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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Golden (Goodbyes)



We are golden because we're alive,
We are nothing without our goodbyes,
Illuminate our own way from inside,
We shine so bright, we shine so bright.

They say you're always more creative when you're emotional as you put yourself into your work. I have just literally cried my soul out shed a few tears, my first in quite a long time. I have just said my final in real life goodbye to Lizzy. She's heading off to Beijing, and invited me and Esme - as together, we make up the simplets - round to her house for crepes, movies, and cheese plates. Camera, as promised, was brought along and promptly used and abused, as I'd also promised.

Esme came over earlier and we recorded a cute song we'd written for Liz, as well as a B-Side which was a story about a Gorilla & The Whale, (which is freaking adorable, to be completely honest.) We then went to Lizzy's, took adorable photos, had amazing crepes - salty crepes, then cheese plate, then sweet crepes omg crepes - watched Hairspray, then sat in her room and talked. And talked and talked. Talked so much I'd missed my chance to get the last bus home.








It's... really only just registered with me. All this people leaving business. And soon enough, it's going to be me? I'd always pictured my departure as me skipping through the airport with my suitcases, ready to finally get out of this place, ready for new adventures. But after tonight, not so sure. Sure, I'll miss this place...eventually. I'll miss some people here. I'll miss my family. I'll miss some aspects of this place, but whether my excitement will override my separation sadness, we'll have to see... I'm sure I'll blog about it either way, (I sure have been good with blogging recently!)

And whilst we're here, I'll through in two 'outfits,' if they can be named that. I always think to myself, "Ooh, I want to try look somewhat decent today," and forget about the fact that it's really not easy with the stifling heat and humidity here.



Didn't really wear that hat. I was joking. It was raining and I wanted to find one but that was the only hat I could find in my house... Top: ??? Shorts: Forever 21, I think?


Lizzy's last night out. Top: Again, god knows where. Shorts I think are forever 21 as well. Hair detail, yay! Necklaces from I Don't Know. I'm not very good at this.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Take Me Home

Yet another blog post about another day in my life during summer. This summer seems like it's gone on forever, which technically it has, as it's been from May 23rd and will continue 'til October 4th. (Okay, I know that's not technically forever shut up.) Lizzy leaves Monday. Last hangout today. The camera is charging and ready for some use and abuse and I'm fully planning on bringing makeup remover tonight because I know I will weep.

Asides from my upcoming sadness, usual madness over this week: I had a few days of recluse-ness (which, as a hermit, I need,) $10 vodka tuesday, where I was very well behaved, dyed my hair again, took photos with my phone because I finally found the cable again so I'll use them for convenience whaddup.


Extensive colour editing = you can't even see the colour of my hair. I really thought this one through.

Missed a lamma trip for a family dinner. I hate shopping with my sister and my mom so I sat in pacific coffee company like some hipster. Ate too much, I need to run properly again. Unrelated story, but on Tuesday, I think we met the most violent dancers in the world. It was full on foot-stomping-punching-arms brawl moves dancing. They looked like they were doing a tribal dance to summon the rain gods, and if they were I think it worked because I got caught in the rain during my run and was soaked to the bone, even after I'd stuffed my iPod in every girl's ~special shelf~ aka my bra. The iPod nearly died but revived itself like a fucking fighter. I shed a tear of pride.

Looks gross but this is my SHIT. Vanilla snowflake chillino yes please!

Market street where the sister and mother went shopping, because my sister is a shopaholic and has to compulsively spend money all the time.



This is just the street outside the police club, where we at. I fully used my sister's iPhone to check into "some randomass chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere." I don't see too much point with 'checking in,' other than to boast about where you are and who you're with and make other people feel left out, but I think that I may start using it if I have something witty to say.



With my adorable new friend Janine omg. Edited post to slot this in because I hadn't taken any photos that night and she'd just uploaded these. Success! I don't look like a complete mountain troll in a photo that someone else took of me!

By the time I'd gotten down to Lan Kwai, Lizzy was wasted (edit: not wasted and just tired as hell apparently. She'd peaked much earlier in the day on Lamma) and they soon disappeared off to Wanchai. I stayed and hung out with people in the year below and met a few people. I was surprisingly well-behaved again, which I think I may prefer. In fact, I've talked about it a lot, let's make a List Of The Stages Of Drunkenness.

