Hello world. I've decided to move out of blogger and into livejournal. It was a hard decision, but I eventually did it after contemplating for a few weeks. Nevertheless, I shall not delete this blog cos there's so many memories in here, I don't wanna erase them, and I can't possibly post them all back on lj.

That said, relink me, if you will.

http://peachytones.livejournal.com

Thanks for reading.

Shakirah (chocolatier-post.blogspot.com)

Wow. Another week over. :-)

I'm emotionally and mentally drained. And I don't know why. I'm guessing that it's because of school. Dealing with kids that are 10 years younger than you is no mean feat.

On another note, thanks to Fitrah, I now know that A level results are gonna be released end of this month. I have flutterbies and cockroaches in my stomach now. Even as I'm typing this entry, my hands are cold and my feet are frozen. Really. I'm not even exaggerating. I've thought long and deep about what I intend to do in uni, that is, if I qualify, and I'm pretty much sure that this would be the most near-perfect decision that I'll ever make. No associations with whatever I've studied in college so far, except for Econs. Haha. Yes.

Here's how the convo with my parents went a couple of nights ago:

Mum: So Shakirah, have you thought about what you want to do in uni?
Me: (nonchalantly) Yes, pretty much.
Mum: So what's the decision?
Me: I was thinking of taking Banking and Finance.
Mum: And end up like your dad?
Me: What's wrong with my father?
Mum: He travels a lot.
Me: Ain't that good? I've always loved to travel.
Mum: So you're not interested in research work?
Me: No.
Mum: Oh, I thought you might be interested in becoming a financial analyst or financial adviser.
Me: No. Thanks.
Mum: So you're going to work like your father, a marketing manager for the bank?
Me: It's BANKER, mum.
Mum: Ok, so that's settled. I suppose you need to go for a Biz Ed degree.
Me: Yah. I also think so.
Mum: Thought about where to study?
Dad: I've asked my clients, and they said that studying in Sweden or Australia would be good.
Me: Oh.
Dad: While you're taking banking and finance, you can also try Islamic banking. It's going to be the IN thing, especially since Hong Kong decides to follow islamic banking these days. There's a demand for it in the market.
Mum: Yeah, and you can go work in Bahrain and specialise in Islamic banking.
Me: Yeah okay. I thought 'bout that too.
Dad: I'm glad that after many years of changing your ambitions, you finally decided on something good. You go be a banker, and you can be one of the wealthy Muslim merchants in Singapore.
Me: Okay. (goes off to eat dinner)

Wow. Amazing. For once, I agree with my parents on my future.

My neighbour has a young child. About a few months old. Saw the baby when I was on the way home, and my, that baby's really cute!!! I can feel my maternal instincts right now. Hahahhhh...After marriage eh.

Self-chuck of the day: People who overuse cliché phrases. You hear it a lot in business, “push the edge of the envelope”, “think outside of the box,” but most of the time it’s completely irrelevant and not motivating. My favorite is “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Honestly, I just don’t get that one. If it’s my cake, I’m eating it…WALL!

I love self-chucks. They remind me starkly of how stupid people can get sometimes. It's not that I go around, looking at people's faults and their obviously-it-is-so-obvious mistakes (not that I have a lot of time on my hands, that is), but sometimes, or rather, most of the time, it is so apparent that it makes me chuckle. Yes, a very fine word for replacing "snigger". Laugh and brawl all you want.

If you noticed, I've changed the blog title to "An Essaouira's Tale". For most of you, you might not be familiar about who is essaouira. Actually, besides being a state in Morocco (which I've been before), this place called Essaouira exemplifies my inner being. It's a really calm place, where it seems that everything stood still. Everything is organized, though not that fully structured. Lots of breezes and cool winds, which is really soothing. Yes, that's the inner being of me. That's me on the inside, though it hardly shows.

They say that there could be no one that can really understand us left right center. I agree. Cos I myself am discovering amazing things about myself that I know I could never dream of knowing.

My writing has become somewhat incoherent, so I guess I'll justa end here for now. School tomorrow, yay, tomorrow's casual Friday! Can wear jeans, hohoooo!

Self-chuck of the day: Was listening to the radio on the way home from work today. The DJ was asking for callers to call in and talk about their most memorable experiences. Then, a few minutes later, a caller by the name of Aisyah called in, and the DJ thought that this was the Aisyah who is a ghostbuster. Asked her whether is she really the ghostbuster Aisyah, the woman said no, and then said, "But I have encounters with ghosts before." She then went on to talk about her ghost moments, and she swears that she saw a ghost without a body once, without legs once, and without a head once. DJ asked again, "Why are you always seeing deformed ghosts?" ---WALLS

I'm pretty tired already. I feel rather exhausted by the time it hits 8.30pm, even I couldn't concentrate on Deal or No Deal. Haha. And it was the Hunks special. Looking back, the hunks weren't really THAT hot. They are in fact, normal mats on the streets. That's it to that.

