MY FAVORITE LYRICS: THE ERAS TOUR SETLIST VERSION

In honour of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (TTPD) coming out tomorrow, here I compiled my favorite lyrics that are close to my heart from Taylor Swift songs: The Eras Tour Setlist version. I just had to do this before we move on to the black-and-white, break up album; TTPD :')

“If I was out flashing my dollars, I'd be a bitch not a baller. They paint me out to be bad, So it's okay that I'm mad” – The Man

“All's well that ends well to end up with you” – Lover 

“In this moment now capture it, remember it” – Fearless 

“I should've asked you questions. I should've asked you how to be. Asked you to write it down for me. Should've kept every grocery store receipt cause every scrap of you would be taken from me” – marjorie 

“But you'll find the real thing instead. She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred” – champagne problems

“I made you my temple, my mural, my sky. Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life” – tolerate it 

“You must like me for me” – Delicate

“For you, I would cross the line. I would waste my time” – Don’t Blame Me

“But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time. Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time” – Look What You Made Me Do

“Long live all the mountains we moved. I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you” – Long Live

“And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue? Just between us, did the love affair maim you too? Cause in this city's barren cold. I still remember the first fall of snow and how it glistened as it fell. I remember it all too well” – All Too Well

“I persist and resist the temptation to ask you. If one thing had been different would everything be different today?” – the 1

“Who knows, if I never showed up, what could've been. There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen. I had a marvelous time ruining everything” - the last great american dynasty 

“Back when we were still changing for the better. Wanting was enough. For me, it was enough. To live for the hope of it all. Cancel plans just in case you'd call” – august 

“And you know damn well. For you, I would ruin myself. A million little times” – illicit affairs

“I didn't have it in myself to go with grace. Cause when I'd fight, you used to tell me I was brave” – my tears ricochet 

“And when we go crashing down, we come back every time” – Style 

“Cause darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream” – Blank Space

“Someday when you leave me. I bet these memories follow you around” – Wildest Dream

“And time can heal, but this won't. So if you come in my way, just don't” – Bad Blood

“And by morning, gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean” - Clean

“I don't start it, but I can tell you how it ends. Don't get sad, get even” – Vigilante Shit

“Baby boy, I think I've been too good of a girl. Did all the extra credit, then got graded on a curve. I think it's time to teach some lessons” – Bejeweled 

“And the touch of a hand lit the fuse. Of a chain reaction of countermoves. To assess the equation of you. Checkmate, I couldn't lose” – Mastermind 

“Karma's gonna track you down. Step by step, from town to town. Sweet like justice, karma is a queen. Karma takes all my friends to the summit” – Karma 

MY MOST FAVORITE RAYA PHOTOS SO FAR

I've always wanted an intimate, adorable and full of happiness photo of me and my daughter to be captured. And to be honest, i already pictured a lot of poses in my mind but it never yet to become reality. But this year, Aqisya started to learn and love to ride on our back/ shoulder (piggyback) whenever we were sitting while she was standing on the bed. And i realized that every time she's on a piggyback ride, she will smile from ear to ear and laughing her heart out because she's just so happy about it. 

So this Raya, i asked my husband to take a photo of me with my baby while she's on my piggyback ride. And yeah, the results were just as good as i hope it to be. Aqisya was smiling so bright though she was actually does not even cooperate during the whole Raya photoshoot with the family. Haha. 

I already set this photo as the wallpaper of my phone and Aqisya's iPad. I might even frame this so i can see it on the wall everyday. To many more cute and lovely photos of us until the end of the time, Aqisya. Love, your Mommy who loves you so much.

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR @ SINGAPORE 2024

I always tell myself that I should go to at least 2 concerts to check my bucket list. That two are Taylor Swift and Blackpink concerts. And guess what, I got tickets to both concerts! I went to Blackpink concert on March 2023 and Taylor Swift on March 2024 which was very recently.

At first we were hoping for Taylor to come to Malaysia but of course she didn’t. So me and my best friend, Sarah decided to just go for it to Singapore (by hook or by crook haha). Singapore was the only stop for South East Asia meaning that all of us here, be it from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, etc, had to go to Singapore for The Eras Tour. There were 6 shows from 2nd - 9th March 2024 at the National Stadium.

