loads of street performers. Including these two incredibly hot guys who danced to black betty with fire and rings and shirtlessness. It was around this time that Syb and I started playing a game. The game is as follows. If you see a beautiful house or a hot boy, you nudge your sister with your elbow. (Feel free to nudge hard.) If the sister agrees with you and the house/boy are to her taste, she will nod emphatically. Else she will shake her head and crinkle her nose. We usually agreed. Some things you just cannot deny. Anyhoo. In QC we went to the aquarium. It was cool. There were seals and walruses and polar bears. (See the bottom left corner. Yes that is a polar bear standing up and staring at me. Be jealous.) Honestly, Syb and I (and probably Ollie too) were a considerable amount older than the average individual there. But it was fun. On the bus there (and on the way back actually) there was this group of tourists. I maintain that they were Greek. Bob thinks they were Brasilian. Their language sounded nothing like Spanish... but I have no idea what Brasilian Portugese sounds like at all. Anyway they totally sounded like Tula's parents in my big fat Greek wedding. Syb and I had a stunted conversation with them and they called us beautiful and asked about the "AQUARIA". My hands DOWN favourite thing we did there was go to see Cirque du Soleil. God those people are badass. I am a loser. They can FLY. Honestly it was very much my sort of scene. It was held between these two flyovers  and there was no tent it was just sort of in the middle of nowhere. And the music was eerie and cool and the dances were nice and sweet baby Jesus the tumbling and acrobatics those guys do... wow. Insanely cool. I almost want to join the circus. I would also like to say that watching them was entirely free. But I would have payed for that- no Desi stinginess at all. 


After QC came Ottawa. It was nice. Partly because people were speaking English again. And they were suddenly incredibly friendly. Like Scottish people. Except I knew what they were saying. We did this really cool tour in an amphibus. It's very chitty chitty bang bang. The bus drives around on land for a bit and then drives into the river, on which it floats. The tour guide was so unbelievable cute... but... it was around this time Syb and I discovered that our hot guy/nice house game was going to be without much... well... result... I guess...because wow all gay guys seem to be hot in Canada. A great tragedy for womankind. (Not that Syb or I was going to go up and talk to them what with our parentals trailing along. Ah well.) Ok so aside from that, Ottawa was not that eventful. Except for when Syb was recruited by this extremely British Covent Garden-esque magician that was performing on the street to be his assistance. He was funny. Apparently Canadians do not appreciate the British sense of humour though. Ah well. They do however appreciate the British Queen. The day we were in Ottawa was the day before Canada day and there was a lot of preparation going on for the festivities. And thus there was a woman on stage outside the parliament singing God Save the Queen. Of course, this resulted in me and the parentals belting out the lyrics (to the first verse only, because I am not patriotic enough at all to know the rest of the lyrics.) Syb and Ollie found us embarassing. Whatever. When God Save the Queen is playing you sing along. Just like you sing along to the last two lines of the Star Spangled Banner whenever you hear it being played in the olympics. Which is a lot. 


After Ottawa came Vancouver. I love Vancouver. It's awesome. (See top right corner) I want to live there. It has everything. It has a very mixed population. It has nice big buildings and a real city. It also has nice big trees and snowy mountains. It also has friendly people. Said friendly people also speak English. Apparently winters are mild there. My only issue was with how many dogs there were. I did not spend much time walking on the pavement. I was always on the road, walking around the dogs. Anyhoo Vancouver. Wow. Lots of awesome things happened there. The first day was Canada day and there was a parade and fireworks. I love fireworks. We did some of the bus tour stuff and it was really fun. Also did some shoppingz. We went to Chinatown where there was this awesome garden with Koi and pagodas and frogs and ducks and waterlilies. See Koi in mist (right lower middle). We also went to Granville Island which had lots of markets and such. We went around Stanley park which is just massive and sooo green. I liked. The view was really awesome (see right upper middle- the Lion's Gate bridge.) One of the days in Vancouver (It was our longest stop) was spent at altitude. First we went up a mountain. Grouse Mountain. We went by Cable care. (Yeah right, like my family would climb up a mountain. Hah.) We got to the top and there were bits of snow everywhere. It was sunny elsewhere. And the view was incredible. They also had a grizzly bear enclosure. (See left lower middle.) Those guys are so cute. I want to hug them. We then ascended further up the mountain in ski lifts. I have never been in a ski lift before. It is scary. Syb and I were freaking out a little. On the way up we started naming all the states in America to distract ourselves. When we got to the very top, there was this windmill thing called the Eye of the Wind. We went up that (it was tall) and the floor beneath us was glass and the view from there was somehow even more incredible. On the way back down in the ski lift, I suggested we sing a song. We chose Cablecar (You know, by The Fray.) This was a bad idea. It starts with the whole 'I never knew that everything was falling through' line. Falling was not a word we wanted to hear. We went back to naming states. They also had a really cool bird show up there with owls and eagles and vultures (which were entirely different from the ones I saw in Tanzania last year.) The same day, after we went down from the mountain after seeing some wolves and all, we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Supposedly a massive tree fell on it in a storm and the bridge was fine but sweet baby Jesus crossing it was scary. It wobbles when there are more people on one side than another. The view of the stream flowing way down beneath it was awesome but I was fucking terrified to reach into my pocket take out my phone and take a picture. I held on the railing for dear life. I'm a wimp, but we knew that. The place is really cool though, there's a whole park around it and you can walk across these wooden bridges through the trees and it feels like you're in Tarzan or in a rainforest or something. (Yeah I know, that totally made sense.) After that, on the very same day, we had a ride on a seaplane. Seaplanes are fucking cool. And flying over Vancouver is wow. There's the city and then you fly across the bay and there's residential area and then you fly a tad more and there's massive trees. And there are so many little islands and they've all got like one massive house on them and that is all. I want my own bloody island. Sugar daddys watch out, gold-diggah me is coming your way. It was really stunning though, the scenery p0rn was amazing. And I was like DEAR GOD YOU ARE AMAZING THIS LANDSCAPE IS SO DIFFERENT TO TANZANIA.Yes I know it's obviously going to be different. But I was still enthralled. 