Stages Of Drunkenness


(1) Sober. You've had maybe one drink. Two, if your tolerance is okay. You feel perfectly normal. You are communicating in coherent sentences, and everyone can understand you.
Stop drinking here: You may go home or stay a while longer in this state. Your standard self-awareness means you don't embarrass yourself. You wake up perfectly fine the next morning.
Continue drinking: go to (2)

(2) Slightly Tipsy. You begin to slowly adopt lite-characteristics of the type of drunk you are. Did the music get louder??! Everything just got a little bit more exciting!! You are still understandable, just a bit EXCITED, and there is a bubbly feeling in your stomach, isn't it lovely?!
Stop drinking here: Dance, dance, dance, talk, shout, laugh. Sober up towards the end. Go home giggling and wake up feeling fine.
Continue drinking: go to (3)

(3) Tipsy. The bubbly feeling is rising and so is the intensity of your dance moves. You're not sure if your friends know how much you love them, so you should go tell every single one of them right now!! And hey - there's that guy in one of your classes you never speak to, maybe you should start by bounding up to him right now and saying hello, then talking a mile a minute. You'll surely be fast friends, OMG!
Stop drinking here: Be a ball of energy the whole night. Wake up fine. Maybe woozy, depending on the severity of your hangovers. You got home all by yourself but woke up your younger brother because you thought it'd be funny (it's not.) Oh shit, now that guy in your class has befriended you on Facebook. He thinks you'refriends now!
Continue drinking: go to (4)

(4) Drunk. Can't focus on one thIng??? You - where are your frends? Ugh, who cares, their dicks anyway. (Author Note: Intentional misuse of their.) Find some new randomzZ and dance with them and make friends yeah friends... Hey, they're pretty cute HIT ON THEM, get their number. Use your chaAaAarm. Your type of drunk may seriously come into play here. You are a freaking LEGEND and you should high-five yourself. DON'T WANT TO GO HOME YETTT??.$
Stop drinking here: Ignore those dicks telling you to go home because you're really drunk. You're having too much fun! Finally get shoved in a cab and go home. Talk to the cab driver the whole way, because you're "making conversation" because you're just sofucking friendly. Wake up in the morning feeling a bit woozy and maybe fairly embarrassed. Oh, is this a text from that person yesterday? Reply. Stalk their Facebook and oh my god they're fucking ugly.
Continue drinking: go to (5)

(5) Wasted. YEAAAA THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT EVA!!!!!!!1 SO TIRED BUT I DON'T WANNA STOP KEEP ON GOIN I FEEL SO WARM MAYBE I SHOULD TAKE SEVERAL ARTICLES OF CLOTHING OFF??
Stop drinking here: Wake up in the morning with no recollection of how you got home or into bed even. If you were in bed. Maybe you passed out on the doorstep, or on the bathroom floor. What the fuck, you swear you had another $100 in your wallet? And where the fuck are your pants?
Continue drinking: go to (6)

(6) Fucked Off Your Face. jgJFISYHSF??323@#&^!^ ^#@(&!$ &(!%$^^^ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stop drinking here: Wake up and you feel like shit but you don't remember anything.You might wake up still drunk. Go back to bed and stay there the whole day. Wear dark sunglasses if you have to leave the house. Tell everyone you have the hangover from hell.
Continue drinking: go to hospital.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Things I Do At Night


(1) Hold solo concerts to a missing audience. Let’s get the first fact straight: I really cannot sing. I can warble my way through a tune and hit chords on a guitar. My strumming isn’t too bad. But something about the cover of darkness and the quiet sleepiness of post-2AM deludes my brain into thinking that I am the next female Conor Oberst. Quietly strumming minor chords and singing in that raspy-whisper-so-I-don’t-wake-my-parents-but-ooh-it-sounds-so-indie-esque whilst sitting in a half-lit room? What a fine example of the tragically creative young teenager, who obviously cannot hold in all her talent for a time where there is far less risk of waking up parents slash neighbours slash siblings.

(2) Draw or Paint Strange Things. Those who are attentive should already be noticing a pattern here. Most of my night time activities do seem to revolve around more creative hobbies. I used to be pretty big on drawing and painting a few years back, but lost that as my pile of schoolwork grew so big that it covered all light from my windows and left me fumbling in the dark unable to mix colours. (A gross exaggeration if there ever was one.) Sometimes, however, I will be overcome with a strong desire to doodle a zombie eating a brain popsicle, or maybe a cat riding a jellyfish. These sometimes also happen to usually be just as I am about to fall asleep, so I have to make the choice between nurturing my creativity right at that moment, or falling asleep with my head full of strange and brilliant ideas that I will forget in the morning. I will then hate my past self.