We were not taking things for granted the moment we knew the tickets will be on sales. We searched high and low for the best ticketing service to secure our tickets. And we found @thiccshopMY on X (Twitter) which her success rate was quite high even with the previous Coldplay tickets. So yeah we hired her for only RM50 per ticket. Her name was Miha and she was very friendly and helpful. She even helped us joining the presales by opening an UOB Bank account. But unfortunately the queue was like 1 million people online and we didn’t secure any tickets directly on TicketmasterSG. Sobs. 

However, lucky for us and thanks to the Klook Package (we had to buy the tickets with a 4 or 5 stars hotel booking together). We get to secure our tickets (CAT4) as easy as ABC. The tickets were on sales at 12pm and I secured our tickets at 12.02pm (?) Out of the world! That even we were like, “is that it? are we really going?” haha. I saw so many people were in hard time to secure the tickets and even didn’t get any tickets in the end. Therefore, we’re just so grateful and so happy for this. 

We renewed our passports and bought our flight tickets to Singapore as early as possible. I think it was around like one week after we secured our concert tickets, we already done with our passports and booked our return flights. Haha. We were so excited though we were broke at the same time. Lol.

We went to Singapore for 3 days (3rd - 5th March). Our concert was on the 3rd March (2nd night). Singapore was very expensive due to our currency being quite weak at present. 1 Singapore Dollar was equal to RM3.50. Sobs. But we went there to have fun so yeah. We arrived at Changi Airport around 10am and filled our tummy with delicious biryani rice at Anjappar Restaurant. And then, we went to see the Jewel at Changi Airport with our own eyes, and we straightly go to check in at Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel via MRT. After we settled down at the hotel, we went to the National Stadium Singapore at around 3.30pm and entered the Stadium very early around 4.30pm. Haha. Please excuse us for being so excited and paranoid (the reason why we were so early) at the same time lol. 

So, the concert. 

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. 

How do I start to write about this core memory? 

(Sigh in post-concert excitement). 

The Eras Tour is not your average tour. I have gone to my fair share of concerts (I am very selective tbh, I didn’t just go to random concerts), but I have never had an experience as amazing as this one. The Eras Tour was legit something straight from my wildest dream that became a reality. Taylor’s performance was euphoric, spectacular, jaw-dropping and everything! I mean, I’m not even sure anything in life will ever compare to the feelings I had during the 3+ hours when Taylor Swift performed her heart out for us. The dancers were magnificent, the outfits were pieces of art, the lighting, choreography, the stage, trading friendship bracelets with fellow Swifties, the deep feelings to every line of the lyrics and all the little things I probably missed; all created the performance of a lifetime. 

That’s the beauty of The Eras Tour; there is a Taylor Swift for everyone. There is at least one song specially related to everyone. It was that night, at The Eras Tour, that I finally realized all along, there was an invisible string tying me to Taylor Swift until the end of the time. Damn. It was too good. Really.

To sum it up, The Eras Tour concert was an absolute blast! The energy, the music, the whole vibe, it was all just amazing. As we left the venue, still buzzing from the experience, i swear that Taylor Swift is a true superstar and seeing her live was something we’ll never forget! I really wish to see her again in the future if God didn't forbid. 

Since we were already in Singapore, and what it is that Singapore has but Malaysia doesn’t? It’s the Universal Studios Singapore (USS)! Haha. I never went to USS in my whole life so yeah this was the perfect time to go. We bought the ticket pass also on Klook that cost us RM302 per ticket. I was thinking on purchasing the express pass at first, but the express pass was also cost around RM300 which to me was not worth our money since we were not planning to ride on every single attraction there. So yeah. Let’s spend the money on foods instead haha.

Our initial plan was to go to USS very early in the morning after our breakfast at the hotel. But since we didn’t eat our breakfast because it was served at a non-halal restaurant in the hotel. And we were also spending our sweet time on bed watching all The Eras Tour videos, so we checked out from our hotel at 12pm and arrived at USS around 2pm.

Thank God it was Monday so it was not as crowded as we fear it will be. The queue for the rides were also ok and acceptable to our timing. I loved all the quality time we had together there, and I enjoyed the rides as well especially the Transformers ride which had me a bit spellbound. And we also bought all of our souvenirs for our families here in USS. 

Alhamdulillah everything went very smoothly for both of us since we arrived in Singapore. During our final night, before we went back to the airport to rest and wait for the early morning flight, we even went to the Merlion Park to see the iconic lion-mermaid of Singapore. Haha. We were very tired but we’re happy and that’s everything.  

However, as a wise man once said; you cannot claim you best days without a hint of some worst parts in it. And here comes the worst part (drum rolls): we missed our back-to-Malaysia flight. Sobs.