We also day-tripped one day to Victoria on Vancouver Island. (It should be noted that this is very different to Victoria Island where apparently mosquitos live and hatch and stuff.) Vancouver Island was so unbelievable different. We drove to the coast in this tour bus (by the way, for some strage reason the guide seemed really attractive to me- he wasn't that good looking and also he was fairly old- but he told good stories?) Anyway said bus, was then driven on to a ferry. Apparently this is not that cool as Mom has been accross the channel like that, but I was amazed. The ferry ride was stunning but I was cold and didn't spend much time on deck. As a result I missed seeing a dolphin my parents supposedly saw the fin of. Victoria feels completely different- it feels more like Europe again. Cool thing: Victoria is below the 49th parallel. We went through American waters to get there and from the island you could see some of the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula. (See bottom right corner) I found this awesome since of late I appear to be fascinated with America. Anyway, we had a wander around Victoria, there was gelato to be had and some cool old buildings covered in leaves. Then we went to the Butchart, where there were loads and loads of beautiful flowers. Sadly I am not a flower person. But I still appreciated the pretty. (See photo at the very bottom).  It was a lovely day. As you can see, I fell in love with Vancouver. Which lead to me becoming really glum around the time we had to leave, not just because it was awesome but also for other reasons. More on that later.


Next up was Toronto- there was shopping to be done. I remembered a lot of stuff from YSP time there... not directions though. Oops. I met up with S, and wow three years changes a lot. She was still the same in many ways, equally amusing with her blunt way of talking as before. It was strange to think she was teaching at YSP where we had both been 'classmates'. It was also strange that she's now at uni with one of my closest friends. The world is so small but so big as well. We had dim sum. I love dim sum. I had the longest walk ever that day (because I seriously underestimated distances- it reminded me of Rome with L.)  After dim sum, S and I had a wander around. We walked through UofT and I saw the halls I stayed in and the medical school and it was so nostalgic. I miss that girl that I was back then. She was so naive. Anyway, I wish I'd gotten to see more of her, or even more of the YSP people, but alas there was not enough time. I tried to lead my family to this market that had been along the harbourfront, but first I got everyone lost and then the market was closed except for weekends. Ah well. 


We spent a couple of days in Niagara as well. I'd been before but the falls are stunning (See top) and I was thrilled to get to go again. We did the whole maid of the mist boat ride and we also walked behind the falls. We also had dinner one evening at the top of the Skylon tower in the revolving restaurant. It was at that dinner that we finally named all the states we knew. (We were short of two in the end. Oops.) It was strange. I remember when I was a kid and we used to go on holidays- at that time it was just me and Syb, no Ollie. I used to see these families with grown up/teenage kids and I really wanted to grow up. And I realised that evening, because we were all dressed up in dresses and all, that I'm grown up. And not only am I grown up, so is Syb and even Ollie to some extent too. It was strange. Niagara was lovely though, fudge was bought, foosball was played (I was beaten by a 10 year old. Oops.) I remember Niagara being one of my favourite parts of YSP as well. I made a bunch of really cool friends that weekend and good times were had.


We were back in Toronto after that. We spent a whole day in Wonderland. That's another of the weekends I really remember enjoying. I got so tanned. I'm oddly pleased I was wearing a low cut top, because otherwise my tanning would be really obvious. I have a fucking glasses tan over the bridge of my nose. I even have a tan from my ring. It looks like I've been married. Jeez. We went on lots of coasters. Not all, but the important ones were ridden. I rode the behemoth. I remember that one from last time. Also, went on this standing up one which was slightly painful on my neck. (My dad made a fuss the entire time about me going on rollercoasters after the whole-falling off a horse fiasco when we were back home. I don't think I mentioned it on here. Basically I went horse riding for the first time and my super nervous steed was spooked by some birds and flung me off. Which was painful on my back and I had to get a shot in the ass and I couldn't bend for a while.) I ignored him though. Roller coasters are for riding. I'm 19 I'm not going to sit around and complain about my back which doesn't really hurt anymore, and I can now put my toes in my mouth again if I really want. (I do not, to be clear.) Anyway, they had this new MASSIVE roller coaster. The Leviathan. See the thing is, these Canadian coasters are much higher than the Thorpe Park ones but they don't have that bar thingy that goes over your boobs. I was actually really grateful I'm not skinny and couldn't just... fall out. Anyway, Syb, Mom and I went on that one. We were sat next to this kid who was like Ollie's age. It was his second go on it. He said "it's not that bad." Honestly, it wasn't. But I screamed like hell of course, because hellllo when you're shooting down a 306 foot drop what the fuck else are you going to do? No fucking way was I going to be waving my hands in the air. We decided that once was enough, but the kid decided he wanted to go again. Such a little badass. It was a fun day, to say the least.  The last day in Toronto we went up the CN tower which was funsies. I mean I'd done it before, but hey, it's still cool. (See the view top left corner.)  We flew back (to LDN) from Toronto. I was really very down I think after that. London was boring, the Olympics had not started, people were not around. Magic Mike was seen. A Dunds day trip was taken. Meh. 