(3) Make Myself Really Hungry. I am pretty much kitchen impaired. I used to not be allowed in the kitchen when meals were being prepared because my mom was pretty much afraid that if I so much glanced at the food, my terrible cooking skills would leak out and contaminate that night’s lasagna. Despite that, I have also harbored quite a strong secret desire to be really good at cooking; to be able to whip up the most amazing, impressive meals, sending all my friends and family into admiration flurries. Unfortunately, this desire is facing a long battle between my laziness, which has triumphed over many other desires and plans. Therefore, instead of going into the kitchen and burning it down making a huge mess that would no doubt result in failure, I look up recipes and food and sit there and just think about making them, with the childish logic that if I somehow look up enough reviews and recipes for Red Velvet cake, I will one day suddenly be able to bake one worthy of the Gods of Mount Olympus themselves. In the meantime, however, I just make myself really hungry.

(4) Rediscover My iTunes Library. This is maybe the one nightly activity I do that I really adore myself for the next morning. I’ve gone through 3 – or maybe 4? – iPods, not including disc crashs and generally loss of music. Because I have filled my computer up to the brim with utter rubbish, I used to never backup my music properly, deleting tons once it had been dragged to my iPod, meaning I lost tons of songs every time. As my library is quite extensive, I have never fully recovered from each loss; there are always songs you forget to sync on or rip or download or you’ve lost that CD or someone’s borrowed it etc. Luckily, I sometimes randomly just go through my playlists and music, either (re)downloading or just listening to old songs. Picture the scene: girl, 17, playing mood music on her computer, dark outside, dark inside, fairylights and small bedside light on. Rainymood.com if she’s feeling particularly meaningful that night. Pretty intense stuff. And you know that feeling you get when you rediscover an old song you used to adore and it sounds just as good? Yeah, I think I’m addicted to that feeling.

(5) Think. Sometimes I write. If we are going to use silly bird metaphors in describing and categorizing the different sleeping patterns of people, I would definitely be a ‘night owl.’ I stay up late because I love the cover of darkness and the fact that everyone else in the household is asleep, making it essentially my place and time and anything else I want it to be. Talking aloud feels weird after a while and your eyes adjust to the half-light and there’s almost a small degree of surrealism. Suddenly, I am undisturbed and alone with my thoughts, and with this prompt, they run wild. Linked in with the fact I always feel most inspired and creative at night, this is obviously the best time to write; the world is suddenly concentrated on my screen and my fingers and the words in my mind and my ideas are just so alive because everyone else is asleep. A lot of the time, these ideas are nonsensical and will stay in my drafts folder until I feel like deleting them. A lot of the time, these ideas will be edited and improved and posted, making up a large majority of content here. A lot of the time, they will just be posted because I am full of raw creativity and talent god damn it.

P.S. It’s night time now.

8 Songs I'm Listening To A Lot Right Now

In all honesty, I don't even know what has compelled me to write this post. Oh wait! Could it be my like for sharing music with people - referred to as "Laura is forcing me to listen to her music" by said people - and my general boredom with life?

Anyway, here are 8 songs that I really, really like right now. They're not particularly "summer" songs per say, but I guess they are my Songs For August, handpicked out of my "recently played" playlist on iTunes. Download link at the bottom if you want, enjoy!

(1) Foster The People - Helena Beat.
They exploded in popularity recently, most notoriously for 'Pumped Up Kicks,' but god, I love this song. Sing along at the top of my lungs to the chorus every time deal with it won't stop etc.

(2) O.A.R - Love & Memories
Apparently like everyone else, according to the comments of this particular video embed, me and Portia discovered this through watching She's The Man at three in the morning. You know a song's good when you pause a film to google search lyrics.

(3) Jack's Mannequin - Doris Day
I will never stop loving Jack's Mannequin. Such an adorable, 'summery' song. Note to self: 'summery' isn't really an adjective. Perhaps you should stop using it as such.

(4) The Airborne Toxic Event - Gasoline
Recently started listening to TATE again. Am glad I made this decision. Chorus has my favourite melody ever. The word 'gasoline' seems really cool now.

