and i u n f o l d

Got back from KL last evening. The trip itself was okay, but the actual bus journey was killer. Everytime I go to M’sia, it’s with the parentals and it’s always in the comfort of my daddy’s car. As my mom said it was good for me to rough it out (conveniently forgetting that I did kinda rough it out when I went to Washington while I was in the States)…. but damn, it was tiring.

It started out on a bad note when it seemed like there were no more bus tickets to KL when we reached JB. So we had to fork out RM$80 per person. Not only was that expensive, it seemed like I felt every pothole and all the uneven-ness of the highway in that bus ride from Hell. Tried to sleep, but it wasn’t very restful. We finally arrived in KL at about 5-ish and took a long hike to our hotel. We rested a bit, then went to grab some dinner.

Cal wasn’t feeling well (and she’s just not the clubby sort) so only Hani and I went clubbing at Nuovo. I put on my game face and turned up the social dial since a lot of people that Hani knew from her previous trips to KL were there too. Lemme tell you, being social is tiring. Plus I felt out of my element ‘cos they were Hani’s friends; they were nice people, don’t get me wrong, but I felt a little odd. Clubbing itself was pretty fun though; people were really dancing and having a good time and the DJ played good hip-hop music. Heh.

Sunday was supposed to be shopping day but, given that it was CNY, most shops were closed. Kinda sad, but I suppose that saved me a lot of money. Instead, it seemed like I spent a crapload of money on food. Gah. And I didn’t even get the famous amos cookies and dunkin’ donuts I wanted! We walked around a little, then went back to the hotel to rest while Hani met with her friends. Then some dinner (which Suhail, one of Hani’s friends, was nice enough to buy for us). I swear, we ate waaaay too much chicken that weekend. Craziness. Hani went clubbing again that night and while I was mighty tempted to go, I just couldn’t muster up the energy.

We left eary Monday morn…. spent too much time on the bus home (although this time the ticket was only RM$33 and it was much more comfortable ride). Thank goodness for JD!pod, else I would’ve wanted to die on the long journey to-and-fro.

So, yeah, the trip was okay. it felt like chilling with the girls as usual, except that we were in a different city. LOL. Ate a lot, talked about stupid things a lot, talked about Backstreet/Nick…. okay, fine, that was just me. Heh.

Damnit. This time, last week, I was smushed up against a metal barrier, barely 3 feet away from my baby the Boys onstage and having the time of my life. Good times, damn good times. Come back, Boys, come back soon!

I wasn’t kidding when I said that those 3 days would be a hiatus from real-life. It definitely felt like it. I breathed, ate, slept Backstreet-stuff. It was fangirl-mode all the way. 10 years of being a fangirl, 10 years of waiting, and we only had 3 days. 3 days of craziness, basically.

Was it worth it? Yes. I just hope I don’t have to wait another 10 years to see them again.

Disclaimer: If you think I’m a sane, rational person (which I promise you I am under normal, everyday circumstances), then reading this might scare you. Heh. I AM A FANGIRL. I have loved the Boys since their first album, since they came here on promo back in Oct 1996. I have waited an effing long time for this, and as someone (Cal?) said, I was scarily determined to make the best out of the opportunity.

That said, I give props to the posse, who humoured my insanity (OTL forever!), were there with me most of the time and were the photographers. Hehehe. I love y’all.

(This is gonna be seriously long. Seriously. I’m a Virgo; I love detail. Plus, there’s some backstory to give.)

P/S: Photos and videos will be up soon!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NICK! *grin*
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AAAAAAHHHHHH! *flails*

Today’s the day, my friends. After 10 freakin’ years, the Boys are back. About daaaamn time, I say. Operation!OTL begins this afternoon. Eeeep! These next few days are gonna be a little chaotic. I like to call it my little hiatus from real-life. LOL.

A lot of craziness is expected and hopefully in a few days time, I’ll be here writing about all of it, complete with photos. *crosses fingers* We kinda have a game plan and all. Ahahahaha. Sad but true.

Concert day is tomorrow, as well as soundcheck. And I know for sure that I’ll meet them for soundcheck, so that’s pretty awesome. Wheeee! And the concert! Boys! Live! Eeeeee!

Okay, let the insanity begin!

OMFG I WON A SOUNDCHECK PASS!11!!!!!!

On the way to school this morning (yes, when I was an hour early), I saw a blurb on the Boys and details for a contest to win tickets and passes. So of course I took down the details, and then messaged Cal (aka the girl who sold her soul) and asked her to take part in it too. And she told me that she couldn’t find the contest details at the site.

So, while killing time, I checked out the site. Refreshed a lot. “‘ I was about to give up when the contest form came up, and of course, I answered the question, filled in my details and sent it off. Then I went for class.

