2014: A Personal Reflection

Salaam and hello everyone. Today is the 31st of December 2014, which is the last day of the year.

It is said that the year 2014 had been a sad year for Malaysians. It started out all right, in my opinion. I was happy and contented in the beginning, and I had anticipated for more great things to come.

 But as the year progressed through, a series of unfortunate events had began to happen, firstly (and foremost) started with the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370. I remember thinking about it every night. I couldn't sleep. This is just unbelievable. Like what our Defence Minister had repeatedly said, this situation is 'unprecedented'. I prayed hard that they will find the plane. But then again, even if the truth behind its disappearance won't be revealed in this world, ever, I could at least be assured that everything will be revealed in the akhirah,insya Allah.

A few months later when us Malaysians (and the world) were about to slowly accept whatever outcome and conclusion from this event, another Malaysian plane and more innocent souls were lost in the MH17 tragedy. It was during the month of Ramadhan, and I didn't remember when was the last time I cried that hard, or felt that sad. This sadness was doubled with the plights of our brothers and sisters in Palestine who had suffered so much for so many years, most recently during this year's Ramadhan.  I felt so helpless. Is there anything that I could do? Watching Mufti Ismail Menk's video "The Tragedy of MH17: Our Response as Muslims"! had managed to soothe my aching heart.

It seems like this year is a bad year for us all regardless of nationalities. Many accidents and tragedies had happened. The crash of Air Algiers, plus another Taiwan-bound flight (if I'm not mistaken), the heartbreaking Ferry Tragedy in South Korea involving the lost of lives of innocent school children, and just recently, the alleged crash of Flight QZ8501 of which the bodies of the passengers were discovered at the sea. The whole world is mourning.

As for the Sports section, our team had given less than satisfactory performances in the Commonwealth and Asia Games, and that two of our athletes had been tested positive in  drug doping test.

The monsoonal changes, in addition to the massive deforestation and global warming had led to one of the most bad cases of flood in Malaysia. Hundreds of thousands of people had lost their homes and properties. Some, most devastatingly, had lost their loved ones. May Allah give them strength to overcome this. Ameen.

These are some of the major events that had tugged my heartstrings.As for personal stuffs,  well there had been one bad experience. It had been so bad that I think I won't ever recover from it, completely.

But not all there is about 2014 had been that bad. Nicol David, for example, had captured her 8th World Title and we finally have our own first Nobel laureate! 

 Life in this temporary world isn't meant to be perfect, but it is not that bad either, you realized, especially when you are grateful with what you have, as compared to the others who are less fortunate.

So, I would like to reminisce the good things that happened to me in the year 2014.

In no specific order: 

My First Winter Experience in China. A memorable class trip. I visited many historical places, climbed up the Great Wall of China, got into verbal fights with the rude sellers of Silk Street, almost got conned by the Pearl sellers of Olympic Stadium and played ski for the first time!

Family trip to Sabah and Labuan. Ate lots of good foods, snorkelled in two different islands, got stung by a jellyfish, encountered a dangerous experience of almost getting washed away by the big lapping waves, enjoyed long road trips from Kota Kinabalu to Kundasang and other parts of KK, took a boat to WP Labuan and hey, I had finally covered all 14 states of Malaysia! :)

Fun at Legoland Malaysia. I enjoyed the water park and theme park. As a 'thrill rides' enthusiast, those so-called thrilling rides are not thrilling enough for me hahaha. I prefer the rides in Universal Studio Singapore (Battlestar Galactica).But all in all, it had been fun! :)

Jalan-Jalan Penang where I indulged in good foods and visited interesting places.

Singapore. Wedding. Orchard Road. And we went to Studio Jalan Ampas! If you're a fan of P.Ramlee's films and classic black and white films in general, you'll know the significance of this place.

Spent 6 weeks in Pekan and Pekan Hospital for the Hospital Attachment subject. Got into a dispute with a lecturer from KOM. :P. And she complained to my kulliyyah saying a Pharmacy student had been rude towards her hohoho. Heyyy I was just defending my lecturer(you were rude towards her in the first place) and our rights as the pharmacy students there! I can't stand injustice. I really couldn't. Hope I can survive working at the hospital!

Plus, I 'befriended' a mentally 'special' patient called Sabri. :) All of us adored him, actually. He was like a younger brother to us.