Why the meh? Well, after Vancouver I got into this whole meh mood because I suddenly felt like shit my life is going by so incredibly fast and am I actually doing the cool things I want to do- like having my entire head blue, having dreadlocks, learning the drums, playing in a band, learning to skateboard, waitressing- just random stupid shit that I feel would make me happy. I'm in my last teenage year and I really felt like by the time I'm done with med school I'll be too old to do all this. It also felt a little shitty that I wasn't really going to have those fabled fun years (which always look incredibly cool at North American universities.) I don't know I was just feeling old and unsatisfied and soo meh. I told my friend all this and he reminded me that summer was the time for such things. And while I agreed of course and knew he was right, and that the things I want to do can be done in summertime, I still wasn't completely over the meh. To some extent watching the olympics worsened the meh. You may have guessed my my numerous mentions of the olympics. (Especially the USA men's swimming- although please, do not forget the German's men's gymnasts and Tom Daley who I remember fangirling about when I was 15 and he was 14. Can I also just say, the fact that he's younger than me makes me feel shitty.) Seeing lots of people who were my age or younger or you know not all that old competing in their sports and being awesome made me feel really meh. And my love for a certain Mr.Adrian meant that I did rather a lot of reading about him and wow his life in the American collegiate system seemed cool. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well. Let us speak of Tony Ervin. He did the olympics way back in 2000 and then suddenly felt like it was infringing on his freedom so he left and joined a band and got sleeves inked and all. I feel a bit like that. I don't exactly want to run a way and give it all up, I just get where he's coming from. I'm not unhappy at uni. The past year I've just been content. I mean honestly I don't think I took a very active role in my own life. I just sort of floated through half asleep and daydreaming. I was lucky in that I made friends (and nice ones too- I mean not the best I've ever had :P- but nice enough since I'm living with 2 next year), in part due to the presence of M and also in that I passed my exams, because honestly when I was studying, I couldn't remember a lot of my lectures happening. It's a good thing I'm really good at the whole self-study thing.  Basically what I'm saying is that I wasn't upset or anything. But I also wasn't happy. I was content. And sort of just waiting for happiness to fall into my lap. I had this expectation that it would, because well... all my life it's sort of seemed like in university shit happened. My parents talked about university a lot and always stressed the importance of getting into a good one and all that jazz. It's also where they met. I guess I thought that sort of thing would fall into my lap too. It's funny, there's this cute boy at uni, and sometime I mention him to M and the others. But one day M and I were talking and she was like... I don't think you actually like him. And I don't. I think in that respect I was just sort of cruising a long as well sort of indifferent to everything. 


Funnily enough, it was only when back in J-town and discussing another individual who does not seem particularly enthralled by uni-life with the girls that I realised that I'm being stupid. How the fuck can I expect happiness to fall into my lap? I'm being silly. First I have to decide what going to make me happy- and christ, it doesn't have to be a definitive thing- of course my aspirations are always going to be changing... I just need to decide on something and then work towards it properly. Pssht. Those fuckhot bodies didn't exactly just fall into the laps of those team USA swimmers. They pumped lots of iron. If I want my happy I'm going to have to go look for it. First of all- sure, Medical School in the UK means some of the things that may have made me happy -like the freedom to do more crazy stupid things- are not really feasible. But I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I'm so fucking awkward I'm never going to be a party animal. I'm clumsy and unfit and have terrible hand-eye co-oridination. If the Adrian style opportunities were there would I even be taking them? Pretty sure the answer is no. I'm also pretty sure those sort of opportunities do exist at Dunds. I just haven't really made an effort to go find them. Anyway as a result of my decision to make myself happy I have decided several things. Firstly, I want to take up at least one 'sport' properly. As in I'll go every week. At this point, I like the sound of archery (and A said she would go with me- I'm not gutsy enough to do stuff alone.) There's also trampolining which I believe A's sister does. I was also thinking about horse riding, because L does that, and honestly I really want to be able to ride a horse- but I'm a little more nervous about it after my fall. I also feel like pole dancing would be cool but HAHAHA ME USING MY THIGHS TO HANG OFF A POLE. Let's see. Another thing I want to do is learn to drive. Because my parents are the best and will probably let me have my own car. I like the freedom that gives me. Next up, I want to go to more international soc. events. I have no issue with Scottish people they're lovely and friendly and funny but that's probably a more likely place to meet Mr. Me. Meeting him is not a requirement. I'm not desperate at all and that's not something I ever want to force because hey this is a very naive view but Elizabeth Bennet never forced such things. Also I think I need to start reading my uni emails more and signing up to things without waiting for my friends to do so. I'm also pretty certain of the tattoo(s) I want. And I want to get them sooner rather than later, along with finally getting my ear pierced some more. I just need someone to go with (I don't think M or H or A or L or any of those guys are the right people for it) so I'm working on figuring that out. What else... oh yes here's a big one. My ff obsession needs to be curtailed. It's probably good that I've pretty much read all the good PandP *coughandtwilightcough* ones out there. No more reading late at night. We know what happens as a result- falling asleep in lectures. It's not pretty. When I need that outlet to get away from my life and live happily ever after I have an outlet. It is constructive to some extent and I also know I'm never going to get addicted to it. Too much effort needed. This outlet is secret and you will never ever find it unless you are one of two people, and I don't think you are because I don't think either of those two read this blog. Hah. I also feel like I haven't been as close to the God I believe in lately. And I miss God. I want to be close to God again. Oh also, I should fucking study more. We discovered at Soaks, I'm actually pretty good at that. So there. Those are basically my new (school) year's resolutions. And when I start to forget them or go off them or get bored as I usually do, I will do one of the following: a) watch some olympic swimming and remind myself that it's too late for that, but I should still do what I can and work for my happy or b) talk to one of the people I have mentioned this shit to, because they are helpful and sometimes when you're giving advice or berating someone else you realise you should probably practice what you preach. 


