Not yet

So much grief.

I want to write.
I've tried.

But it's to soon. Not yet. Not yet.

This past one year feels like it has been all about loss.
Enough God, please.
Please make it stop.
I cannot lose any more.

~vid~

Les Mis : An Obligatory Movie Review

...because I want to.




So.
Les Miserables.

 


Walked into the cinema knowing absolutely nothing about the movie except that it was based off the insanely huge book that I never got around to buying.
I mean, just look at the size of it!

 

I did want to read it as a teen, when I was going through my READ ALL THE CLASSICS phase, 
but my mother was like it's a depressing story, you won't like it.
(she's sort of right...I love happy endings)

So yep.
Never read the book, 
probably did read the synopsis when I wanted to buy the book, but I didn't remember any of it, so.

To be quite honest, I wanted to watch the movie mostly because I wanted to finally know what the story was about.

I knew it was going to be a musical, 
but honestly, I expected there to be some dialogue.
There are like five sentences of plain dialogue in the entire movie! The rest is just singing.
Some of the songs are beautiful, 
but what annoyed me was at some parts they're just saying things to each other in sing-song voices...not properly singing; no tune, no proper melody...just singsong, 
which was annoying.
I mean, at least sing it to a proper tune, or just speak those lines plainly, in normal dialogue.



So.
The story. ..or actually, the performances.
There probably will be spoilers in this post, so you're welcome to stop reading now.
(but honestly, its based off a book. What can I spoil? - quoting Aidan Turner here but yeah)



Oh, but spoiler : Everyone dies in this movie. 



The movie starts off with a song - Look Down, Look Down - which I quite liked.
Almost didn't recognize Hugh Jackman as the slave in the first scene!
Baaaaby :(



I absolutely love Hugh Jackman okay. 
Even despite being upset that he's married to an old woman that I'm insanely jealous of. 
But he's so adorable. And so handsome! *_*

Aaaand I'm digressing.

Then next, we see Russell Crowe. The rigid inspector with all his principles.


Cue annoying singsong dialogue.
At one point I was actually wondering "omg can Russell Crowe actually sing or not?" 
But then he has a song later on in the movie where he sings quite well, so...

So Hugh Jackman has done his time as a prisoner for stealing bread, 
but is supposed to be on parole for life, 
but he runs away and tried to start over from scratch - new identity and all that.


Then they cut to eight years later, where he is now the mayor of another town (way to not attract attention to yourself tho seriously)
And then we meet  Anne Hathaway! 


Poor girl who works in Hugh Jackman's factory, gets kicked out, has to sell her hair, becomes a prostitute to make money to pay innkeepers to bring up her daughter...you get the idea.
SHE WAS SO ANNOYING.
I honestly wanted to be neutral while watching this movie, because everyone made such a big fuss about her performance..I thought it had to be good.
But.
Goodness. She just is so completely annoying.

That song!..I Dreamed A Dream...okay to be fair, I thought she started it off really well, 
but halfway through she sounded like she was about to have an asthma attack, 
and it got really intense and over the top, 
and she had the weirdest facial expressions, 
and omg. wow. no.

To give her credit though, she did sing it live and all, 
but.
her entire performance in this movie consisted of a whole fifteen minutes of completely over the top dramatic acting.

And then Hugh Jackman's character has to go and fall in love with her.
Like.
What.
No.
Why.
But then thankfully she dies. 
(no like really, everyone dies)






But anyway, 
aside from her, 
everyone else was pretty good.

Even the small girl who played her daughter could sing quite well.  

 


Okay, so anyway once she dies, 
Hugh Jackman feels the need to go save her daughter from the mean innkeepers who are bringing her up.

And then Russell Crowe tries to stop him, but he gets away again.


Helena Bonham Carter was the innkeeper's wife (actually didn't know she was in this movie) and was as crazy as ever.
But it fit her role so that was good.
And her husband!
He looked so familiar, and we were cracking our heads trying to think of who on earth the actor was,

and
Sufi : Omg I think that's Borat!
Me : What. No way, they wouldn't put Borat in this movie! Maybe someone who looks like him?