You know I always have this habit of putting on a ring as an accessory on my fourth finger? Yeah. Some kid in school came up to me, and asked me, "Cikgu, cikgu dah tunang eh? Hari tu saya nampak cikgu balik naik kereta." Lol. When did I ever return home in a car? And I'm not even engaged, for Pete's sake! And I don't intend to in the next few years. ---WALLA.

Baby, I could tell that we're heading for even greater things. Why not just get on with it?

*Whatever I've said in italics are part of my imagination. It has nothing to do with my life. Really.

By the way, some personality test I took said that I am in need of a sensitive guy who reads Shakespeare to me every night. ---WALLS---Who wants Shakespeare's stories as bedtime stories? My ears bleed when I hear 'em. Metaphorically, not literally, of course.

And I haven't seen you in years. I can't go without letting you know.
How much I yearn for you.
How I dream of you day and night.
The heart aches every time I hear some voice - -
Telling me that it's you --
Tell me it really is you. . .

Hello world. I'm still alive.

I'm sucha twerp. I was putting cupcakes on microsoft word for the kids' birthdays, and printed them out, and cut them out one by one. After which, I intended to send it to the printing cum laminating auntie in the office to help me laminate these cupcakes. Then after I cut out the last cupcake, I realised that I could have actually not cut these cupcakes and get them laminated first, then cut them out. Sheesh. I now have to do double-cupcake-cutting. I'm sucha twerp. I knew it.

I decorated the malay room! Hooray! The theme was that of a garden forest, cos, well, there are lots of materials for this theme, so I might as well save some bucks and use them. Lots of flowers and grass and grasshoppers, the only exception being the birthday bulletin board, in which lots of cupcakes and other birthday shiznits are displayed, and a lone duck in a raincoat. Haha. That duck is too cute to be left in the dusty cupboard, so why not take it out for a little ride, eh? ;)

I'm feeling super-duperly generous to my kids today. Handed out God-knows-how-many packets of mini M&Ms, and lots of other chocs. I guess I wanted to treat them the way I want my teachers to treat me previously when I was still in primary school. So they were happy. Excellent. Now for the next plan. Agent H, please get me the materials. Hahahhh..Sounds like a freaking conspiracy to brainwash students.

On a happier note, I've been lookin' forward to school these past few days, well at least since the week started. Life is great and I'm lovin' all these little moments that I knew could never be retrieved once let go.

I can't think deep enough like Fitrah. No wonder she needs a boyfriend who reads to her Shakespeare every night - and a weird one on top of that. Read her blog for more details. No advertising fee included.

Shakespeare makes my ears bleed inside out. I know this is not what is expected of me, since I did Shakespeare for most of my teenage years, but hell, don't ask me how I survived. The feeling's like I'm stuck with an engineering class for the rest of my life. But I'm glad Shakespeare is so over, I mean, I'm glad that I'm not doing it anymore. I can't imagine reading just one more tragedy by this great man, no, not even Romeo and Juliet, though I think I am within reach of my perfect Prince Charming. Hehhhh....;)

See the image 'From girls to guys' under the Link list over on the right? Well, you guys can try going there. It's such a lovely website, keeps your curiosity going. Hahahh...and I'm only doing this because Nurimah's one of my old buddies, so heh, a little advertising does not hurt. The image is clickable lah!

Had a nice good long chat with Hafiz just now. Pretty interesting topics, with pretty interesting responses. I just wished that it had been different from the start. Just wishing.

On to another note, yes Isyah, I've been stealing time wherever I can to blog. Cos you see, behind my desk, there's a computer, the desk cubicle next to mine, also have a computer, laptop to be precise. Lol. Anyways, the urge is there, with a few ideas which I can nicely map out onto a post. So there you have it! My very own blog posts. Hahahhh...It's always overlooked, fyi.

Started madrasah at Al-Irsyad today, for PERGAS lessons. Really interesting, but I have the unfortunate luck of sitting at the very front. Cos me and Raudhah (lucky her) got the desk at the back, inevitably pushing me to the front. Met Luqman, Izzah and many others from AJ. The class size is huge, and get this, for Fiqh, which they call it ilmu syariah, we're studying munakahat, which in fact means nikah, which means solemnization, which means marriage. Hahahh...And the ustaz was just saying that people always score high for this one because of "personal interests". And he's a really funny man. And everyone's oh-so-attentive. I couldn't help but chuckle. Cos I used to do this topic when I was studying at another mosque. And I fell asleep everytime this topic was taught. So does that mean I don't have "personal interests"? I don't know. Go figure.