Aaanyyywaayyy, the only place of interest we've been to over there was Muzium Diraja Pekan hahaha...But I had fun living under the same roof with my friends of which I could now call my family. (Ten of us sharing a house with a single functioning bathroom/toilet!)  Hardships had brought us closer. :) I miss them already! And the routines and memories we had there! :')

Ice skating again! After so many years! (At the newly opened IOI City Mall, Putrajaya) This time I was skating like a pro as I didn't fall even once! :P

Pergi kursus kahwin. All of us Pekanized gang went there because two people in our gang were getting married (they're married now, Alhamdulillah) and they needed to attend this compulsory course. So, kira teman diorang la. This going to marriage course thing is not that significant but heyy, it's something new! At the end of this course, we were required to sit for a so-called exam hahaha. And some of the questions are very funny!

Graduation/Convocation.
Alhamdulillah, after 4 years of stress and agony, I finally graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons.) with Upper Second Class Honours yaayy!!! And the best thing was that I graduated with my brother Syafiq! (His course is only for 3 years).

I had my braces taken off after being sentenced to 3 and a half years of teeth imprisonment!

Germany won FIFA World Cup 2014 like finally!!!!

I got my own car hahaha. Alhamdulillah. Thanks mom, thanks dad!

Replaced this classic phone below with a new one. 'Smarter' one, geddit? It's a graduation and birthday gift from my parents. I love my new phone! I am so blessed, Alhamdulillah.

Got myself a Tab. To be precise, a Galaxy Note 8.0. Typing this very post on this tab now. My 6 years old (and counting!)  Laptop had been warded since late October.  Discharged but haven't collect it yet.

Read a total of 23 books this year. But I didn't complete my Goodreads Challenge of reading 100 books a year. Actually I had read more than 23 books, but not new books, get it? I have this habit and tendency to revisit my favourite books.

76 books behind schedule? Hahahaha

In 2013 however, I had read 34 out of 40 books. So for the duration of 2 years, I had read a total of 57 books yaay!

For 2015, I'm just going to set my goal to 12 books per year. A pretty realistic goal, right? :) Meaning, I must finish at least one book a month. 

I had just recently discovered my love towards art. I've always thought that I'm more of a musical person rather than an 'artistic' one. Thanks to the talented Mandy Wang, I had suddenly got interested in artsy stuffs and I've decided to take this newly-found passion seriously! :D Still a long way to go though. It had barely been a month.

Some of them turned out weird. They are not failures. They make up a path towards perfection. :) 

Crocheting. I was bored. Enough said. I managed to scrape through crocheting a phone case that looks like a chrysalis though. Hahaha. I wanted to try knitting too. I went crazy buying knitting supplies at Daiso. One day, one day.

Improved culinary skills from zero to at least, something. Just you wait, I'm gonna become a domestic goddess/food fairy one fine day muahahaha...

Picking up keyboarding after years of not practising. 80% of Canon in D mastery.

A very short video I posted on Instagram.

I learned German on Duolingo. Level 7. In progress. Again, I abandoned the lesson halfway. ZzzZzzzz....But it's quite easy, really. 

 Ich lese ein Buch. Der Junge trinkst das Wasser. 

Bars tak full sebab lama tak practise.

2015 Resolution: Complete the German language course and pass the exam! 

So basically,  that is all. There are more memorable things I had experienced, I'm sure. Even the smallest of rezeki/bounties and nikmat are very valuable and precious. I could not afford to lose even a bit of it. Thank you Allah, for everything.

After looking at all the good things that had happened to me in 2014, I feel extremely grateful for the life I'm living now. Alhamdulillah. Our parents had been working so hard to ensure we are living a comfortable life and we are very thankful to them for all these. :')

2014 had generally been a bad year for us all. But like I said, it's not that bad either. By counting the blessings that I have received(too many of them!), I know that there is a reason of me being placed in such a fortunate position in this world. I have a role to play. I must share the blessings and gifts Allah s.w.t had given me with the less fortunate ones. Insya Allah. Please pray that Allah would give me strength to help others. Please make this path easy for me. Ameen. 

I have a feeling that the year 2015 will be great year, insya Allah! My wish and hope for this coming year is to create more memories, gain more valuable experiences from my daily life or places I've been to, to polish up my existing skills/interests. To take up a new skill. To be a much better person. To be more organized.