(5) The Fratellis - For The Girl
In love with not only The Fratellis, but the chorus of this song too. I get the "la la la la la la la la la," (Count them. I did sing that out loud to get the number of 'la's right,) bit stuck in my head for days and I don't even care because it makes me so happy.

(6) Golden - Farewell Fighter
Why am I so addicted to the intro in this? And the outro (ESPECIALLY!!!). And the in-between. This is just pretty. Maybe I'll listen to some of their other songs sometime, if I can move past this one, (probably not.)


(7) The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray
I love his voice. And this song. I'm running out of this to say. (If you cannot already tell.)


(8) The Format - Sore Thumb
Just for the "YOUR SORE THUMB," bit because the tune just makes me happy and I feel really deep and meaningful for a few seconds.

Monday, August 22, 2011

University Packing List (Decor is fun.)

My Internet has been acting up to no end recently, so in the times when it is too slow for me to bear, I've taken to writing lists and lists, (nothing new,) of things I'm packing and planning to bring to uni. My best friend Lizzy leaves at the end of this week, so her packing has gotten me packing. We plan to have our last hangout on Saturday night watching Disney movies, eating cheese, and crying so hard our tears will flood hong kong. (loljk they would just evaporate in this heat anyway.)

One of my lists was "Decorations for Uni room," because I'm a sucker for personalizing and making things I own pretty: naturally, my own room will be the biggest victim of this.

Lately, I have become obsessed with decorative jars. I found this project on Designsponge and having seen the collections of cute jars available for cheap at Japanhome, have decided to attempt this. Even if this doesn't work, (probably, as even if I use candles, I suck at DIY,) I can use jars to store my ridiculous stationary collection and other things.


I have also, this summer, been slowly polaroid-ing photos on photoshop, because I am a great dirty cheat don't actually own a polaroid camera. Instead, I edit photos onto polaroids and get them printed as such, which works out well for me, as it means I can stalk myself back into 2009 on Facebook and choose photos which have attached to them fond memories, (aka photos I don't look hideous in.) I know it's such a cliché thing to have loads of photos up but I really love it, not just for the ooh-look-how-many-friends-and-fun-times-I-have showing off factor, but because It'll be a nice reminder of home and oh-my-god-I'm-becoming-nostalgic-already.


I've got a few sets of fairylights that will be coming with me, just to cement my room as a hipster-tumblr-room, (caught. I do actually spend so long lurking the decor tag on there.) So whilst those are sorted, all that I have to do is go down to Happy Valley and get my "polaroids" developed and buy jars to paint and decorate. I can't believe I still have over a month, that's so long. (My dad has said we'll probably book a flight for the 30th as he can't get work leave. Move-in day is 1st October. I foresee a few hectic days.)

And now my best friend is leaving and me and Es are planning the most amazing week as her last week. I guess a month seems like a super long time, but it might go by really fast as it's going to be my last month "home." Or maybe not, as, you know, whenever you look forward to something, time seems to just creep. And I'll have finished Game of Thrones by tomorrow - if the rest of the episodes download - so I don't even have anything to watch. Fuck.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Love and Memories


Have you ever discovered a really, really good song? And then you download it, put it on your iPod, play it all day, get it stuck in your head forever, sing lyrics at seemingly-nonsensical times, and put lyrics from this song down as - say, for example, - a blog title? No? Me neither.

Portia has departed back to the hometown today, full of (hopefully,) memories of an insane trip, plenty of eventful stories, - none of which present me or my friends as particularly sane - quite a large collection of new material possessions, and a tiredness that may or may not have to do with the fact we stayed up until four AM watching videos of Ellen on Youtube and sending ourselves into hysterics.
We pretty much tailored today, her last day, around ensuring that her very last proper meal in Hong Kong with me was at New York Fries, marking this our third visit this week. New York Fries can be summed up as Mount-Olympus-God-Worthy French Fries doused in cheese and sour cream and tomatoes, topped with pure happiness.

This week went by pretty fast - for Portia at least. We had an eventful few nights out, one of which ended with Portia, Esme, Sel and Lizzy getting food poisoning from kebabs. White-faced and cold-sweating, Portia was dragged and blindly navigated from Tsim Tsa Tsui back to my house because I was afraid she was getting delirious. At this time, both of us were unsure of what she had, (pretty sure she was unsure of anything at that time. She now states that the verb to best describe how she felt is "melting,") but we assumed it was flu. After exiting Space Wheel at Ocean Park, I came to find that Esme and Portia had figured out that it was the kebabs and had additionally bonded over their food poisoning.

