Monday, 30 November 2015

30.11.15

Hii guys !

How's youssss? Its been a while since I've updated this blog about my life and how Ive been doing and all that. Apologies! I have a reallllly good excuse though, I've been so busy with Bangsawan.

Bangsawan is an annual malay drama competition amongst houses in KY. Its one of the main events for KY every year, and typically, all houses literally slave for weeks to put on a good show. Theres so much that goes into it, props, painting backdrops, sewing costumes ; its this huge team effort, do-it-for-the-house kind of thing (I mean, I haven't gone back in 3 whole weeks for this).

This year, I was co-directing and my house -Sapphire- staged the tale of Puteri Saadong, a Kelantanese legend. I personally really like the story, its one of those antara daulat dan cinta kind of things, and it was really tough to pull off. For one, we had a lot of scenes in Thailand, and no one knew anything about Siamese palace protocols or what to dress our Siamese actors in. We learned that even the highest ranked officers used to bow down and not even look at the Siamese king back then. We didn't win this year, but Im still proud of the play we put on. And also, we had so much fun preparing it, the Sapphire junior batch are super supportive and hard working and funny, so they all came down to contribute, and we had so many laughs. Seriously, sometimes Id have a bad day, and I'd dread having to come down but the cast made me laugh every day, without fail.

I posted a few sneak peeks and Bangsawan parody posts. You can search #SapphiretakesBangsawan on instagram for more parady post or #Bangsawan2015 for all the pictures from all the houses!

Anyway, now that Im done with that, I am soooo ready to go home. I've even started packing! In reality, I have a whole week of classes left but its prooving to be really hard to get through, Im in holiday mode already haha. There's a lot of other events in KY, we have Christmas dinner tonight, End of Sem retro themed dinner on Wednesday and Sapphire Appreciation Party on Thursday, but still, I wanna go homeeeeee. I'll be away most of December on this caravan trip with my family overseas, don't want to give too much away, but its so exciting and I cant wait! Its also my last holiday with family before I go to uni so I want to make the best of it.

So I'll be on school this next one week, itching to get out of here and refreshing my UCAS track page. Just waiting for decisions from 3 unis, one of them being my first choice uni so lots and lots of prayers. Until next time :*

Love,
Mirr



Thursday, 26 November 2015

19

Maybe one day you'll wake up feeling 19.

You'll wake up feeling not quite kid, not quite adult. Everyone treats you as somewhere in between. You'll wake up feeling like two opposites in one body. 

19 is the year of transition, the epitome of paradox. That weird stage before you get to be your own person. 

Maybe one day you'll wake up feeling inevitably lost.

But maybe being found is overrated. Maybe being unsure is alright. Maybe confidence is good but uncertainty is just as fine. Can't I be a conservative liberal? I feel like a submissive feminist. Maybe its possible that Im a strong willed girly girl. 

Maybe growing up doesn't mean deciding to be one or the other, maybe its deciding to be you. Whatever concoction that may be. 

I've lived a life of in betweens, maybe growing up means that I stop associating that with being lost. Maybe its being at peace with all the paradoxical facets of your being. Maybe everyone who doesn't get that doesn't matter. Maybe thats the opposite of loneliness.

We're okay. We're lost and we're doing good.



Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Honest reviews : Duckscarves

Famous for their trademark zigzag edges and metal dUck logo charm, duckscarves are all the rage nowadays. I have friends who go to great lengths to get limited edition pieces; line up for absolute hours, skip classes, the works lah! Its so impressive, props to dUck and FV for your amazing marketing. Personally, I love the colours the brand offers, they're literally so yummy and are all named after food too! But these shawls come with their own unique set of challenges, that I don't think people (who don't already have duckscarves) know about. I personally feel like these scarves aren't the cheapest, ( RM 120 for a basic premium scarf which are the plain colour ones, and RM 170 for limited edition) and I know some people actually save up for them. I think its only fair that you know exactly what you are buying.

Although I'm not as die hard as a fan as some, I do have my very own duck collection of 5 scarves : two from the bamboo cotton range, one from the peach skin range, one satin silk and a limited edition piece.  I'll be reviewing the scarves range by range.

The Bamboo Cotton Range











From this range, I have the colours Scones ( top row) and Mushroom Soup (bottom row)
First thing to note is that, the actual colours of the scarves aren't exactly as shown in the website. As you can see in both pictures, the website tends to be a little lighter than the actual scarves, still pretty close and theres not thatttt much difference but still. For scones specifically, its really hard to capture the actual colour. It is this lovely pink with an undertone of orange ( honestly one of the prettiest shawls I own), but the closest picture I could get to the actual colour of the scarf is the top right one, (the crumpled one, yes, haha). For the most part, the colours are still so pretty but you should keep them in mind when purchasing online. Also, colour inconsistencies are most apparent in this range.