It was so stupid and funny at the same time because we arrived at Changi Airport so early like around 11pm and our flight was in the next morning at around 7am. We had our dinner, embracing our sweet final moments at Changi Airport and even fell asleep there. At around 5am, we already checked in our luggage and passed the custom security check. It was still very early hence no gate was assigned yet at that time. So Sarah fell asleep again and I was going from shop to shop inside the departure area.

I think it was around 6.30am that we both were already freshen up but I told Sarah that our flight was at 7.35am at Gate 10 so let’s sit and have a chat for a while. So we sit, eating $3.50 croissants, talk about random things and went to the toilet and everything. Because we thought we were early. Damn.

And when we arrived at our gate, the gate was already closed! That’s when we realized we were being dumb all this while. I thought 7.35am was the boarding time but it was actually the departure time! This was the part when we both got panicked and even got into a little fight with each other because of the pressure we created ourselves since we were not trying to be calm at all. Haha.

But alhamdulillah, we got home with the next flight at 12.10pm. Thanks to Sarah’s credit card. Lol. This mistake costs us around RM1k each sobs. Moral of the story; always double check when is your boarding time and when is you departure time!  Because it can cost you loads of money if you read the time wrongly. Sigh.

Overall, thanks to this experience, this trip will definitely be a core memory to us both. And we will remember this every time we travel with airplanes. Haha. Alhamdulillah for everything. I hope we get to do this often. InsyaAllah.

NEW YEAR, SAME ME

It's typically at this time of the year, people will set new or resume their one-year resolutions and goals (obviously). But as for me, for this new year 2024, as i will be 31, i don't fancy finding a new me anymore. Because i don't want to pressure on myself with big things (at least for now). 

I realized that being a grown up, being a mother, we will always have a mandatory, never ending to-do-list everyday. We have a lot on our plate all day but we never really feel 100% satisfied or happy with our days. At the same time, i already achieved so much in the last 10 years (Alhamdulillah). 

But still, that doesn't mean that i didn't set any plans for 2024. It's just that, life seems to go so fast hence this year, i want to try to live in the moment by worrying less for things that are beyond my control, appreciate more on what i have, spend more time with people that matter and be true to myself at all time. So, here's to a new year and the same old me (but better). InsyaAllah. 

Oh Allah, please bring this year of 2024 upon us with faith, happiness, prosperity, safety, security, protection from the devil, Your pleasure and endless blessings. Amin YRA. 

LESSON FROM MOVIES

Anton Ego: A Food Critic - Ratatouille, 2007:

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so." 

"But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new: an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core."

"In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook." But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more."

I love how when we watch the same good movie several times, we can always find new things to love and appreciate about the story line, characters and life lessons from the film. Honestly, thank you to all novel writers and film makers for writing such a detailed introspective post about a story/ character whose depth I could hardly put into words sometimes and hit me so deep like the ocean. 

Have you ever watch Ratatouille? If you haven't, you should. There's this Anton Ego scene at the end of the movie was really one of the best quotes i have learned in life. Every words were written beautifully and every line has powerful meaning with it. And i also love the scene from the film in which Gusteau says that anyone can cook but only the fearless can reach greatness. Your own soul is the only limit. Anyone can do anything that you just have to believe in yourself and never quit. 

And i also agreed to the quote: "The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations". Because i've seen it everywhere on how people treat new people/ newbie. More often than not, people prefer to not listen to their opinion/ fresh new ideas while at the same time, forcing them to present new proposal, forcing them to do things they never did and expect the result to be perfect as we want it. IYKYK. I always believe that if we give new people, new generations more space and chances, they can actually offer us more than we can ever imagine, more than we can ever done. 

Also, have you watch Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story? It's a spin off of the Bridgerton Series that quit not like the other typical historical romance story. Because in this series, the female lead leads everything including the King and the Kingdom. 

The series follows the life of Queen Charlotte and King George as husband and wife in two different timelines on how their love survives against all odd. I swear the series worth the hype like one hundred percent positive because i already watched it twice! (unlike the first and second series of Bridgerton - sorry not sorry). 

The best part in my point of my view was the ending (spoiler alert!). When Queen Charlotte and King George meeting under the bed when the Queen told the King that their line lives because they already got an heir from their Prince. And the King (who suffers from mental instability) look at his Queen and said "You did not go over the wall". And the Queen answered "No, George. I did not go over the wall". 

