The months of November and December 2008 for me was a hectic life of production plus journalism. Patricia was in Sabah, Jolene in Vietnam, Lilean in Penang, Claudia in Ipoh and Kok Hao suffering away at an internship in Kelana Jaya. With everybody all over the place, I was lucky to spend it with four interesting roommates which made life crazy livelier =)
Four days before Christmas, we hopped on over to Full House for an early Christmas dinner and gift exchange. The decor of the place was so pretty white-washed and their menu colourful and cute. Very nice ambiance!
Presenting to you..the waitress! She wears a pink hairband! While serving Choco Pies. Haha.
Just kidding, the pink hairband was a gag gift from me to Evon aka Bobo(possibly my craziest roommate ever). She was sporting enough to wear the hairband and walk around in the restaurant. I swear sometimes she's nuts haha we have an interesting relationship. Posing as lovers, we creep each other out with mushiness until we feel our own hairs stand *shudder*
We also bully and annoy the crap out of each other. Apparently she loves to see my annoyed expression and together, the both of us are the entertainment highlights of the room.
Presenting my second roommate...Ley Lynn! She can't stand the icky lovey dovey 'relationship' Bobo and I share but yet she is also very intrigued. She laughs at me all the time. Wait a minute, not just her, but all four roommates laugh at me all the time. Apparently I comb my hair in a weird way. They threatened to record a video of me combing my hair but they never got the chance woohoo! But Bobo has two other embarrassing videos of me that I suspect she has been showing to many people -____-"
My third housemate...Yang Yang! Everytime we heard some weird noises in the room, we knew it was her using her massager. She's always got backaches, wonder why? She gave me flu medicine, she gave me lifts out of the neighbourhood every morning, she re-taught me Adobe Photoshop, she explained Mandarin phrases I didn't understand, she woke me up for work, she asked me to kill spiders and cockroaches, she's been a real gem! ;)
Last but not least, my fourth housemate...Tiffany! Also my internship colleague. We suffered two months together trying to get reasonable cab drivers to bring us to work and back. We entertained each other when we were bored. She listened to all my stressful situations, she fed me with the food she bought, she taught me all about talent agencies.
She got me this crazy calendar for Christmas! Which is awesome, because I've been wanting to get a calendar myself, perfect timing. She managed to trick me to think it was a drawing board for Yang Yang. Goodness , I naively believed her!
Mei Cher wasn't my housemate but we hung out together these two months busy organising Unifest, a concert successfully held last Thursday. We covered events together, dropped by Arts for Grabs and had mini catch-up sessions sharing the latest gossip.
Kok Hao was busy trying to survive his own internship. Poor him. I heard many horror stories of working in an advertising agency from him, enough for me to decide I'd never be a PR.
Random picture of the night. Stephanie and Wei Ping was there too. Bobo is wearing a black hairband this time because the pink one got taken away by Ley Lynn...
The bunch of us at Full House. A distant, sweet memory. They saw me struggling every Monday night typing away on a borrowed comp, trying to finish my article for the paper before work the next day. They witnessed my reliance on coffee to get me through the days and nights. They provided stress relief and much needed laughter in those two crazy months. We never thought we could survive two months without quarrels but we did! And so, on Dec 31st, 2008, we turned the page and our internship chapter was closed but the inside jokes will live on =D
If I had to pick one Indonesian band to meet out of all the Indon bands I know, it would be Sheila On 7 for sure.They are the first ever Indon band I listened to (recommended by Reren) and I absolutely fell in love with Sahabat Sejati the moment I heard it. Lucky me, they were in town for a Livesounds gig!
From L-R: Duta, Adam, the thrilled writer, Brian and ErossIt really surprised me how humble, friendly and down-to-earth they all were! And even more surprising I kind of retained my understanding of Indon so I could pretty much understand what Eross said. Duta kept interjecting our conversation, teasing Eross about everything under the sun, all in good fun. Apparently Duta matchmakes Eross with practically anybody and everybody, so I wasn't spared LOL!
SO7's fans are another breed altogether too, a warm bunch. They helped prep me for my interview by answering all my questions about the band and sharing snippets of life as a Sheila Gank member (their official fan club). It amazes me how close the band is to the fans and how respectful the fans are to them and their personal space.
Interviewing the band was definitely one of the most memorable moments I had in 2008. And when their manager Anton passed me their CD unexpectedly, that was sweet. Writing about SO7 was by no means easy, the huge amount of pressure I put on myself to churn out an article that does justice to my experience with them as a fan and journalist, its crazy. There's always room for improvement but for now, I can peacefully say I did my best.