After showing Portia a few of my stop motions, we decided to do one of her trip, and decided to start with that very night. Because I am paranoid - and as you shall see, for good fucking reason, - I brought my family's small camera and my big memory card as a spare, (dumb, dumb, dumb.) Took enough photos of us and myself that made me want to cry as I looked at them in the morning and sarcastically wondered aloud how I could ever be single.


Lian and Bryce were there too, and I don't know what it is about Lan Kwai, but every time I'm there, I just end up really, really tired. I need the feeling of security to sleep, so I'm not a person who can just pass out and damn the consequences. Instead, I like to keep my friend's night fun by whining and complaining that I am exhausted every three seconds and threatening to fall asleep, (but not actually doing it.) That was, of course, sarcasm, as it is no fun and I always win the award for Most Annoying Human Being Ever when I get into moods like that. Went home and literally passed out once I'd reached my bed and woke up feeling like shit for the first time ever - but, I blame my Dad for the bad margaritas he gave us at 7.30 that night during a family dinner party, because I stay forever classy by downing tequila at family dinners in front of the kids.

Tuesday Night was of course - oh GOD! says the crowd - $10 Tuesday and Lizzy's first night back - oh GOD! x2 says the crowd - so anyone who knows me or my friends at all, can imagine how that night went. To be fair, I was not that bad myself. According to Esme, I was not bad in terms of drunkness - tipsy was as far as it got really - but in behaviour, I switched into straight up bitch mode and just messed around with people all night. Whilst I may be a questionably bad person whilst intoxicated, the rest of my friends were so trashed that they really inspired me to write this post. Esme, (Mother Drunk,) took it upon herself to make everyone eat kebabs, (food poison,) and bought loaves of bread from 7-11, which she literally put in our mouths and ordered us to "Chew, then swallow." Me and Portia were home by 2am, which is the earliest I've ever been home after a night out. Tipsy me then enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich and water and woke up feeling perfect, to all my sick friend's annoyances perhaps.

Yesterday we headed to Ocean Park. We'd assumed we'd be out that night and therefore decided to meet at 12pm to go into the park, which may be Number #1 on the list of Really Dumb Decisions You Should Not Make. Bastard sun took this grand opportunity to punish me for all the times I've hidden indoors this summer and shone with full vigour, tinging my skin red and making us all so grumpy, irritable and hot that we lined up in a ride for 40 minutes just because it was a water ride. (And it was new. New things are cool.)

I am usually a massive wimp when it comes to rides and I'd stated early in the day that I would not go on the new ride, so of course, I find myself in line for it later. After an awful 20 minute wait - awful due to me scaring the shit out of myself, not the waiting time, which isn't bad for Ocean Park - I find myself strapped in, chanting "I'm going to die on this ride, I'm going to die on this ride," for all to hear. The screaming started as soon as the floor moved away and ended as soon as I realised that I was not even scared, at which point, it turned into insane cackles that may have slightly worried Chris and Ollie.

With the adrenaline rush that came after me jumping around and slapping myself in line for 20 minutes, we of course, went on the other ride I swore I wasn't going on and went on it - the turbo drop. A relatively small one, but usually not my favourite regardless - although it may be now, after I went on with Ollie, who is afraid of heights, and Esme. After being strapped in, Esme glanced up and decided no, she did not want to go on this ride after all, and tried to get off. Upon finding herself trapped, panic arose, although Ollie reassured her that the guy would come around again and she could ask to get off. Straight after this, the ride started going up, and Esme's acceptance of her fate was summed up with her "Okay. Nevermind then."

The entire panic - no, the entire day, including all the heat and waits, were worth it to hear the scream that came out of Ollie's mouth. Chris, Lizzy and Portia later said they thought it was me or Esme, (I shouted "WHAT'S UP BITCHES!" but they apparently did not hear,) as it was er, a relatively high-pitched scream.



So now all I'm left with is an empty room, and a lot of videos to print-screen and stop-motion, (my fingers can barely contain their excitement already!) A ton of new songs, and a full stomach, (I've forgotten what hunger feels like, to be honest.) I've been talking aloud to myself more than usual in compensation for the silence in my room and the lack of another person's voice, but can rest assured that I can have intense lone karaoke sessions with iTunes again. Will I be the most hated dorm-mate-thing in university? Maybe.