If you watched the drama, in the first episode, she was having a second thought about marrying the King and was planning to run by climbing and go over the wall (because it was an arranged marriage). But fortunately, the King saw her, they talked. And they ended up got married and went against all odds together. The King didn't remember most of the thing because of his sickness as he gets older but he did remember that his Queen stayed and married him. 

I thank this series because it makes me believe in love again #shedtears. It may sound cliche but to me, that is what marriage is about. You stay with your partner for whatever it's worth. You should never go over the wall. I know that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to marriage because the situations always differ to every couples in the world. But what's important is, we need to always find what works for us and our partners. It sounds easy but actually can be so hard at some point. 

After all, there is always something to learn regardless of the kind of film we watch. As someone who did not read a lot, movies are one of my channels to learn on new things. Technology has expanded learning boundaries and made considerable contribution on how we lead our current lives. We gain different insights from different movies. To many more good movies in the future. 

LIFE IS LIKE THAT

You know when there are certain time in your life where you sit, look out at the window and having a deep thought to yourself about where you are now in life? Yeah, i was having that moment this morning. It's actually about how overwhelmed i feel when i look at other people, especially those my age or even younger than me living a better, brighter life compared to mine. 

I'm not trying to sound like an ungrateful woman. I am thankful for everything that Allah has blessed me all these years since the day i was born. I know the fact that our pace are not the same compared to others. I know that everybody is fighting a silent battle. I know that happiness is subjective. And i also understand it too well that not everything that we show on social media, to public, to other people is actually what it is. We have to take it with a grain of salt every single time. 

I mean, we know all off these and we have heard it all at least a million times. It's the truth and at the same time, it's actually one of the ways to ease our heart. So that we won't freaking out when it is not even necessary. Well, great for me. I am freaking out all the time. Internally. 

I have a stable, permanent job but i wish for a better job everyday. I have fixed income, but i am always broke and wish to have 5 figures income like my loaded friends. My small family already got the keys to our 2-storey first house and i wish to renovate and decorate my house like the way i dream it to be but, hate to break it to myself, we have to act like our wage. And etc etc including the littlest things. And guess what, tbh, the problem is not everything else. The problem is actually me. I'm the problem it's me. Lol. 

I've read somewhere on how we are actually so okay with our lives until we see someone else's or until someone else say something about it. Like, how it was all okay all this while but suddenly at one point, it is not. For instance, we were okay walking to the campus 3km everyday, until we saw someone drive a car and tell us that go to campus by car is easier compared to walking. And magically, we feel like walking is actually not an ideal option anymore.

Same goes to a situation where we were fine using just liquid detergent to wash our clothes, until we saw people are actually using detergent + softener + color safe bleach + laundry perfumes + etc. We either will not be bothered at all. Or be like, damn, no wonder my clothes are all bad and have shorter lifespan compared to theirs. I need to get the products they are using! Or, oh why am i so poor to never afford that. Sobs. 

As for my case, since i am working with the Government, i always feels like i should earn more. Like, i deserve more salary because we have so many tasks and work to be done on daily basis. Which i know that if i'm working with private company with the same amount of work, my salary will definitely be way higher and better (i guess). Also on the other hand, if i am not working with the Government, i will not going to get all of the benefits as a Government Servant like: the retirement benefits (of course), free treatment at the government clinics and hospitals, 25 days annual leave, so on, so forth and the best benefit of all is the whole 3 rooms apartment quarters that only cost us RM300+ per month. We can even upgrade it to a 2-storey landed quarters when it's time. I mean, what else that is not enough in this goverment servant life? (other than lesser salary tbh) haha.

In the end, it's all about: count your blessings not your sorrows. We can either see the good things in life and be more grateful or we can count the bad things to make us melancholy. Sometimes we feel like we are nobody compared to everybody else because other people lives seems way calmer, way fortunate, way better. But hey, the grass is always greener on the other side right? 

Sometimes i was afraid thinking of what am i going to be in the next 5-10 years because i feel like my life is stagnant. Like, everyday is the same. I gain nothing, achieve nothing. But as my husband said, if you look back at yourself 5 years ago, who you are now is nothing like who you were 5 years ago. You grew so much whether you realized it or not. Even when we are at work doing "the same thing" everyday, we actually at the same time, learn new things from time to time. What we understand about our routine job today is not the same as how we see it 5 years ago.

 

Best believe that our lives are good too. We are doing pretty great too. Because life is like that. It's not always a walk in the park. It's a roller coaster ride. Sometimes we are up above the sky and sometimes we hit rock bottom. We have to trust the timing of our life. One day at a time. Everything will be okay eventually as long as we focus and do the good things every time. InsyaAllah.