If you managed to read all this, I am in awe. This is probably going to have to last another... 4 months. If you know me and you've read this and I now go on to forget my resolutions you bloody well should remind me. That is all.


**EDIT: I just found out my cousin is off to Oxford. (Yay! He deserves it and it suits him.) I'm not jealous. And I'm really proud of myself for being happy with the path I'm on and I'm going to make the most of it.

-[n][a][d][a][&][]

her tattoo's always h i d d e n.

Sunday, February 12, 2012 Posted In , , , , , , , , , Edit This


Five Colours in Her Hair
By McFly
Do do do do do doo [x3]
She's got a lip ring and 5 colours in her hair,
Not into fashion but I love the clothes she wears,
Her tattoo's always hidden by her underwear.
She don't care.
Everybody wants to know her name,
I threw a house party and she came
Everyone asked me
Who the hell is she?
That weirdo with 5 colours in her hair.
She's just a loner with a sexy attitude,
I'd like to phone her cos she puts me in the mood.
The rumours spreading round that she cooks in the nude.
But she don't care, she don't care.
Everybody wants to know her name,
How does she cope with her new found fame?
Everyone asks me,
Who the hell is she?
That weirdo with 5 colours in her hair.
She was all I thought about,
The girl I couldn't live without.
But then she went insane,
She couldn't take the fame
She said I was to blame
She'd had enough
And shaved five colours off
And now she's just a weirdo with no name.
Everybody wants to know her name.
How does she cope with her new found fame?
Everyone asks me,
Who the hell is she,
That weirdo with 5 colours in her hair.
Do do do do do doo [x3]
I am in fact aware that I made a post with this song back in 2009, however this is just so incredibly appropriate as the post that follows shall concern hair colours, lip rings, tattoos and cookin (although not in the nude- mind you, I have been sleeping wearing considerably less than usual in a desperate effort to avoid laundry for as long as possible.
So first on the agenda, my cooking. (Whilst dressed. Just to reiterate.) Of late, I have found that veggie microwave meals from premier just don't hold the 'oomph' factor they may once have done. And I've been feeling carnivorous. So it was time for some experimentation. I began with the Daal my mom had left with me from before Christmas. Went ahead, bought the onions, chopped the onions, made some kind of solution from the necessary spices, added the pastes, boiled the daal, fried the onions (here there was a mishap- my mother said fry them til brown, but I wasn't sure what shade of brown so I just kept going... but then they turne black and I had to start over) and mixed everything up and cooked it. It turned out well. It was sliiightly dry but tasted yummy so I was sorted. As I was not poisoned or anything after that, I was even MORE adventurous (and carnivorous) the next week and bought the halal chicken from premier at the Union. I then proceeded to make Chicken and Salan for Marz and I as we were having dinner. It worked fairly well, other than when I dropped the chicken on my iPad whilst trying to get my mom to give me skype instructions in the kitchen. Oops. Anyway I had to borrow a chopping board (my lack of chopping board amuses Marz terribly as I have a massive knife but nothing to use it on. I told her plates worked fine. She gave me a look.) Anyway did the usual chopping, frying of onions, mixing spices and pasted, sticking chicken in a pan to cook, mixing it all up and waiting. It was done when Marz arrived. Actually it was probably done a bit before but I was concerned about poisoning us and decided to wait. She was astonished at my newfound culinary prowess.



Anyhoo, I survived both meals. Also both times there were leftovers. I have come to a couple of conclusions as a result. 1) I am marriagable. Jokes. Pretty sure I am made for Jane Austen style spinsterhood. 2) I may now hold a banquet. Who am I kidding? What I mean is a tiny little dinner for some undemanding souls. I would be able to serve tuna and sweetcorn pasta, potato salad (which I proper made last term for our PBL group dinner), daal, chicken, rice and for dessert new york cheescake.
Ok, next on the agenda is my penchant for body mod. We'll start with hair because it's least scary and I've done it before. Ok basically, I think I'd get dirty looks if I went a very outrageous colour so me thinks NAVY!
But not all of it, just the underlayer. Which brings me to the cool haircut I'd like. I want bangs back. I miss them. They also cover up ugly periodtime pimples. And I'd like the back to be layered and the underlayer to be slightly longer and navy. And to have this raunchy asymmetry at that sort of length. Ok now for the piercings. While ideally, I would really love dimple piercings and snake bites, it would appear that doctors with pierced faces are scary. So I just want a second piercing in the lobe of my left ear as well as a piercing in the cartilage of my left year. Additionally, I'd like dermals in my hips and my back and seen below as well as another pair somewhere else not going to discuss here.
Ok now for the tattoos. Whilst I do think sleeves look terribly cool as well as big ones on the shoulder blades I would not want large tattoos, and doctors with lots of ink are apparently also scary and unprofessional. Boo. What I would like is a ring made of leaves around my left big toe, a tiny heart in black ink on my pulse point on my right wrist (heart on my sleeve), another tiny black heart just beneath my jugular notch (heart stuck in my throat), and the name of someone I love under my left boob, by the apex beat (someone I love from the bottom of my heart). Of these there are no photos.
Well, I think that covers all aspects of Five Colours in Her Hair that I wanted to discuss. This post makes no mention of work simply because although I wrote of newfound motivation last time, it's hard to flip a switch in your mind and I just haven't done all that much. I think I'll try and finish off a couple of case reports now.
-[n][a][d][a][&][]

















