URBAN HITZ

2010-08-24T23:44:00.000+08:00

How would you remain friends with someone you believe to be doomed?

NEPs?

2010-08-21T12:13:00.002+08:00

Gone were the days where our government tries to subtly help a certain race. Now, they have resorted to giving free money directly. Yay! Well, I have a suggestion. Just make it a legal requirement for race A to set up a direct debit to race B transferring cash periodically. Yea, that's a hassle-free efficient plan.

Graduation

2010-07-22T07:41:00.005+08:00

First of the long list of plastered smiles

With Family

And Daniel

Ceremony starts at 11 in the morning, and as I need to queue up for an extra ticket into the graduation (Butterworth) hall for my gran, I was up and about in my dress very early in the morning.

Turned out I was not the earliest to queue for the extra tickets. Quite a number of students, especially international students like me, were so desperate for the extra tickets that they arrived an hour before to ensure that they get spots for their families. Immediately after, I rushed over to another booth to put on my graduation hood and the mortar board. Now this was the tricky part, and I spent the next hour in the toilet with other girls trying to figure out how to pin down the hood without making the shirt that we pinned it on slide upwards by the drag of the unexpectedly heavy hood. Yes, sometimes graduates can still be dumbass at these sort of things. Only after we had decided to pin the hood to the shirt, and then the shirt to our trousers that some realised they couldn't go to the toilet without removing everything anymore. Opps, no visits to the loos!

The ceremony itself was, to say the least, brief. Started with a sweetening speech by the chancellor, the graduates were invited on stage to receive our degree certificates, with some special awards given out in between. Peter Corvi won the lecturer award, which was not much of a surprise as he is probably the only lecturer teaching our business school with an appreciation/fan page on facebook. Oh yes, I am a huge fan as well. The party moved to the piazza afterwards for a class photo session, and with the hundreds of WBS grads, it took quite a few shots before we were let go by the photographer. A buffet lunch was served, and it was surprisingly fantastic, given the horrid reputation of business school with freebies/ luncheons.

Everything followed was a blur. Photos everywhere with everyone you could grab, and then the goodbye hugs and the constant worry about our parents going missing on campus. And all of a sudden, everything was over and you are left with a camera with a completely run down battery in one hand, and a very important piece of paper in the other.

Yay!!!

Farewell Warwick, the famous Russell Group university, and the notorious, money drying machine more commonly known as Warwick University Ltd.

Results

2010-07-02T10:13:00.002+08:00

Results came out today, while I was in Pisa, Italy with Daniel.

The trip was pretty crazy. Met some nice people, some rude and moody ones, got 'robbed' off our change, saw one of the 7 wonders of the world, and survived the very very hot weather in Italy without air cond.

Then on the last day, we got nervous waiting for our results. Not sure why, but the results was scheduled to be published at 3pm. Odd timing. We were still in Pisa, and because I didn't want the horrible wait by the phone to hear the news, I did not ask any of my friends to look up the results for me.

Oh well, at least I got to enjoy my last bit of the holiday.

Turns out I didn't have to worry about my results. Or Daniel's borderline-employment-at-risk grades. We got a lift from Dan's dad from the airport, and headed straight to the university house where they posted up the results for students to view. That's the first time I got my results in this traditional way- Look it up on the board.

And yep! I got my 1st class honours! Yiipeee.... Omg, such a bloodshed for that. Still haven't got over the fact that I did so well in my 3rd year. And as for Dan, he got his 2.1 so... our job is secured =) (provided I get my work permit and now THAT, is a huge problem for me) Anyhow, fantastic full stop for my student life.

Degree done- Awaiting graduation

2010-06-25T09:21:00.002+08:00

There you have it, my final exam at Warwick. Prepared freaking hard for this paper, but didn't really do myself justice as the questions that came out were short of what I anticipated. Anyhooo, I am done done done.

Finally.

Over the last 2 weeks my house mates have been rubbing it in, in my face, that they are all done but me and now... haha, the torture is over and I just joined the group of 3rd years putting our student lives behind us and moving forward. Well, as long as we don't owe any library fines etc, we should be able to graduate.

Graduation ball is naturally the best way to commemorate the end of university and hence after forking out a hefty £65, I dressed up (while guys, 'suit' up) and we all went merrily to our 'final fling'. Unfortunately though, the Warwick grad ball is pretty much a disaster, not even close to being OK. £65 and all we get is the worst budget public bus hire? Not even a coach? Transport 'musuem' as the venue and 'pre-cooked' meals with cheap ingredients and rock hard sorbets? Weird 'actors' hire? No drinks apart from plain water! The whole event was nothing but disappointments and we would definitely have enjoyed ourselves much better paying for a proper meal at a hotel with private taxis and good clubs.

Oh well, event's over and now I am back in my pit with heaps of junks to sort out. Happy packing!

Anticipating my Milan and Europe trip with people I love

The Corporation- Cheras Story

2010-06-10T18:57:00.006+08:00

Critical Issues in Management- a module compulsory to all 3rd year Accounting and Finance students, has brought me lots of pain, frustration, many late nights. However, the very core existence of this module, its structured scattering of knowledge, compulsory attendance of seminars, presentation and QnA based approach to teaching, and the variety of issues that it covered... I have to admit that I could not find its relevance and 'the whole point of it' to start with. Raising my hand and asking questions for the sake of asking (more like for my contribution marks), presenting something with the intention to 'just get it over with'. It wasn't until towards the end of it all, when exams are approaching, that I fully appreciate the whole 'point' of doing this module. Seemingly useless but very thought provoking. My final individual presentation was a good end to it all for me. That was the first time I did one with such passion in delivering the message across, and of course I am happy the audience appreciated that (not least the seminar tutor)

Anyway the main issue I want to draw on today, is the Book Review assigned to me in CIM beginning of the year. The Corporation. With such a boring cover page, one can not help but feel a little put off from reading it.

Well, see for yourself

There are however, many hidden treasures in the book. Its main aim, is to get the readers to be aware of the ruthless legal existence of Corporations. McD, General Motors, Goodyear Tire, BP, Bodyshop... know these names? Yes, it's about them. They have human-like existence according to the law, and we are responsible for giving them that.

Problem number 1: They only have one legal purpose: Make money for shareholders

Problem number 2: They never die

Do you know that in terms of money making capability, Walmart is bigger than the whole of Malaysia?

Given how big they are, needless to say, they also have a big say in how things are run, on the international and national level. Political conspiracy? Definitely. Remember the financial meltdown in 2008, you bet these are involved.

Let's go right down the the basic, personal level and look at how corporations take over our lives. Recently I saw a blogpost on Facebook, with over 2000 comments to that post. It was an incident in Cheras. Now hear me out.

It happened in the middle of the night. There was a car accident involving several cars. Whether the drivers were drunk or not does not matter in this story. End result was that they crashed, and the cars were severely 'deformed'. This blogger was actually a passer-by, and he saw in what was left of one of the car, the girl behind the wheels screaming her lungs out as she was pinned, squashed in it. Seeing that sparks were forming at the rear of the car, this blogger ran to the nearest petrol station begging for fire extinguishers.

Two men were sitting behind the kiosk. Neither were willing to lend the fire extinguisher to this blogger to save the poor girl. Company policy, it was said.

But the girl is going to be burnt alive! She needs help! You can have my ID and I will return it and I will pay for it.

Sorry we cant let you have it. Our boss does not permit lending things to people. Oh, and it you make a scene here, our CCTV has got you captured and we will report your actions to the police.

Due to the insistence of the 2 cashiers to not lend the fire extinguisher to this blogger, the spark turned into fire.

The girl was burnt alive.

Post mortem: Would that action be considered negligent manslaughter? Unfortunately no. Remember the definition of corporations? They are here merely to make money. Saving lives? Sorry, not in the context.

What followed was that the blogger tried to initiate a boycott towards the company involved in that 'crime'. Crime of refusing to save another's life, accusing the 2 of murder. Morally, perhaps, but in no way did their failure to act can be considered manslaughter/murder. Here, I believe 2 issues presented themselves.

1) The lack of common sense of the nation. Education or the lack thereof, has failed to produce a nation with the basic ability to think, and react.

2) What I like to refer to as 'the shell of corporations'. The tendency of people to hide behind the corporation shell avoiding making personal decisions and taking responsibilities. In creating corporations, we created a money making machine, and also a poor excuse that shelters many morally corrupted intentions/actions that ultimately harmed no one but ourselves.

A case illustrating the failure of capitalism and corporations

with reference to Akina Teo

The Corporation- Cheras Story

2010-06-10T18:57:00.003+08:00

Well, see for yourself

Problem number 1: They only have one legal purpose: Make money for shareholders

Problem number 2: They never die

Do you know that in terms of money making capability, Walmart is bigger than the whole of Malaysia?

Two men were sitting behind the kiosk. Neither were willing to lend the fire extinguisher to this blogger to save the poor girl. Company policy, it was said.

But the girl is going to be burnt alive! She needs help! You can have my ID and I will return it and I will pay for it.

Sorry we cant let you have it. Our boss does not permit lending things to people. Oh, and it you make a scene here, our CCTV has got you captured and we will report your actions to the police.

Due to the insistence of the 2 cashiers to not lend the fire extinguisher to this blogger, the spark turned into fire.

The girl was burnt alive.

1) The lack of common sense of the nation. Education or the lack thereof, has failed to produce a nation with the basic ability to think, and react.

A case illustrating the failure of capitalism

Leavers 2010

2010-06-09T08:32:00.006+08:00

Everything is going in slow motion... The mad exam revision rush, the congregation arrangements (hey, where are you 'putting' your parents for graduation? Why are we referring to our parents like they are objects?!), the first proper house-hunting (to rent or to buy) for the coming year (now we pay income tax, council tax, NIC etc), the last minute Europe touring before some leaves UK for good... and before you know it, it's time to leave the place we now call home.

I still remember what the term 'home' means in our first year. No matter how much inconvenience it caused, we never fail to distinguish the place we STAY (ie: our current accommodation) and what we used to call HOME (the 6000 miles away paradise). Gradually, the distinction became less important, as the line blurred even in our own mind, and by the time we realised the perception changes we went through, we already started referring to what we used to think of as the temporarily place we stay, as HOME. And what of the 6000 miles away paradise? That is Home-home. Real home. Perhaps its the feeling of being united with the little family we gathered for ourselves away from our real ones. Whatever it is, this place bears a lot more meaning to us than it did when we first stepped onto the Warwick grounds.

It's a natural process in life. You go to a new place, you meet new people, and then after the common goals are accomplished, you leave. That is the way. What's saddening is perhaps the fact that most of the people you laugh, cry, struggle, sing, dance with, your path will never cross ever again in the future. We will now scatter all over Earth like tiny peasants. What's depressing is you are leaving the life of being a student you know so well, that you have perfected, stepping into a completely new world, and that there is no turning back from now, whether you like it or not. What's exciting is- it is a race of life from now. We came to university for different reasons, some to get a job in the highly competitive job market, some for an international experience, most to gain skills in preparation of taking over family empires, and a handful just for the sake of getting a degree. Whatever it was, we shared a common challenge, albeit a colourful one. Now, the clock starts ticking, and you have a limited time to get out of this maze of life, whichever direction you choose to, at the pace you desire.

It didn't matter who you were, we were all students; it didn't matter how rich your family was, we all shared the same chasing after the 12 or unibus experience. But now, armed with various degree of knowledge/qualification, depending on how you did over the last 3 years, we are now all thrown back out of 'The Bubble'- the term Warwick is well known for. This is a dedication to all my fellow leavers of 2010. Looking back at the photos over the last 3 years, it is visible how much we have grown. Together. It is now time. Time to pack up and run. Now, let's run, babies, run.

Third year Exam Time

2010-05-21T06:31:00.002+08:00

Why third year modules are so exponentially harder than second years I don't really know. The business school admin must be mentally retarded. You know the 2 days cramming right before exam? Yeh it won't work anymore. Well this means a few things:

Don't understand the seminar solutions? You won't be the only one.

You start recognising the real power of the internet. At least for me, typing in 'immunization' led me to other random lecture slides, notes, journals... a very long process but you can get your questions answered.

The lecturer's email is bombarded with so many queries that s/he will probably just let it get overload and say to all: I am NOT going to reply

You get to recognise just how many different study methods there are. Currently I found: Reverse day-night strategy (so you can talk to noone and no-one talks to you), Repetitive work strategy, workload-sharing (everyone spot all potential questions and each prepare a piece of essay and if you are in the 'scheme' you share answers); notes-trading, notes-write-up trading (I write out points, you type it up), Utilising the library (apparently the reason is to prevent distractions of food and water. Act of desperation I would say) and the current champion of all strategies: reading lecture slides in reverse order! Er... not sure how that works, but apparently if you are able to understand it, it means you are ready

Uni is such an interesting place...

Hola todos

2010-05-19T20:39:00.002+08:00

No puedes leer? Jaja, lo se. No quiero.

Tengo muchos examenes la semana que viene. En realidad, hay un oral examen para español esta tarde. A las seis y media! Por la tarde! Quien tiene examen por la tarde???

Aaa, pero ahora, no puedo estudiar, no sé porque... Es molesto!

Actualmente, tengo una confesion, sabes esta cancíon, Bad Romance? Cada vez que escucho esta cancion, recuerdo algo que no quiero.

Me gusta. Odio. No puerdo decidirme.

Si se traduce esto, bueno, jaja, no tienes nada mejor que hacer?!

Voy a volver a mis estudios =(

Final Exam in my University Life

2010-05-08T09:45:00.002+08:00

Not sure why I am writing here? Nor me.

