what's with 'quirky hippie', fatty?

Many years ago, I went to a Bright, Roving, Annoying Teens (BRATs) workshop organized by The Star, Malaysia’s most widely read newspapers. My submission was 2 days late and faxed to the office, and of course I had to pick the farthest campsite – there were 4 workshops held in a year and the one I picked was in Mukah, Sarawak. 5 days away from my parents were a lot of fun so I scouted for more camps to attend. At one point, it was down to OBS and Supercamp so I decided, by the flip of a coin, to do the camp instead of roughing it out with Mother Nature :)

The camp was a turning point. My mum thought I was a lot more different after the camp. She still can’t put a finger to it and if I had to guess, it just seemed like I had a little more life in me. Post camp, I wrote a series of entries for the kind sponsors and the only one that is used to date in many of their marketing collaterals is this.

Shortly after that, I left my (then) sleepy town to study in Limkokwing.

Didn’t walk away with a paper but with a can do attitude, I started stringing for the press and landed my first job in a 2 bit publishing house that is still around to this day, even though the publishing schedule is wayyyyy off track.

Many people tell me I’m random in our conversations, and that I’m a bubbly ball of sunshine to hang with. I don’t suppose it’s relative to my weight but there must be a tiny bit of truth? Right after I started working, I met more interesting people and started the tradition of running away to Perhentian at every chance I could afford – usually for a week or two. This part of my life is a hazy recollection now, and I can’t figure out how I ever got there via the public buses and rickety boats so those of you who’re baddd asses in their early adulthood would know my activities there *wink*

Not too long ago, I spent Happy Hour with some friends whom I haven’t seen in the past 4 to 6 years, and one of them used ‘hippie’ to describe my disappearances circa late 2000s. They knew I was out there, basking in the sun and working to fuel my exile, but that was it. That, coupled with my randomness and weird shit that travels unfiltered from my obscene head to my mouth, needed a flattering descriptive term.

So…

One too many drinks and a crazy bout of insomnia later, thequirkyhippie was born! *pops confetti and guzzles more Umeishu*