...turns out it was Borat
But I mean. Why would anyone put Sacha Baron Cohen in a movie like Les Miserables!?


But then again, he fit his role, 
and he can sing quite well, so I guess despite my misgivings, the casting was spot-on.


Okay, so Hugh Jackman takes the little girl (Cosette) away from them, 
and decides to raise her as his own child, 
but he must move to a different town again because now Russell Crowe is back on his tail.


 And then there's this song where Russell Crowe decides to sing about trying to catch Hugh Jackman...
...okay, I get that most musicals usually have a recurrent theme song, with different lyrics for different scenes, 
but seriously, 
they could have come up with one slightly different song.
I thought they should have at least made this song sound angry or frustrated or something.
Instead it really came off sounding like Russell Crowe was in love with Hugh Jackman.
So Disney Princess-y.

 

And then, nine years later!
Hugh Jackman and Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) move back into town (WHY. WHY. WHY YOU NO RUN FAR FAR AWAY SOMEWHERE)






And then we meet the innkeepers again,
And Eponine! (the innkeeper's daughter)
The girl who plays Eponine! Samatha Barks.

 
She's so pretty! And she sings really well. *_*
Girl crushhh.

Her song "On My Own" broke my heart :3

And her role!
Unrequited love ahhhh.
All the feels, man, all the feeeels.





There's this guy she's in love with, Marius (Eddie Redmayne, who, apparently the internet is raving about) who instead, falls instantly in love with Amanda Seyfried.

 
Like seriously.
He sees her from across the market place and falls in love immediately, 
and she looks at him and falls in love too.
what.
I mean.
Even hindi movies aren't that bad!

And then they have a love song in a garden and Amanda Seyfried's singing is SO high-pitched ohmygod I had to cover my ears when she hit the high notes.

Then it turns out Marius is supposed to fight in the French Revolution, 


And then there was Aaron Tveit (who was the leader of sorts for the revolution),


who had such a wonderful role, really.

When he died, I almost cried. 
Moar feels :(

But they had a song before they were about to go fight....I thought that one should have been more angry and upbeat too, 
but.
no.
They were singing a ballad about going to fight.

Like seriously.
YOU CAN USE DIFFERENT MUSIC FOR DIFFERENT SCENES.

But anyway, 
there's the fight, 
and Aaron Tveit dies.
And I sniffled.
And Marius almost dies, 
but somehow Hugh Jackman found out that Marius and Cosette are in love, so he goes to join the fight and save his future son-in-law...which he does, 

and then there's this bit with Russell Crowe where Hugh Jackman spares Russell Crowe's life, 
and Russell Crowe doesnt want to be indebted to a criminal, 
so he commits suicide.

I sniffled at that too.
I mean.
He really didn't have to die.
Why couldn't he have accepted that Hugh Jackman was good? They could have had the most epic bromance ever!

But anyway.

There was this one bit before he dies where he goes to see the bodies of all the dead revolutionists, 
and among them is this small boy
(who really was so good in his role too...so adorable! But he dies)


and Russell Crowe takes off his medal of bravery and puts it on the small boy and ...I cried.

All the emotions okay.


And then so Hugh Jackman saved Marius right, 
and then he brings him to Cosette, 
but then he doesn't know Russell Crowe already died, so he thinks he has to run again, 
but he entrusts Cosette to Marius, 

and then he apparently goes to live in the convent.

...in the same town.

This man does NOT get the concept of running AWAY, seriously.

But, 
Marius and Cosette get married, 
and then they find out he's in the Convent, so they rush over, 
and he's dying...
..and then they sing for a bit..
...and he dies.

I cried some more.

The End.




In all honesty, the movie was alright.