It's one week to go, and well, I am no where close to finish revising. I am probably, er... halfway there? Slightly less?

I am not sure why I left things so late. It's not my fault really. Who knew the volcano was going to erupt? (Take 5 days out from my revision schedule). Who knew the Spanish exam was going to be moved FORWARD? (Subtract another 5 days). And then there is the recovery from the 40 hour Spain-London bus journey. (Another 1 day). And the oh-so-exciting British Parliamentary elections. (1 day). That's almost half a month dammit. That halved my revision. And yes, this exam will unfortunately be 50% of my ENTIRE degree.

I think I just lost my 1st.

Now PLEASE. Don't screw up a 2.1. Your job is on the line. My fingers are shaking while I am typing this. Entering panic mode.

Why

WHY did I take the 100% options?

WHY did I take ALL the freaking finance options?

WHY did I take Spanish?

Shit

2010-05-07T17:29:00.001+08:00

UK 'lost' its government!

Hmm, and suddenly Nick Clegg is all important...

Oh... and he gets to choose UK's next Prime Minister?! Enjoy your moment of triumph while you can

UK Elections 2010

2010-05-07T09:45:00.002+08:00

Doesn't like the sound of a hung parliament, nor increase in national insurance, nor possible clamping down of immigrations.

Interesting British Elections

Voted

2010-05-07T00:46:00.002+08:00

Who would have thought that my first ever vote in a general election would be a British one?!

A crazy journey to Spain

2010-04-22T00:55:00.017+08:00

Well, I actually didn't want to participate in this study trip to Salamanca. It was quite expensive, £300 for everything but flights, and it takes about 1 week out of my pre-exam revision time. But then I thought, I will be living with a host family, like an exchange student (something I have always wanted to experience) and as everything will be in Spanish, I can absorb Spanish like a sponge and hopefully not do too badly in my Spanish exams. Killing 2 birds in 1 stone right? So yeh, that's how I ended up participating in this journey of my life.

Day 1 (Saturday)

My flight is 8am on Sunday, but having spent so much money BEFORE my trip starts, I figured I should save on the cab right and take the last bus at 0020 to Coventry before taking the 2am bus from Cov to London Stansted Airport. Not the wisest choice. By the time I reached London, I was absolutely knackered but as I was on my own, there was no way I could fall asleep with so (surprisingly) many travellers waiting for their flights in the airport.

Day 2 (Sunday)

Finally boarded the plane at about 830. I didn't know then, but my future housemate in Salamance was sitting two rows in front of me in the flight, and was apparently very noisy all through. Of course, not knowing where they were going, we remained strangers.

I arrived at about noon. With my heavy suitcases and the crazy lack of lifts/escalators, I decided to just stay around in the airport and wait for the meeting time with the rest of the group. OK, I shamefully admit that the first meal I had in Madrid was... Mcdonalds! And it was good! Haha

By 5pm I took the shuttle bus to the 'meeting point' and met up the the rest. My first impression of the group wasn't great. Oh god they are playing cards... it's gonna be a boring week. Needless to say, my feelings changed after all we went through during this trip.

Later the day, we took the bus from Madrid to Salamanca and was hastily allocated into our host family by pairs, and our journey in Salamanca began...

Day 3 (Monday)- Day 6 (Thursday)

Spaniards have crazy meal times. Breakfast at 830, Lunch at 330 and Dinner at 930pm! The first day there was the worst. we kept eating at the 'wrong' time and basically I was usually full at meal times and hungry in between.

On Monday morning we were put into a test. To be graded into classes. I have to say I felt a huge sense of relief when I was placed into the same class as everyone else on my level from Warwick. I didn't understand the questions at all as I didn't really speak Spanish (I still don't by the way).

The lessons were great. We shared a class with a group from Belgium, and had plenty of opportunities to practice our very limited Spanish vocabulary. With many hand gestures, sound effects, drawings and Spanglish involved, our Spanish teachers seem to be able to understand what we were trying to say.

We went out every single night. The first night was the worst. We stayed at a restaurant to have 'tapas' and Sangria until they started raising the price significantly after every rounds we ordered to chase us out of the place. It was the first time I played poker without an 'alliance', and I won so many hands that none of them believe I am a beginner! (Hey!) The night went downhill after that. Maybe it was the fact that we were such a mixed group of people. Doing different courses, different age, from different ethnicity... what follows was a loooooong wander around the city of Salamanca, many attempts in choosing a bar... and 3 hours later, frustration arose and we all sort of headed home without going anywhere.

It almost seem like no one wanted to repeat the tragic history of Monday night. From Tuesday onwards, we went into every single bar we saw, and on Thursday, we did a bar crawl around the town and ended up having a bit too many drinks that night. (Hey, 12 shots for 5 euros, where else in the world can you get that!)

Glowing Gin and Tonic!

Not exactly sure what we were trying to do

They have I macs in the college!! Lots of them!

Day 7 (Friday)

On this fateful day, we received our first bad news. A volcano erupted. In Iceland. At first we were going, 'so what?' The wave of ashed have started to drift into the UK, and flights on Fridays were cancelled. No one knew how long it will last, and as the day move on, more flights were cancelled and that was when we started to panic.

At night, I took my laptop to Mcdonalds (I know, again!) and we spent 2 hours looking through every piece of volcanic news and checking the websites of every British airlines. By midnight most of our flights are cancelled and we started scrambling around fanatically looking for alternative routes home. All of us went on our mobile phones and called for emergency help from friends in UK. By that time, most of the flights are fully re-booked until the Saturday the following week, trains and ferries are all booked up as well. The only alternative we found then was a bus from Madrid to London, which will take 24 hours costing 141 Euros. The site was in Spanish completely, and when we tried to buy the tickets, it crashed on us! And then McDonalds started closing down. To make things worse, my laptop ran out of battery and so we decided to just go home and get our own friends from UK to buy the tickets for us.

It was a looong night. When I finally managed to buy my ticket, it was already 5am in the morning. My bus from Salamance to Madrid will leave at 7am and hence the 'wise' me decided to sleep in and take my friend's later bus to Madrid.

I really did slept in. (To be fair that was the only night I managed to get more than 3 hours sleep for that week) I woke up at 1pm and started rushing to get ready. After several more rounds of miscommunication between me and my host family, I managed to get to the bus just in time for departure.

Day 8 (Saturday)- Day 9 (Sunday)

Toured around Madrid. Visited some museums and had loads of Mojitos (some free as well! I love this about Spain. To fill up the bars in the beginning of the night, most bars often give out free drinks to visitors and if you go around a few bars before 12 you could end up having a pretty good night out for almost nothing!)

Shisha. He Hui disapproves

Day 10 (Monday)

Time to go home. Having checked out at about 11am, I stayed around the hostel for a bit helping Ben with his Lloyds interview preparation. Then at around noon, we started our journey home.

First leg of the journey: Metro from Anton Martin to the Bus station.

Second task: Get our tickets. We were quite lucky that the other group of us who came straight from Salamanca arrived there early. They queued for an hour and when we arrived, we joined them right at the front of the queue that had ballooned up to 5 times the size after they started queueing. Reporters were present and the whole place was chaos. The worse that could happen. Or so we thought.

Third task: Get ON the bus. This proved to be trickier than we anticipated. After some Burger Kings (not me this time, blame Max and his cravings!) and a few rounds of shithead (a really cool game of cards, yeh, I got pulled into their card playing habit. Again, not proud), we started heading towards our bus an hour before the bus SHOULD leave. What happened next was a complete nightmare. Right behind our bus was a queue. Or rather, a huge group of people pushing and pulling at one another. The more conversational people from our group asked a few people in front of us and we realised that to board our bus, we need to 'Check-In', which means joining that pool of people to get to the check-in booth.

We were NOT the best at this sport. Half an hour after our 'attempt' to get to the front, we were still right at the back of the pack, the queue was still as long. At 4, we managed to advance a foot and 2 hours after the bus was scheduled to leave, we finally made it to the front and got ourselves checked-in. (Only then we knew that check-in meant getting 'Bus 90, Platform 29' written on our tickets. Duh, could have so done that ourselves.

Forth task: Survive the bus journey. I don't really know how, but we managed to somehow stay sane throughout the 25 hour bus journey.

Fifth task: Check our call charges. My call charges for the last week was £35, Max was £85 and Josceline managed to top us all with a whooping £106.

Sixth task: get from London to Coventry. The whole bus shook as we cheered when we left the ferry, and when we arrived in London. It felt so triumphant that some of us on board even had tears in their eyes. We made it made it made it! Daniel surprised me in London, which was really helpful as I would have gone crazy being on the bus again after just getting off one. And another from Coventry to Warwick University.

Arrived in London!

I have never felt so happy arriving at Warwick. Not even the first time I came to UK. I jumped off the bus and kissed the bus stop (Don't ask me why but I just felt the need to OK!) and ran all the way home leaving Daniel chasing after me all the way.

The trip has done 2 things:

Firstly, I had the opportunity to know a few people not from the Business School. History, Physics, Economics, language studies etc. It's the first time I get this close to people who DOESNT like math, and it is actually interesting.

Secondly, well... this is the obvious. From now on, I will think twice before un-checking the option to buy insurance for any flights or accommodations!

Fast Food Nation

2010-03-27T00:14:00.002+08:00

Burgers??? Yuck!!!

(I have to shamefully admit that McD is still my favourite) what to do? They cocaine-ed the burgers!

2010-03-25T21:38:00.003+08:00

We have got rid of one type of colonialism, only for it to be replaced by another form

Nizar Jamaluddin

Which smart-ass suggested the taking over of Malaysian governance through a 3 headed monster 52 years ago??!

Students Union

2010-03-10T00:12:00.002+08:00

For many years students' have been complaining about our union. On various issues. Lack of officer communication, transparency, efficiency, empty promises to students etc. Since joining the SU, I have seen that most of these complains and claims are very much due to students own ignorance.

You complain that the union is too expensive for students; the cost of running the union is high and we need the money to support the societies, campaings, sports, the students. We need money to serve you.

Why not cut cost then? Initiatives were taken to reduce cost, by voting to opt out of unnecessary memberships. Not enough students voted for that to pass through. Reducing funding for societies perhaps? Student societies will then complain that the union doesn't listen to us, the union is not supportive of us!

What about getting more students to vote? All initiative were taken to encourage student voting, the bubble, the Boar, our univeristy Radio channel, lecture shouts, kitchen run by street team, emails from the SU, facebook invites, notices around compus. How else do you want to be reminded?

In what area then, has the union failed? Why all these complains still, why does the union still not reach quorum in many cases?

Here I would like to adopt a slightly different tone. Now I will explore the idea of why, perhaps, the union is not good enough for the students.

Just one word.

Language.

I am not an English expert, nor am I going to suggest that the grammar used by the union is bad. Take a look at the following paragraph, (this is from the main page of the union elections page that was supposed to encourage students to vote):

Referenda:

Changing the Way this Union is Run.

The trustees of the Union shall have the power, which the trustees can exercise upon a future date, to transfer the business of the Union to a charitable company limited by guarantee with memorandum and articles of association in the same or similar form to those available here.

NOTE: IF YOU VOTE FOR, YOU WILL ALSO AGREE TO PARAGRAPHS 1 TO 13 IN THE MOTION DOCUMENT WHICH SET OUT TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS AND ARE LEGALLY REQUIRED TO SET UP THE COMPANY AND GIVE THE TRUSTEES THE POWER TO TRANSFER THE UNION’S BUSINESS TO IT.

I am an international student studying accounting and finance. I am by no means stupid, and have a certain level of knowledge regarding UK politics. That paragraph to me however, is a complete jargon, from the title right up till the button: Vote Imagine I just got back from a lecture and am ready to prepare a presentation for tomorrow. I logged on to the SU page and was prepared to vote when I saw that paragraph.

'Ahh.. I am not exactly sure what I will be voting for, nevermind then.'

Perhaps that why

Ageing at Warwick

2010-02-28T10:18:00.005+08:00

Just got back from Warwick Malaysian Night 2010. To be honest the show wasn't thaaat great. Halfway through the show I was thinking, 'really? did i look that bad when I was up there 2years go?'

Ahh. Went out to 'Hustle' yesterday. Girls' night out! We ended up leaving the party early and went to our flat for a midnight chitty-chatt session. The supposedly short sobering-up chat turned into a discussion about our past and future. That was when we realised that we are growing -old- 'why are we talking about this? kids talk about the future, only the old and wise reminiscence about their past'

True. Watching the dancers on stage today at Malaysian Night, I remember thinking how young they look. 3 years of education here really tortured us into grow up the speedy way. All of us. To prove this, let's look at a few pictures.

Orientation Time + First Year:

Me with dyed hair! Jess, Aaron at the back. T shirt at parties ahem ahem

Yup! Look at that :S

And now........

(you may notice the same people in some photos)

With the exception that Aaron + Heng yong still have the Asian flush problem... look at everyone else!

Need another prove?

We now even do proper food out! No longer being so broke after parties that we had to live on soy sauce and rice. (We don't do that often though, look at Aaron's concentration on trying to make sense of the menu)

So there. Ageing!

2010-02-24T20:00:00.001+08:00

Down to the last 3 weeks of my schooling life... How do I feel now?

Not exactly sure.

O m g

Sigh

2010-02-21T06:48:00.002+08:00

Wow. I may have gotten myself a job here. In UK! Perhaps not what I originally wanted but hey, like what a friend says 'beggers can't be chosers'. No complains here.

The only thing I can do, is wait for the offer letter to come. A London one. Please transfer me to London please transfer me to London. Never have I felt so excited about Mondays. Slim chance but still, there's hope.

2 terms of hard work, 2 terms of neglecting my studies. I can almost see sunlight! Just one thing left, and it will be perfect.