YSP- Week 1

Tuesday, July 07, 2009 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Edit This
l_e876f7e8b4e5296262e2c33f680ba01e_t
Let me back up for a bit, and describe the past week or so. Soo, last Saturday I got to Toronto.  The  entire journey was RIDICULOUSLY long. I had to hold pee sooo many times for fear of using the public toilets. First we went to Riyadh on a BMI flight, it was slightly delayed. And we started off at 1am. Following this we waited in Riyadh about an hour or so. Then we flew to London, which took 6 hours +. There was a 4 hour transit at Heathrow, where I watched the French film, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain ("The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain"). It was a nice movie, although there were several explicit scenes. In the entiiiire journey, I watched He’s Not That Into You, Dog Hotel and some 30 Rock episodes. Nothing fantastic.
Then there was an 8 hour + journey to Toronto. So by the time me and Bob reached the hotel 24hours had passed. We walked around a fair bit the first day, we went to this festival at the harbour, which we looked around for a very short while. There was some picturesque scenery, and basically we just walked and walked. Which resulted in my baby toenail jamming itself in to the toe next to it and causing it to bleed. Yay >_< . Since I didn’t make a great deal of fuss, Bob didn’t really pay attention and I was in immense pain by the time we returned. The reason Bob came with me to Toronto was to make sure I got there in one piece. I feel this is an illegitimate reason. Firstly because he indirectly caused my toes to be injured, and secondly because Bob likes to walk fast. I do not. This means I tend to get left behind. Bob walks at a brisk pace and generally has a hurried air and therefore does not look back to see if I am still there and have not been abducted by some serial killer driving an ice-cream van. Also, it’s not like I’m physically or mentally handicapped, I can read the signs in an airport perfectly well. That night Bob took my to the CN tower, we had a look through the glass floor and ate dinner at the CN 360, which was incredibly posh and expensive (i felt guilty after). I was nowhere near suitably dressed. I’d fallen asleep when we came back from our walk, and woke up right before we were supposed to leave. I hadn’t had a shower, and didn’t want to waste clean clothes on my dirty aeroplane self so I simply wore black really baggy trousers, a t-shirt and hoodie. It looked like pyjamas.  As it was a Saturday night most of the people there were couples all very formally dressed. It was cold and I stole Bob’s blazer from him. I was pleased as this kept me warm and was fashionable-ish and made my outfit more formal. However I was horrified when the waiter referred to me as “young man”. I’m hoping he meant to say “young ma’am” or suffered severely from dementia. Anyways it was nice and there were fireworks. Second day there with bob we had the morning together, during which we went and had a look at Eaton Centre. I bought Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink UV radiant hair dye. I probably never got a chance to mention but before I left I had bleached coontails into my hair. I didn’t use hair beach so they only went to an orangey-brown even after several hours. They looked like tiger stripes. Anyways I messily died these pink in the hotel bathroom. They don’t look pink, they look more purpley-red100_5344 but they were meant to be pink and it doesn’t show so well in pictures. Then I had to go to the residence and get checked in. As it turned out I was indeed sharing with M :) . So, on that first Sunday basically we just wandered around the place meeting people an what not. As we wandered around I noticed S so I said to M, “how long do you think it will be until he comes after us?” and literally as SOON as I said this he popped up behind us. This caused me to laugh excessively. So then this stupid chick who was standing with us asked me “do you like your friend? because you keep laughing at his jokes.” 1) WHAT JOKE? 2)what a stupid conclusion to jump to. >_< . At lunch I made 2 friends, D and A.  (An American Mexican and a Chinese-Canadian). They were nice, and we explored the basement together. We got really rather lost, and scared the life out of ourselves because we decided to turn around and leave the way we came when we realised we had no clue where we were going, so we tried this pink door we THOUGHT we had entered from. It was LOCKED. We had a little panic. :P But managed to get out of there alive. Later they split us into groups with counsellors. My counsellor was very amusing, and told us he had once tried to escape from the YSP to Chinatown :P I made another friend, V (Canadian Indian). Some other girls from her school had come as well.  S is extremely popular here, even on the first day. It makes no sense to me. It’s very unlike school. When I said I was from Saudi, they were all like “OMG do you know S?!”. I found this so strange. He wasn’t even in the group and everyone was talking about him. Haha. M and I were a little weepy at night, missing home and it’s cleanliness and what not.
The next day was Monday, we were forced to awaken early at like 7am. Ew. We didn’t really eat breakfast and we ran to the meeting spot. From there they walked us to the university where we had a lecture at 9am. I can’t really recall what it was about I was too sleepy, but something to do with Physiology (it’s Physiology week) and more specifically lab safety and homeostasis.We were then split into teams, I got Purple with S (One of the team leaders reminds me of Drew Barrymore). Then we had a practical in which we took blood pressure in different situations. Several times, me and S found that we had no pulse and were dead. –sigh-. After this we had another lecture. The speaker was a German professor, who spoke about the circulatory system and other transport systems. He was interesting. I liked his speaking style. Unfortunately I was too tired to fully appreciate the lecture. He spoke of the Oktoberfest which I found amusing, and his presentation was