I miss my laptop! It's been such a painful ordeal to type long sentences in this tab.

Oh wow, it's a pretty long post. The year 2014 summed up in one blog post.

Have a year full of Barakah everyone! :) 

Graf-Von Faber-Castell Boutique @Orchard Road

A few days ago,  I went to Ion Mall located at the famous shopping street of Orchard Road, Singapore.

The design of the building is quite modern and futuristic. At the front of the mall; just before the entrance, there was a pretty Christmas-themed set, decorated with sweet and quirky-looking props. :) 

It reminds me of the illustrations in Dr Seuss's books. 

*sings* Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose

Ion Mall hosts shops and boutiques of renowned, prestigious brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dolce and Galbana, and Salvatore Ferragamo, to name a few. 

But of course, I wasn't there to shop for those branded designer items. 

The main purpose of my visit there was to buy the Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencils that I had been eyeing for since the last 2 weeks. 

Presenting, the Graf-Von Faber-Castell Boutique @Ion Mall, Orchard Road Singapore. 

It's quite small

In this little wonderful place, you could find many exclusive, expensive pens and stationeries made by this famous stationery maker from Germany. 

Expensive pens displayed in glass panelled shelves. They probably cost about thousands of dollars! @___@

Faber-Castell Polychromos Range yaay! On the top left shelf is where you can find the coveted luxurious colour pencils

Pens for Manga/Comics drawing

This full Artist's Set costs SG$ 3000++! 

(Can't remember the exact price) 

I walked out of the shop with the dark-green Faber-Castell carrier bag containing this:

Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencils(set of 60's)!!!!!

The price is SG$ 212.00, inclusive of GST. Yeah, if you didn't know, there's GST in Singapore too.

My precioussss!!!! *stroke stroke stroke*

Yup, it's expensive. But I feel satisfied and happy. Some people find joy in splurging on the latest gadgets, handbags, jewellery, clothes and make-ups (not that there's anything wrong in doing so) and then there's me, who finds delights in spending on things some people couldn't seem to fathom the reason why would anyone spend so much on them; like books, and colour pencils.

I'll put them to good use, insya Allah. :) 

So, I've tried experimenting with the selection of colours available, also with the help of a Pinterest tutorial to finally come up with this. :

'The Eye' gagagagaga

All right, so I couldn't quite get the lashes, xD but anyway, the colours are so vibrant and beautiful! These colour pencils are so much different from the ones I've always used. They are very smooth, the (soy-bean)oil-based lead glides effortlessly on the surface of the paper. The feeling was euphoric, similar to when you're devouring a scrumptious delicious meal. Hehe. 

Of course, more practises are needed. There were times when things didn't work out, leaving you in frustration.  But it's okay. :) 

Like what Walt Disney said, 

'KEEP MOVING FORWARD!" 

The Klutz at the Wedding

For the past one week, I had been spending my time away from home, all for the purpose of attending a relative's wedding in Singapore, and also to have fun along the way there (LEGOLAND!!) XD

So, after everything was over, we finally left Singapore at about 5 pm and arrived home in Kedah just this morning at 5! FIVE in the morning ( 12 hours journey by car). Upon arriving, I slept for a while before waking up for Subuh, then I resumed my sleep, woke up, unpacked my bags and tidied up the room. And later this afternoon, I went to Farahin's wedding. She is one of my childhood friends and we've been friends since we were nine, when I first moved to Kedah. Fast forward to 15 years later, she's now someone's wife!!! 

Anyway, back to the title of this post. I was never considered as a klutz or someone clumsy but somehow, the klutz that was hidden deep inside me decided to unleash itself on this particular day. 

Upon arriving, Jem, Sri and I went inside the house to see Farahin, aka the bride and on the bridal dais, we saw her and her husband posing for photos with other people. 

They looked so preoccupied at that time and that Farahin didn't realize that we were inside the house. And thus, the evil mischievous klutzy me decided to take a quick chance of this moment. 

I decided to give her the shock of her life (or day) of surprising her by coming from behind the dais, grabbing her on the shoulder and said "GAHHHH!!!!" Hahahaha. 

So I carefully went towards her, walking stealthily at the side of the living room. She was still talking to someone. And then, I saw that she was about to turn her head to her left (where I was walking). Oh no! I decided that I must act fast! I quickly ran up at the left side of the bridal dais and.....