Thursday, August 18, 2011

Another Damn “Types of Drunks” Article Because There Aren’t Enough Already.

Google it. There are countless articles and pages and lists and infographs describing the different types of drunks there are, and they usually involve similar titles: happy, crying, angry, horny etc. However, each person’s experience surrounding drunks is, of course, a personal one, and I feel it is about time I add my own variations based on the people I go out with, and the people I encounter.

No, I will not divulge who is who.

Denial Drunk

No, Denial Drunk is not fucking drunk and fuck you if you think they are. Can’t you see them shaking their head and screaming at you that they’re completely sober? LOOK. They’re walking in “A Straight Line,” now, an act that, combined with them chanting “NOT DRUNK, NOT DRUNK,” just looks a lot like they’re doing a tribal dance. (Straight line my ass. You’re dancing in fucking circles.)

Angry/Confrontational Drunk

This drunk, upon intoxication, will suddenly recall every single moment they have been wronged their entire life, and feel the need to confront every single problem they have ever faced right at that very moment. Did you accidentally cause them to stub their toe on the right side of the bed frame three weeks ago? Well TOO BAD, are you going to get your comeuppance tonight! That little rough patch you had a few years ago which you thought was well over? Angry/Confrontational Drunk wants to dig it out of its grave and beat it ‘til it’s blue. No one is safe: friends, enemies, exes, that teacher who graded them badly on their grade 8 chemistry exam, or their Uncle James who dropped them on a head as a baby. You, and everyone else present at the time, shall feel the neverending wrath of Angry/Confrontational Drunk.

Weepy Drunk

Perhaps the more passive aggressive version of Angry/Confrontational Drunk, but with a brand new twist: instead of blaming everyone and everything for all the problems in the world, they chose to blame themselves. From global climate change, to the fact that Sarah’s boyfriend dumped her, Weepy Drunk will take on the burden of all the world’s problems onto their own shoulders, and then cry and complain about them for the rest of the night. When they eventually run out of things to blame themselves for, they will simply move onto crying over the most obscure things – such as the fact F.R.I.E.N.D.S ended, or the last jar on the shelf at a supermarket that must be feeling so lonely because no one wants to take it home.

Horny Drunk

Here is one that always makes the list: horny drunk. Horny Drunk can be anyone: the local manwhore with the shitty reputation, or your prude friend who blushes crimson whenever someone says the word ‘penis.’ Something about the lights and atmosphere and bubbly feeling and, well, all the other Horny Drunks bring out, (or emphasize, if Horny Drunk doubles as Horny Sober as well,) the inner slut. Put your beer goggles on, because standards are at an ALL TIME LOW, Tonight’s Special Only! … Or maybe not just tonight, because after all, this is always the friend who always winds up in the corner sucking face with that one person everyone has been trying to avoid all night.

Neverending Party Drunk

This is either one of two people: that person you see every, single time you’re out, but they never remember you because they apparently are never sober, or that friend you all make sure is out every time because they are a fucking rave. Or both simultaneously. This is the person who does not, despite all their experience, know their limits. (Or if they do, just do not give a shit about said limits.) Often the most entertaining, and most likely to be the one passed out in a corner by the time it hits 1AM. Newbies may then express concern, but all the bar/club veterans will simply pat them on the head and say, “Don’t worry, that’s just Neverending Party Drunk!”

Friendly Drunk

A step down from Neverending Party Drunk, Friendly Drunk is just out to have a good time; and for them, a good time is going around and increasing their social circle – at least, just for the night. Friendly Drunk will be the one to interrupt your deep conversation with Weepy Drunk to compliment you on your shoes, or will bound up and introduce themselves, ending their introduction with a slightly slurred, “You are soooooo cool. We tooooootally have to hang out sometime!” These are all, of course, unintentional falsities: Friendly Drunk will wake up in the morning with a shitstorm of new phone contacts and friend requests, and have absolutely no clue as to who any of them are.

Mother Drunk

Mother Drunk is the one with the maternal instinct that kicks in, creating a compulsive need to make sure everyone is alright. Usually however, Mother Drunk is probably just as drunk as the people they are trying to look after. Whilst their intentions are always good, the definition of ‘Look After,’ also depends on Mother Drunk’s own intoxication levels. They may throw you in a cab, shout your address and wave goodbye. They may follow – and who can blame them, because I do as well – the urban legend that bread and water after a night of drinking helps stop the hangover, and force feed you bread, making you chug water until you feel like your bladder is about to burst, getting increasingly hysterical every time you argue – “But there’s no ROOM in my STOMACH.” Depending on who, once everyone is safely home – perhaps accompanied by an influx of “HI ARS U GOME##” text messages – they may or may not simply pass out on the street themselves.