nice. After this we had a practical where we did blood-typing. This was immense fun, even though it involved pricking oneself and I’m a wimp. I’m an O+ which is the Universal Donor :) unfortunately I’m not a Universal Receptor :( . We also looked at the circulation in a anaesthetised frog. I was quite scared it would wake up and jump at me, but it was cool as you could clearly see it’s blood flowing. That evening we went into our counsellor groups and there was a scavenger hunt. It was fun. I made a few more friends K, L and a couple more. It was rather fun. We had to take pictures of us jumping in front of a coffee stand, playing leapfrog across a street and I climbed into a fountain. It was rather fun, even though my feet killed after. (Loads of walking. We had to follow a man with a dog and take a picture of it. Ew.) Our group did not win unfortunately :( . Me and L walked to the nearby convenience store that evening. (Taiwanese Canadian doing Law). We were so exhausted when returned to our room that M and I did not feel like getting up to brush our teeth, so we formulated our plan. We used my mouthwash to clean our mouths and spat the remainders in her empty milk bottle. We then STRONGLY considered disposing of it via the window, however M felt this would be illegal. I got up again later and peed and brushed my teeth though.
Tuesday we discovered coffee. More specifically Tim Horton’s. (a Canadian brand I’ve never heard of who sell a good French Vanilla for a cheaper price than Starbucks and have a stall in the Medicine building :) .) We had a lecture in the morning by a professor who really reminded me of good old Mr.Burnley of Conti, speaking in the same monotone voice with a similar British accent. His lecture was on blue babies. It was reasonably interesting. Then our practical was to do with Ventilation rates and Lung volumes. It was alright. After Lunch our lecture was on a more boring topic, however I was far more alert and took notes. It was about diabetes. We then did a practical about Weight, by filling in information about our daily eating habits and energy using activities as well as our age and sex etc. A computer program factored this in and told us how much we ought to consume to maintain our wait. It told me to eat more, so I’m sure it’s inaccurate. If I was a guy, I would be less fat. –scowl- . After class the evening activity was the CN tower (which I’d been to with Bobbo) but we took more pictures and had a better look around. I even ventured onto the glass floor, refusing to look down however.
On Wednesday our first lecture was AWESOME. It was about the Brain and memory, by an Oriental doctor who had graduated from U of T himself. His presentation was really amusing, (it showed his experiments with mice, and him playing confusing tricks on them – no worries animal activists, no harm done). His speaking style was very nice as well, and his jokes were actually funny. Three things that help with learning and memory- 1) Actually learning, 2) Running and 3) an enriched environment. There are no drugs yet :( . The practicals after this were not so interesting. One was cool, because electricity was applied to a volunteer’s funnybone causing their hand to shake ridiculously hahaha. Another was amusing as it was to do with the balance, and it was done by this cute old guy, who told us some stories. I feel he should make friends with Nanaboo. He spun volunteers round in a chair,  100_5042 and we watched their eyes flicker. There was a vision lab after this but there was not enough time to go through it all so I didn’t get to give myself an eye test. What a shame. There was also a lecture from an Asian guy who was hard to understand and frankly boring. I benefitted nothing from him. I’m not sure what he talked about, it was something like nerves and muscles and stimulation. There was then a lecture about Sports Medicine. I found this had a lot to do with physics and was sort of lame. I was bored with it, but took some notes :) . The evening activity was to go to Queen’s Street and Eaton Center (on their underground – or SUBWAY as they insist you say, the have the stations Kings, Queens and Dundas. Bob found this funny and thought it should be King Queen & Dumbass when he was here). Did a little shopping. I didn’t want to do too much as I have no need for summer clothes and stuff is expensive and can be found at home. However a bought my self a pair of green aviators and some black ones for Serene and some funky nailpolish for Aliya. I spent some time in the Center with L, I looked for a pair of gladiators. On the way back, I was a bit late to return, and these Asian girls discovered a lost me and we ran the whole way back. It gave me a stitch. M and I had discovered that since breakfast is 8ish, Lunch 12ish and Dinner 5ish we were hungry at our normal dinner time, around 10 and went to the convenience store to buy snack food. (e.g. POP TARTS which I've never had before though I have heard the name a lot). 
This brings us to Thursday. We had a REALLY INTERESTING lecture from an Asian Emergency Doctor. It was fun! I was as if he was doctor House. He kept giving us case examples and we had to guess the problem. I loved it. He said he doesn’t have a very hectic shift and can pick and choose working only certain hours a week so he has time for his family. He said Doctors are not rich, and if we want loads of money and a extra lavish lifestyle, Medicine is probably not the right way to go. After this we had a practical on Physical fitness. My BMI shows I am one point overweight :( I’m quite strong and can jump an average amount. By this point I have made several more friends including S (a Taiwanese Canadian) and M (an American who I feel is dirty, although nice) in my team. Then we did some work on Presentations which we had to make for a competition on Friday, my group included S, S, M, this annoying girl S, who we’ve dubbed Jigglypuff and reminds me awfully of this annoying chick who used to be a good friend of mine, N, at home. Yeauch. Our topic is haemophilia (my idea). Then we had a brief lecture about Lie detecting, which was rather fun, and we did a practical on it. We were split into small groups and asked to chose a card from a bunch. We were then asked by other group members what our card was, and we were supposed to repeatedly deny the card they said was ours. My group did not manage to guess my card :) ! I’m a good liar! The evening activity was bowling which I skipped to do other stuff, like connect to the internet. This task was a pain in the ass. I paid $5 for an ethernet cable ( I MISS WIRELESS) and had to deactivate Bob’s Virus scans and install U of T’s choice, and run some scans on my laptop. This took far too long. I also took a niice LONG shower washing my hair (pink came out!) and everything in peace.  I made our presentation pretty as well.
