Aaaaaaand 2013 has left the building

"It's Christmas time in the city" -- ** I actually posted this late because I was away at Japan. So please don't mind the words "next year" because I couldn't post it before 2013 ended **

It's already CHRISTMAS 2014! TIME FLIES! I remember I was at Penang for Christmas last year, dancing with my cousins when the clock struck 12am hahahahahaha.

This year, I celebrated my Christmas on the plane to Hokkaido, Japan. Kinda boring because besides the plane captain wishing us Merry Christmas, nothing actually happened.

So I'll be looking back at my 2013 with a questionnaire review! (stole it off someone on the internet)


1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before? 
A real road trip with my mates, attended the biggest music festival in Australia, attended almost all the Uni parties, bushwalked, saw snow for the first time (and experienced a pretty bad snow shower), rode a snowmobile up the mountains and played on a snow toboggan.

2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions, and will you make more for next year (2014)? 
I actually forgotten my New Year's Resolutions, but they're mainly about my well-being and studies. I kept it, yes, but I did not stay too strict to it. And yes I will make more for next year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? 
Not that I can think of.

4. Did anyone close to you die? 
Not that I can think of.

5. What places did you visit? 
I visited more places around New South Wales this year. And recently visited Hokkaido, Japan (:

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013? 
More self-discipline, patience, and more and more focus.

7. What dates from 2013 will remain etched in your memory, and why? 
April was hell of a month - had my friend's 21st and it was amazing, I won red carpet passes to see GI JOE 2 premiere and see the actors in person, and then Lawson came down to Aus, which was for a week for a gig and I made many friends in the process.

Besides that, November and December was an amazing month as well - after my finals I got to spend quality time with my friends and went for a road trip with them. On 16th December, my friend became more than just a friend to me.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? 
I got to see my second most favourite actor in the world, Lee Byung Hun. And I managed to meet Lawson in person!

Academic wise, I didn't manage to attain the goal I've set for myself - which made me really disappointed, but at least my WAM was not affected that badly.

9. What was your biggest failure? 
Not achieving what I wanted for my grades.

10: Did you suffer illness or injury? 
Just some really weird itches appearing on my skin which made me see the doctor.

11. What was the best thing you bought? 
My Herschel backpack from eBay!

12. Who's behavior merited celebration?
Mine? Hahahaha.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Mine sometimes...

14. Where did most of your money go?
Fooooooooooooooooooooooood. And groceries.

15. What did you get really excited about?
Hanging out with my friends and pretty much shopping for stuff I need.

16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
First-half of 2013:
Lawson - Standing in the Dark (and pretty much their whole Chapman Square album)
The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
Bliss N Eso - House of Dreams

Second-half of 2013:
Calvin Harris - Under Control
Disclosure - Latch
Lana Del Rey - Young and Beautiful
John Newman - Love Me Again
Jason Mraz - Make it Mine
Martin Garrix - Animals


17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a. happier or sadder? - HAPPIER! :))) Obvious reasons, hey?
b. thinner or fatter? - I put on a little more weight and I'm actually happy about it!
c. richer or poorer? - Almost the same?

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Reading!

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Spending time on the TV.......

20. How did you spend Christmas?
On the plane to Hokkaido, yeah it's really not the best way to spend Christmas.

21. Did you fall in love in 2013?
Yes I did, in the end of 2013!

22. What was your favorite TV program?
THE BIG BANG THEORY! It's my TV show of the year.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate at this time last year?
Whoa, whoa. No. I don't actually hate anyone, dislike maybe yes, but not hate!

24. What was the best book you read?
I love reading personal accounts of experiences. For this year I could say it's Trafficked by Sophie Hayes.

25. What music did you get excited about?
This year I really got hooked on Indie Pop. Indie is my new jam.

26. What did you want and get?
My Herschel backpack, after really long considerations and heavy contemplation, I found that I really needed a good and sturdy backpack and I got my Herschel! :D

27. What did you want and not get?
.. An XBOX.. 

28. What was your favorite film of this year? 
Iron Man 3!!!!!  But seriously, a film I really enjoyed was The Butterfly Effect, even though it was old but it was airing on Aussie's local channels.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 
I was 20, and I celebrated it twice - once was an early one with family because I wasn't around during my birthday and it was a surprise because my relatives came over and I haven't seen them in ages at that time, and another time was at Sydney with my gang :)

30. What one thing would have made your year more satisfying?
I should've met him earlier. :P 

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
It's heaps better than last year, I can say. I'm really much more inspired by indie fashion in 2013. 