KABOOM!!!! CRASH!!!! 

In the midst of hurrying to carry out my evil plan, my left foot accidentally stepped onto the brightly lit fluorescent lamp on the floor and it was smashed into pieces, with the light simultaneously went off. hahahaha

I intended to surprise her and instead, it was me who got the shock of my life! Not just me. Everyone was so shocked, including Farahin, but not in the way I had expected it to be *sobs*

Everyone in the room was looking at me. 

Oh My God. It was SOOO embarrassing!!! The wedding crasher much? Hahahaha...But not that many people were in the room. Alhamdulillah for that. 

The look of shock and dismay on my face must have been apparent as Farahin kept on assuring me saying "It's okay Sarah, it's okay! It's cheap! (LOL)  Is your foot all right?" 

I inspected my foot and discovered although it hurts a bit, nothing serious happened. So I just left the matter to rest for a while and pretended that nothing happened while we took photos together and ate outside. 

# I went home and upon taking off my socks, discovered that a really minor wound had formed at the sole, but that's it, no glass stuck on my sole or whatever, thanks to the thick socks I was wearing. Alhamdulillah. I've experienced worse anyway.

The second klutzy moment was when I accidentally stepped onto Farahin's long wedding train. Dx

As for the third klutzy moment, when we were outside to again take pictures together, I bumped onto the flower decorations and it fell to the floor. Pffttttt.... 

My friends were commenting on how clumsy and klutzy I was during the wedding. Dx. I guess once you did something clumsy  for the day, it will create a chain reaction which leads to you doing more clumsy acts. 

And after I got back home, I realized that I might have forgotten to put the money into the envelope that I gave her =hence empty envelope. Might be. MAYBE.  I am 10% unsure though. 

After reading all this, I realized that my clumsy acts could be attributed to one main factor: Lack of sleep. It leads to impaired rational thinking and decision making, also incoordination in muscle movements, leading to the occurence of 'a series of unfortunate events' as described above. I didn't fall asleep until it was about 4 am. XD

Okay, end of story. I hope it won't happen again. 

Selamat Pengantin Baru, Farahin and Hazimin. 

Semoga Berbahagia hingga ke Syurga. Ameen. :) 

Messed-up Mulan

It started out all right. I thought it's gonna be simple. Simpler than 'The Incredibles'.

How wrong could I be?

VERY wrong.

Mulan turned out all right. It's just quite difficult to draw her hands. But the real problems lie on the rooftop she's standing on, and the background.  I had to use the ruler to draw the pillars and the roof. It all reminds me of Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu Tingkatan 2. It's complicated, what's with the degrees of slopes and all the measurements needed to ensure that the structures do not turn out to be uneven and unbalanced. blurghh... 

All these led to me being in a tense mood. Hahaha.. No more fun in drawing and colouring. Everything went topsy-turvy.  The colours got all wrongly mixed up and eventually the whole thing turned out bad, hahahaha...and I did try everything I could (within my capabilities) to salvage the messed-up drawing, to no avail. 

And today, I figured out 2 things:

1. It's much more difficult to draw buildings rather than people (animated characters, that is). 

2. My mom is right, I don't have what it takes to take architecture. LOL. Let's just stick to Pharmacy, all right? 

Kudos to all architects out there! You guys are amazing!!! 

Mulan in action.

Messed up nose (again!), backgrounds, roof, pillars, I seriously have no idea what was going on in my mind. Hahahaha.

Hey, keep moving forward, remember? 

The Incredibles

My afternoon project:

Sketched

I chose a picture from google and began copying it by sketching. 

And no, I did not trace/tekap the original picture, hence explaining the abnormalities in body and facial structures hahaha...plus, where's the fun in tracing pictures? 

Drawing/sketching by yourself brings out your artistic ability (so-called, in my case).Through sketching, you're training your once stiff hands to move more smoothly. Thus, you learn more. By time, your skills would have improved a lot. 

Coloured

Painted, recoloured, repainted. 

I used the sketchbook paper instead of the usual thin A4 paper that I used yesterday and hence, too much water used wouldn't pose any problem in regards to the condition of the paper (read: wrinkled) hahaha. 

And I finally figured out what is the best shade of colour used as a base colour for skin tone. It's light pink. Or light peach. 