Friday we went in the morning. They had a totally worthless lecture about university in  Canada. These people do not have a schooling system which makes sense. :( It was entirely useless. Then we had guest speakers of a Grad Student, a nurse and a paramedic, to show us what we might become if we flunked medicine, each of whom tried to persuade us their career choice was amazing. The nurse was an annoying Pilipino chick.The only speaker I enjoyed was the Grad student, since her researching sounded interesting. I like research. After Lunch (there was no Halal meat that meal :( and we ate Pizza, I’m so sick of it. I think I may have accidentally eaten a non-Halal beef burger one day. Bleh. The food is ALRIGHT though. But it’s the sammmmmeee always.)  We presented presentations in front of our team and voted for the best one. By some fluke we WON. (this is odd since we made deals with people to not vote for us). We presented in front of the whole Med. Group after, and as the other groups had funny skits we improvised, and made one which involved me hitting S and him dying. It was ridiculous. Needless to say we didn’t win again. There was interesting presentation on for Porphyria, the Vampire disease :). They served refreshments after and some people’s parents came. After this, me, M, S, S and J went on an adventure, which should have resulted in us shopping, however it was a failure, and our escape failed and we returned home in time for dinner. We ate, and the evening activity was to go to a Harbourfront festival which I’d been to with Bob. We didn’t buy anything as we found it was largely Desi merchandise being sold at ridiculous prices to poor unsuspecting white people. I sat next to group member K in the bus rides. She sang, it was good singing, but rather annoying.
Let’s see… Saturday! Saturday was awesome. We went to Niagara City. I LOVED my outfit. :P It was rather green :) The bus journey was rather long, but when we got there OMG THE FALLS WERE COOL :) and I’m not the nature-appreciating sort. We took a boat ride known as Maid of the Mist, and got wet despite the blue bin bags we wore. 100_5119 For lunch we went to HARD ROCK CAFE (me, M, S, V –who knows a guy at 7oaks. V & J-who may go to 7oaks or Eton like my cousin). It was really nice, however unfortunately the meat there was not Halal :/. The music and decor was awesome as per usual. After this we went souvenir shopping. I bought a crapping hippo key chain, one of those mini slideshowish camera’s (idk what they are actually called) a fridge magnet, a snow globe for Ser, a Canadian flag kite for Ali (as she keeps “flying” pieces of paper) and Maple Fudge for Bob :) . After this we took touristy pikturs and went to Hershey's for free samples as desert! IT WAS SO YUMMY. Very rich, but we sampled the mint chocolate chip fudge and the cookies and cream fudge, and it was MOUTHWATERING. YUM.  V and I played with my iPod the way home. When we got back to our room M and I were extremely upset to find the floor had not been cleaned and the sheets had not been changed as had been promised. So we decided to take matters into our own hands, as we shed a lot, and our hair was on the ground, as well as a sticky mess I’d made with lens’s solution and hair mousse. I brought water in a cup from the bathroom and splashed it over the floor (causing me to slip and fall on my ass). As we had no tissues, we used a duvet that had fallen on the floor  to sweep up the now gooey mess. It was EW. We then decided to shake the mess of the duvet in front of the door of our hated neighbours room. (she’s very haughty). Sadly the mess on the duvet would not remove itself from it. So we put it down. We then removed the mess from it using a spare pillowcase. The mess was stuck to this as well. So we hung it out the window in hope that the hairball we’d created would blow away. It did indeed. And every time M tells this story she claims the bald guy in the house next door was no longer bald the next morning :P
Sunday was also utterly fantabulous. We went to Canada’s Wonderland, a theme park.  The entire time, me, M S and V stuck together. We rode NINE roller coasters in total,  more than everyone else, although we missed some of the scariest rides, i.e. the bungee jumping and a ride called Behemoth which is the longest roller coaster in Canada if not the world. It doesn’t have any bars across one’s chest, merely one across one’s lower half, perhaps we were safer :P. We also didn’t go to the water park (OMG the number of times I was asked if I had brought my bikini… ) . We did however go on a roller coaster where you lie down, one with loops where your legs are hanging, several with sheer drops, one where you got soaking wet (it was very icky and i was forced to remove my shoes and walk barefoot for a bit. Ew)  and one which swings back and forth and then turns the whole way round.  5733_102533350977_515975977_2164400_7345080_n I SCREAMED my lungs out. I’m surprised neither me or V lost our voices as she was screaming wildly in Cantonese hahaa. These were some of the wildest roller coasters I’ve ever been on and I closed my eyes and clung on for dear life for quite a few. It was IMMENSE fun though, and waiting in line was made easy by keeping nice company. We met a really good looking guy from the UofT English Program who was Ukrainian-Syrian and spoke Arabic in one of the lines. Very cool. It was an AMAZINGG day! Anyways, that was the end of week ONE :)