Come on....

New Year, Half A Tooth Less

2010-02-15T01:56:00.005+08:00

Ok, here's a continuation of my tooth saga:

After my tooth came off, I did what everyone would do if you hold part of your tooth in your hand, I panicked.

Luckily for me, I met a friend on my way home one day, while he was going to the dentist to get his tooth fixed (I later found out that he experienced exactly the same problem as I did). I got the number from him and booked an appointment for the next day.

The following account makes me swear that British make horrible dentist:

The walk there was long. I just did my presentation and was in not-very-comfy-shoes. The receptionist told me it would be a 10 minute walk from campus, but wth, it took me over 30 minutes and I even had to half-jog the last 5 to avoid being late.

I kind of wished I hadn't make it to the appointment on time. The place looked like a horse shack. She spent most of the time while I was there fiddling with her computer, whilst repeatedly telling me there's not enough time to finish fixing my tooth. Fine. After she finally put in some fillings in my tooth, I found out that she'd put in too much filling that I couldn't close my mouth after that!!

'Could you check, cause I don't think I can close my mouth now'
'That is not possible. You are closing your mouth fine as I can hear your jaws clenching'
'It may be that I am not used to the new fillings, but could you check'
'I think it is your own problem' (Blame me for your own inadequecy?!!!!!!!!)

5 minutes of getting her to check later...

'Fine' She pulled out a thin piece of paper, and asked me to bite and hold.

The paper fell right out.

'Fine' and she started drilling away the fillings.

I went home thinking, well, at least the problem was more of less solved right?

Wrong.

I looked into the mirror and found our that she merely coated my gum with a thin piece of filling, not even attaching much to the tooth. In a few more days I am sure the filling is coming off.

I am sure an amateur dentist in Malaysia can do better.

Man I miss Malaysia even more now.

So to all of you there...

Happy Chinese New Year! =)

A Little Over 2 Statements to Make

2010-02-12T08:50:00.003+08:00

I have 2 statements to make here:

ONE- I have a presentation tomorrow. In less than 12 hours

TWO- Half of my tooth just chipped off!!

So clearly, these 2 statements don't match up. You see, my tooth felt a little weird a moment ago and so I went and 'interdental-ed' + brushed it. After 5 minutes of fiddling, it went mad at me and.. fell off. FELL OFF! You know although you had caused me plenty of heartaches and sleep-less painful nights, I still love you and want you to be with me for the next, however many years I remain alive. But no! You betrayed me!

So now.

No tooth+ Presentation= Shit

P/s: I got 2 interviews and an Assessment Centre lined up over the next 2 week! I was very happy/nervous up till now.

I miss my chipped tooth!

There is no turning back.

Damn. Again, this 2 sentences doesnt match

2010-01-31T11:00:00.003+08:00

Just got back from One World Week- World Party. Tbh it is very disappointing, I don't know since when, but now it just seems like the whole things is about Indians, so much for 'one world'...

The end was good though. It was a teeny bit too crowded, a teeny bit impossible to walk, but it was good dance to everyone. I know what you are thinking, if it's impossible to walk, how can you dance? Trust me, it's easier to dance, at least you have the excuse to knock everyone around you while you are at it =P

Looking at the EQHO troop on stage, makes me feel like joining them, again. Kinda miss all the performing in my first year. Third year has been hard core work. Sigh

The guys got protective again today. No, I am not complaining. Halfway through the dancing everyone started staring somewhere behind me and so you know those games where you look at the sky and point, everyone starts follow your gaze? Only this is not a game. Apparently a 'french' guy was getting a bit grind-ly, which triggered our boys to 'talk' him away. Well he did, only coming back half an hour later with another dude. Things could have gotten ugly. Good thing his dude refrained him from throwing a punch. They started shouting for another 5 minutes and then the party cleared up.

Oh well, it always happen, everytime we go out, even in the students union.

Anyway, 'Life's a BITCH', or so I was told...

It's gonna be 4am now. My feet hurts, I am dehydrated, and I have an essay due tomorrow.
Better go to bed now.

2010-01-17T10:49:00.004+08:00

I am tired. Hungry. Sitting in front of my laptop, having catched up with two friends on the other end of the globe, my mind began to ponder, on various things...

This is a new year piece, so, first off, Happy new year everyone. It is impossible for me to know what your goals are, what all your wishes are for the new year, but to those of you reading this, hava a fantastic year.

To be frank, I am not holding my breath for this year myself. As far as I am concerned, let 2010 never come upon us. But it did, and guess what, just give me a slap and say 'get on with it'. That's what I need. My only defence would be, 'but how'?

I still remember my post here right before I come to UK, I said, 'a chapter of my life is closed, but a new one is beginning'. Now, it's been three years, and this chapter too, is coming to an end. Expecting me to say 'time flies'? Well, sort of. But if I stop and think what happened within the recent 3 years, I would say, so much has happened.

For one, my perspective in life changed. In fact, it changed a few times too many, but I am none the wiser. One thing I can say for certain though, is that I am humbled. If I were to be perfectly honest, my self worth was completely and utterly crushed. The good news is, it crushed a few other things along with it. I was foolish. Competitive. Jealous. Wishful. Uninspired. 5 dangerously contagious charactor traits. 5 unacceptable ones.

I am no longer.

They say university is where you grow the most. I cant agree more. If you are reading this Dad and Mum, you may have wondered, 'is the money on my degree well spent?', the answer would be, a definite 'yes'. Never once have I regretted this journey.

Although it is as though I left heaven for earth.

The Longest Struggle of My Life

2009-12-17T08:56:00.002+08:00

This is it. This has outbeaten anything I had done in life. I can't begin explaining how I feel right now... well, mainly because it is not much. There is so much uncertainty suffocating me right now, the only things constant are rejections and failures. If anything, my confidence is slashed so many times that what's left is a pathetic hope that miracle exists in real life.

I have learnt to accept. The first time it happened, I was rather surprised, upset even. Then after the next few times I properly sat down and reflected upon myself, my mistakes and improvements that needed to be done. The continuous failures led me to sink into despair, depression and desperation.

As time goes on however, energy is drained. They say 'work hard'. Hard work pays, IF you succeed; if you don't, you fall back to square one. They say 'keep trying'. How will you know if you are going closer towards your goal, or that you are merely going in circles?

Having said that, 'keep trying' is the only thing left I can do. As aspiration, dreams and excitement die off, it is replaced by a dull persistance.

Sometimes it reminds me of the time I was in my Primary school. The teacher returns the homework that we submitted, calling out names. Once your name is called, you can sit down and the rest that remain standing will get their punishments. I remember the anxiety I felt (which was silly because I knew perfectly well whether I handed in my work or not). Only this time, only a few names will be called and the whole affair takes a painfully long time.

Interestingly, if there is a 3 digit lottery, it is easier to strike a lottery than to secure a job. Let's do that instead.

Ok, I am off to buy a lottery number now.

Heng Yong's Biggest Day of his University Life (Presumably)

2009-12-15T06:04:00.001+08:00

Well done Heng Yong! You deserve it =)

Third Year

2009-11-02T02:47:00.002+08:00

They say time flies, for me... time rocketed pass me.

I am now a miserable third year student at Warwick. I remember when I first walked pass Tocil third year blocks thinking ," They were given the quieter zones on campus, hmm, it must be because they have to concentrate on their work/study everyday."

Turned out I was right.

Since I got back on to campus, I haven't stop being preoccupied with something. Everything. Everyday's a mad rush. Wake up, work, bed.

And I can't believe I still couldn't catch up with everything, even with all the effort.

Anyone has a time-stopper I can borrow?

Results are OUT

2009-07-02T23:34:00.003+08:00

OMG OMG OMG

I passed! And possibly scraped a first?!

Economics for Strategy 72
Accounting in Context 62 Ya ya, Accounting loves u and u love accounting.
Issues in Management Accounting 76 I knew this went well :)
Financial Reporting 1 68
Financial Reporting 2 67
Finance 1 71 class test is my life saviour. Oh... and the amazing ability of pure logic
Finance 2 73
Foundations of Information System 64
Global Environment of Business 58 i thought I did REALLY good in this. What the...
Global Integrative Project 72 this group work result is a joke. Seriously.

Overall: 68.3%
Never have I been sooo glad I got a 60s result. Literally so happy I thanked every God I prayed to. Only my fellow Warwick friends appreciate that mark though. My happiness lasted until I went on to the JPA loan application website. 69% = CGPA 2.74????!!! WHAT? For a CGPA 3.0 onwards, you need to get 76 or more. Who gets 76% at Warwick?! If rumour is true that only 5 students get a first every year for Accounting and Finance, and a first is anything above 68%, then there's no hope for Warwick students to get any JPAs in Malaysia.

DUH

Pray for good weather tomorrow

2009-06-22T07:34:00.004+08:00

Exams are over! OVER!
After the last paper, everything was... still a blur. During exam period, everything was dis-orientated because I was studying day in day out, without much thought on what to cook/eat, wear... anything but studying. Now, it's because there's so much stuff to do, events to attend that I am literally as tired as the exam marathon time. Ok, maybe not as stressed.

Celebrated end of exams at Varsity with the bunch of peeps. Then went home and started throwing stuffs away, revision notes, books, magazines etc. Went to London yesterday with Quennezy, Angeline and Jess. Watched ‘Transformers' (FYI, it's the one movie that is out in UK FIRST before anywhere else in the world. Cant help but to watch it just so it's our turn to say, 'hey look, transformers was awesome! have you seen it? No? Oh ya, it's not out yet in your country.' Man, we are cool. Haha. Overall, london trip was fun but it burnt a hole in my bank account.

Now going to bed to get ready for my Barcelona trip with Jenny, HengYong and Aaron. Barcelona baby, here we come! Hola!

2009-06-13T02:53:00.002+08:00

I a m s o s c r e w e d

The Finance 1 exam is bad. Bad because there wasn't enough time to do the questions. Bad because, the lecturer mistimed the exam. Bad because, my brain was stucked today. Bad because I couldnt even calculate how many days are there in a year (and I need that for my pricing calculations). Whatever the reason. I completely fumbled the whole paper. 80% of the paper was guess work. Ironically, I got 100% for the class test. That's how bad that went. The last time I felt so bad after an exam was 5 years ago, Chemistry in form 4.

I got 6% for that test.

Anyway, the worst is yet to come. I have now tonight to revise for 2 papers tomorrow. I hate the undergraduate office for timatabling the exam so close to each other. Tonight, yet again, is going to be a long night...

Exam marathon

2009-06-11T03:43:00.003+08:00

Today was an intensive day. Mainly because i was trying to cram last minute as much information as possible for 2 of the largest essay-based exam i have, which took placed, well, back-to-back. 2 hour exam. Each. Halfway through the second one, my hand hurts so much, my brain hurts from my attempt to squeeze out everything I remember, my stomach hurts because, well, because it completes the miserable picture of a girl trying desperately to trick the examinor to thinking that she had done her revision, just like most of everybody else in the exam hall. I am so glad the exam questions went my way again, where I got the questions i hope for. But doing them well was another question. The economic exam was unfortunately hugely disappointing. Mid sentence, i thought to myself, what the hell am I doing? but I carried on drawing random graphs to fill the sheets while trying to sort out my thoughts. 2 down and 5 to go. This is by far the worse ever timetable I have got since, well, since when they don't matter. 7 paper (constituting 70% of my whole year of education) in 5 days, including saturday. I have now decided to 'revise' my 'expectations' dowawards in hope of scaring a 2.1. F if I don't even get that.
God bless me.

Having said that, I am so happy this is not A levels. At least my life doesn't depend on it.

Warwick Swine Flu Case

2009-06-05T19:09:00.003+08:00

" As you may be aware from the local press and information on
the University website, a postgraduate student, resident on
the University campus, has tested positive for swine flu. 
The student has been given the antiviral treatment Tamiflu,
but has not been hospitalised, and is making a good recovery. 
This email is being circulated to all students to update you
on the current situation.

The University is working in close co-operation with the
relevant health professionals including the Health Protection
Agency.  Together we have identified the student’s closest
contacts and they are now also being issued with Tamiflu as a
precaution. Local health professionals are satisfied that the
University has taken all necessary precautions to contain this
case. We have been advised that the student concerned and
the identified contacts are not infectious. "

Swine flu at Warwick. It's happening....

2009-06-01T20:45:00.002+08:00

1/6/09 GM Shares- $0.80

Dad you are sooo lucky!

It's not just Malaysian Taxpayers' money that seems to go no where

2009-05-31T17:08:00.003+08:00

Following several scandals involving British MPs claiming (from taxpayers) expenses for clearing the moat, dry-rot treatment and a number of others that were all exposed to the public recently, this guy, Frank Cook came along and top the 'Ridiculous expense claim' list.

£5.00 for donation at Church.

Of course, he claimed that it was a 'genuine mistake' and that he had'no recollection that it happened at all'.

Somehow, all the MPs that were caught out seem to 'not realise' that they accidently claimed extra expenses from the public. Careless I suppose? I wonder would the story be similar if it was a payment made from their pockets. Will they 'accidentally' pay extra?

Urgh, school. kids

2009-05-09T06:12:00.002+08:00

A friend from Warwick whom I have not seen for quite a while, asked me yesterday at Warwick Malaysian Student's Association's annual general election (which by the way, was a lot less entertaining than last year. You can literary FEEL the steam from the heated debate in the theater) whether I am free the next day to do some volunteering. I am not the do-good type of person, nor do I particularly like children (in fact, after today, I begin to think that I despise them), but I agreed to help her out on this occasion. 2 reasons. One, I haven't seen her for a long time, and it would be a good opportunity to catch up. Second, I have not done much volunteering despite being on the executive board for Warwick Volunteers and I thought I should probably do some contributions to the community.