I had problems drawing and colouring Elastigirl's nose. And so I  ended up drawing an upturned curve for her nose. Simple! 

The colour black is very dangerous, especially when you painted it over with wet brush. It could mix with the lighter colours nearby and the result is disastrous! I had to blot it using tissue paper, recoloured the affected area and repainted them again. 

Another rule of thumb is...

if you are a right-handed person, start colouring/drawing from the left side of the paper. 

If you are a left-handed person, do the opposite. 

Why? You might accidentally smudge your drawing with your palm in the process. Get what I mean? 

All right. Gotta practise more. With that, I bid you good day and Assalamualaikum! :) 

Big Hero 6

After a few discussions with a friend, I suddenly feel guilty for rating 'Big Hero 6' 3 out of 5 stars.

I argued about how the predictable the plot is, and how it doesn't offer a unique storyline. It took me quite some time to finally find the answers to these questions: "What's wrong with the movie?", "Why do I feel kind of 'disconnected' to it?", "Everyone else said that the movie is great! What's wrong with me?"

Suddenly, the truth dawned upon me.

 And I have a confession to make: 

Of course it is predictable! I had read the whole synopsis on Wikipedia and watched all the trailers before I even watched the movie itself! *facepalm*

After reassessing the whole story based on my own memory of the scenes and dialogues in the movie, I gotta admit that 'Big Hero 6' is a great movie, and that I spoiled my own expectations of the movie by reading the spoilers, sadly. 

The fact that I had read the synopsis, watched the trailers and that they kind of affected me emotionally is good enough reason to say that Big Hero 6 is a great movie! 

And then to actually walk in to the cinema with prior knowledge of everything about it and yet expecting more, now that is just too much isn't it? What do you expect? A totally new storyline? 

I read the spoilers out of immense curiosity, lol sorry about that. But see? It shows that I had all along decided that the movie is great even before I watched it. XD 

I hereby pledge that I will never read spoilers again. 

Sorry Baymax. *hugs*

Sorry Daniel...I mean, Tadashi...

Big Hero 6, 8 out of 5.

(Images Googled)

Hiro and Baymax!

So, the last one for today, (I supposed?)

Hiro Hamada and Baymax from 'Big Hero 6'!!!

I used too much water...Dx. 

But I think I got the skin tone right. Please excuse Hiro's 'Joker-like' mouth. 

I've watched Big Hero 6 last week. It was kind of okay. 3 out of 5 stars, LOL. 

All righto...hasta la vista! 

Cross-eyed Rapunzel and Belle having Jaundice

Salaam folks!!!

I don't know why I suddenly got so interested in arts. Perhaps 4 years spent memorizing drugs had led to my right brain being deprived of its rights. And thus, it had been yearning to be fully utilized. "Use me, use your brain! The right one! I mean the right side!"

Thus, I decided to embrace my so-called creativity. I began to search pins about arts and crafts on Pinterest, followed some artsy people on twitter(back then when I was still active) and instagram.

And so this morning after Subuh, I was quite preoccupied in looking at the drawings of this person I just followed on Instagram. She is so talented!!! Her name is Mandy Wang. She called herself 'an aspiring Disney and Marvel artist' so as you can guess, she mainly draws pictures of Disney and Marvel comics characters. And uhm.. she's only 17!! 

Check out her instagram: lovemandywang 

I was so inspired after looking at those beautiful drawings of hers. And so, I decided to follow her footsteps. LOL. 

You know, it's really handy to have a brother who took 'Architecture' in university. He's now working in Singapore so he had left his art supplies at home, in his room. And I gather that he won't be needing them again. XP

All right. And so I screen-captured some of her drawings that I could try to imitate. Here are the two Disney princesses I drew and coloured. It seems like they are suffering from some sort of medical conditions. 

Rapunzel from 'Tangled'.  Apparently suffering from half-paralysis. Cross-eyed, looked like she had a bit of mental problem or that she tried to be goofy, who knows? 

Major flaws: I got her eyes all wrong and her chin too pointy. But she still looks cute kan? :D

Belle from 'Beauty and the Beast'. The original drawing portrayed her to be looking like someone of a Hispanic descent, thus the darker olive shade skin. It turned out all right at first. But I foolishly added layers and layers of other colours and thus leading her to be looking like this. LOL. And why jaundice? She looks yellow-er on paper than in this picture above. 