I'd rate it like 6 out of 10 or something.
Some songs were really heart-wrenching.
Some were off. Didn't suit the situation.
Anne Hathaway was annoying.
Amanda Seyfried was annoying.
The singsong dialogue really should have been plain dialogue.

But otherwise, the movie was pretty good.
The other actors were wonderful.

The backdrop was so pretty!

 I think I would have enjoyed this much better if I had watched it as a stage play.

That was probably the idea...make it like a stage play - but as a movie.
Didn't quite work for me.

I guess in a proper stage play, you're right there.
You actually connect with the people singing.

This was a bit odd, because its a movie, and they sing everything.
The transitions between songs were a bit off also.
Like they suddenly break into song out of nowhere.
And the transitions between the scenes were a bit off too.

In a stage play it would have worked because they would dim the lights in between scenes and switch the props and all, 

but in a movie...its just weird.

And then suddenly eight years later, nine years later...
..they don't show us what happened in between, 
and it just seems that a lot of the backstory has been left out.



Now I want to read the book because I'm so unsatisfied with all the blanks in the storyline.

Will probably have to leave it for after exams though, 
but I shall read it!





Hugh Jackman was so asdlksjdkgsdjgh :3
...but of course I may be biased.





So.
End of insanely long, rubbishy review. 

:D

I shall leave you with this :




Kurt Schneider is such a babe. :3




~vid~

Housemanship Interview

So my housemanship interview was today!


Spent most of last night freaking out about it...which, as it turns out, was totally unnecessary because our interview was really easy (easiest interview in the history of forever tbh).
But of course, last night we didn't quite know what to expect, so we spent a lot of time reading other blogs of people who had already been through their housemanship interviews and had written about it...which was honestly rather helpful.
So I promised myself that I'd come back and write about my interview, 
so that later on when some junior decides to freak out about housemanship interviews and google stuff, 
they'd at least have an idea of what to expect (if they come across this)

Although I'm not sure how much my experience will help... our interview was completely informal, 
and rather fun, to be honest.

We're apparently one of the first few batches to go through group interviews.
(because there are so many of us here in Batu Pahat)

So 5 people per group, 
and each group has about 15 minutes in the room with the interviewers (who consist of an 1. officer from the ministry and 2. a medical doctor)


I'm not sure if the group interview was done just because they were conducting the interviews on our university campus, 
or whether they're switching entirely to group interviews now.


We had a briefing on Sunday evening by one of the officers from the ministry as well, 
although he took us through more of a career evolution sort of thing instead of actually briefing us on what to expect during the interview.
But he was nice enough to tell us not to worry, and to just be ourselves during the interview, etc.

"Korang konferm pass punya...as long as korang fulfil 4 criteria :
1. Datang interview dalam keadaan normal - jangan khayal. Yang bukan islam, malam ni tolong jangan minum arak ya. And those yang suka khayal-khayal tu, malam ni you jangan la ambik ubat khayal"
2.  You kena at least jawab la interviewer tu tanya apa. Kalau nak jawab one word one word pun takpe. As long as you jawab.
3. Bawa semua dokumen yang saya dah cakap tadi.
4. Ada satu lagi sebab korang konferm akan pass interview - tapi yang tu biar saya saja yang tau ye"

(what even...ada orang bribe die ke?)

But anyway :
Documents needed  : Resume, IC, Birth Cert, SPM results, Pre-U results and final transcript (or in our case, a measly letter stating we're final year med students -.-)

And most of us dressed up in baju kurung for the interview today.
It was recommended, so.
Might as well.


We were there at 7.30 (because he said registration was going to start then), but registration only started after 8.
And we were in the 7th group - ended up going in at about 11. 
o.o

By then, all our nervousness had dissipated...waiting 3 and a half hours can do that to you.
Plus I was going in with my housemates, 
so that was another reason not to be stressed out.

So at 11, they call us in, 
and we file in; our resumes are all already on the table in front of the interviewers.
The officer kept looking through them throughout the interview, but didn't comment much on them.
(kind of creepy tbh, having someone thumb through your resume and look at you and not say anything)
But when he did ask us stuff, he was really nice though, so that was okay.