Anyway, for those 2 goddamn reasons, I ended up waking at 7am, something I have not done for, hmm, maybe 2 months? and went to Westwood School, my first step into a school in the 'GREAT' Britain.

The school, unfortunately, was not that great. For one, the architect designer guy should be sacked. The whole place was a maze. I couldn't locate the staff room, the washroom, the classes, the staircase. In fact, I have a strong sensation that if I were to be dropped off somewhere within the school compound, I would probably never see sunshine again. You know those maze where you turn left, right, right, straight, left..... and still find yourself stuck in the middle of nowhere? That's how the school look like.

Let's move on to the actual event. We were there today for one purpose, culture awareness day. To educate the kids about immigrants, more specifically, assylum seekers. About 10 volunteers including me share the responsibility of conducting various educational classes: Communications, Caligraphy, Mock Immigration Games, Thai-boxing, all types of things to give them a general understanding about a different culture (and to let those brats know how lucky they are to be born overweight).

I was part of the cummunications and caligraphy group. I worked with 2 other volunteers from Warwick to teach them some basic Bengali (Shadhinota, Shadhinota), some Malay (I know, I know, but it's the only language I can speak apart from Chinese) and some Chinese caligraphy. One thing that I notice immediately is how active the kids are in class. I imagined it to be, Does anyone know this? Silence. Anyone wants to try? Silence. In actual fact it was, Can I try can I try? Look, I broke a chair! Look at that loserrrrr! Connor the Condom!!

Needless to say, I was clueless as to where to start. Keeping the class quiet? Seperating the fighting kids? Shout to be heard? By the way one thing that I know is that, don't as much as TOUCH the kids, you could end up in court. Desperately counting down to lunch break, i push back my urge to call every single teacher of mine since I was 4 to thank them for putting up with us when we were young.

I left at about 12 leaving the rest of the day with Michele and Moshan, both experienced volunteer in this aspect (I salute both of you) with Quennezy to get back to finishing my assessed essay. Overall it was quite an enriching day. I get to see how kids are educated in this country (or more like how teachers are educated by the constantly hyperactive kids) and realise the difficulties of being teachers as well as mums, both vital yet undervalued occupations in the modern business world.

To mum, this is for you. Happy Mother's Day.

Bloggie Makeover

2009-04-20T01:25:00.002+08:00

Bored of the previous templete. Though I don't particularly like this new one, it will have to do while I decide whether to move my blog or not.

Been listening to some Britney Spears. I know, it's so 17 but I can't help it. Hate her yet absolutely love her at the same time. She's got loads of Grammy awards, she's been to everywhere in the world. Her every moves is news-worthy. She'd 2 divorces by the age of 27... Yeh, the American dream.

Granny's here! In England! Yay! Now I can visit her so she can make some mee hun kuey, some cantonese noodles, some char kuey teow for me! Only problem is, ticket's to sheffield from coventry cost 20 pounds, WITH rail card.

Exams looming. Next Thursday, FIS exam. Been to 1 lecture for the whole year, 3 seminars, and done no revision for it at all till now. Worst still, it's not in Accounting / Mathy language where I can write my way around the exams. It's in computer language! Some Enterprise Systems, SCM, ERP etc. Dan is right, you don't go about calling Photoshop some fancy Information System names like 'image editing application system' or something, you call Photoshop PHOTOSHOP. Not sure what the business school is thinking when they select this module for us but well... Just hope it is easy

Sometimes I wonder, how Malaysian University life is like. Higher Kiasu-ism index, lower social/external pressure i presume. By the way I just realised my English standard had fallen quite drastically since I came to UK. Someone tell me how is that possible.

Appalling British eating habit

2009-04-13T03:49:00.004+08:00

I once had a meal: toad in a hole (sausages in some flour-based thingy), mushroom soup and apple crumble dessert at a friend's place. Curious, I looked at the label on each food packaging, calculating the nutrition value. My calculation left me in shock. That meal alone was about almost 2000 calories. Double my daily required amout of calories intake.

I began to observe since then, what British people are eating. Here's some observation of British eating habits.

Adding cheese to vegetables (eg: salad with cheese sprinkled on top, cauliflower cheese... etc)
Having chocolate cake, which in itself, is already horribly fattening, and adding double cream on top because otherwise it would be 'too dry'
Thinking there must be sugar and milk in tea (how can Chinese people drink tea without milk???)
Having cheese with biscuits after desert after dinner after starter. LARGE chunks on cheese on biscuits.
Full fat milk. Enough said.
Adding jam/sugar in oat porridge

No wonder most of them are obese

Disappointing, but true

2009-03-14T12:04:00.000+08:00

"At the end of the day, you only have yourself to rely on"

Rubbish

2009-02-01T00:20:00.003+08:00

Just got home from a skills development session at Warwick. It's called finding your voice and it basically teaches you how to control your voice when you do a presentation in front of an audience: volume, pitch, pauses, intonations etc. The tutor, a certified drama and voice trainer, led the training session very well and managed to make us bang head on into our fear, the horrified, embarassed, nervous feeling that we get when walking into a silent room with 20 people staring back at you, judging every single thing you do/ say.

Talked to one of my coursemates on the way home from campus. Realised how many people get on to a certain stage in their internship applications. Not many got an offer in the end, but many progressed somewhat. I have applied to possibly 10 companies, spending more than 1 full day's work on each, using a different strategy each time, trying to figure out what they want. Unfortunately, I have not managed to pass a single stage in a single firm, whilst most people who applied had somehow got somewhere. Even more unfortunately, I have completely no idea what was wrong with my applications. I had friend to proof read them, career advisors to give comments, and made all the necessary changes. Still, replies all start with, "Due to the high volume of excellent applications we received this year, I am sorry to say..."

Went online again to look for more opportunities. Many placements were filled, and even more placements were allocated to British or EEA nationals only. WHY, do i have to been born in MALAYSIA? I have completely no priviledges being a Malaysian (Chinese), be it that I apply for a placement in Malaysia or any where else in the world. This is rubbish.

Heard about the book, the 'secret' again. Maybe if I can use that positive thinking skill to sort of WILL the internships to come my way, I would be able to get somewhere.

After all the effort, I think maybe I should stop looking to get into investment banking. To some of you, this might sound like I am giving up, in fact, it is true if you look at it this way. But maybe, it is just realising the fact that you are just not good enough to do that, and would let it go and open up to look for opportunities elsewhere.

Now.

Where should I head?

Last day of 2008

2008-12-31T09:11:00.002+08:00

Last day of 2008. Reflection of what I had done this year.

Choreograph a dance for Warwick Malaysia Night whilst participating in another (performed by Team Fearless in 4 events)
Hitchhiked to Morocco. It was an amazing experience involving many laugh, sweat, frustration, tears and courage.
Pushed to be leader for our business planning project, which was a valuable experience for me to be able to make decisions in a professional environment.
Elected to be on the exec board of Warwick Volunteers leading to an opportunity of a great weekend away, absolutely free!
Crammed for first year final exam, managing an overall 1st.
Visited Jenny in Sweden. The place is very pretty and it made me realise that perhaps UK is not the most expensive place on earth.
Worked briefly at HLG S as an accounting assistant, sitting at the resigned manager's desk (Oooo). Did a research on Tower REIT but resigned one week later. Eeeek.
Completed an 8 week internship in Ernst & Young, International Tax Services Department, working on transfer pricing reports.
Wrote my first CV and covering letter for job applications.
Started going to the gym.
Applied to join AIESEC, an international platform for students to take leadership responsibilities and work abroad. Now one of the Global Partnerships Managers, I begin questioning my passion for and motives of joining AIESEC.
Fell ill 5 times in the 10 weeks of term 1. Thankfully with better nutrition and with the aid of vitamin tablets, I am able to stay well till now.
Got my first job at UK, a temp role at Clinton Cards. Annoyed at arrogant and rude 16 year olds, but gained till and customer service experience at a card shop, which is surprisingly interesting especially at Christmas times.
Had my first Christmas experience at Daniel's home. It was lovely (and expensive for parents) and had a real feel of family life in Great Britain.

Looking back at the list, it feels like I have achieved more than I think I did. It's probably natural to set a new year's resolution after the reflection but, as more often than not, I don't stick to my plan, I shall just let my life flow freely and see where it leads me.

Till then, Happy New Year everyone!

2008-12-11T03:02:00.003+08:00

Name : HX
Sisters : prefer not to disclose
Brothers : prefer not to disclose
Shoe size : prefer not to disclose
Height : prefer not to disclose
Where do you live : facebook.com

Favorite drinks : bubble milk tea! yes, i even paid 2.50 pounds for one at manchester. havent found another stall selling that since

Favorite breakfast : nasi lemak

Have you ever been on a plane : No. I swam from Msia to UK

Swam in the ocean : Refer to the above

Fallen asleep in school : almost every Financial Reporting, Acc in Context and Global Environment class. its my new found skill

Fell off your chair : yeh, stupid school-time pranks

Sat by the phone all night waiting for someone to call : many times! hmph

Saved e-mails : yeh, trying to organise my emails. still have 265 enread msgs!

What is your room like : big, empty and c~o~l~d! cant wait to move out

What's right beside you : an electric heater.

What is the last thing you ate : jammie dodgers

When did you cry last : yesterday

Q: Are you a friendly person: sometimes

Q: Do you have any pets : no. miss my house lizard

Q: Where is the person you have feelings for right now : no idea

Q: Did the last person you held hands with mean anything to you now? : oh yeh

Q: Do you sleep with the TV on? : when is the last time i watch TV?

Q: What are you doing right now? : trying to heat up my bum. oh, and cursing SKY! :P

Q: Have you ever crawled through a window? : why?!

Q: Can you handle the truth? : i have to

Q: Are you closer to your mother or father? : they r both about 6000miles away from me

Q: Who was the last person you cried in front of?: Dan

Q: How many people can you say you've really loved? : er

Q: Do you eat healthy? : having pot noodles

Q: Do you still have pictures of you & your ex?: on his profile

Q: Have you ever cried because of something someone said to you? : Yes.

Q: How often do you go to church?: twice in my life

Q: If you're having a bad day, who are you most likely to go to? : facebook

Q: Are you loud or quiet most of the time?:

Q: Are you confident?: not now

Q: Favorite Quote: you only live once (in one life form anyway, if you believe in reincarnation)

Q: Things I was doing 10 years ago: probably practising piano very unwillingly

Q: Things on my to-do list today..: apply to Merrill Lynch. apply to JPMorgan. write a list of internship deadlines. write to uncle. call home. find a job. START DOING MY ESSAY. revision notes. groceries. LAUNDRY

Q: 5 snacks I enjoy.. every kind of chocolate. ice cream. crisps. apple crumble. curry puffs

Q: 5 things I would do if I were a billionaire.. stop applying for jobs. start up my own business. see the world

Q: 5 of my bad habits.. turning on the radiator secretly when its cold.

Q: 5 places I have lived in : Msia. UK. hopefully one day, the states and china.

Q: 5 jobs I've had : paper tearer. paper collector. applying to be a paper shuffler.

Q: 5 people I tag : whoever read this, you're tagged

2008-11-18T01:57:00.002+08:00

Coming to Warwick University has made me a lot more patriotic than I would ever have imagined. The way the world look at us, the way the people here use the word, developed and developing so loosely, the way people are so proud of their country, all these made me feel the urge to 'protect' my country, my roots, my home, despite all the critics I made before this. Weird.

I have recently been preoccupied with making internship applications, societies commitments and catching up with my work. Why do they post so many weird questions in those application forms? Argh... spent 7 weeks completing 2. Statistics is against me getting an internship. Seems like I will end up in Malaysia this summer, but anyhow, I will keep trying.

Good luck Daniel :) you've done well

MAXIS Conference 2008

2008-11-10T05:32:00.003+08:00

No, it isn't Maxis 017/012. It is a Mega Conference organised by AIESEC UK to give an introduction about what AIESEC is and to allow the delegates to have a self development opportunity. It is a 4 day national conference involving 300 AIESECers from universities across UK, held at Port Tablot in Wales.

The conference was full of fun packed activities. The days were filled with enriching talks and personal development activities whereas the nights were party-till-the-morning times. So yeh, you guessed it. Sleep deprivation and depreciating health were our companion through the conference (many thanks to the very unhealthy food served as well).

As the days gone by, you notice that the enthusiasm of the delegates lifted, people began to widen their network of friends and the delegates began to all love AIESEC. Being a very analytical person as I am, being a person who simply refuses to trust or believe in something/one easily, unfortunately, I began to form a wall between me, and AIESEC. It isn't because AIESEC is bad, it is a non-profit organisation providing its members a constructive environment to develop and learn. I hate to admit it, but it isn't for me. First of all, the people who belongs to AIESEC, they are foolishly arrogant. AIESECers are encouraged to dream big, and have the confidence to achieve what they dream. They want to believe that they can change the world, and using the chants and dance to motivate the members, it makes them feel powerful, strong yet to me, foolish. The whole conference is a brainwashing camp. To brainwash the people to believe that they can, and even more so, believe in AIESEC. At some point during the conference, i started to think, what the fuck i am doing here. Perhaps Clement was right, it is the intention of the brainwashing that matters. It could be a similar motivating its member's technique, but AIESEC is opportunity creating organisation, and the people who ultimately benefits from AIESEC are its members.

Enough of that, I left the conference with a heavy mind. There's so much I want to reflect on, and throughout the conference, I have learnt a lot more about myself.

