LETTING IT GO

Ballet Concert 

Hello once again, Wonderers! This is Dhanya and today, I will be letting everyone in on yet another interesting fact about myself. Alright. So, when I was about four years old, I joined ballet lessons with my best (and only) friend at a center near my house. It was also (literally) a stone’s throw away. So, since then, my friend dropped out but I continued on and made tons of friends along the way. Back to the point, every alternate year a concert is organized in aid of a charity. This year, the concert was in aid of the Kasih Hospice Care Society.

Our class has only four girls now (including myself) so we joined classes with a class two years junior to us and put together a dance to the ever so famous song, Let It Go. However, we decided to give it a twist and went with the version sung in 25 different languages. Our teacher, Ms. Ng, choreographed the piece and we learnt it pretty quickly. There were also tons of preparations that had to be done and decisions to be made. Our hairstyle, costume, date of the concert are just the top of the list of decisions.

The costume designed for our performance.

On the 30^th of July, we had our rehearsal at the PJ Civic Center, which also happened to be the venue of our concert. I arrived and stood around awkwardly until I found my group of friends. Also, I recognized someone I knew from school at the rehearsals. She had taken part in one of the hip - hop pieces and did extremely well. Never had I expected her to be a dancer, let alone be fantastic at it too! 

At about 8.30, we were told to get ready and begin warming up. We all ran on stage when our performance was announced by the emcee. It was all pretty much a blur as the music began playing and all I could remember was telling myself not to go blank on stage and embarrass myself. There weren’t many complications and we were done in a matter of minutes. It was about 9pm when we left after adjusting our spacing on stage once more.

Our teacher and choreographer :)

Finally, came the day of the concert. To be honest, I didn’t feel the excitement of the concert until I arrived in the dressing room. The atmosphere was buzzing with excited chatter. I had truly missed the feeling of nerves and excitement. I had already done my hair at home with the help of my mom. We had it up in a neat bun with all our hair gelled and sprayed into place. We had bought the make up to suit the theme of our dance and brought it all there to be done. 

When we arrived, one of the younger girl’s mother was already sat down and working at the makeup. One by one, she did all of our makeup and finished it off with a sprinkle of glitter in our hair. We knew that we were the 14^th performance of the day and were waiting for the intermission to begin. My entire class (four of us including myself) had been awarded with a prize for achieving a Distinction in our Grade 6 examinations the previous year. We were all overjoyed and immediately began taking photos of ourselves together. It was also the first time that all of us had received a Distinction for the same examination. 

Two of the oldest in my class.

Nervous - the first word that came to mind right before we went on stage. I took a look at everyone else and decided we might as well have some fun with this. We gathered for a group hug and waited patiently for our turn to perform. Finally, we heard our performance being announced and I imagined my mom and grandma in the audience sitting up straight and getting the camera ready for our performance. 

We waited for the cue and ran on stage at the right moment with a toothy smile plastered on our faces and from then on, it was just us dancing on stage. I think we all had a pretty amazing time to be honest. We all even shared a giggle on stage as we heard a young boy say “WOW” from the audience as we performed a special move. In a matter of minutes, we were running off stage again and I thought to myself, “I really love the feeling of my heartbeat racing”.

We gathered for another group hug then sat down to watch the last few performances. Finally, it was over and we all ran on stage again for the closing ceremony. Our parents then came on stage and took pictures of us all together and individually. I think we were all relieved it was over yet at the same time didn’t want it to be over. We gathered up our belongings and headed home. My mom ended up dragging me out for dinner with some relatives and we saw some other family friends there too. They all looked at me oddly, wondering why I was wearing such extravagant make up for dinner (it was stage makeup after all) 

One of the pictures taken at the end of the performance.

I couldn't have asked for it to be any better. I had enjoyed myself thoroughly. Through the extra hours of practice we put in and the pain and sweat it took to perfect the piece, it was absolutely worth it in the end. I was proud of all my friends and teammates. That was definitely one of the best concerts I've taken part in till this day. Alright, that’s all I’ve got for now. Adios, Wonderers!  

