Review: Yes, they both reached for the gun

Razzle Dazzle them and they'll ask you for more.

As a celebration of ending the first term on Friday, me and my friend went and saw "Chicago".

Having seen and fallen in love with the Hollywood remake of Chicago (2002), you can surely say I had high expectations of the musical.

The musical takes us to the 1920's when jazz, liquor and dance roamed the streets of Chicago. Roxie Hart, a simple mechanic's wife, dreams of a life on stage and the murder of her lover seems to be just the break she'd always wanted. But surely publicity isn't everything especially if you locked in and fighting over the same lawyer as the jazz star Velma Kelly.

Except for being slightly annoyed with Sarah Soeteart's (Roxie) screechy voice, I was peed-my-pants excited about all the actresses and actors. I particularly liked Vivien Carter as Velma who had the most amazing pipes despite her size. The dancers were just simply brilliant (not to mention the male ones -pathetically hot-)

Unlike the movie, the musical didn't have much of the jaw dropping sets and props, in fact they hardly had anything on that square metre of a stage, which was a slight dissappontment. But all in all it was 2 hours of pure joy. Several times during the show I found myself with the biggest grin on my face, that is when I didn't sing along. (Felt kind of sorry for the Swedish couple sitting next to me though).

"Hello, suckers. Welcome back."

Chicago (1997) Chicago Partnership, Cambridge Theatre, London
Performance: 28/01/11

Tiffany

A lesson well learned

The last weekend have really been a complete wreckage but ironically, enlighting at the same time.

I was facebook messaging a classmate on saturday afternoon, asking her about this essay we have for the class. The life defining moment came when she said: Wait I'm confused, didn't you submit it yesterday? I don't think my heart have pounded so fast and hard in my whole life. In cold sweat I rushed into my module webpage to check the deadline for my essay. The deadline was indeed yesterday.

...........................................................

For those few centiseconds the time actually stood still. Completely dazed I tried to understand that it was a fact. That I have not been able to meet a coursework deadline. Nothing int he world could change that fact.

You may ask, what's the big deal? The big deal is, in reality, that how well I may have done on the essay I will only get a D. But that was not the deal for me at that moment, I had screwed up and screwed up big, that was the big deal.

If my parents haven't calmed me down I might have done soemthing drastic or faint. They made me realize that it wasn't the end of the world, because it literally felt like that. Life is long and something like missing a coursework deadline will not define your life. When you make a mistake you'll learn from it and be more careful the next time.

School, education and jobs aren't everything. The truth is that there are infinitely more important things in life. Obvious for you maybe but not everyone feels the same, especially not if you're a psychopath like me. We just have to be reminded every now and then that's all.

Yours truly,
Tiffany

A conference girl

So here's the evidence that I'm actually important. I had my own freaking badge. It was awesome, you should try it sometimes. ;)

I have to say it all went well, no major funny looks or feeling out of place. I mostly sat at the reception greeting people, giving them their badge and a program, almost exclusively to guys in suits with their blackberry glued to their ears. Except for that one that was more interested in the plate with cakes than making calls.

Anywho, in terms of the people I'll be working with, I'm still a bit daunted. And there's a whole lot of "Emily" factors included in that. (Ahem) but I think it's going to be ok once I get to know them better (convincing myself).

I'm going back in 2 weeks time. It's gonan be exciting to see how I'll manage without the help from the previous intern. Gulp.

Sincerely,
Tiffany

The Editorial assistant

I'm delighted to say that I have landed an internship!  It's for a small corporate communication magazine (you know very interesting stuff). Politically correct I'll be the "editorial assistant" (fancy isn't it?) and will basically do a lot of research and just help out with whatever. Still, I'm quite excited (actually bursting with excitment).

The interview went well, i.e I didn't embarrass myself, execpt for the awkward moment when the interview guy (magazine's publisher) found a dead insect in his coffee. And ebfore I knew I was invited to come along the upcoming week.

Tomorrow will be my first day and I'm going to help out at a conference they're holding in Russel Hotel. Formal dressing will be required, which will be fairly interesting since nothing in my wardrobe is particularly formal. With any luck I might not make a total fool out of myself tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Ciao,
Tiffany

Before you ask..

I have to admit, people rarely ask me things. 

They rarely ask me how my day was or what do I like about London or why I'm interested in fashion. You know, questions that I somewhat would like to answer. But because of how the universe loves to be ironic, the few times I've been asked anything they tend to be questions I don't like to answer. The most popular being "are you going to stay in London after you graduate?" or "are you going to find a work placement?"

I hate answering these questions because it makes me think about the future, getting a job, getting a work placement and improving my CV and all of which just gives me acid refluxes.

So let me answer them (hopefully) once and for all.

Are you going to stay in London after you graduate?
I get this so frequently I've even created a model answer, which goes indifferently like this: "Ehm, I don't know. It depends, if I get a job in London I'll stay if not I'll probably go back to Sweden." This is the pretty cut version, which effectively covers the actual answer.