I have such a love hate relationship with the material of this range. Its soft and is unlike any other cotton scarf, the material is really unique and so nice to touch honestly! But, as you can see in my pictures, they wrinkle SO EASILY. Im talking, taking off the hijab to go pray, and having to put it on the exact same say because the wrinkles are so bad, and Im not even the type to care much. If you want to experiment how to wear a scarf, just do it wrinkled, then iron after you are VERY SURE with how you want it to be. Its also a heavy material, and in addition to the width and length of duckscarves, which are wider and longer than most shawls, its hard to do some looks i.e. the sleeker ones. So take note of your hijab styling as well, cause this material may not work for you. The heavy material also means, no doing anything strenuous in this shawl, its hard to keep on, and also isn't like cooling or anything like that. Not like its hot, its just not cooling. I find that even when going to open houses or doa selamats, really chill functions you know, my pins tend to come off and I have to redo it a lot because of how thick the material is. Overall, if you have a lot of patience, and enjoy a soft, amazing feel to the fingers (thought your head doesn't really feel it lol), this material would work for you.

The Peachskin Range



I have one scarf, in the colour Pecan Pie. On the left is how its shown on the website, and on the right is an unfiltered picture (same goes to the ones above, no filter so you can see the colours!) Its less yellow than in the website irl.

This material is also very unique. It does feel like a peach, sort of fuzzy! (but no visible fuzz don't worry). Its also very elastic, like you can slightly stretch it no kidding. At first I didn't like this, but I found you can actually stretch it to pin it in certain places so it helps with styling, kinda. Its very light as well, and much more cooling in comparison to the bamboo cotton. But it does kind of feel like rubber a bit, only slightly, but enough for me to be like, 'eh apa ni' when I first got it. It doesn't crumple as easily as the bamboo cotton, but if you are particular about wrinkles, you'd still have to iron it back out after experimenting. Still wouldn't work out in this scarf of anything like that, but it is the lightest material of all the dUcks I own. so thats nice. Sleeker styles would work with this one. I started out hating this scarf but now, I quite like it.

The Satin Silk Range



In this range I have the shade chocolate fondue. It looks pretty accurate from the website even. But anyway, I LOVE this satin material. Its not too shiny, like most cheaper satin scarves, so it looks classy. The sheen is just nice, shiny enough to look luxe, but not like, tacky satin shine. Lovely! The satin comes with usual satin problems, its slippery and you'll need a anak tudung and pins and everything, but this is actually my favourite satin tudung. This much be the least crumply material. I think I once didn't even iron it! Its wide and long like all duckscarves, but its light so you can style it pretty easily. No complaints about this range, if you have a fancy event, I say get one from this range.

The KL scarf



Ah, the KL scarf, I know so many people went crazy to get their hands on one of these. Mine was a gift, so I didn't have to go through all the trouble hehe. but it isss beautiful. The KL skyline, printed on a scarf. It works. So note that the print on the white ones is in blue, not black. Like really dark blue, you could still so monochrome with it. As you can see, it crumples too, so need to iron lah! But my main concern with this scarf is, how do you display the print ?!?! Still haven't found a nice way of doing it, but really, even if you only see a bit of stacked up print, people know what you're wearing. Like OMG, the KL scarf. But really, if you can't display the print it doesn't look nice. Ive found one way, but it involves you having a longgggg tudung at the back especially. So yeah. Love having this piece more than I love wearing it. Maybe I should frame it ?


In general, if you hate ironing, do not get a duck scarf. You definitely have to, every single time you want to wear it. If you are travelling, you might want to reconsider packing your ducks, cause of the whole ironing issue. The charms tend to fall off too, Ive had to sew back on one of my charms, but apparently you can email them and they'll send you some charms for free. All shawls are long and wide, so that's something you might want to consider. 

Duckscarf just restocked on Fashion Valet last night so go check them out if you want. I hope this review helped! 

Love,
Mirr









Thursday, 5 November 2015

Im applying for uni !

I am sat here, in the Resource Center in KY, the most nervous I have ever been in my life. 

I just did all my corrections on UCAS, and Im just waiting for final comments about my personal statement before I submit in my application form. Yes, my actualy legit real application to university in the UK. This form will literally determine my next 4 years, and my degree and in my opinion, a lot of the rest of my life. This online page, this is it.

This page looks so, standardised. It almost disturbs me that this is alllll that my dream univerity admission officers will know about me. I mean COME ONE, Let me take you to coffee come get to know me better, IM MORE THAN THIS. But alas, this is it, this is all I get to show and I have flexed all I can flex.

UCAS allows you to apply to 5 unis in England, and 4/5 of my choices are all London schools, haha. Yeahp, putting allll my cards in. Im so grateful for KY's University Relations office. They have earlier deadlines and I was complaining a lot about it, but in hindsight, they guided me and my friends a lot. Don't think other colleges have an office dedicated to University applications or have people as dedicated as our Pn Kas. Still though, I am extremely anxious, and Im just praying praying and prayinggg that I get into my first choice uni.

Ok I sort of wrote this to just de-gelabah. If any of you are applying to UCAS as well, good luck! 

Love,
Mirr