MELBOURNE FREEZE

Aussie Aussie Aussie

Hello, Wonderers! It's Wei Ling here. Wow this post is SOOO overdue (HAHA) but bear with me. As we are getting more busy with school work and preparations for exams, I thought back on my most recent trip to Australia with my dad. We went to Melbourne during the mid-year holidays for my doctor's appointment there. We went there for four days and spent our time there doing typical tourist-y things.
We stayed in a budget hotel called Tune Hotel which is actually based in Malaysia. It was extremely clean and convenient as it was very close to the Queen Victoria Market and the tram stop. When we arrived at our hotel, it was still too early for us to check in so we went to grab some breakfast. We ate at a cafe opposite the hotel which was run by two Korean ladies. They were very friendly and the food was very good.

When we finally checked in, we were exhausted so we just rested for the rest of the day. We were lucky enough to be there for the food night at the market. This event is held every winter and we made it in time to go to the first event of the year! There were loads of people dancing to the live music, queuing up for food and huddling at the heaters for warmth. There was a very happy and cheerful vibe there and it was definitely a great experience.

On the second day, we went to the Melbourne Zoo which was just a few tram stops away from where we were staying. The weather that day was very cloudy and coooolllllddddd. We found out the next day that it was actually the coldest day of the year. Walking around in the 7 degree cold with exposed ankles was pure torture but seeing the cute animals made it all worth it. The zoo is very well maintained and is HUGE. After walking around for a few hours, our feet started to hurt as the place was so big. We managed to catch the seal show and it was so cuteee. The seal was very well trained but we could tell that zoo keeper took very good care of it and did not use force to train it. After walking around in the zoo for a few more hours, it got too cold so we decided to leave.

The next day was much warmer and the sun was shining bright. We took advantage of the great weather by going to the botanical garden. It was hugeeee and there were so many different types and species of flowers, plants and trees. The garden was very well maintained and was simply beautiful. As the sun was shining brightly, the lighting was very good for taking photos. I managed to get some pretty shots of the plants there.

I FOUND A LLAMA!!!!

On our last full day there, we went to the Sea Life Aquarium in the heart of the city center. There were many families there as it was the weekend and it was pretty crowded. After queuing up for about 15 minutes, we finally got our tickets and entered. There were many types of fish there but what I was most excited about were the penguins. There was a massive enclosure of about 50 penguins of two different species. They were much smaller than I expected but were very cute indeed. We stayed to watch them get fed and they were so obedient when they had to wait for their turns.

That sums up the highlights of my trip. Thanks a lot for reading and please come back soon. Adios, Wonderers!

SNACKS TO THE MAX

Daiso Snack Review

Helloo~~~ We are back with a special review today. As you can probably tell from the title, it's a Daiso snack review! If you don't know what Daiso is, it is a shop that sells everything for 5 Ringgit (or RM5.30 with GST). We both love Daiso and were very excited to try these snacks. For the division of the snacks, we each tried one snack, one candy and one drink. Dhanya tried the Corn Potage, Sakuma's Drops and the Ramu Bottle while Wei Ling tried the Furuta Cookies, chewing gum and the Melon Soda. Now that we've cleared that up, let's get started~

Corn Potage

This happened to be the first packet Wei Ling pulled out of her bag of goods and I was pretty excited to try it as she told me that it was one of her favourite things to buy from Daiso. The packaging was pretty interesting and I was keen to find if the it looked the same as shown on the packaging. I was surprised to see that they actually looked similair as it was a very odd shape as you can see from the pictures. The smell was somewhat strange yet appetizing as I inhaled deeply over the opening. I don't really know how else to describe the taste apart from plain, old corny. I actually enjoyed it though. It's the kind of food that you'd want to snack on constantly but after a few you can't really eat anymore. I would definitely eat it again during a movie marathon on television or something. I would also like to add that it came at a REALLY good price for a bag that had on 15% of air (more or less) when compared to the more expensive snacks with like 40% air in the packaging. I think I would rate this a 6 out of 10.

