I spent the night of Christmas eve with my mum in the cinema, watching Sherlock Holmes (well, ogling at Robert Downey Jr. mostly). Kudos to Guy Ritchie for directing a brilliant movie! Now I'm back home, knee deep in clothes all over the place because I'm meant to be packing for my trip to Singapore which starts tomorrow.

I hate that I'm having mixed feelings about the whole trip. In one hand I'm really excited since it'll be my first visit to Singapore and I'll finally be able to spend time with the other side of the family that I haven't seen in so long and I know that there's so much to look forward to while I'm there. On the other hand, I'll be leaving so many things here undone, I'll have to miss my brother's wedding rehearsal (which I know he's not too happy about) and I'll have to miss Haqeem's birthday. Plus, Eu-Wynn asked me twice to come hang out and I wasn't able to both times. I miss my hometown friends so much. I've been on holiday but it's been so packed with things that I need to do that I haven't had any spare time to spend on them. Guys, I'm an awful friend and I apologise! I hope that I'll be able to make up for it by spending New Year's Eve with all of you.

Gaah. I hate being all gloomy. And Aqeem, if you're reading this, I'm sorry! :(

Merry Christmas, everyone.

All together now: Awww!

I was on my way to my cousin's wedding just yesterday, nodding in and out of sleep in the backseat when the radio suddenly belted out "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls and the next moment I'm sitting there singing loudly and making lots of sudden movements much to the annoyance of my not-so-little brother. Hey, don't judge me.

We all have those moments, don't we? We think we're all cool now because we listen to stuff like Coldplay, Muse, Maroon 5 or the Arctic Monkeys (the Jo Bros don't count, sorry). And if you happen to listen to stuff from The Beatles, Radiohead or Nirvana (like any self-respecting person would) then you have this makebelief that it puts you higher up the hierarchy of coolness. Then comes along "Pop" by N'Sync or Britney's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" (or something along those lines) on the radio or from a beat-up old jukebox at a dingy R&R and you find that you just can't help but sing along.

Okay, maybe you do have those moments and maybe you don't. Maybe you've always listened to cool stuff all your life. Lucky you. But for the rest of us out there, what would your list of top 10 embarassing songs you'll never grow out of look like? Here's mine:

Top 10 Embarassing Songs I'll Never Grow Out Of

10. Who Let the Dogs Out? - Baha Men
This is one super catchy song that my dad loathes with every fiber of his being and I don't blame him for it too but once I hear this, there's no stopping me from singing along (even if half the song sounds just like gibberish to me).

9. Livin' La Vida Loca - Ricky Martin
Aah, Mr. Hot Buns (oh, admit it already). I used to scream along to this in the car. I'd get the lyrics all screwed up in the process but it didn't matter because it was loads of fun and embarassingly enough, it still is!

8. Mambo No. 5 - Lou Bega
I bet a lot of people have memorised the lyrics to this. Uber catchy and lots of fun to dance to, I tell you. Pity it's just another one of those one hit wonders.

7. Bring It All Back - S Club 7
The S Club are no more and no one seems to really know what happened to the group. I hated them eversince they started their very own TV show, but this little number will always be an embarassing favourite of mine.

6. Bang Bang Boom - The Moffatts
"Doo doo doo dooo, When she walks into the room, Doo doo doo dooo, My heart goes bang bang boom!" Such fun lyrics, no?

5. Everything You Do - M2M
I think any normal person, at least at a certain point in their lives, would have loved this duo. I was actually torn between picking "The Day You Went Away" and this little number but then figured that the former can be a tad depressing.

4. Pop - N'Sync
Dirrrty Pop! I could never get enough of this back then and I can never get enough of it now. It's an embarassing confession but I've probably heard this one a million times yet it never gets stale. Hah. And I know the lyrics to this song like the back of my hand.

3. Wannabe - Spice Girls
Back when I was in kindergarten up till primary 3, I was an avid fan of the Spice Girls and Sporty Spice was like a deity that I almost worshipped. But I wasn't thrilled when they tried making a comeback after disbanding simply because they're obviously not girls anymore, just like how the members of Boyzone aren't exactly boys either. I loved (and still love) plenty of their old songs but this one will always be a favourite.

2. Everybody (Backstreet's Back) - Backstreet Boys
I think I fell in love with the music video first before the song itself. I'm no Nick Carter fan though. I'm on team Kevin! Most of the other songs by the band are pretty corny, in my opinion at least but I know Lisa would beg to differ. But this one just stuck up till this day.

1. Mmm Bop - Hanson
Very often voted as the most annoying song in the history of music (err, Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" anyone?). I say it's brilliant. The Hanson brothers made serious bucks from a song with a chorus made of nonsensical gibberish. Brilliant!

So there is it. Harga saham pun dah jatuh. Note to Syafiq: Make a list, kiddo. I wanna see it! Till next time, folks.

Sometimes it feels good to stray from your comfort zone. Image credit: Violet Kashi

This post has been pretty long overdue. The holidays have been going on for over a week now and I've done a lot of things I didn't get the chance to do while I was locked up in college. I've gone shopping, visited the zoo, spent time with my classmates outside of college, completed a few hours of personal CAS and most importantly I've spent time with my mother. My hometown friends will be coming back from their Genting trip this weekend (a trip I was meant to go for but couldn't *sob*) and hopefully I'll get to finally do some serious catching up with them. My brother on the other hand will be coming back today from Ireland to spend his Christmas holidays with the family. In a few more days, my other brother will be coming back from the States with his wife to prepare for the official wedding ceremony on the 2nd of January, something that I'll be busy with no doubt as I'm one of the bridesmaids. I'll also be going off to Singapore from the 25th till the 30th of this month with the other side of the family, meaning I won't be around to wish Haqeem a happy birthday on the day he turns 18 (despite you saying otherwise I'm still gonna call you, Aqeem). And let's not get started about the amount of things I need to get done for the Solte' A Alma event next year.

Now tell me, when am I going to find the time to study, finish up my assignments, think of an EE research question, start looking for content for Business IA and read all three literature texts for Malay A1 next semester (which starts on the 6th of January, btw)?

Friends, I apologise for how boring this post is.

Oh, my mother has Facebook now. Yep. She who can't even drag and drop items from one window to another or copy and paste texts has now created her very own profile on Facebook. But surprisingly she's been able to navigate around Facebook quite happily with no complications whatsoever. I wouldn't know what to do if she sends me a friend request, to be honest. Reject? She might get suspicious. Approve? HELL TO THE NO. I hope that I'll never have to decide. But if (God forbid!) she does send me a friend request, what am I to do?