Major flaws: Eyes, nose, lips, too much distance between nose and mouth. 

Anyway, forget those flaws and errors, I had fun drawing and colouring and painting these 2 pictures! Painting? Oh I used Faber-Castell water-colour pencils. So after I coloured each section, I brushed over it using a paint-brush dipped in water, thus creating a paint-like effect.  Sort of. 

I also scoured through the internet and found many information of the techniques of colouring, using different colours as bases, and so on. I will keep on learning and continue to practise and hone my skills in drawing and colouring. 

I also found out that there are different types of colour pencils. The ones that Mandy Wang uses are the Prismacolours colour pencils and Faber-Castell Polychromo Colour Pencils. They created stronger colours leading to more colourful, vibrant drawings! But they are quite pricey. 12 pencil colours for RM64, and all 120 complete colour set for RM710. 

Never mind, I'll just stick to my Faber-Castell water colour pencils first. You know the saying about 'It's not about what type of camera you use, but it's the person behind the camera'? Ala, lebih kurang la. The same saying could be applied to this. 

All right. Gotta draw more.. adieu! 

I just love 'working' on my bed. :P

Artwork of the day

I was bored, and I need to get my hands working on something.

So I took out some Sharpie pens and a blank A4 paper, intending to produce something artsy, lol.

And the outcome:

Colourful 3D-hand/palm drawing (got the idea from Pinterest)

 I had a great time working on this. It is pretty simple, but it's enough to give me this feeling of satisfaction. Brings me back to the good old childhood days of making arts and crafts in class. :) 

'an artwork a day, keeps the depression away'. 

the braces journey

Assalamualaikum and hello everyone!

An important event had taken place on the 8th of November 2014. Last month, yep. So this post is a little outdated.

And the significant event happened to be that.....

I had my braces taken off! Yaay!!! Metal mouth no more! :D

Though I must admit that I kind of miss wearing my braces. We had been together for almost 4 years and we had grown attached to each other... *sniff*. 

I had started wearing my braces around June 2011. The steps of getting braces are as follows: (plus how I feel about them)

PRE-BRACES

Booked for an appointment with the orthodontist. I did mine at Metro Specialist Hospital, Sg. Petani.

My appointment cards over the years

Came for the appointment on the given date. Doctor checked my teeth condition/diagnose it, lol and make a dental impression of my teeth using that green plasticine-like thing.

Got X rays of my teeth at a different hospital (Hospital Seberang Jaya, Penang).

Two X-Rays: cephalostatic lateral and standard panoramic.

Orthodontist diagnosed again then wrote up a referral letter to the dentist in which tooth should be extracted (scariest part).

Got my teeth extracted. I got two teeth extracted-1st premolars. Wait until 2 months or so for my teeth to be 'healed', get it? 

Came for appointment. Orthodontist checked my teeth again, then he placed in the spacers that will ahem...create spaces between your teeth (usually molars) for the insertion of band.

The blue rubber-band like stuffs are the spacers. 

(Image googled)

 Came over one week later. The spacers hurt, like seriously!  I got a slightly clear idea on how hurt will 'wearing braces' be. 

THE START OF SOMETHING NEW-BRACES!!!!

Then, the moment everyone had been waiting for, getting the braces!!!! The whole process took about an hour. Cementing, gluing, lol...using what kind of sonic beam/rays (I dunno) to put in the brackets on each tooth. And tadaaa... I finally had braces!

Ngeee!!!

(Image googled)

 It doesn't hurt, but wait till you get home *evil laughter*. The pain was unbearable. It was like somebody had punched you in the face and smacked your teeth (only that the teeth did not fall out). The nerves had became all sensitive. I couldn't even properly chew a strand of spaghetti! I couldn't sleep well at night because of the pain. But the pain went away after 3 days, approximately. 

THE YEARS OF WEARING BRACES

Monthly appointments which involved tightening the bands/wires and you had to experience the pain like when you're getting your braces for the first time. 

After about 3 visits, the doctor said there were some problems with my teeth. It's supposed to move backwards but due to some torque/tension/physics stuffs, the opposite happened. So, to rectify the 'damage', I had to wear the TPA (transpalatal arch). It was very uncomfortable. I got food stuck at the top of my mouth (top palate) and I couldn't talk properly(lisp).