Ahh...lesson plans. I haven't done them yet. The kids were pretty good to me this week, and I went shopping on Saturday! Wooply doodly doo!!!! Being able to spend money (my gaji haven't masuk la) is excellent. Bought lots of clothes and everything else, was tempted to buy this ring which is made of corals and stone, and blown with heat, but it was too expensive (69 bucks, yo!) for a ring like that.

And baked doughnuts. Thought of giving some to Rau, but thought that perhaps, if I bake something better, I mighteth give it to her.

Why must we stop it just like that? Can't we just keep it going?

And Isyah, thanks for the lovely gifts and card. Appreciate it lots! And remember to give me a treat when you get your first paycheck uh!

SELF CHUCK OF THE MONTH: Was staying on the second floor of an apartment floor number one. Floor number two,…the other day there were literally four relatively young people waiting for the elevator to go down to the first floor….if you are capable of walking down the stairs, one floor is not going to hurt you....LOL!

Wow. What an amazing day.

I want to make an announcement: I AM OFFICIALLY TIRED AND EXHAUSTED.

Alright, stop scoffing. I really am. Somehow, somehow (stress on the second word, second syllable), sometime or the other, some devil decides to penetrate into my lessons for the P1s. I don't know how, and I don't know why. Because those kids, well, they aren't exactly cooperating with me today. And I don't know why.

It's tiring when we have to run around and speak slowly and repeat our sentences over and over and over again. I guess it's all part of the whole package. I hope these kids can't really see that this person is "initferthemunnyslashmoolah" kinda person. Lol. But that said, I take full responsibility for my words. *Bows gracefully*

And you know what? It's kinda fun, doing lesson plans. I had so much joy flipping through the text books, and looking at pictures and such. Really.

And did I mention that I 'stole' four of Cikgu Aidil's students? Heh. Cos he asked me too. Lol. These kids (due to them being underage and minors in "the eyes of the law", I shall protect their identity and keep their names a secret), wow, they speak a flitter of Malay. They speak majorly English, and they remind me of me. Hahahahhhh....And one of them, oh-so-cute, gave me a drawing of a banana with a person's body and labeled it as 'Han'. Cute, isn't it? I had so much fun when I'm with them, because I can relate to them - somehow.

And it's so cute and so endearing when I see you smile. Yes, that's the way you smile, baby. That's the way you smile.

Well, thank you all to those who prayed for my well-being today. I don't know who you are, or even if there's anyone out there who prayed for me, but in any case, a protective thanks should suffice. Lol. Anyways, today's day is much better, as compared to yesterday, yes, scroll your eyeballs downwards to find out what happened, or you would have guessed already, ha!

In any case, today started out wet. Yes, it was raining, in that 'wet' sense. And I wore a baju kurung, which is possibly one of the best decisions I've ever made. Just don't ask me why. Felt good enough to come to school, because I was rather prepared for lessons, which in itself is a mean feat, wei. But dangs, the sore throat's seem to be getting from good to bad. Cos I could barely speak loud, so I had to rely on my hands and the whiteboard to get my message across, lol. Tell me bout it, I felt handicapped. God, if anyone ever reads this, particularly anyone from APS, I am damn sure that I would not live to see another day. But, me being me, I shall undertake the risk.

Well, let's see. I was so dead bored today that I decided to make resolutions. Uh-huh. Not the type that I resolve to be nice to everyone kind of stuff, but the type that is cynical of everything and try to be a nice citizen at the same time. So, with that, I shall stop rambling bout these little kids of mine, who by mistake, or by purpose (God, if You are reading this, I hope You have better things in mind for me next time) are on extreme ends, and can never ever start/stop talking. Lol. Bless me.

My resolutions, and I won't call it a 'new year resolution' because it's too late for one:

STOP FEEDING THE MONKEYS AT THE RESERVOIR
This is noble, considering that I think, at some point in time of my life, I have fed some monkey at the reservoir, out of pity. But you can't blame me, cos the monkey looked almost dead! Anyways, the point is, I shall stop feeding these little monkeys, no matter how famished they look, because the moment they see me carrying packs of Burger King plastic bags, they are gonna squish me faster than you could say, "Burger!!!" And they are gonna behave like little King Kongs, mind you.