The medical doctor was the Deputy Director (?is that how you say it omg idk) from Hospital Batu Pahat.
She was really nice.
And so chatty omg we could hardly get a word in ourselves!
And they were very informal...they themselves kept switching back and forth between Malay and English, which suited me just fine...I can speak Malay quite fluently, but after leaving school I've gotten into the habit of inserting English words in between.

She started off by asking us how we were doing, 
how we found Batu Pahat (all of us were from the Klang Valley), 
and then of course the dreaded question : "You're all from KL side, eh? So kalau posted to Sarawak or Sabah macam mana?"

Someone mentioned "we should take it positively", and the rest of us barely managed to murmur our agreement before the doctor started telling us about how we should indeed take it positively, 
and then she was listing down the benefits of working there (extra allowance, mainly), 
and the officer joined her in saying it was a nice place, and its good experience, and we get to come back after two years.

And we all just nodded in agreement, although we none of us had ANY intention of applying there.
But then a lot of my other batchmates have applied there though, so I guess we're safe.

And the next question : "So why medicine?"
Before we could answer, the officer asked us if any of our parents/siblings were doctors (nope), and then "Then why medicine? I mean kalau bapak engineer ke apa ke.."

Me : "Bapa saya engineer"
Them : "Ha. Ada pun. So kenapa tak nak buat engineering?"
Me : "Oh, Because abang saya pun buat engineering so.." (see what I mean by I mix English and Malay)
Them : "Oh so dah boring la kan, kalau semua kat rumah engineering!"
I was like.. LOL. yes. 

And then she moved on to the next question. o.o
Cepat gila move on kot.

Then she asked us if we knew what NCD stood for (this was our medical question).
And we obediently chorused "Non-communicable diseases", 
and then she asked us what diseases, 
and we all chorused "hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, osteoarthritis.."
and then she proceeded to tell us about why it was important to know NCDs and notifiable diseases (there are 25, apparently, which we are not required to know at undergraduate level, but we would need to find out during housemanship)

And then she asked us what our hobbies were.
For that one, we went in turn.
Started off with the officer looking at The Bwoy's resume and going "So, from what I see here, you seem very interested in entertainment?" (because he put he liked singing)
We all laughed.
And then my turn I talked about playing the piano..
"Oh so you memang belajar betul-betul la? Like exams and everything?"
"Apasal Grade 6 je? Tak nak continue ke? Continue la, its good to have something outside medicine. At least relieve stress sikit kan?"
I mean, I completely agree, but how to carry my piano everywhere, srsly.
The others' hobbies were drawing, travelling, and hiking.

Honestly, we could barely finish two sentences before they interrupted us with questions, or tales of their own experiences.
But it was nice.
It wasn't like a proper formal interview...more like a get-to-know-you session.

And then they just advised us a bit more on what to expect during housemanship, 
and then we were done!
They didn't even look at our certs...guess it wasn't necessary, what with the resume and all.

They didn't ask us anything that we'd spent the night preparing for!
No questions about the politicians, or the Ministry of Health, or 1Malaysia...absolutely nothing.

Gah.

I think they probably save those for the individual interviews though.

But anyway, 
in case anyone who's preparing for the interview is reading this, 
what you should know anyway for the interview (just in case) :

-The current Agung (DYMM Tuanku Abdul Halim Muazzam Shah, Sultan of Kedah -14th Agung)
-Prime Minister (Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak)
-Deputy PM (Datuk Muhyiddin Yassin)
-Health Minister (Dato' Sri  Liow Tiong Lai) ... I might be getting their titles wrong, so :|
-Deputy Health Minister (Datuk Rosnah Shirlin)
-Director General of Health (previously Datuk Dr Hasan)
-Acting Director General of Health (Datuk Dr Noor Hisham)
-Deputy(?) DG - (Datuk Dr Azmi Shapie)

And then of course you need to know the 1Malaysia slogans 
for 2012 - Janji Ditepati (kalau ni you guys tak tau idk what to say)
2011 it was Transformasi Berjaya, Rakyat Sejahtera

And the 8 1Malaysia values :
mnemonic : CAL HIM PE
Culture of Excellence
Acceptance
Loyalty
Humility
Integrity
Meritocracy
Perseverance
Education

And Budaya Korporat MOH : Kami Sedia Membantu. Penyayang, Profesionalisme, Kerja Berpasukan.