Sakuma's Drops

Let me start this one off by saying I love the packaging. I mean how often do you see a cute tin filled with fruit falvoured sweets. I pretty much expected it to be another one of those fruit - flavoured chewable sweets based on the packaging and I wasn't very far off when I tasted it. I tried the orange flavoured one and it was pretty nice even though I'm not a huge fan of the flavour. I found the shapes of the sweets extremely cute as they were detailed and tiny too! The colours also made it look extra appetizing and there were a lot of them in the tin; however, I wouldn't reccomend this to anyone attempting to cut down on their sugar. It's not that they are extremely sweet individually but when there are so many just lying there, you're bound to give into the temptation. I would definitely eat it over and over again and eventually, end up with diabetes but it would have been worth it. I'd give this addictive candy a 7 out of 10.

Ramu Bottle

Next up, we have an interesting drink. I got this one since the packaging was blue and I admit, that's the only reason I tried it, because it was blue. Oh well, moving on. When I opened it up, I already new there would be a lot of gas in it. I was surprised that it smelled somewhat fruity though. I took my first taste (or gulp) and immediately regretted taking such a large moutful as it was pretty hard to swallow it with the gas affecting the taste and feeling of drinking it. However, when I went home, I kept the remainder in the fridge for a few hours and it tasted a lot nicer chilled and with most of the gas gone. I definitely wouldn't mind drinking it again but I would make sure to give it some time before drinking it and chilling it first. I would give this drink an 8 out of 10.

Furuta Chocolate Cookies

When I was choosing the snacks in Daiso for this review, I thought, 'Ooh cookies. They can't be that bad, can they?'. Well, I was actually quite disappointed by how this tasted. In terms of visuals, the cookies look almost identical to the ones of the packaging. The taste was very different compared to most other chocolate chip cookies and not in a good way. It had a slight raisin or gingerbread taste that just tasted weird for a CHOCOLATE CHIP cookie. The chocolate chips were also way to small for our liking and the cookie's texture was rough and crunchy. Dhanya and I prefer soft and gooey cookies so this was not our style. The cookie had the colour and appearance of a regular butter cookie but did not taste buttery at all. I think because these cookies had been in that cardboard box for God knows how long, they were.. ermm how do I put it.. masuk angin already. They didn't taste fresh at all but like I said, it was made to last months, making the ingredients limited. I am pretty disappointed with these cookies as I was quite looking forward to eating them. I don't think I would buy or eat these again unless I am really hungry and can't find any other food in my fridge.  I would give it a 4 out of 10 as there honestly aren't any other good things I can say about them other than the cute packaging. 

Chewing Gum (The name is in Japanese HAHA)

These chewing gums come in individual packs for each flavour. There five different flavours with two packs of four pieces each. The flavours are lemon, green grape, purple grape, strawberry and orange. I bought these candies thinking that they were regular sweets as I couldn't read the packaging. We started off with the lemon flavoured ones. We took two pieces each and popped them into our mouths. After chewing for around 30 seconds, it hit me. I screamed to Dhanya in realization, "EH this is chewing gum, not candy!!!" We both simultaneously burst out in laughter as we completely had no idea that it was a chewing gum. We tried each flavour, one after another and our favourite was definitely the strawberry one. The lemon one was tart and refreshing, the green grape tasted like the grape drink, Tinge, the purple grape tasted like Fruit Plus candy, the orange one had quite a mild orange taste and the strawberry was nice and sweet. I would definitely eat this again so I would give it a 8 out of 10!