FACT 1: I have a pleasant personality
FACT 2: I am very competitive
FACT 3: I lack confidence

Reflective piece:

Is confidence important for success?

Can an introvert ever become a leader?

Is it good to dream big, to dream the impossible, or should there be a reality check?

--Should I still do the things I dreamt of doing, eventhough my personality/ capability is not matched?

Doomed to Adulthood

2008-08-29T12:57:00.002+08:00

Stepping into the office, my mood went from being annoyed that I had to wake up at 5:30 am, to apprehensive about not knowing what to expect later on that day. It was still too early for anyone in their right mind to arrive at work. I approached the security guard and asked the obvious, “Menara Millenium?” Giving me a quick look, they handed me a visitor’s pass and said, “Reception belum buka lagi, tunggu sinilah”. Not wanting to be in a position where I had to make awkward conversations with the security guards, I went to the toilet instead.

It was my (sadly) second internship for this month. When I got the acceptance letter from EY (one day too late), I handed in the resignation letter in HLG S. It might be a wrong move, I might learn much more there, have better lunch and most importantly, NOT WAKE UP AT 5:30am everyday, but well… it’s EY.

EY was… depressing. As I enter the tax department on level 21, I couldn’t help but wonder, how am I going to survive for 8 weeks here? Oh, and forget working here fulltime. Have you seen a production line in factories? EY is somewhat like that. Rows after rows of cubicles rammed against one another, each enclosing a lifeless looking soul. I was lucky to be seated right at the corner, next to the window. At least I, like all those facing the windows, can see our route of escape, 21 floors down if desperation arises.

One week into my vacation trainee life in EY, I began to get used to dragging myself out of bed and into my workstation. Much to my dismay, the typical Monday blues, Friday’s relief that the week’s over, and the over-excitement about one miserable public holiday got to the better of me. As much as I didn’t want to, I have to admit that this might (WILL) be my life for the next thirty years, FORTY if I am unlucky. Climbing up the corporate ladder has never been my goal, nor is it something I can imagine myself doing with a smile plastered on my face. Struggling to figure out something that I wouldn’t mind doing and yet get paid, I couldn’t help but wonder, how many people actually (forget like) are content with their job?

No, stop. Stop. Thank God it’s Friday and I would better enjoy it before it’s gone away too quickly, again.

Oil price hike faster than me progressing in my career

2008-07-07T20:41:00.003+08:00

I am home!

It has been awhile since I am away from home, and while most of the things remain very familiar to me, some seems to differ slightly from what I imagine seeing them now. For example, probably its because I have been looking at generally taller people around me, I kind of felt as if I am taller than before I went to england right now. When I measured myself against a crappy measuring tape, it told me that I am an inch taller then I was, but still, i felt as if I had grown a whole lot more.

Another thing that comes to my attention is that it seems as if all the people I know having a break from studying abroad are all DESPERATELY searching for an internship. I guess influenced by the students in UK or US, we realise the importance of going for an internship rather than having a holiday work. It is really rather shocking when I heard that almost none of my friends in malaysia are intending to go for one.

Also, CIMB is NOT CIMB Bank, the red bank you see everywhere offering banking services to the rakyat, it is an investment bank, to be exact, the 'best investment bank in malaysia' (Finance Asia 08). I went for an interview today but unfortunately, they digged out my parents' occupation and now I think I do not have much of a chance going there for an internship because there's a conflict of interest. BOo. Why should I be discriminated for my parents' occupation?!! Anyway, they haven't give me an answer so I really hope despite the LITTLE problem there I will still be able to join CIMB. Ignore also the fact that they only pay me 700 ringgit per month.

Malaysia is such a sad country. What is the point of free speech when, raising an unfavourable but true point is considered wrong or when the politicians are being told they are not doing a good job, the PUBLIC is wrong to point it out? If they only want to hear good things about them, and telling off (or rather, threatening) the people from voicing out their dissaticfactions, when will our country improve? Former PM accusing current PM for not being able to manage the country, V-PM has a court case against him deciding the possibility of him being involved in a murder case, and the PM's nephew who is reported having his eye on the PM seat is also being scrutinised for his involvement in bribery. What is happening to our leaders?

Sometimes I feel, it will probably be better for me to stay in Msia after I graduate and work here, but i might feel so frustrated with all these politicians who- in their attempts to step over each other to gain control, affecting the rakyat's life in the process- that I would rather work in some foreign country. You can see that I am no big fan of favouritism, or rather, 'Bumi's special rights' (which now includes helping the Indians, excuse me, shouldnt it be helping the poor regardless of race, rather than, you chinese, you no need help!); I am also no big fan of the current Msian's least favourite figure: 2.70. Tell me Msia is an oil producing country, I wouldnt believe you.

Pressure

2008-05-22T06:22:00.002+08:00

Interestingly, 'Pressure' is one or Warwick Student Union's night.

However, the pressure i mean here is the one you face when your palms become sweaty, heartrate plummets, and feel like causing great damage to everything around you, by force.

When I start studying, some already finish the whole year's syllabus, some keep partying and wont start until the very last minute because, JUST because they can. When I am thinking of applying for internship, some already come back from it telling everyone how great the experience was. When I want (NEED) to learn more about the market and its operations, some have been managing their own portfolio for years and have been secretly earning loads. When I got 85 for business law, others got 100 for that module.

I am no where near the top in my school or anything anymore. I may not be the worse, but I sure feel so recently. I will never get to the same level with some of the students here in Warwick, heck, the gap is so obvious one doesnt have to be an expert in HR to recognise it. Will someone please give me a bigger (and better of course) brain? I want to work harder. Ok, spending 400,000 ringgit on this degree, I NEED to work harder.

Will I ever going to keep up with this?

Warwick Volunteer Exec Training

2008-04-30T17:49:00.003+08:00

It's quite a story how I managed to get the exec position in Warwick Volunteer, but i am not complaining! I am now Fundraising and Development Officer / Project Leader in Warwick Volunteer, which is like one of, if not the only society with staff working full time in it. And it is huge too, with appoximately 2000 members. (hidung tinggi now)

Anyway, was surprised to get the position given my crappy manifesto, and even more surprised when we were offered to go on exec training at Peak Districk in Derbyshire. To be honest I was a bit put off by the fact that I did not know anyone beforehand, but now that I am back home from the training, i am glad that i did go. Afterall, to frame it more precisely, it was a 'awesome holiday at a wonderful place, with EVERYTHING paid for!'

Sladen Lodge was completely ours for the weekend. The kitchen was stacked full of food and snacks that I just need to grab and open to eat, the scene was wonderful, the activities was well planned and organised, we even had a massive trampoline to jump off the calories we accumulated with all the food! At one point we even begin to wonder what do they expect out of us in return. By the end of the course, we finally saw the massive amount of work we were expected to do in the coming year, and if you remember what my post title is, yes, I am supposed to find funds for next year's activity, including the next exec's 'holiday away'!

Anyway, have been reading a few blogs recently, seeing how many long-term relationships are breaking apart, i begin to think when will some of us 'settle down for good', or will any of us decide to go 'against the flow' and remain bujang. 'Oh dear', such an interesting thought!

Random thoughts

2008-04-24T18:00:00.003+08:00

Why is everyone studying Medicine/ Dentistry? And why does everyone think i am also studying that?

I met a few ex primary/ secondary schoolmate online recently. Havent't really talk for a very long time. All of them gave me a very surprised look ( ok, i cant really see their facial expression, but that's how i think they look when they put ??!!!! in their msg) when i said, no i am not studying Medicine/ Dentistry /anything alike, I am doing accounting ad finance. Some expressed disappointment that I pick such a uncool subject even.

Somehow, together with a few things that happened recently, I start to wonder whether I will regret my choices one day in the future.

The world is changing too fast, everything is moving forward, the best option today might as well very well be the worse tomorrow. I have been trying to change, to keep up, or merely, to change to suit my surroundings, still, there are differences I cant ignore, things that I want to preserve but have to give up if I want to make things work.

I hate choices.
I hate changes.

Can tears blur the distance between us? I have been walking the distance, walking OUT from my confort zone, why is there still an ocean in between? Or is it an ocean of tears from trying too hard?

* This is just a random post I put up when i m too bored of doing my integrative project. Not to be taken seriously*

Mum's visit

2008-04-22T23:38:00.003+08:00

No it's not 'auntie's visit' or anything along the line, my mum actually visited me in UK, with my dad and gran.

It was kind of a surprise to me since they have been talking about coming to the UK for the last TWENTY years and I would have thought it's another 'sudden urge' which wil dissicipate as soon as it surfaced. But no, the next thing I know, I spent the next 2 weeks picking up their calls from Malaysia to answer questions like, 'what's the weather like in the next 2 weeks (even BBC only gives weather forecast for the next 5 days -MAX-), which are good hotels in Paris (imagine being asked that question about Kuching, or Kota Kinabalu, or Segamat, or just anywhere you have never been before)

No matter how much i grumble, I still can't describe fully how excited I was when I realised they were already on the plane here. For a week before they arrive, I was up on quiet area in the library among all other over-eager-to-do-well-in-exams / doing-last-minute-cramming students trying to do some revision so i have a valid reason to take a break and go to sheffield (my mum brother's place). Oh, and have you ever realised how quiet and SCArieeeee library is at night? Walking in between the rows of books with most lights off feels like I am lead acting in some horror movies.

Anyway, their visit was great, not just because I can have good food and not having to cook and work on trying to make the chicken taste like chicken, but also because I can finally feel that my 2 seemingly unrelated worlds in Msia and UK connects, which is good cause one world have always seem to disappear whenever the other one emerge. =)

Hitchiking to Morocco!

2008-04-03T19:29:00.016+08:00

Hi guys. I am back from Morocco! Luckily we came back earlier than planned so I 'only' have 12 days of event to blog.

It all started with Jimmy telling me about a 'guy who needs a partner for hitch' at the first Bruneian Social. I was merely being polite when I said, 'hmm, interesting!' Somehow I ended up registering for the hitch with Zhiyang, a 2nd year M'sian (FYI, he's not the guy Jimmy was talking about)

VISA, THE MAIN HEADACHE
Anyway, preparing for the hitch was much harder than i initially thought it would be. First we had to raise 300 quid EACH, or else we had to donate from our own acccount to LCD, 'so that no one treats this hitch as a free holiday'. -.-" Everyone doing the hitch went all out to raise the targetted amount of money. Selling Krispe Kremes, blackmailing their friends to donate... Jimmy and Zhiyang even auctioned themselves to run from University House to Rootes in bikinis at lunch hour for 60quid each! (They chickened out though, and are going to be singing chipmunks at the Piazza in boxes instead)

Visa was another problem for us. Apparently only Malaysians need a Visa to go to Morocco, even Singaporeans do not need one. (It somehow makes us wonder what shit the politicians are doing in our country) I won't elaborate too much but many groups applied 3 or 4 times (each time cost 50 pounds), bought ferry tickets, flights, and accommodation in Morocco just to get the Visa. Aaron finally called the Moroccan Embassy up and cleared the matter. It seemed that they MISREAD our documents and thought we are fundraising IN Morocco instead of FOR the Moroccan. $%^*!#$#

Frustrated, Zhiyang and I went to the Moroccan Embassy in London to sort out our Visa. Took us 2 days ('come back tomorrow, we only open at 9-10am for Visa application') and when we finally got it approved, -it was the most hideous looking Visa I'd seen in my life but i almost kissed it in tears-, we left immediately to Portsmouth to catch the 2300 ferry to LeHarve in France.

OUR JOURNEY BEGINS!
To our dismay, we discovered that we weren't the only group of hitchers there! One look across the ferry told us that there were practically more hitchers in our green hitch uniform than potential 'hitch-giver'. After one whole night of perturbing the people on the ferry, we got 2 ladies, (and 2 year-old Grace), to take us to Angouleme in France. Our first hitch was the best, despite the fact that Grace kept asking us to cut apples for her. Here's part of our conversation.

Lady: I need a knife to cut these apples *fumbling for a knife
Zyang: I have a pen knife
Lady: *Act slightly taken aback* AHA, that's a trick question! Get out of my car now!
Zyang: Oopsie
Grace: I want you cut my apple!
Zyang cuts apple into slices
Grace: It's too big!
Zyang cuts again
Grace: It's too big!
Lady: Grace, you are making fun of your new friend here aren't you?
Grace grins : It's too big!
We managed to take a short visit to her sister's house in the village where they are ending their journey before being taken by her sister to a nearby petrol station so we can continue our own journey. She was a nice lady too, for she helped us talk to the truck drivers at the petrol station as we speak no French nor Spanish and got us on a van that goes straight into Spain that night! One day and we got pass France!

I have to say that we learnt most of our Spanish in the van with Santos. He spoke a little English and we spent 8 hours in the car flipping through the back of our Spain guidebook with prints of some common Spanish words trying to string them together to form a conversation with him.

We arrived in Burgos at 2300.

HITCHHIKING- HARDER THAN WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE
Our luck ran out the next day. We woke up to find ourselves at a very broad bend towards the motorway to Madrid, at the first day of EASTER BREAK, and almost no car in sight! After an hour of walking and waving, our 'AUTOSTOP CARIDAD' (hitchhike for charity) and 'Ir al sud' (Towards South) signboards saved us and we got picked up and put at a nearby petrol station, where we got our next hitch to Madrid.

Somewhere along the way

I cant describe the disappointment I felt when this guy decided to drop us off somewhere at the bottom of Madrid when we realise that he was going all the way to Morocco! Imagine getting all the way to Morocco in 4 hitches!! You must understand, I am sleeping in the car tonight and it's for my own safety. Awwww-ghhhh. To add to our misery, his estimation of 'bottom of Madrid' was slightly off. When we saw another hitch group at the same petrol station where we got dropped off, we knew we were stuck. Indeed, we spent the whole day begging everyone and still stood at the exact same spot at the end of the day, with friends/competitors beside us this time.