GET MY BLOG ON THE SINGAPORE ARCHIVE
Now, please do not scoff. This is a noble act, indeed. I wonder how many of you read the article on the Singapore government wanting to highlight a couple of blogs to show various alternative viewpoints not well represented in politics. Well, that's what I aim to do by the end of this year. To convey seriously politicised political ideas and to get the attention of the Higher Authorities. Heh. Like Mr Brown. Now, who would bet that the Sarong Party Girl would get in?

GET MY BUTT ON THE COUCH AND WATCH A FULL EPL MATCH
Ok man, this is gonna be one tough thing to do. Cos you see, I'm not really a fan of watching 'game shows' where 11, or 12, if you will include the goalie, kicking a ball round a field. It doesn't exude much excitement, but the hype coming from it, makes me wanna watch and hopefully try to understand what is going on. Tough one man.

GET A DATE WITH ANDY RODDICK
O man, I could count myself lucky if I ever get this. Really. This guy, whoa, he's like the dreamiest of the dreamiest lot. I've always thought that I'd like to date a sports star, but if we were to judge his rate as per Maria Sharapova (note: all 'Ovas' are hawt), then it's gonna be exxxpennnsivvveee. I mighteth even have to save a lifetime first to see him, but part of it would have to account for my 'getting older' money, then I can doll myself up to see RODDICK. Must go for plastic surgery first whut....unless I don't grow old, like that.

Ok then, this has been a pretty long entry. I guess it's time for me to bow out of Blogger gracefully, though not permanently. Long day ahead tomorrow, better get some rest. :)

Wow.

All I can say is: What a day. It's been a terribly hectic work day today, with me first starting out 'running' (reminiscient of old AJ times when we had to chase after the morning bell, hoho) to school cos I was a wee bit late for my first class. Then after wrongfully signing in (I signed in under the 'Sign Out' column, lol) at the office, bumped into some PE teacher whom I barely recognised, dropped my lunch and bottle in front of that kinda cute guy, and then raced up the stairs, only to realise that I dropped my access card on the stairs and had to race down again to get it, only to bump into that same man again, lol, and tapped the bloody card on the sensor, and rushed to my table, just in time to collect my worksheets and shiznits. Whoa. What a day, eh. And I thought it would stop there, but no, it didn't. Since it was after assembly, some freaking kid stepped on the hem of my skirt, and the lace kinda tore, though I'd like to think that the tear wasn't that freaking obvious. So I was distraught cos that was a new skirt, hmph. I could have stuck a dagger in that kid's head for all he cares. >:/ And then on continued my race to class, only to realise that my card was left in the staff room, and had to call some auntie to open the door for me. Whoa.

And after lesson, raced back to the staff room, to collect my worksheets from the photocopying corner, cos I just remembered that I placed them there last Friday, lol. Thank my lucky stars they were there. And cleared my desk to make way for the new materials since my desk was about the only 'empty' desk in the entire face of God's blue earth. Everyone had stuffed toys and all that junk, but I simply refused to clutter the place too much, because, heck, I'm already a scatterbrain as it is, lol.

And lunch, was a horrifying disaster. Choked on the anchovies, oh bloody Baron! Choked on water soon after, sambal on my scarf, thank God it was black. And yada yada yada...

And oh yes, collected the books from the kids, i.e. their homework, and tripped on the stairs along the way cos I couldn't see where the freaking toot I was going. And going down the stairs, some idiot of a kid splashed water on the stairs, and needless to say, I slipped. Though it wasn't too badly.

The day could not have been worse, isn't it? Well, let's just hope that tomorrow, it shall be a better day. Pray for me please. Thanks. :)

Hey world and all that lives underneath it!

I've got 15 minutes to kill before my next lesson with the primary two class starts. So, I thought, since I've already completed my paperwork, why not post something to kill time? Heh. So here I am, lol.

School's been great, the teachers were pretty nice, but oh ma god, the P1 malay students are so cheeky! In an irritatingly cute but annoying way but still cute kinda way. You know what I mean. The P2 students, well, they were a wee bit well-behaved, but there are still a couple of them out there that are still irritating the hell out of me. So far, I've been able to handle them lot, thus good job for that. Sometimes, I really feel like I'm the dictator, but on most times, I feel that I am the 'nice' person. Lol.

And hell I love my desk, it's so colourful and so I-don't-know-what-to-say-bout-it.

I wonder how Isyah's doing? Which reminds me, I've got to meet her, pronto.

Ok dokies! Time for class! My, I love my lil tykes and monsters, hell yes I do!

Love!