Melon Soda

This drink caught my eye in the store as Japanese melons are very famous and I wanted to see if this drink had the signature melon taste which is common among Japanese sweets. When I opened the bottle, the cap made a loud pop sound and smoke came out of the bottle after I removed the cap. This freaked me out a little as it probably meant that it would be really carbonated and gassy. The drink had a very strong melon-flavour smell to it. Note that I use the word melon-FLAVOUR instead of melon. This is because it's quite an artificial smell and taste which isn't that strong in actual melons. I was prepared for the gassiness because of the popping and smoke but I was NOT prepared for the taste. It was very sweet and melon-y but still tasted like soda. It was a very interesting combination and is very refreshing. After trying it at room temperature, I refrigerated it and honestly, I prefer it warm. The fizziness is just too much when drunk cold and I think it would be much better with a tad bit of ice. I would not buy this again but if I were offered it with some ice on a hot day, I would take that offer. I rate it a 6 put of 10 for it's unique and creative idea.

That's all we have for today. Thank you all so much for reading and come back next week! Adios, Wonderers!

HARI RAYA OUTING

Wanyalyn Sleepover

Hello again, Wonderers! It’s me, Dhanya, with a post on how I kept myself busy during the Hari Raya holidays this year. I think I’ll begin with an explanation of the heading of this post. Basically, Wanyalyn is the “ship” name of Wan Rong, Jazlyn and myself. These two happen to be some of my closest friends as well! So, we decided to have a sleepover since most of our classes had been cancelled due to the Hari Raya celebrations. So, we planned to go to Wan Rong’s house on the 16^th of July and stay the night. In preparation, Jazlyn bought some snacks the day before and none of us could contain our excitement. The day finally arrived and I packed my overnight bag and headed over there. I arrived first and we waited (patiently) for Jazlyn to finish her breakfast and join us. When Jazlyn arrived, we put her bags away and Wan Rong’s mom kindly offered to send us to The Curve as it is very close to where she stays. 

The restaurant Vivo at The Curve

We arrived at The Curve and began to scout the mall for somewhere to eat lunch. After stopping outside several different restaurants, we settled on Vivo and went in. We all ordered and began to chat (and were SO not on our phones) while we waited for our food to be served. Finally our food arrived and we all were somewhat distracted by our food and barely talked at all. However, we did have a VERY good laugh at Jazlyn when she struggled with her spicy pasta. It was HILARIOUS. Anyways, we finished up our meal and headed out. We were pretty full and decided to walk it off.

One of our many purchases from the outing.

We decided to roam the mall for pretty much everything and anything.  We stopped by clothes shops, stationary shops, bookshops, and EVEN to toy shops. Not to mention, we saw LOADS of Frozen - themed toys which Jazlyn wanted to buy (I’m just kidding. She hated them). We went from shop to shop and did loads of other things and buying food. All three of us enjoyed our Oreo McFlurry’s and fish sticks. To top it all off, we bought ice cream AND bought more snacks and drinks to last us through the night.

Once again, we piled into the car driven by Wan Rong’s mom and talked softly amongst ourselves. When we got back to her house, we left our snacks in her room and freshened up before heading down to eat dinner with her family. Dinner was pretty enjoyable and we were stuffed after our entire day of eating. Once dinner was over, we headed back to her bedroom and decided to lay out all our food so we could pick out some of our favorites to start with. Finally, we got comfortable and ended up watching Pitch Perfect 2 online while snacking some more. I feel like I should mention that Jazlyn memorized 90% of the lyrics to the songs in the movie and graced us with her amazing (not) singing!

Once the movie ended, we headed up to the karaoke room to drink and snack in order to keep her room as clean as possible. Oh yea, it also happened to be around 12 am at this point. We ended up playing some games to entertain ourselves and ended up crying with laughter at some point. Nonetheless, we did fill up some of our time talking about serious matters too (who am I kidding? We were absolutely giddy with laughter all through the night). We also ended up creeping downstairs at 2 am to put away some of the things we used and her huge house is SUPER scary at night.