STRANDED IN SPAIN
We started looking for a place to stay after a guy promised us that he would take us to Malaga the next day at 8am. Maybe it's our haggard appearance, with card boards, backpacks and our limited Spanish, or maybe they are genuinely fully booked; we were shunned from every hostel, motel, hotel, pension we asked! We almost went into a church to ask for help (as suggested by one of the hotel receptionist) but went away after hearing people singing inside. Fortunately we met a family on the street and they helped us talk to one of the pension owners (pensions are small hostels where you have to call and ask for a room, we couldn't get one before this as we couldn't communicate beyond 'Ola' (hello)) and we successfully avoided sleeping at a bench outside the church, where we had previously decided that it was the safest place for homeless people like us around Pinto.

What happens when there's too much time to kill......

Our worst dreams can true the next day as we found ourselves still standing at the petrol station hours after the agreed time, frantically calling the guy's mobile for the millionth time while shivering in the cold, cursing the guy for 'flying aeroplane'. At 10, We started asking around for hitch again in turns, (one of us ask whilst the other go into the shop to regain some body heat) and only left the 'most horrible stacion gasoline on earth' at 3. After a few more short hops, we got on to a cool-couple-who-kept-trying-to-offer-us-weeds's car and got to Granada, at the bottom of Spain.Deciding that we had enough, we took a bus to Algeciras, stayed a night, and got on to the ferry into Morocco. That's when our 'holiday' begun.

Really cool couple who kept offering us weeds.

MOROCCO- 'BEAUTIFUL CITY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE'?
Stepping out of the ferry in Tanger, it felt as if I landed myself onto another planet altogether. The buildings are Alibaba-like, and I have yet to see another city whose altitude can differ so vastly in a short distance. Again, we walked up and down the steep alley, trying hard to ignore the stares from the locals, for hours before we got ourselves a room.

There are a few things that one can't help but observe when in Morocco. First, jobless bloke -even kids- looking for tourist to con are aplenty on the streets. Kids snatched my food away in Fes when I was eating, taxi drivers hiked up the price by 800%, random people told us 'What are you looking for? I just want to help' and asked payments for their help thereafter...

RISSANI- A TOWN WE WILL NEVER VISIT AGAIN, EVER
This situation was particularly the worst for us when we were at Rissani, the city that we had to pass if we were to go to Western Sahara. Literally EVERYONE we saw was trying to get us to part with our money. Lady begging on the floor, petite taxis, grand taxis, boys on bicycle's with a back seat, restaurant owners, and even, bus ticket seller. He tried to sell us a 90 Dirham (45 ringgit) ticket to Kenifra after telling us that the direct bus to Marrakech were sold out. Not taking up his advice (we learnt that it's best to use our instinct instead in Morocco), we bought the 55 Dirham ticket to Midelt. However after we came back from lunch to wait for the bus, he approached us offering us 2 refunded tickets to Marrakech at its original price, 140 DH, whilst refusing to refund our tickets. Desperate to get out of the terrible place, we grudgingly bought the tickets, declining his offer to 'sell our original tickets for us'. Then We went about selling them ourselves.

Somehow we managed to get to this 2 men who gave their 2 Marrakech tickets to the ticket seller to sell for them, as they decided to go somewhere else. After a short chat, we both realise that we were cheated as the ticket seller sold us the ticket at full price but told them he couldn't sell the tickets. He must have done this trick more than a million times as when he was confronted, he made up all sorts of stories, diverted out attention and ran out of sight. It didn't help our mood when a kid pointed us towards the direction of the ticket booth when asked, turned around and asked for 'payments'; nor when a man stood between us and the place where one put one's baggage at the bottom of the bus, demanded us to give our backpacks to him, turned around, threw them in and asked for 20 DH. To complete our mishaps, the bus broke down after 20 km towards Marrakech. Great.

HIGHLIGHTS OF MOROCCO
All was worthwhile though, as we get to see the beautiful desert, silent with more stars than I know existed twinkling in the sky. The sand was the best. It was so dry and powdery, it just falls off once you get up after rolling in the sand. The architectures are very different from what we have, most apparent in Fes and Tanger, with Medinas where market place lies. Marrakech was also a very interesting city. It was similar to Petaling Street, but much bigger. Avoid looking at the preparations of the food and you will definately enjoy them as well.

Hitchhiking to Morocco is an amazing experience to me. I am not sure whether I will do it again, (lazing around at the beach is still my definition of holiday) but I will definately recommend it to anyone thinking of doing something that they will not forget in their life.

Camel ride

Dancing in the (Day)Light

Beautiful Sahara

When Hitchers meet

Food!

Koutobia- Symbol of Marrakech

End of our journey

Daniel at Coventry Bus Station

Our journey- recorded

For more pictures, feel free to visit my facebook photo album :)

Hitchhike for Charity

2008-02-16T01:17:00.003+08:00

Hi guys... finally an update!

I will be hitch hiking from UK to Morocco (Africa) during easter! My plan is to hitchhike with Zhiyang, also from Warwick University in UK, to morocco while raising a targeted donations of 600 pounds for charity. All proceeds will go to the kids in Africa for a better education
(FYI, 10 quid can get them a desk, 20 quid can get a teacher trained for literacy...)

So please everyone, think of how lucky you are, trying to lose weight while the kids out there are struggling to fill their stomach. Just give up a bag of crisps (which makes you fat anyway) , a meal out, or a cinema date.

Give the kids a hope for a better future.

Help us to help them.

For more info and to make donations: http://www.justgiving.com/kidshope

Also, Spread the words around!!! We need all the support and publicity we can get!!

And remember, it's all for charity :)

LiFe uP NoRth

2007-11-03T23:36:00.000+08:00

Hey guys...

So much have happened since my last update.

Apart from having to do my own laundry, which really IS a pain, I am enjoying every other bits of my life here at WARWICK (elwin, this is the name of my uni). Due to time constraints (laziness), I shall just put everything in point form so I apologize if this entry is pretty much of a shambles.

- Warwick Business School Society Social at Mumbai Bluu (a bar), Leamington Spal.

5 quid (pounds) for the event. And 5 complementary drinks. They played some games and the winner gets another free drink. Now u can imagine how much we drank that night! Everyone was tipsy, and it was quite funny to see ppl swaying and mumbling nonsense. The taxi ride back to Uni was overcharged, well, nothing new, just like Msia.

- StreetVibe. I am determined to dance away my first year! I tried joining Latin n Ballroom, but due to some unfortunate event, I can't find a partner~!! Not that I m complaining, I am going for Streetvibe (a mixture of hiphop, modern, street dance moves), and it's real fun!

- I've been made to realise that our 'English' is so very poor. People from HongKong, China, India, basically everywhere else can speak better 'English' than us, mainly because we starts and ends in the wrong tone! Dang, BM's fault!!

- Lectures and Seminars (Tutorials). Not much to say about these. It's a pain to have to wake up for them. A wise reminder from daniel, 'some of us actually forgot that we are here to STUDY. Back in highschool we dont complain that much about having seminars the next day.' Well, with so much distractions, true. Don't worry ppl, I havent miss any seminars just yet. And I do all my work. If u need any motivation, work out how much a seminar cost your parents. Keep you alert throughout seminar deffo! ( About RM250 per hour)

- Food/ groceries shopping.

H A T E T H A T

- Drinking games. Practically played every social gatherings. Devy's place, tocil flat, streetvibe social, Rootes. There's 'I'd never', 'count the number', poker, and others that names I cant remember. Of course, there's also spin the bottle, and strip poker. -.-""" (been keeping away from that. haha)

- Trips! So far, i have only been to Warwick castle, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, and London!~ Pictures are all on facebook. (Cant believe nobody here uses friendster, everyone just go, 'i will facebook u', 'tag me in ur photos') Have you ever realise that in the next generation of working age population, everyone is using facebook/ friendster/ msn that meetings and sorts might be scheduled using that? Anyway, the london trip with Christine, Candy, and Jessica was nice. Went to china town, Oxford Street, then UCL Malaysian Night. The play was really creative, the only drawback is that not much 'ang mo' came to watch. Hope I will have a chance to go to London Eye and London bridge next time.

Anyway, that's all for now. Oh, and by the way, it hits 0 degree today. It's so damn cold up here. Not the temperature, but the wind. Sends the chill right down your spine. Aiks. Till the next.

~Freshers 2007~

2007-10-12T20:08:00.000+08:00

Freshers fortnight is over. I am now considered, erm, not so fresh? Okay, that sounds pretty weird. I have finally been able to tell left from right in Warwick, and things are starting to make some sense (barely).

Campus does = fun. There's just so many things that you can do but it always comes with the sense of guilt afterwards, a.k.a 'responsibility too late'. Crap, I have no idea what I am trying to say, having been up till 3am for the past few days, playing cards and staring at this laptop to check my emails every 2 seconds.

My 20 pounds hoodie.

HeXin @ UK

That is ... weird.

Nights at Students Union

Many trips were organised to quench our freshers' urge to spend. I joined one to Oxford, a very studious looking place. Just about every church in the past are now tranformed to become a library. (No wonder you need 3 brains to get in to the uni). We also went to Coventry and the 'famous?' Warwick castle.

5 Hongkies and 1 Malaysian

My flatmates and I. I like the way the 2 of them get drunk. They just get really happy.

Now that the excitements have gradually dissipated, I am starting to miss Msia. The food, the mamak, and of course, the 5sc1 peeps.

The beginning

2007-10-03T03:25:00.000+08:00

Hi guys.

I have now finally settled down in the UK. Starting to get used to the weather, in the process of learning to understand their very british-ish accent and stuffs like that. Anyway, back to the day i left malaysia.

Was pretty surprised that Meng Yue, Yuan Ruh and Kitloong went to the airport to say goodbye. Didn't expect them to do so. Thanks ppl! Anyway... we had my last McD in Malaysia at the airport, ate mooncakes, and i went down the escalator ALONE. I have to mention the walk down. All your friends and family were up there looking at you, and you know that they cant come in to help you when you have problems, and knowing that's where the journey starts and you are going alone, all of this makes it pretty scary and emotion weld up in me.

Fastforward it to the day i reach Warwick. After the DAMN looooooooong flight, i reached Heathrow, and that's when i start to get lost. Campus is really big. Having been driving for most of my time in M'sia, the soles of my feet start to get really hurt in the first day itself because of all the walking i had to do. People here are really different from us. They can be brilliant in the morning, and get really drunk and lost at night. I have flatmates trying to climb into the cupboard under the sink after a cuppa of drinks at one night and going for a math test the next morning! Crazie.

It's really nice for people who's working and spending here. Everything's so cheap! 3 pounds for a Mcd set meal. UNFORTUNATELY, we are not locals. So times it by 7, that's 21 ringgit.
Bad news.

The people here are quite friendly, but most of the times i just couldnt understand some of their british accent that i really dont know how to join in. Ouch.

It's 12 am. Gotta rest. Coventry tomorrow. Till the next!

The Last Chapter in Malaysia.

2007-09-24T14:49:00.000+08:00

It's time, after many hours of shouting and screaming (bring this!!.... leave that shampoo!... where's your medical report?!...), for me to board the plane to the region in the west. Journey to the West, let's call it.

But before that, I would like to say.... You Guys RAWKS!!!

It's fun having another round of gathering before leaving. What's more, the presents that you guys gave me really touched my heart, besides giving me a LMAOROTF moment.

This is a teh tarik session at Tan Cha House with PoYi, KarLai and the gang in celebration of Ah Shee's birthday and as my farewell.

The 5sc1 gang!

Notice the shirt!

Limited Edition. "The one and only" Brand. From my beloved friends.

Unexpected flower from an unexpected guy.

Flowers and ballons = party!!

Presents!! Yeah... thanks so much everyone...

Now here's an insight into my room.

BEFORE

I know. It's an utter mess. Thinking of which to bring and which to give up is a real headache.

AFTER

the moment before i left home

The place i now live.

What an Emo month

2007-08-29T00:47:00.000+08:00

They say time flies, and i totally agree with it.

Right after all the post-exam trips, i worked at a small warehouse to help out with sHELL competition. It was a real sHELL-ish place to work in, what with all the dust and paper cuts and blue black and muscle pain... But still, having my cousin and a few crazy guys over there did add some colour to the otherwise routine work.

You might not realise how many Malaysians actually think they could win the 25K given out by Shell every week. Millions of forms were sent in every single week! Considering the fact that we dump half of the forms away randomly to ease our otherwise impossible to finish workload, the winners must have just been kissed by the Luck Lord.

It had been quite an emotional month for me. After getting my results, which thankfully, fulfills the requirement of University of Warwick, I joined a camping trip to Gunung Nuang with fellow scout mates. It wasn't a really enjoyable trip for me but at least I got to the top (which was actually quite bare) and back home in one piece, not to mention getting really sick for a week after that.

Thereafter, I have been busy with Visa application, medical check up and all the preparations before actually boarding the plane to the other side of Earth. Hey guys, it's 24th Sept not 24th August. Haha. Thanks for the surprise farewell anyway. You guys rawks!

Have been browsing some blogs recently. Came across one which really touches me. Partly it's because I didn't expect him to write something about me, and partly because I didn't realise that I actually did mean something to him. I have been made to think that he didn't care at all, that I was just being something of a pastime to him. Now to realise this after all the emotional turmoil that I had just been put through, I could almost see sunshine in my life.

I know. This entry is an utter mess. Just a random update.