Then just ater 5pm today, after my last class, I got a call. I honestly thought it was someone from the Dean’s office, cos I had gotten a call earlier about some admin stuff. So imagine my surprise when:

Person: “Hello, I’m from SONY BMG…”
Me: *freaks out*
Person: “… And I’m calling about the Backstreet Boys soundcheck party.”

I ran out into the hallway, in shock basically and listened to the lady tell me the details. After that, I did a Dance of Joy. (No really, I did), while squeeing “I won soundcheck passes!”. Yes, I was that excited. Aishah had to tell me to calm down. Hahahahaha.

Dude. DUDE. I never win anything. This is the first time I’ve won anything, let alone something I really really wanted. I am so beyond psyched, you have NO IDEA.

OMG I AM GOING TO SOUNDCHECK!!!

Alas, I only won one pass, not a pair so I can’t bring someone with me. And the concert ticket is only the $125 one; it would’ve rocked if it had been better seats than I have. Heh. Asking too much. I’m probably giving this ticket to my mom, since it’ll definitely be better than the ones she bought.

So, it seems like the Fates have finally aligned and I am one with the universe. Operation!OTL indeed. Maybe this is the start of more good things to come. Heheheh.

I had a brain fart. I thought my class is at 9am, when it’s actually at 10am. D’oh. *facepalm* I called Aishah, and was all like “The classroom is empty!” and she sounded a little baffled. LOL. Geez, what’s wrong with me? In my defense, my morning classes usually start at 9am, so it totally slipped my mind that this one is at 10am.

So I’m here in school, an hour early… made my way to the computer lab and I’ve been catching up on email and LJ and all that fandom stuff. And I’m feeling surprisingly coherent for someone who had 3 hours of sleep. Then again, we’ll see how I feel when noon comes around. I feel tempted to get McD’s breakfast but I’m too lazy to walk there. Hahaha.

3 days! 3 days! *bounce*

Yay, I’m going to see my boyfriend and his friends Backstreet!

4 days to the concert!!!!

Happyhappyhappy. That’s me with my crazy-ass expensive VIP ticket. 3rd row, baby! *twirls like Nick*

Sure, I didn’t win an pass to the soundcheck party. *shrug* I was upset about it for a little while, but then I never have luck at winning anything. I’ll find another way to meet Nick them. And my posse’s got my back! Hehehehehe. Operation!OTL is in effect. (Y’all need to send good luck/karma/vibes/whatever my way… cos damn, I’ll need it!)

Meanwhile, I have a long day at school tomorrow. Or rather, today. Nowhere near done with my readings, so I’ll have to wing it. And I’ll be working on like 3 hours of sleep. Oh, joy. [/sarcasm]

But then, it’s the weekend! And then it’s the concert! And then fangirl!Liza goes crazy! Wooooo! And then KL after that!

I miss YKW.

I dunno where the heck that came from, but… *headdesk*

EDIT: Y’know, I’m just being stupid about this. Stopstopstop. I’m not letting myself go there again.

Remember a few months back when I talked about my first 2 modelling jobs? Well, I finally got my cheque for one of the jobs (though it wasn’t as much as I had hoped, oh well) and got some of the photos. Alas, I got only 12 of them, when the shoot was the whole freakin’ day long and I know we took a bazillion photos. Some of the my favourite ones I didn’t get, which makes me a little sad, but here are some of the ones I have and really really like.

So, here’s model!bride!me (Heh):

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The semester, my last (thank goodness), has officially begun.

I only have classes on Tuesdays and Fridays (and dance on Wednesdays), so I had the luxury of sleeping in. Which was nice, cos it was (still) raining when I got up. The weather has been kinda gloomy for the past few days; yesterday it rained pretty much alllll day and it was much the same today.

I’ve been freaking out about my independent study stuff. I have 2 to do and the details are killing me. I’m seeing two profs on Wednesday and hopefully they won’t shoot down my ideas and I’ll get to do them. Hell, I have to do them if I wanna graduate. I kept putting this off, partly ‘cos I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do so this all has to work out else I’m DEAD. Le sigh. So tonight and tomorrow, I’ll be fleshing out my ideas and hopefully I’ll have viable proposals to show them. *crosses fingers* Major time crunch, but then it’s my fault.

I was out with Cal and Hani on Friday, and we ended up at this cafe/restaurant place near Bugis which is quite lovely. Nice ambience and the food was pretty good. The mango smoothie was not my thing though. I like that place, actually, so maybe we’ll go there again. (It’s a nice date place too; not too casual but still relaxed, and a good place to just sit and talk.)