After carting the remainder of our food back to her room, we were pretty much exhausted from our eventful day. So, we all three crept into Wan Rong’s bed and lay there, talking about anything and everything and ended up falling asleep at about half past three in the morning. We were up again at 9 am the next day and slowly got ourselves ready for the day. We left her house at about 11 am to head home. I definitely had a WANderful time (GET IT? WAN RONG – WANderful? HAHAHA) Okay HAHA back to the point. I really had a great time and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Alright! That’s all I have for now. Adios, Wonderers!

NAILING NAIL ART

Nail Art Tips and Tricks

Hello, Wonderers! This is Wei Ling and today I have a very special nail post. These few items, which I would like to share with you guys, are my personal essentials when it comes to nail art. Of course the nail polish is the most important but I'm just going to mention the things that might differ from others. There's also some of my top tips at the bottom of this post so keep on scrolling.

When it comes to prepping my nails, I don't really take the steps that others use such as pushing their cuticles and buffing their nail beds. I keep it quite simple by just trimming and filing my nails with regular nail clippers and a nail file. Nothing too special. I normally wipe my nails with a piece of tissue soaked with rubbing alcohol or methylated spirit. This is to remove the oil on my nail so that the polish will stick better and last longer. Using alcohol swabs will work just fine but is a bit more pricey.

Cleaning up around the cuticles after painting is one of my top tips, especially for beginners. It makes the nail art look neater and gives the effect of professionally done nails. Just use a cotton bud or a flat brush dipped in nail polish remover to clean up any polish that might have gotten onto your skin.

When your nails start to chip or when it's time to go back to school, removing the nail polish can be a pain, especially glitter nail polishes. I normally use a stronger remover that usually contains acetone to do so. The use of acetone is a very controversial topic but I am all for it. This is because acetone removers usually evaporate faster, which means that the remover will not be sitting on your nails for too long.  

Lastly, taking care of your nails. Nail polishes and remover can be quite damaging to the nails so moisturizing is a key essential to having beautiful nail art designs. A painting wouldn't look very nice on a torn canvas, would it? I have tried quite a few cuticle balms and oils but I find that plain old Vaseline works the best. It is a very cheap and effective solution to hang nails and dry cuticles.

Now here's some extra tips that I have picked up, both from the Internet and through experience.

• Make sure you use the toilet BEFORE you start painting your nails. Even if you don't need to go, do it anyways just in case. Needing to use the toilet with wet nails is sheer torture!!!
• Paint each coat thinly and not just blob a whole lot on. It will take a few extra coats but the finish will definitely be better than one super thick coat. Not to mention, it will also take ages to dry and you risk smudging it in the process.
• Avoid using cotton wool to remove any damaged nail art or clean up while the other nails are still wet. The fuzzy cotton will just end up getting everywhere and sticking to the other nails. Instead, I prefer to use some tissue paper or toilet roll as it has no lint!
• Top coats are one of the most important part of the entire process. I would rather invest in an expensive topcoat than other nail polishes as it really makes a HUGE difference to the final outcome. If the nail polish 'slides' of your nail even after waiting for a long time to dry, it probably has something to do with your topcoat. I would recommend you to buy a new one and start over!
• If your manicure or nail art smudges as you apply your topcoat, it is likely to be because of one of these three things. Your polish wasn't dry enough yet, your black nail polish smudges easily or, again, there's something up with your topcoat. For the first problem, it can be solved by WAITING LONGER! Yes, as simple as that. Just be patient as you wouldn't want your entire manicure to be ruined just because you were impatient. Next, black polishes seem to smudge VERY easily even if it seems completely dry. For that, I would replace the black polish with black acrylic paint. Yep, you heard me right. (more like READ it right huehue) Acrylic paints work very well for fine details as it dries less quickly, giving you more time to perfect the design and doesn't smudge!. Lastly, the top coat. I recommend you to use a fast drying topcoat if you experience the problem of smudging as it dries even before the polish has time to smudge!

That's all I have for now. Thank you so much for reading and please come back next week. Adios, Wonderers!