Gibberish

2007-08-15T00:34:00.000+08:00

let go and being let go.
one is full of remorse, one is filled with helplessness
blaming someone or being punished for a reason not because of you
your past, your upbringing, your status
i didn't ask for it
but experiencing it both at about the same time isn't something easy
i won't whine
i won't hide
i will embrace myself to face all the challenges awaiting
when a door is closed, another will be opened for you
the inks are dried up, pages are teared,
tears have dripped upon the cover of my life,
it's time
to start a new chapter, a new journal of life
nonetheless
i will still pour my heart and soul into it

2007-07-18T22:07:00.000+08:00

little piggy died

Carnival + Prom + Zhengling's Bday Party + PD and Melacca Trip + Mini Gathering + MaeAnn's Bday Party + Perhentian Trip= 2 weeks not at home!!!

2007-07-13T09:38:00.000+08:00

MAE ANN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY (23 June)
It's Mae Ann's party the next day. I spent one whole afternoon hunting for a monkey as her present but in the end shared with Sheik Ying cause I couldn't find one cute enough for her. Besides, I was already exhausted from all mini gathering with Poyi, Shaer and the gang. Was in a bad mood cause i poured my whole mango juice all over my body at the Tan Cha House!!!! Argh...... Anyway, the party was at Dave's Pizza, OneU. We got lost on the way there. I particularly love the mashpotato there, for those who don't know me, I don't like mash potato, but on that day, i had 2nd, no, 3rd helpings!

Upon reaching home, I called Quennezy on her cell with my HOUSE PHONE (Dang, daddy is gonna kill me) for 2 hours. Crapped about lotsa things. It wasn't until 5 o'clock the next day that I finally decided to join Robert's class trip to Pulau Perhentian on the day itself! (I only spent 15 minutes to pack for the 5 days 4 nights trip.)

PULAU PERHENTIAN- TERENGGANU (24 June - 28 June)
Basically, I have no regrets joining this trip, though I was quite unsure at first. I only know Robert among all the 20 peeps! The only thing I have to say is that we spent too much time waiting throughout the trip. Waited for the organiser, waited for the bus (the bus ride was life threatening I tell you, worse nightmare ever!), waited for breakfast, waited for the ferry, waited 6 hours to check in, basically, the only activity we did there was snokelling (spotted schools of fishes, corals, weird mouth looking thingy, and turtles). Thanks to all the friendly PE7 peeps, even the waiting part was filled with laughter.

Beautiful Perhentian

Camwhore

What's that??!!

On the way to snokel in different 6 spots

Deep blue sea

Suddenly, 'plop...' that's Daniel on the ground.

And he got back up grinning widely. Haha. He look kinda cute (also funny) in this pic.

That's Jeremy, our friendly organiser. That's the most 'normal' expression i've seen so far in all his photos. Hehe.

Swimming frantically to shake hands (??) with the turtle.

Fishes!!!

Flying in the sea?!! Boys are just being boys.

Looks cooling isn't it?

But still got sun burnt!! and tanned as well....

Sand therapy!! But we later heard that there's people camping up there using the stream to wash and clean stuffs... Yikes!!!

Our little Nemo...

Sea cucumber .Poor thing. It's squeezed to death by the evil hands of ours!

That's Tyson in his i have no idea what pose.

The fire's proud dad.

From left: Yu Jin being very very sun burnt, me still short and tanned as ever, and Jeremy with a red nose.

Bye Perhentian!!!

After-math

2007-07-03T18:35:00.000+08:00

Talk about trauma after accident. I had to drive to college today cause KamHei's kembara is 'unavailable'. Every junction we passed by, everytime we are near a car that post a treat to us, he would scream and I would step on the brakes hard, double check, no, triple check, then only move again.

Thanks to everyone who called to care. I really appreciate it.

WhAt a DaY!!

2007-07-02T20:30:00.000+08:00

What if we had decided to return home earlier when we thought the sun was too hot, would that have happen? What if the we didn't wait for the girl to draw out money to buy our books, would that happen? What if I had insisted on going to Uncle Send for our lunch, would that happen? Okay, enough of the what if's, what, you may ask, HAD happen then?

It's July intake orientation day for Taylor's A level students. So, Kam Hei and I, as former Taylor's students, decided to go back to college to sell off our books. It was the worst way of direct selling. Not only we have to stand under the hot sun for more than 3 hours straight without ever resting, he had to yell to attract the juniors' attention as well. My mind totally mal-function under the HOT HOT HOT sun, and we didn't manage to sell much as there are so few July Intakes.

When we were about to go back, a girl came and asked for the whole sets of bio and maths books. After negotiating with her, she went away saying she wanted to draw out money to get the books. She did came back after quite awhile, but didn't buy anything. Feeling slightly disappointed about the day's selling, we put away the books in the boot and drove home.

Now here's the climax of the story.

We were in the car thinking about how to sell the books the next day. Probably we were too concentrating on the books, when we were nearing the final T-junction in front of Kam Hei's house just one block away, I saw a lady in a Hyundai coming from the right. Fast.

No no, we might crash...

Okay, she's stopping...

Is she?!!

He's stopping....

We are still way too fast.

Oh no, we are too close.

NoNONO....

Stop stop STOP!!!

I closed my eyes...

I seriously thought it would be another NEAR accident, like what we 'P' licence people experience always.

But not this time. We crashed. Hard.

I was thrown forward. Luckily I was wearing my seat belt at that point of time, it jerked my body backwards, forcing my breath out of my lungs. A searing pain rose up to my chest. I literally stopped breathing for a few seconds. I remembered the first thing I did after the impact (after I started breathing again of course), was checking my limbs. Both hands, movable, legs, checked, head, still intact. I am alive!!!

By the time I retrieved myself, KamHei was already out there arguing with the lady. I took off my life saver-seat belt (seriously, if i hadn't worn that I wouldn't be here writing in my blog) and went down. The lady tried accusing us of going too fast, but because we had the right of way, we did not speed or go against the rules, KamHei managed to make her feel guilty, and she sped off! What the! But that's after we took photos of the two cars.

OMG, Blood!!! Nah... the car's leakage.

The idiot verdict.

Do you know that those toll car guys are always driving around hunting for business? I only knew that today as just half an hour after the incident when we were still standing there waiting for KamHei father's company insurer or something, 3 independent toll-man was already there fighting for 'business'.

After 45minutes of waiting, the man finally came. We went to the police centre that deals with all these accidents to lodge a report. After another round of waiting, we were asked to illustrate the incident and show him the pictures that act as prove. He scribbed something on the report paper, nodded when we tried to make sure we are clear, and we were allowed to leave. We followed the car to the repair place near seri kembangan (i think) and I only reach home at around 8pm. My chest and now my ankle still hurts a little but the most important thing is, THANK GOD I AM SAVED!!!

Police report

A scene from the police station. Look at those! We could have been much worse!

He looks happy for someone who met an accident. So yup, we're both fine.

So the moral of the story is, no matter we have the right of way or not, expect people not to follow the rules. So slow down whenever there's the possibility of crashing cause other people's mistake is NOT WORTH your life!

-3pm, 2nd July 2007-

Prom, birthdays and class trip

2007-06-28T18:23:00.000+08:00

PROM NIGHT- MOONLIGHT RENDEZVOUS (17June)

Prom was great! Mayb a little bored. Hmm, not just a little. Okay okay, mayb it's not really worth Rm550. But still, when else can you get the chance to see people in their best dresses and make up?? So, here goes...

After all the shopping, was which a real hassle, THE day finally arrived. At around 4 I was already dressed, waiting to do the make up and hair at a nearby studio. After spending 2 hours in that place nervously twitching in my chair everytime she did a major alteration to my look ESPECIALLY when she shaped my eyebrows, I left the studio with my head 2 pounds heavier and Rm80 poorer.

Robert (formerly known as Kam Hei) arrived at my house at 6.30. After a little photography session with my family (again, how many times would i dress up like that?!!!), we drove to JW Marriot.

Who the heck invented high heels?!! The short walk from the car park to the hotel was utterly unbearable! No wonder you will act more girlish wearing that stuff cause you cant do otherwise! It hurts! Anyway, none of my friends were able to recognise me. I saw them going into the lift, I walked pass them, and they didn't even glance at me! Haha. It's only till much later that they finally realise I was standing behind them all the while. Here's the pics as promised. (still waiting for others from Annjoe.)

Robert and I

AnnJoe and I

That's my Accounts lecturer

ShinYi

Posers

The girls and the lecturers.

Prom Queen and I

Spot the odd?!!

After prom we went to Sandy's house to take of all the colours and stuffs from our face and hair. We spent a night over at her house (I finally get to eat my crab!!!) and began preparing for the next task: ZhengLing's Birthday Party!

Yolanda's Birthday Party (18th June)

After buying stuffs with KamHei for tomorrow's trip, I went to Venezia thinking that there will be just a few people celebrating Yo's birthday. It turned out to be a gathering. Surprisingly (to me, not Ban), YeeRui, PeiPei, ShiuhFeng, Sky, Siew Yen and AikSHeng also turned up!! Yo was the last one to arrive (k lar I know la, birthday girl ma, ya lar ya lar.....). We made so much noise that people from other table kept sneaking a glance at us. Of course, we tak berasa at all.

The most memorable dish is Pei's 'macaroni in heavenly sauce' which we interpreted as 'eat already can fly to heaven'

and Ban's 'pass me around Oreo drink'.

It's just too bad that I had to leave early, let's have another gathering k...

The very ahem, 'perasan' Yo (muahaha) and the very yummy cake specially made by PeiYei aka Yugila.

ROAD TRIP TO PD, MELACCA, SEREMBAN (19 June- 21June)
Our trip go-er rise from 4 to 12 person, and shrinked back to 6. That really dampen our mood but we still managed to have a good time. The journey started at 2pm, with Robert as the driver, and all 5 girls chatting merrily away. Robert's Estima was really heavy with all our luggage and FOOD. Thanks to the apartment owner, we managed to reach there and have our BBQ (at last!). Robert now changed role to be the BBQ guy. I have to say, PD's sea was horrible. The water is black, what else can you say?

The place is full of FLIES!!! Aiks!!! Look at that! Flies having a meeting?!?!?!

Okay, look at this, sequence of funny acts from our drama queen, SzeMei (currently in US with her host family)

We left PD the next day in the morning after having breakfast that Robert (again) prepared and kept away. This journey to Melacca was toughest for us i guess, cause he has to drive with me reading the stupid map using the kampung way. I was feeling dizzy by the time we reached Melacca after all the reading (which was actually quite useless). We had Baba and Nyonya, Cendol (the rice was HOT HOT HOT!!!! ) for lunch, with a few new friends from Melacca.
Dinner was yummier. We had OoJian, WantanMee (different from what we have in KL), and last but not least, Satay Celup! After that we had a walk at some local historical places.

1111- our room number

Mr and Mrs Loong Koay?!!

Before we leave on the next morning, ShenLing bought Chicken Rice Ball for us. It looked like fishballs unlike in KL where you can still see the rice shape. While we headed back to KL, we made a detour to Seremban to buy the 'famous?' pork Bao.

All in all, it was fun but too bad our stamina wasn't as good, we should have stayed up all night (wat happened to our truth or dare???)

IT'S (not) OVER...

2007-06-16T00:02:00.000+08:00

Taylor's College is officially a past tense in Urbanhitz's dictionary starting from today. I completED the course, and finishED the exams. Hurray!!! Once this reality sink into my head though, I begin to feel less cheerful. Why? I probably won't see this bunch of friends ever again. SzeMei is going to US in two weeks, Annjoe and maybe ShinYi will be going to ShangHai in July. Seriously, aren't you guys anxious about going overseas a~l~o~n~e??? Gosh, we should really do some last gathering or something, so we will see each other siao for another time. Haha. For me, it's now time to complete all the application procedures for Uni and prepare myself to climb and swim to UK. Before that, it's prom tomorrow, and right after that, a road trip to melacca! Now, let's let our hair up, down and sideways, shall we?

Warwick or Pirates Ltd??

2007-06-12T16:41:00.000+08:00

Both my Economics and Accounting papar 4 suck. And both of the paper 3 is on friday. GOsh I am so under pressure now. Never before i felt that if i can't do well, i will go no where.

If I can't go to UK, where will I be? Let's see. Maybe I will just pack my bag, fly to Warwick, sit in the lecture hall and refuse to move until they accept me!! Easy! Oh no, what if they report me as illegal migrant and send me to do community service? I don't wanna sweep the floor for the rest of my life (easy to get asthma you know).

Mayb i will just sell pirated DVDs in pasar malam like what Ban and Yolanda is planning to do. Mayb we can form a company! As in, Pirates Pte Ltd. Or... Pirated Limited. Yeah! But heck, heavy investments is needed to buy expandable bags (to stuff all the DVDs in case of 'you-know-what-emergencies'), walkie talkie, disposable tables (won't be able to keep away the table in a hurry, so it's always stolen) and of course, i will need money to treat my friend yamcha (i will need to fren fren someone who can fix my computer, everyday download songs, easy kena 'wiles' leh~~)

See??? What can i do?!! Maybe i should just slip a 50 ringgit note in between my answer sheet. Afterall, I just received my salary from my, ahem, -important- contribution in PC fair (i sold 39! ok ok, i syok sendiri okay?!!). Oh no, i just remember i spent everything on prom...

Once upon a time...

2007-06-10T22:59:00.000+08:00

...there was a rich king who had four wives. He loved the fourth wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to the finest of delicacies. He gave her nothing but the best.

He also loved the third wife very much and was always showing her off to neighboring kingdoms. However, he feared that one day she would leave him for another.