I thiiiink thats about it.

Oh oh, and Rukun Negara
We actually had to google this last night omg. We remembered everything except Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan.
*facepalm*
So embarrassing. 
We've recited this every Monday for 11 years, and we actually forgot the Rukun Negara.

tsk.



But yes.
So that was my interview.

After it finished, we were kind of like "we pakai baju kurung just for this?"

But you know, even if it was just a formality, 
dressing properly is important. 
so.
yeah.


We'll get our appointment letter within a month!
ahhhh.
Tension.


yay ok so now we can focus on portfoliossss.

...
What is life.



p.s. If anyone is reading this before their housemanship interviews (I doubt people will google this and find my blog, but anywayyy if you are going for your interview) ...All the best! 
Look on the bright side, 
we're pretty much all guaranteed jobs anyway. :D

(unless you've graduated from overseas, in which case I wish you moarrr luck - only because you don't have the luxury of being guaranteed a job like we local students do - be yourself, don't say anything ridiculous, and you'll be fine :D)
(at the very least please don't say dengue is spread by mice omg)




And right now its 2am, 
and I have to drive 50-odd km to Hospital Kluang tomorrow morning (yay) so I'm going to go sleep.
And dream of Aidan Turner.

I honestly did try to resist, you guys, but.

I finally caved in and ..well. current desktop wallpaper.

I tried, though.
I really did.

Dammit Aidan, you perfect human being.




Goodnight world!

I'm one step closer to being a doctor.

So scary.



~vid~
 

Afternoon Nightmares

Just had the most awful dream ever :

We were at the hospital, and we suddenly get a phone call saying all our portfolios are due today.
TODAY.
And obviously I freak the hell out because I haven't even started on my last Surgery, Ortho and Psych portfolios, and I haven't even gone near editing my ones for Int Med, Paeds and Obs&Gynae.

And then I spend an afternoon typing frantically away on my computer, 
and almost end up having a heart attack because I can't decide whether to try and finish and submit slightly late - but they might not accept it! And I simply couldn't finish on the same day! - or whether to just submit them as they are and get the worst ever marks in the history of portfolio assessments.

And in all that madness, my alarm clock rings.

...I have never felt so grateful to be woken up before.



I think my subconscious is telling me to get a move on my portfolios.
Since I obviously have so much left to do.

..either that or its just being incredibly guilty because I spent the whole of last night watching back-to-back episodes of Being Human.

 
 
This show just gives me so many feels, I swear.  


I am, right now, incredibly hungry, 
but I have nothing to snack on so I'm trying to decide if I should just eat dinner now and hope that I don't get hungry again later (because I'd have run out of food) or whether I should just suck it up and wait another two hours until its acceptable time for dinner.
:|



Roar.
Useless update about my life.
Thank you for reading kbye :D


~vid~

Run away with me

Take my hand, run away with me, 
I'd follow you in a heartbeat, you see, 
Even if for just one night, 
Even if for just one dance in the moonlight.

I've waited my whole life for you, 
So find me, make my dreams come true,
I won't turn back, I'd leave it all behind, 
Darling, all you have to do is take my hand.



6.30am, with the soundtrack from The Hobbit playing in the background.
(I swear I'd have finished my portfolio earlier if I hadn't stopped to bawl my eyes out over how absolutely beautiful the songs are)


Happy 2013, everybody.


Lots of love.

~vid~