Trans-palatal arch

 (image googled)

A series of monthly appointments again. Then the doctor removed the TPA. 

It was on the 1st day of class in my 3rd year that my friends commented on how I looked different and that my teeth condition had improved hahaha. So it took about 1 year plus for you to actually notice the differences braces made to your teeth. 

Continued wearing braces and underwent the monthly ordeals of braces tightening again. I had hoped that my braces could be taken off before my convocation but uhh no, tak sempat... :((

And one thing I realised is that, braces make your mouth look bigger when you're smiling, which is not a pretty sight. Haha.

BRACES-FREE! 

Another visit to the orthodontist and he said that I could have my braces removed for the next visit!!! *throws confetti*

The last visit to the orthodontist. Got the wires, brackets and bands taken off. Cement removed, scaling (the painful horror! D:) and whitening/polishing using the volcanic ash. It definitely felt weird to be able to feel the smooth surface of your teeth when you tongue glided over it. 

The dental impression of my brand new teeth had to be made again to make retainers. Doctor taught how to clean and care for it. And that I have to wear it every night for the rest of my life if I want to have a straight teeth. Like the doctor said 'nothing is permanent in this world'.

POST-BRACES AND RETAINERS

Enjoyed several braces-free days while waiting for my retainer. One night, my jaws and teeth got really hurt, just like the 1st time I got my braces. Sudden changes in the movements of teeth, maybe? I was afraid that my teeth will move too much in just a few days and that the retainers won't fit Dx. On the 3rd night without braces, my orthodontist messaged me saying that he had just dispatched the retainers via poslaju just that afternoon. Pffttt... Retainers arrived the next day, 3 days after I had taken off my braces.

(Image googled)

This is an Essix retainers. It's kind of like the Invisalign. It fits over individual tooth like gloves and hold the teeth better as compared to the traditional Hawley retainer. I have to wear it to sleep every night. It was very uncomfortable at first, but I had gotten used to it by time.

Essix retainers when worn 

Hawley retainers

(Both images googled) 

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT BRACES

Before I got my braces, I kind of suffered from a low self esteem. I had to quickly cover my mouth when I was smiling and laughing to avoid people from noticing it. I felt restricted. But no one had pointed out about the undesirable condition of my teeth right in front of my face. My Convent classmates are so kind-hearted hahaha. Growing up, I didn't realize that my teeth were quite...protruding. A friend of mine even said that she loves my teeth because they were straight, LOL.

 Well, it actually started during CFS. One day, a classmate of mine in CFS asked rather sarcastically 

"Don't you want to get braces? " and I good-naturedly said "Yes, I'm gonna get braces, " (we were always throwing sarcastic remarks to each other lol). I had to admit. I was surprised. I thought that no one would notice my teeth condition. Surely, there were much more important stuffs for them to focus on, like...getting good marks for math quizzes? Boy was I wrong...

A male classmate, when describing me in one of his blog posts, said that 'my front teeth are cute' and he admitted that he was being sarcastic about it.

A friend pointed out that my teeth were always prominently shown whenever I was smiling for pictures pfftt...

And to add the salt to the wound (hahaha), during the holidays, my very young cousin innocently and curiously asked me 'Are you wearing false teeth( dentures) ?' right after she saw me laughing profusely at a joke. Kids don't lie okay. 

I was affected by the stupid 'Halimah Jongang' theme song whenever I ate together with my friends at the U-Cafe and the TV would show us this annoying and irritating so-called comedy. It really isn't funny to make fun of other people's physical appearances!!!

Okayla.. Can't imagine? Here you go. Visual aids....this teeth mould was given to me after I had completed my orthodontic treatment.

My teeth before braces:

Front view. Straight, right? Seems like nothing is wrong, right? 

Presenting....

Right lateral view

Left lateral view

Upside down view, LOL. From this, you can see that my upper teeth overlap the lower teeth wayy too much. 

So, I decided to get braces the year after.

(Read the whole process of getting braces again, haha)

And after almost 4 years, I got to say that getting braces is worth  every pain and penny.  So hurray for braces!!!

I'm too shy to put my picture without braces hahaha. But if we ever meet one day, I'll be sure to flash my post-braces winning smile to you!!! XD

Thank you for reading! :D