//She’s got a lip ring and 5 [colours] in her hair.

Sunday, June 28, 2009 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , , , Edit This
mfly

Soo, this past few days have not been particularly eventful. Yesterday I went to Makkah, since it could  be a while until I get to go again. Did some praying of course :P Most of Thursday was spent with famillial friends. Lunched at Chillis with M & M and parentals and their grandparental as well.  Dinner was at mine with D,J,H and parentals, but without W. Also Z,O,A and parentals were there. It was quite amusing. We told each other horror stories. We were hesitant at first because of little A, but as it turned out she had the most stories to tell :P Supernatural came up as well. D&J watch it, as well as Grey’s. J was talking about Medicine at Uni, and said “Oh the Med students…? We never see them.” It was very encouraging. Haha. :P

Little sister Aliya keeps leaving me these depressing notes. Like yesterday she gave me one that said “Nada, I will love you even if you live in London and I will never ever forget you. xxooxxooxx” She’d typed it out on the computer in pink and I would guess it took her a whiile since she’s pretty slooww at typing. Aww :(

My travel plans have changed –scowl-  originally I was meant to go up to London with Khali [mom’s half brother] or Nanaboo [Maternal Grandpops- I was supposed to call him Nana-Abu in true Desi style, but apparently as a child I had difficulty saying this], spend a week and go to Toronto... then it changed so that I'd go to London with my Dad spend a couple of days and go to Toronto] and now my Dad's flying with me alllll the way to Toronto and we've only got a few hours in London. I think this is a waste of time and money since it's not like I'm handicapped and I can travel on my own, but at least my mom won't be miserable with worry. It’s a bit of a shame since I wanted to see if I could meet up with my next years housemates in London.

The other thing I wanted to do in London was dye my hair. Now I’m facing a slight dilemma regarding how to do this and what colour. n516770948_508421_8098[1] When I turned 15, as a birthday present my mom let me dye my hair red.. in the bangs anyway. [It was a better option for her than having my ear cartilage pierced :P]. It was L'Oreal permanent [i think]. I didn’t bleach my hair or anything but it stayed for ages and faded to this orangey-brown colour that was still present several months later. Then when I went to Canterbury (UK) lastspring summer I decided to dye my hair again. So I bought a pot of semi-permanent Directions  spring green hair dye from this shop called Siesta. It didn’t take on my dark hair, even on the aforementioned orangey part. So I bleached my bangs and dyed them. It didn’t last that long either, maybe because I didn’t bleach my hair down to platinum blonde. It was taking way too long, and I just left it at an orangey blonde. The nice green colour stayed about 2 weeks (maybe less, i can’t remember) before it turned into this swamp colour. It got me a lot of attention haha.100_3496 100_3746 - CopyThe first picture shows my hair at the height of it’s greenness and the second shows it a few days later. I’ve still got a considerable amount of that green left, so if all else fails I’ll go green again. This time I think I’ll do it slightly different though. My bangs have grown really long anyways. So I’m thinking of dying less conspicuous areas, since as I realised later, once the colour fades, it leaves that bleachy orange. Which I then have to dye black [which is darker than my actual hair]. After a while the black also fades, and then I get a red-brown colour. And I find this all quite annoying. emogirlSoo I was thinking of doing something like this.  Not the same colour, but that whole stripy thing, on the inside of my hair.  About the colour I want next… well I was thinking pink, purple or blue. So I tried them out…

100_3746 - Copy100_3746 - Copy3

100_3746 - Copy4

carnation atlanticnewviolet

I’m not really sure which I like best :P I did find two reaaallly cool dye-jobs though. I personally L O V E the first one. emohair 2516292312a4831149892lIt’s probably not high quality enough to see, but she actually does have a lip ring and five colours in her hair :}. And it’s not just the hair dye I love, the cut is pretty cool too. Right now, my hair when curly reaches my lower back, but when I straighten it it’s about ass-length. I’m thinking for the summer I’ll do that whole stripy dye thing in blue/pink/purple, dye it back to black before school and then when I come back home in half term I think I’ll get that cut like the first picture above :} So yeah, let’s hope I can get my hands on some dye. [I’ve asked M to see if she can find me some since she’s already in Canada.]

Anyways this has been an excruciatingly long post about hair, so I think I’ll end it now.

“You’ve been hit by, you’ve been struck by, a smooth criminal.” RIP Michael Jackson.

[It’s a shame he died, Khali had 2 concert tickets]

- [n][a][d][a][&][]

Five Colours In Her Hair

McFly

She's got a lip ring and five colours in her hair,
Not into fashion but I love the clothes she wears,
Her tattoo's always hidden by her underwear.
She don't care.
Everybody wants to know her name,
I threw a house party and she came
Everyone asked me
Who the hell is she?
That weirdo with five colours in her hair.
She's just a loner with a sexy attitude,
I'd like to phone her ’cause she puts me in the mood.
The rumours spreading that she cooks in the nude.
She don't care
She don't care
Everybody wants to know her name,
How does she cope with her new found fame?
Everyone asks me,
Who the hell is she?
That weirdo with five colours in her hair.
She was all I thought about,
The girl I couldn't live without.
But then she went insane,
She couldn't take the fame
She said I was to blame
She'd had enough
And shaved five colours off
And now she's just a weirdo with no name.
Everybody wants to know her name.
How does she cope with her new found fame?
Everyone asks me,
Who the hell is she,
That weirdo with five colours in her hair.