BORNPINK WORLD TOUR: BORNPINK IN KL

WE WENT TO BORNPINK WORLD TOUR IN KL!

It's been 2 months and just today i have the time to blog about my first ever concert experience. It's long overdue and i feel a bit sad because most of the detail memories are not there anymore. I should've blog about this earlier. Ugh. But never mind, i'm still gonna blog about this so that i will not going to forget about it wholly. 

I'm not a K-pop fan and i obviously not a concertgoer. I even don't remember when was i first started to like Blackpink so much that going to see them in a flesh during this world tour is a must. I just suddenly love them and i love them so much it hurts. I still remember when i first knew that Blackpink is coming to Malaysia, my first reaction was, "take my money! i would like to have the VIP seats like, right now!". And obviously that didn't happened because i definitely not spending RM1.9k/ person for a 3-hour concert ticket. I mean, i'm not that rich (yet).  

So, i knew it too well that the concert tickets will be sold out in minutes because duh, it's Blackpink. So i was so anxious from the very beginning that i even Googled and watched YouTube on how to make sure that i can secured my concert tickets without failed. This is literally like once in a lifetime moment because i may no longer be their fan or i may no longer love Blackpink this much in like 4 years time. I mean, they may come back to Malaysia in the future and i just don't care anymore. So, this is the time! Now or never! 

One of the very first things that i did was searching for BLINKS group (Blackpink fanbase). I know there must be a Whatsapp or Telegram group that is based in Malaysia and we talk about nothing but just Blackpink. And thank God i found the groups on the same day and joined them right away. I even bought the BLINK Membership on Weverse because only members can buy the pre-sales concert tickets. I mean, of course, we need all the opportunities in the world to see these four girls. I even got all of the info and other updates on how to this and that and everything from that group. Like seriously, the next time you're going for a concert, join the fanbase group. They. Know. Everything. I swear if i didn't joined the group, i will not going to be able to go for the concert. 

When the seating map and prices for the ticket concert was out, we were all not very happy. Lol. Because it was so expensive. i wonder how the prices will be for their next tour in the future. My initial goal was to buy the most expensive ticket, the VIP ones and even wished to get the backstage pass if possible. But when i see the prices, we ended up bought the cheapest tickets instead: CAT6. Haha. I managed to secured not two but four tickets because the first purchase was an error but the website still deducted my money. I then bought the same seats again because after the first purchase, i checked and saw the seats i purchased earlier was still available (?) So i bought again with no hesitation because i was thinking, even if they deducted my money twice, i should at least get my refund back because most importantly at that moment was i need to get tickets for myself. However, thank God, two days later, GoLive Asia sent me two extra tickets because of the first error and since they deducted my money earlier. So, i sold the tickets to Iman. 

I was supposed to go with my sister at first, but i went with my husband in the end because my sister knows nothing about Blackpink. My husband on the other hand, knows most of Blackpink songs, haha so yeah. It was a blessing actually because i get to use his phone and took all of the good photos and videos for our memories. The concert started around 8.30pm and the gate was opened around 5.00pm. I still remember when we were just wandering around outside the stadium searching for snacks and the soundcheck started. It was surreal and so exciting even though we were just listening to them live from outside the stadium haha.

Overall, the concert was spectacular! It was, hands down, one of the best experiences in my whole life. All of the four members: Jisoo, Jennie, Rose and Lisa were so charming with their powerful performance. The sang live! Even the band was a live band! You can feel those drum beats in your chest and even the dancers were truly born to perform. Their entire teams were so dedicated in creating world-class, quality performances. They hyped us up like crazy and left us wanting for more. And even the crowd, i mean damn, thanks to all Malaysians BLINKS. The concert vibe was astounding! I almost cried multiple times because i was so overwhelmed with everything. It was so good that the concert even ended much sooner than anticipated and moved extremely fast, maybe because we were enjoying it so much. 

It was definitely one of my best experiences in life. And i regret nothing from going to this concert seeing my four girls blessing us will all of their old and new tracks in real life. Another bucket list checked ✔ Alhamdulillah. The only concert i wish to go next for now is Taylor Swift's. The last time and perhaps the only time she came to Malaysia for a concert was during The Red Tour in 2014. Are we going to see Taylor in this Eras Tour maybe in Malaysia or Singapore in the near future? God knows. Please.