Bonus: Helpful Drunk

Similarly to Mother Drunk, Helpful Drunk – or perhaps, better known as Helpful Tipsy – is that friend who never gets quite as drunk as everyone else. You’ll spot them all around: consoling Weepy Drunk after she had a run in with Angry/Confrontational Drunk, holding back Neverending Party Drunk’s hair as they repeatedly spew quarts of cocktails, pulling Horny Drunk away from The Creeper Everyone Has Been Warned About, and doing bread and water runs for Mother Drunk. Whether it is just their altruistic nature, or something to do with the smaller amount of alcohol they’ve consumed, they often become the Blessed Angel of the night. If you have one of these around – provided that you aren’t Helpful Drunk,- it is no doubt that they are the reason why your drunk, incoherent ass managed to get itself home, changed, and in bed. Will be the most appreciated of friends the next morning.

Dear Summer,



You gave me blue skies with fluffy clouds, the picture-perfect ideal image of Summer. You gave me the blistering sun; a ball of fire that crossed the line between tanning and killing and the reason for the sweat that ran down everyone's arms and made physical contact nauseating. You doubled the electricity bill during the last few months; money going into hours spent sitting in front of the air-conditioner as we happily contributed to global warming for the price of staying comfortably cool.

You gave me a change in friendship groups and I found people I did not actually despise for a change. You gave new trips and memories stored digitally in Facebook albums with quirky names and a full stomach at the end of the day. Inside jokes and long-winded stories that were severely unfunny to all but ourselves. Rainbow cakes and alcohol-induced bubbly feelings that had us giggling like idiots. IKEA trips and deep conversations concerning nice topics that I cannot remember.

You gave me nights out with frauded pieces of paper and that awful sinking feeling in my stomach. The absolute joy and hilarity that only comes when two of your friends hook up. Bruises on my leg that faded and would come back with a vengeance in the same spot the very next week. Kisses at night that led to awkward encounters in the morning and the whispers and giggles and knowing looks that come from all of friends of the involved parties and the "Dear Drunk Me, I Hate You," mental notes you would scrawl in the morning.

You gave me a hard heart in dealing with patience and a higher tolerance for dealing with annoying. Witty retorts that only came to me about five hours too late and copy-paste sessions on skype where we dissected every line. You gave me skype sessions which turned into impromptu duets to Katy Perry songs and I played guitar and made the video call recipient sing along. Whiny texts that I replied to with disdain and then would laugh about later with my girl friends as girls do.

You gave me a future in the form of my results arriving and a place at my university and something to look forward to. Lists of things to buy and things to do Things I Promise I'll Be By The Time University Starts But Probably Not Because I Suck At This Kind Of Shit. You gave me a flutters that went away as soon as it came and turned my likes into dislikes and my hates into loves.

You gave me a reason to look forward to Autumn and Winter. Upcoming upheavals and a complete new location. A new lifestyle and new people and something different than the mundane repetition of my past seventeen years. Same old same old.

You gave me a different summer this year than last and the year before. An end to my final school year and a break after exams. Three transition months between high school and university and before I leave my home forever. Sad Goodbyes to my nearest and dearest and Fond Farewells to the people I thankfully won't have to see again. Good memories that outweigh the bad ones and content topic for a cheesy article to paste on my blog. In all: not too bad. I guess.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Playing Tourist

Pre going-out post. I hereby prophecize that tonight shall be good. Next entry shall confirm/deny.

As any readers who actually keep up to date with me may know as I have mentioned it countless times, my friend Portia has come from England to grace Hong Kong with her presence! I met her in March and we discussed how fun it would be to have her here and surprise - it has become a reality.

Arrived after 24 hours of traveling last Wednesday. Short nap. Out that night because I'm a mean person it would be the best way to kill jetlag. Insanely fun night and has raised her expectations of nightlife in Hong Kong - humidity plus stronger drinks plus travel tiredness led to her being a fair bit drunker than she'd expected. This is what kept me on tipsy instead of drunk - worrying about other people, and I've found out that whilst I'm the sweetest drunk ever, tipsy Laura is just a ~sassy bitch~ with pretty good comeback lines. (According to me.)