The uncut answer goes something like this: I don't know. I'll probably won't find a job in London because of A) the awesome reputation of my Uni B) my toilet paper to CV, which will leave me with either slaving at McDonald's waiting for better prospects or going back to Sweden living off my parents as I'll search for jobs I'm probably not qualified for because I have a British degree. Of which I'll probably choose the latter because I can't stand the smell of frying oil.

Are you going to find a work placement?
First of all it's not really up to me to decide whether I'll find a work placement or not, is it? They actually HAVE to hire me before too right? But if you could convince someone to hire me that'll be great. Anyway, I usually say I really want to find a work placement. I really do but they're hard to find. The truth is I'm just too busy or lazy to look for them.

However I have some good news, in my absence from for example blogging, sleeping or actually living my life I've sat down to fix my CV and write those stupid covering letters and I've emerged with no less than 2 interviews in the near future. So am I going to find a work placement? Hopefully yes.

Dear Blog,

I loathe you.
I loathe you because you give me anxiety. I loathe you because I never find time to write in you. I loathe you because I can't write anything interesting in you. I loathe you because when I haven't written you in a while I feel like a failed journalist student. I loathe you because no one reads you.  But mostly I loathe you because I feel I am obliged to write in you.

Lots of Love,
Tiffany

This is Asians for you

So embarrassingly enough I've started to watch youtube people, you know silly guys who talks about their lives with a helium voice kind of thing? Anyway, my brother have introduced me to a couple asian guy YouTubers and I actually find them pretty hilarious, especially when they talk about typical Asian things. Obviously everything is exaggerated but it's still oh-so very true. It has made me want to discuss all the weird things we asians do as well.

Let me start with our politeness. Not only does the Chinese language have 2 (at least what I know of) different ways of saying thank you (one for thanking someone who have helped you and the other to thank for something someone has given you), but showing respect to people older than you is probably as important as rice for us (if not more...). One of the most annoying thing especially when I was younger, is greeting people. For example when you go to someone's house you have to greet (say hi) everyone in the house, you don't simply say hello or good day, no you have to call them by a family word, like uncle, grandma and so on. Imagine going to a Chinese birthday party huh?! It gets weirder when the people you have to greet aren't actually your family but your friend's grandpa or uncle's cousin or something, how the hell do you greet them?

Chinese parents love to compare their children with friend's children. It's like "Mom, I scored an A- in maths" "What did Jessica get?"  It's sad really, why aren't we good enough huh? Some of the stuff I had to live with when I was younger was how a friend of mine (unfortunately, son to my parents' friends) got into this kind of fancy high school course and I didn't, I didn't hear the end of that until the end of my high school. I salute every chinese person who've undergone this in their childhood and still have somewhat of a selfconfidence.

Now to the absolute climax with parents' demands of their children. The infamous doctor dream. You can almost call it the "you-have-to-become-a-doctor" syndrome because that's how big it is. If your parents didn't want you to become a doctor (or a lawyer or an engineer) when you were younger you may not be a real Chinese. Is it because Chinese parents want to live their dreams through their children? Don't they ever think that....I don't know..that we have dreams of our own? Would that be possible?

Fast forward to 1:27 for the "You-have-to-become-a-doctor" syndrome.

Songs of 2010

What are traditions if they are not followed, eh? So below I will list the 10 best songs of my 2010.

10. Make A Wave - Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato One of my most played songs during 2010, according to my last.fm anyway. Probably the song that grew most on me, the music video is beyond the cuteness of the world. Kinda sad for their fight.

9. Stop This Train - John Mayer Mayer was a big part of my "new music scheme" of the summer. He's such a hipster artist but I do love the simple and soft sound together with the great lyrics and guitar.

8. Wouldn't Change A Thing - from Camp Rock 2 Well, I'm a sucker for duets. That's it. XD

7. In For The Kill - La Roux Almost frightening how britishfied my music have been lately and La Roux is no exception. Normally I'm not into the whole electro thing but I her songs are so freakin' catchy.

6. Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds Started listening to this after my Breakfast club enlightment. I actually loathe everything 80's especially the music but this song is just too good to neglect.

5. Fire Escape - Diane Birch Think I bought the CD in the beginning of the summer and I totally fell in love with it. This girl's voice is truly amazing. Love the jazzy sound.

4. Make Me Wanna Die - The Pretty Reckless This was introduced to me by a tumlr followee. Thought I had abandoned the rock punk years ago but apparently not. Which was evident as I stood headbanging and singing my hearts out to it for at least 1 week.

3. The Resistance - Muse Just a brilliant brilliant song. Heard it for the first time while browsing through HMV (a hobby of mine nowadays XD). With Uprising, Undiscoled Desires, Time Is Running Out, I've become a Muse hooked.

2. LA Baby - Jonas Brothers What is a song list without the Jonas Brothers? Completely addicted to it when it first came out. It's different and more upbeat than "Lines, Vines and Trying Times", I really like it though.

1. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables - from Les Misérables Haha, did you really think Les Mis would not make the list? It would be rather absurd and I have actually realized how much I talk/listen/watch Les Mis, it's on the verge of a disease. Alas, let me be happy! XD (Yes I'm reading the book now too) Empty Chairs isn't necessarily the best song on the musical, but definitely the one most close to the heart. ;)