Hani commented that as we’re getting older, we seem to dress younger. Hahah. I don’t think that’s totally true, but yeah we still pretty much dress on the casual side. And then I went into denial about my age; I swear, I honestly thought that I’d be turning 22 this year… and it took me a few seconds to realize that, nope I already am 22. *facepalm* Hahaha. Damn, I’ll be 23 come August. I don’t feel 23 yo.

So it seems that we (Cal and I) have succumbed to Hani’s urging that we go to KL. Heh. Haven’t mentioned it to the parentals yet, but it shouldn’t be an issue. Or so I hope. I’ll just be there for the shopping yo. I need to leave my debit card behind cos I do not want to unload all my money there. Hahahaha. My bank account took a big hit after buying the Backstreet ticket.

2 WEEKS TO BACKSTREEEEEEEET!!!11!!!!111

The excitement is building. I caaaaan’t wait. *bounce*

I met up with some of the peeps from the sg_bsb lj comm on Saturday. It was quite fun; I’m woefully unknowledgeable when it comes to footage and stuff (admittedly, I know more about Pup footage since Cal has tons of tapes and all.) so I was enlightened. I haven’t kept up with all that’s happened on their US & European tours; the soundchecks and the concert footage and stuff. In a way, it’s nice to not know so that whatever happens will be a surprise. On the other hand, I don’t wanna be caught totally unaware. Heh. At any rate, there’s a ton of footage, old and new, that I haven’t seen.

We talked a little bit about our concert plans and stuff. None of the posse are really hardcore Backstreet fans so it’s cool that there’s a group of peeps that I know are crazy(-er) about them. Heh.

Oh, and while Nick is my OTL… I think I need to bump up Brian as my favourite member. There are too many people (half, at least) in the comm who are Nick fans, and it’s gonna be a little crazy if/when we meet them and everyone swarms him. And I’m not even taking into account other fans, most of whom I suspect are Nick fans too. So yes, Brian should be promoted from second fave to fave. Heh. Plus, it is so not hard to be a Brian fan: I love his voice, he has a wicked sense of humor, he’s cute as hell, and he’s a daddy with the cutest baby boy ever (yes, somehow that makes him hotter. Heh). But mostly it’s his voice.

Anyway. I don’t wanna hope or expect too much. I’m actually really nervous about the possibility of meeting Nick; I don’t know how he’ll be like and I don’t want to expect him to be a certain way lest I’m disappointed. Weirdly enough, I’m not as nervous at the thought of meeting the rest; cos somehow I have the impression that if/when I meet them, they’ll be really nice. With Nick, I really don’t know.Not that I think he’ll be not-so-nice or anything but I just think it’ll mean more to me and hence the nerves. And, God knows that I’m rubbish around boys I like and who I think are attractive. Hehehe.

One last thing: for all the love of all things sparkly, please stop asking me what I’m gonna do after I graduate. I DON’T FREAKING KNOW YET, OKAY? Geeeeeeez.

(I’ve started to seriously consider being a flight stewardess. Cos I don’t really want a normal 9-5 job, and even if I did, I don’t know what kind of 9-5 job I’d want. Working for an airline, I’d get to travel (in a way) and the pay’s pretty decent. So what if I’m technically overqualified? Heh.)

The hype about Paris: true. I didn�t feel it the last time, but I did this time. I got to see the city for what it is when it�s not overrun by soccer fans. Heh. And yes, it�s very beautiful. Definitely romantic. It has its own vibe as each city does: London�s like a bubbling melting pot, Rome�s history is so rich that you can feel it in your bones and New York is just� alive. I can�t find the words to describe Paris yet� but maybe it�ll come to me.

It�s like a sepia-toned photograph come to life. A very quiet sort of charm. Timeless. I think that�s it: Paris is timeless. (At least until I can think of a better description. Heh.)

Our hotel was in a great location. Situated in between Madeleine and Op�ra Garnier and about a street away from Printemps & Galeries Lafayette. (Side note on those departmental stores: Damn, they sell mostly designer stuff and it boggles my mind that people actually do buy those stuff. Crazy expensive!) We did a lot of walking, as we usually do on holiday. The weather wasn’t too bad; it was actually quite mild for the first few days… but after Xmas, it got cold yo. Not too much fun. (I think you can tell from the photos which was the milder days and which were effin cold. Heh.) On the upside, it did snow and it was very pretty.

I don�t really wanna do a chronological view of the trip; I don�t think I can exactly remember exactly when I did what. So, I�m just gonna touch on the sights we did see, and tell some amusing things that happened. Heh.

So, here goes.

[Warning: A LOT of photos. I had trouble choosing my favourites. Heh.]

Paris � the City of Light (in photos)

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