Year End Break

Ahhh.. So the year end holidays has started for me and I know what you're thinking, "Working people has year end break toooooo!?". 

They do!
 Only it's not a month long (unless you have that many annual leave days left).. It's actually as long as you can afford (i.e without taking your unpaid leave, but hey, if you can afford unpaid leave too, why not!)

As for me I'm taking the last two weeks of December off and will be back at work first week January.. Haih. #kulilife

I don't actually have any plans for this year end break, but I sure do hope to catch up on my sleep, family time and all the drafts for this blog! 

Also, I just love how festive December is. I'm still the jakun that goes around saying "OMG UUUUUUUUUU!!! The car has antlers!!!!" and then going "Omg, omg, omg it has the red nose tooooooo!". Don't tell me you don't find those cars cute?! Also the malls seem to be filled with gigantic Christmas trees and other decorations (lights, Christmas "village" and what not). It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy! It's like when malls play Raya songs and the image of rendang and ketupat comes into my mind, Christmas reminds me of home oddly enough.

See, when you study abroad, you'll suddenly realise how much you appreciate home. You appreciate all the things that you take for granted back home (for instance, not having to walk everywhere and have to option to drive rather than waiting for a bus or a tram in the freezing cold, or something as simple as family dinners), and you just have this constant homesick feeling that you get very excited when someone cooks Malaysian food and you just count days til the next time you're back in Malaysia.

So Christmas lights and jingles remind me of home somewhat, because every time before I'd come home I'd have to do some shopping and since it's December, Oxford streets is lighted up beautifully and stores just play Christmas jingles. It's a very happy time for me because I'm going home and I have the "permit" to shop, teeheehee! But I'm not shopping randomly okay! I always have a checklist of people to get things for. Mummy would give me a list of what to buy (where do you think I get that habit from) her, and then for Daddy, Kookie & Aman is solely up to me, which I normally think about what to get them before falling asleep the night before (it makes shopping the next day a lot easier, trust me, busy Oxford Street is not a place to think!). So yeah, getting their stuff is very important and considering how busy Oxford Street can get on weekends, my record was finishing packing the stuff I bought merely an hour before the taxi was supposed to pick me up to go to the airport.. #lastminutepackingrunsinthefamily. 

And partly why I am so fond of these Oxford Street memories is because I am so lucky to have friends that would accommodate me everytime I make a trip to London and eventually I'll have different memories made each time. The first year I was Farm, and that was the year I discovered gnocchi! Also I discovered the meme sticker app and started sending putting in on different pictures and sending it to people with caption like "Hi Gorgeous, how you doing?"

 Then there was also a year when Ashley, Zayana and I got locked out of Zayana's flat and how Ashley & I had to sit in the locksmith's car since he couldn't find parking while fixing the door... There's also a video of Zayana slugging her way to her new handbag because.. Because she's Zayana...

Then there was a group picture of us (Zayana, Ashley, Farm, Megat) taken after our amazing meal at Khan's and then was stolen and made famous on a political website claiming how young professionals like us are residing abroad and refusing to come back to Malaysia (whateven?! We were barely in our second year of studying!)..







Then there was also a year where I stayed with Megat and we cooked a Malaysian dish and ate off the pots and pans in his room.. #studentlaife #malasbasuhpinggan. Then while he was away at class I found out how lavish his dorm is that he has someone to come and pick up his trash?! -___-

When he came back from class he had some free time and hence tried to edit my picture and put it next to idk who's picture to make a "rumour" start.. #needtorethinkmychoicesinfriends

It's really a good time of the year cause I get to make memories with my "UK Family" before I go back to my real family.

Wishing everybody reading this a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Cheers! 

xx, A.