32. What kept you sane?
My friends and family, really. And good food ;) 

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
ANDY BROWN FROM LAWSON! :) That lad has to come to Australia more often. 

34. What political issue stirred you the most? 
MALAYSIA's Election Black day on May 5th 2013.

35. Whom did you miss?
I miss my friends in Sydney and him! :(

36. Who was the best new person you met?
I just met him this year, and he's the best!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.
Time management is really, really important to get the best out of Uni life. Value everything you have, and be grateful. And also Carpe Diem, guys.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. 
I'm kinda rushing right now (side eyes sis :P), so I can't think of any...


Anyway, it's 2014! It's an empty book for us to create new memories in, so use it well and create more amazing moments - no matter how sad or happy they may be.

Here's to the new year!

The L/\WSON story (part 2)

This post has been delayed way, way waaaaaaaaaay too long.. Uni pretty much killed my time to blog! 

As a summary, I pretty much went to see them again when they performed for Channel 7's Sunrise and Morning Show! 

They were rushing to leave the venue after they got out so I only had a quick selfie with my fav, Andy Brown. 

Anyways, skipping all the sad, sad stories - I'm just going to post some pictures of that epic night. (: (:

Most of the awesome pictures are credit to my friend, Nina ♥

Andy Brown, my fav member (: (:

 Joel Peat !! :)

 Ryan Fletcher!  :D

Adam Pitts! :D

The lads were amazing. 

 And the amazing Sinead Burgess, who opened the gig. 

Still manage to smile even though I've lost my voice! :p

Aaaaaaaaaand I managed to get Andy's guitar pick! ;) ;) He dropped it on the floor when he performed, and I was eyeing it till the end of the show and asked the staff to pick it for me (muahahahahaha). 

I reaaally hope they'll come back Australia soon! (:

The L/\WSON story (part 1)

Hey guys!


The month of April was the best month ever. I could relive it all over again and I'll never get sick of it!

Why?

You're gonna find out! ;)


I know L/\WSON (who's Lawson again? click on this link and scroll to #5!) came to Sydney two months ago and yeaaaaah I'm heaaaps slow to update this! After that 'Lawesome' week, my assignments were piling up like crazy - it was close to insane! And not to mention my finals after that assignment week! So glad I got to come around to finish this post!

Just a warning, this might be a spazzy, laskdjaslkdjaldkj and a-little-wordy post. Just letting you know! x

Anyway!

I will now give you each and every detail about my Lawson experience. Gonna get down and dirty.... bahahaha, I kid.

Sooooo when L/\WSON announced the Asia tour dates, I was close to screaming my head off. Was really excited when they announced about Malaysia- Kuala Lumpur and Australia- Sydney tour dates, these two countries because Malaysia's my hood and I'm currently at Australia! I remember tuning in to NovaFM (Australia's radio station) online while I was at home in Malaysia, listening to Smallzy's nasally blabber while jumping each time he mentions the name Lawson.

Happiest tweets summed up in two pictures. 

So my story pretty much started when Lawson were in Malaysia on the 2nd week of April. I wasn't at Malaysia, but my sister is.

There was this Live Stream by GUA Malaysia - that was held a day before their showcase - that allowed the boys to interact with the fans via live stream while the fans (and I) go full on rage on our keyboards and spamming away at the chat box to hope Lawson gets a millisecond look of what we ask and they'll answer.

It went on for about 30 minutes. 30 freaking minutes omg it's like, 30 minutes of a giddy euphoria and madness for me.

The good thing was: the lads answered at least 3 of my questions! All generic stuff like "What have you been doing in Malaysia?" "Do you like our weather?" and stuff like that.
The bad thing was: I got banned from chat a couple of times because of spamming (nothing unusual in a fan girl hey!)

And the BEST thing was they did this 'shout out' to the fans part and they'll say your name if they see it on chat.

.. Well they did see mine. Joel spotted it and he said it first, then Ryan...

and the best thing of all....

Andy sang my name. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he's my ultimate fav !!!!!!!!!!!!

(and he's the lead singer of Lawson)

You know the song Jolene by Dolly Parton? 

He sang it straight away when he saw my name.

And immediately after that, Joel went like "is there any other fans named Jolene?" because Andy's giving too much fan service to me at this part!

I'm happy that my name is unique! Sorta.

AAAAND thank the heavens that they got this live stream archived.

Click to watch 8 seconds of my happiest 8 seconds of my life. 