Day after we paid a visit to Mong Kok to do a spot of shopping - perhaps some bad timing as maybe Portia spent a fair bit too much money. Some fun wanderings and comparing. She loves it here but I sort of can't wait to leave. Lots of laughing. Watching Jawbreaker, invoking a brilliant interaction from Portia - oh my god, people who get really into movies are the best, especially when you know what's already happened.

This picture is almost just picture of my life. Strawberry bubble tea and being awkward.

Taking touristy photos for Portia to upload. (That would be weird, for me to upload shit that people see all the time. Not really. But it's cooler for her.)


Number 1 item on my wishlist has been heart-shaped glasses for ever. In my dreams, they were always red but alas, store had every colour but red. Went with blue. Matches my hair. (Hair needs to be redyed, fuck.)

This day, (from photo above,) was peak day. Portia got up lateish as jetlag was kicking in, so we took it easy and went up to the peak. Waited 10 minutes in line for the peak tram, rounded a corner, saw the length of the line and promptly decided 'fuck this shit.' Continuous changing of plans - thanks Lian and Bryce - meant we just got a bit of food, looked at the view, took artistic panoramic photos, and then left.


Actually my favourite view ever. We took "touristy" photos of Portia but she didn't like them so we pixelated her face and we literally spent ten minutes laughing our heads off at how funny we were and how amusing we found it.

Tonight is a Saturday night in Lan Kwai. Excited as hell. Running a bit late because someone decided to type up a blog entry whilst Portia sorted out an eyelash crisis. Have another family over here for a family gathering so we've been downing tequila since 7.30 in front of the kiddies. Got a case of the mad giggles and then sobered up slightly, only to get tipsy again whilst getting ready. ~Bottoms up~

Monday, August 8, 2011

Oh, Mr. Moon

Accompanied by a summer soundtrack consisting of The Fratellis, Eisley and Foster The People, today was the day me and Savannah finally had the photoshoot we'd been planning for ages. "Planning" has consisted of us linking cool pictures to each other and brainstorming random ideas, few of which actually made an appearance today, as following the same pattern with everything I do, no plans seem to work and everything is made up on the spot.

Fruit which was turned into fruit salad, and so much make-up that I'm certain my skin is going to be atrocious for days. Make-up remover is incredibly satisfying and several face scrubs later, I'm still a bit red.



I don't usually (okay, ever,) do straight picture posts; instead I disperse text in between chosen photos as I usually end up posting most, (only my favourites now that I've found out that I have a limit,) on my flickr, facebook, and queued on tumblr.

Which is strange; this is my blog and where I should be free to post exactly whatever I want without bothering people blah, blah.



Had the best seven hour skype session with my best friend Chris in America on Saturday. Ended up doing duets to Katy Perry and Lady Gaga covers. It's been over a year now and I'm pushing - defined by CHRISSSS GET A JOB SAVE MONEY - for a reunion come next Summer. Next year will be full of cute reunions. Ahh, i'm getting overexcited about leaving again.

But I don't feel bad about it now that I know I'm definitely leaving.



This is weird. I'm not typing in chronological order, I'm just spacing out text between photos. Whatever.

Bit of indecision and fickleness on my end over here; i'm beginning to justify everything with, "IT'S OKAY, I'M LEAVING SOON." I'm not feeling bad enough to feel guilty, but a little unsettled. This is my cryptic-vague blogging which makes sense to none other than me, but maybe one day I shall read back on this and laugh and pat myself on the back.
Either that or shake my head in shame.



Although I'm a bit of an inspiration-nerd when it comes to Photography - don't ask what's up with that phrase either. It just came into my head and I wrote it down. A practice maybe I should stop, - this was my first proper 'shoot' I guess. Even though it was mainly for fun (which it was.) And I didn't work in a total professional manner etc. but my favourite part of 'photography' is the post-processing anyway, (minus the bit where I'm agonizing sorting through photos because I look dumb and stupid in every single one of them.)

Asides from the bright, fruity photos, I also wanted to try a high-exposure, high-contrast black and white shoot. We splattered on some paint and drew hands but I only took a few. Tester shot, I suppose.




It's been too hot to leave the house recently and I haven't run in ages and I feel bad about that but actually, right now I don't care because it's just so hot. Yesterday was productivity spent reading Game of Thrones on my bed right next to my fan.

Tomorrow will probably be the same.