And I remember straight after he sang, I freaking screamed in my room! YEP, NOT ASHAMED ABOUT IT. One of the Lawson boys saw my sister's name too! I was on Skype with my sister as well while both of us were spamming the lads away on the chat, and we were just all alksdjalskdjoqwijlkjalfkjfoiqjosdalkjlzxkj seriously can't anymore.

That ended after half an hour and the boys said that they are stoked to play for the Malaysian crowd on the next day.

I remember I was at home on the night L/\WSON was playing at Kuala Lumpur and was very nervous because I was in the middle of discussing the plans of L/\WSON s airport welcome at Sydney's airport with a few Lawson fans on chat. This was my first time doing something like this!

I'm never this fan girly until I know that the airport is so easily accessible for me - because the place I'm living at is near to the airport and the buses are so convenient, so why not? It's all easy access, so I'm not letting opportunity go!

Back in Malaysia, it takes 40 minutes to drive to the airport because it's situated out from the city and public transport is so not convenient there. And also Malaysian's artist security is crazy so I don't like the idea of greeting artists from the airport.

The day after the Malaysia's gig, (if I remembered correctly) Andy, the lead singer in L/\WSON  was on the line with one of the DJs in Australia, talking about their show in Australia and such.

I was online streaming the radio station, listening to their conversation, while tweeting stuff to the lads like normal fan girls do.

And to my surprise, Andy saw it and he replied!

And just the day before they flew to Aussie! 

That made me even more excited than before!

The next day, my friends and I woke up early and caught a bus to the airport and met up with a few other friends. We waited at Terminal 2 and we saw a few other fans waiting there too. 10 minutes, 20 minutes... and apparently we waited at the wrong place. I'm not blaming any sources for this but oh god, some fans who actually found out and ran away first and left us all clueless, ugh so annoyed.

After running for like 10 minutes, frantically trying to find the lads, I finally spotted a tall guy wearing a gray beanie and I realized that it was Andy. I ran like mad!

Went towards the group of tall and good looking guys and my brain instantly recognized each and everyone of their faces. THEY ARE SO HANDSOME WTF.

I was shaking and like, fumbling with the camera and I forgot to even turn on my camera. Andy noticed that it wasn't on and he said in his Scouse accent "this isn't turn on yet". Omfg help. He had his hands behind me while waiting for me, he saw other fans waiting and he attended them first. Omg my heart was racing at that time and I was like 'Camera pls' (yeah my camera is old..)

I wanted to take pictures with other members too so I asked a random to take the picture of Andy and I for me.

But of course my old camera didn't do justice when it comes to shaky pictures.

Andy's holding my gift hehe.

L-R: Ryan, Joel and Adam! I'm devastated that the pictures came out so bad! :(

I was too hyped up so I just recorded some random videos of the boys lol

Ryan saying hello (;

And a video still of Joel and I!

Kinda followed the boys into their van, and I made Ryan do a shoutout to my sister!

They left afterwards then my friends and I went back to uni to resume classes. (I wonder how's that possible..)

----

I was so busy for the past few months and I can't even put up the whole post...  will update the next part soon I hope!

Beauty of the Down Under: Vivid Sydney

Just a short photo update about an event I went to in Sydney; Vivid Sydney - A Festival of Light, Music & Ideas

Second 'installment' for my Beauty of the Down Under Sydney photography series.

I'm in a busy prepping for finals mode at the moment so I have no time to update about Lawson! :(

I'll definitely work on it after I'm done with everything!

As for now... picture time!


Taken with my old Panasonic Lumix and had to edit it on Photoshop to make them look better.

Went to Circular Quay from Uni with me girl friend, Leila.

 Harbour Bridge

I'm in love with cityscapes at night! So beautiful omg. 

 Customs House!

Opera House!

 PRETTAAAY.

 Museum of Contemporary Arts too.

Just a short post with really beautiful scenes (I hope my camera does it justice!). I loved how the animations changed so fluidly and seamlessly, and also how the music matched it so well!

I have to come here again next year to fully appreciate this!

L/\WSON - a teaser

I had the best week ever.

Thanks to these four awesome guys, who were touring around Asia and finally reached Australia on the 15th of April.

I can't update much right now because of too many things on my 'to-do' list but then I'll leave y'all with some really pretty pictures I took from the gig last Thursday. Surprisingly it's taken by my HTC Desire HD, my 2 year old smartphone.

 "The girl I knew, always made me smile." 

Andy's solo performance

 Joel, the lead guitarist.

Adam, Andy and Joel with the Australian flag! 

And Ryan saying hi to my camera at the airport! 

- Will be updating the whole fan account soon!