He also loved his second wife. She was his confidant and was always kind, considerate and patient with him. Whenever the king faced a problem, he could confide in her, and she would help him get through the difficult times.

The king's first wife was a very loyal partner and had made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and kingdom. However, he did not love the first wife. Although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her!

One day, the king fell ill and he knew his time was short. He thought of his luxurious life and wondered, "I now have four wives with me, but when I die, I'll be all alone."

Thus, he asked the fourth wife, "I have loved you the most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No way!", replied the fourth wife, and she walked away without another word. Her answer cut like a sharp knife right into his heart.

The sad king then asked the third wife, "I have loved you all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No!", replied the third wife. "Life is too good! When you die, I'm going to remarry!" His heart sank and turned cold.

He then asked the second wife, "I have always turned to you for help and you've always been there for me. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!", replied the second wife. "At the very most, I can only send you to your grave." Her answer came like a bolt of lightning, and the king was devastated.

Then a voice called out, "I'll leave with you and follow you no matter where you go." The king looked up, and there was his first wife. She was so skinny as she suffered from malnutrition and neglect. Greatly grieved, the king said, "I should have taken much better care of you when I had the chance!"

In truth, we all have FOUR wives in our lives:

Our fourth wife is our BODY. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it will leave us when we die.

Our third wife is our POSSESSIONS, STATUS and WEALTH. When we die, it will all go to others.

Our second wife is our FAMILY and FRIENDS. No matter how much they have been there for us, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.

And our first wife is our SOUL. Often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power and pleasures of the world. However, our SOUL is the only thing that will follow us wherever we go.

Cultivate, strengthen and cherish it now, for it is the only part of us that will follow us to the throne of God and continue with us throughout ETERNITY. When the world pushes you to your knees... ...you're in the perfect position to pray

Source: http://michelle-kirsten.blogspot.com/

Spendaholic

2007-06-10T14:04:00.000+08:00

Looking at Yolanda's spending list, i just realised that my cost of living is -a bit- high. Now this is my typical weekly(exclude weekends) spending:

Petrol 100
Toll 5
Parking 20
Tuition 50
Magazine 6
Hp 50
Makan 50
Lepak 30 (exclude any 'extraordinary' expenses which inevitably occurs everyweek)
___________
Total 311 (?!!! I think there's something wrong with the calculator!?!)

Now I know why I am always broke.

TAGGGGGed

2007-06-03T11:32:00.000+08:00

Ouch! Huh? Tagged?
This piece of assignment is to be handed in to my now-suffering-in-HELP lecturer - HuiEye

13 Weird things about me

#1 My hair just won't grow. Ask my school mate.

#2 I still count with my fingers. The journey starts at 10 and ends at 5. How many hours is that? Wait wait... 11, 12, 1, 2, 3...

#3 I sing to myself all the time. Offkey. Ask my brother and my room's window.

#4 You know those thread line on your bed-sheets? Those lining the corner? You can also find it on your T-shirts neck-line? All my bed-sheets are thread-less now. Cause i just lurve scratching those with my fingers to make the "drak'drak" sound. Yeah! I'm weird!

#5 My head is shaped like a meteor rock. Don't worry you will never see me shave off my hair voluntarily.

#6 I hate RED. Mayb because ghosts in horror movies always wear red to kill and the bad guys in Star Wars always use red lightsaber.

#7 I was supposed to be born on 31 August as a merdeka baby. Somehow I just don't love my country so much and refused to come out.

#8 I don't mind dissecting a frog or something, but i can't stand seeing my friends picking their fingers to squeeze out a drop of blood. I almost fainted.

#9 I~cant~even~stand~typing~#8~out....

#10 I have a choosy memory. I can remember the math i did last year (i still wonder how did i remember that question), but i always find myself putting down my specs, open the door, and look for my specs outside my room.

#11 I have a stunted thumb. Ask my classmates again.

#12 Remember the first experiment we did in Form 1? CHaractor traits that we cant change like the shape of our earlobe? I went home after class and practise twisting my tougue in front of my bathroom mirror for the entire afternoon just to prove it wrong. I cant do it then but now i can!

#13 I always dreamed that i will get swallowed or get stuck in an empty space. My dream can be continued and i always wake up crying.

Yeah! completed the assignment. Now i tag:

YeeRui ~muahaha

Skysiow. ~since you are having holidays!!! Do some homework!

PeiYei. ~chance for you to update

Fatin ~you you

Siew Yen ~hoho

K lar... let the rest of you go. I just realised. Why my college mate -except fatin- don't write blog?

College Life -Finale

2007-05-29T11:54:00.000+08:00

Last day of college was great. Mayb not as exciting as other classes but at least everyone wasn't trying to stand at least 3 feet from each other. We got the chance to take many many photograghs. Our math teacher is just so cute!

Free Style!

Mae Ann, Me and Chok (Eh, Chok's so smart that day!)

Girls (this is from ling xia's camera right?)

Mae Ann and I (I'm taller i'm taller!!!)

Gangster style! Better not make us angry...

After college we went to a super weird place for lunch, should have gone to peppercorn or some place else wehh... Anyway, it was only then that some of them spilled out some secrets that they were made to kept for one and a half year. Many O.o 's expression there.

We finally decided to go to prom together! Big big clap for PB2! So last thursday we went to try out prom dresses in Midvalley and 1U. That's when I realise that fair or dark skin really does make a difference! Should have been more careful with UV protection. Anyway, our 10-10 (12 hours) shopping ended in vain as we simply grabbed any dress we can fit into just so that we won't feel that the whole day's effort is wasted. Nevermind, we have another 2 days after exam. Let's go shop and take not-allowed photos again!

2007-05-22T00:19:00.000+08:00

Wat'S wRonG witH mE???!!!!

EXtremely Agonising Mind SufferingS -EXAMS

2007-05-14T21:06:00.000+08:00

Time really flies. I can't believe I am now in my last week of being a Taylorians. We are going to get out Yearbook tomorrow, but somehow I didn't even know our class did a class page! (You mean those few photo's we took with TecMinn's Camera? What? Who did the page???)

I am starting to feel anxious about the exams. There's just so much I need to do yet I seem to lost concentration nowadays. Who stole my motivation? I need 3As. Nothing less. But all the Binomial/ Normal/ Poisson Distributions, P/E, EPS ratio, Labour Market, Economic Development... just won't stick in my head! Can someone lend me a SuperGlue??? And also a balloon pump for my brain if you please.

GALAXY - Earth - Asia - SouthEastAsia - Malaysia - Selangor - Subang - GALAXY

2007-04-30T17:22:00.000+08:00

We were planning to just have a pizza and go home, at least Mae Ann, Fatin and I were. Somehow we stayed back to study for the upcoming trials and look at that! We ended up snapping the afternoon away!! No wonder our econs still suck.

Maybe we are not good at preparing for exams, but we sure ace at celebrating the end of our trials. That's the tickets for 2 movies back-to-back in the same hall, same seat.

Spirits are still running high even after we got our 0h-my-God-are-those-C's?-results. These photos are taken at Galaxy last friday after class. We spent 5 and a half hours inside with 2 jugs of soft drinks, fruit platter, french fries and we were only charged 6.70 including tax each. That definately broadened our already wide smiles.

We went in innocent enough. We didn't even know how to use the controller. Half an hour after that, we were converted.

After all the screaming, 2 lost their energy(there's just too few english songs) whereas that girl over there were so high she had to be dragged out of the room, literally.

We could have go on as nobody came to chase us away with broomsticks and all, but our stomachs were picketing for food so we dragged (Chok and Mae Ann gratefully ran out) ourselves out and decided to go to Taipan for dinner. UNFORTUNATELY, someone had to go home as that someone doesn't have keys into her house and her parents were about to sleep, so we ignored our now on-strike stomachs and cancelled the plan. That someone is so NOT me. NOT ME. Haha.

Just pictures(reverse chronological order)- edit in next post

2007-04-28T23:47:00.000+08:00

Entertaining a bored and weird guy

2007-04-17T23:30:00.000+08:00

When you are well into holiday mood- you know, the days when you just wander from your room to TVarea, flip through 20 channels, stare at the clock fascinated by its ability to make our lives so much more hectic then our ancestors, and daydreaming about what will happen between you and your recent crush- you tend to do something you wouldn't normally do, something silly like actually entertaining another bored fella.

I was peacefully cruising the net when the familiar trung trung sound of a Msn message burst out from my speaker (I forgot to lower the volume after watching a YouTube video on a first pregnant guy ever). It’s a message from Melaka”boy !! , a guy I only chat with once.

===This is only part of the conversation, the entire thing is over ONE hour. (I know what you are thinking, I am somewhat BORED)

Melaka"boy!! says:
妹
melaka"boy!! says:
你懂我是谁人没有的哦〉？
- - h 3 X i N - - says:
not really
melaka"boy!! says:
你是海云没有哦？
- - h 3 X i N - - says:
no

who on earth is hai yun???

melaka"boy!! says:
哎哟，我要跟他讲话嘛
melaka"boy!! says:
那你是他的谁人哦？(you are so damn rude)
- - h 3 X i N - - says:
i duno who is hai yun
melaka"boy!! says:
这个就是他的acc
- - h 3 X i N - - says:
wat the hell. this is my account
melaka"boy!! says:
那里有可能
- - h 3 X i N - - says:
wat do u wan me to say?!!!
melaka"boy!! says:
我以前认识他的时候，他都告诉我，他叫海云

I told you I am not her! Stop bugging me! god, this is annoying.

melaka"boy!! says:
嗯，他时常都是用这个acc跟我聊天的
melaka"boy!! says:
你那里是kelantan吗〉
melaka"boy!! says:
你是男子女子？
- - h 3 X i N - - says:
i m a gal
melaka"boy!! says:
嗯，对阿
- - h 3 X i N - - says:
except that i m also a gal... i m not hai yun, I am not from Kelantan, and I definitely do not know u. in case u don’t know, this account’s username is lhexin… see? No sane ‘hai yun’ will put her name under hexin right?
melaka"boy!! says:
你叫什么名字哦?我跟过那个女子的人讲话过的叻
melaka"boy!! says:
哎哟 (really, I am the one who should be ‘aiyor-ing’)
melaka"boy!! says:
可是我是真的跟你这个acc聊天过的叻
melaka"boy!! says:
你放你的照片出来可以没有哦？

Why would i LIE??? This is biting into my nerve endings.

===After what seems like endless accuations of me cheating and lying...

melaka"boy!! says:
嗯，我要忙了，对不起哦。刚才是误会来的。我弄明白了，再告诉你哦。拜拜。晚安
- - h 3 X i N - - says:
……………

PC FAIR

2007-04-16T10:46:00.000+08:00

I lost my voice.

My back is aching, arms stiff like rocks, and the legs… well, they are the worst victims. Having stood for ten hours++ a day walking around without sitting or even squatting, now all the muscles in my legs are trembling in my effort to stand up (or sit down even).

It all starts with KitLoong telling me about the PC fair that just took place. I was looking for a laptop, so when I heard about that PC fair, I decided then that I would get my laptop at the fair. Then Kitloong said he would be selling Mp4 just like the last time, so I have to buy the laptop myself. I couldn’t remember exactly how the conversation with him went, but I ended up agreeing to go for a job (selling mp3 and mp4) interview with him the next day.

On Monday, after his class ends, we drove to Lowyat with me nervously twitching in my seat. The plan to go for interview and watch movie after that was trashed immediately upon reaching the place as our usual inevitable 1-month-once quarrelling session set off. We had a row and argued all the way up and down the building for a whole 2 hours and went home right after that without going for the interview.

Our puerile actions were instantly regretted and on Wednesday, we went to that stinking place again, being careful not to step across the line. This time, the interview was successful and the guy requested us to go back the next day for a short briefing.

The briefing was, like I had said, concise. We got to see who we are working with, and who we are working for. We were taught how to switch on a mp3 or mp4, the basic functions of both of the device and who to hand the customer’s money to. Anything other then that, well, to quote what they said, ‘eat yourself’.

On Friday morning, I reached the convention centre at 10.20. I was denied access into the area because I did not have a pass.
“On the way,” was what my boss said when I called.

It wasn’t until 11.30 that we manage to get pass the security guard and start hunting for our booth. People were already starting to pour in when we were setting up our booth. I Stared at the Mp4 pointed by a customer. I had never seen that damn thing myself up till then, let alone having a little knowledge about the price and specifications of that product. In simpler terms, I was as blank as she was.

Finally, our spy returned after scouting around for the price of all other booths and our boss inform us the pricing of our products. We were told to memorize the product modal and price as soon as we can, and push just a few products that we think is easiest to sell. Armed with renewed confidence, we, about 4 girls, stood side-by-side with our partner-cum-competitors from Digisound, began to wander our way to win the customers’ heart.

Day 1 was disappointing, day 2 was tiring, and day 3 was boring.
Why? On Friday, people came to scout for the lowest price. Not much sales here. On Saturday, people came to just wander around, so they are easy to be tricked into buying something they don’t really need. Sales multiply itself today. On Sunday, they came to buy what they really need as it’s the last day of the fair, which is why they don’t have time to look for anything other than that. After working for 2 days non-stop, we are all very exhausted to keep pushing.

Working on Sunday wasn’t my plan. I had planned to ‘retire’ after Saturday night and go back on Sunday to buy my laptop. However, after working for 2 days, I changed my mind. No, it’s not about the salary, nor because I wanted to try my luck to score top sales (well, even if I tried, I wouldn’t succeed as I was way too ‘kind’ to the customers). It’s because I realised that these products are not sold that much cheaper at a fair. An example for Mp4, it might just be a few bucks cheaper, and depending on the company’s policy, you might not even get any free gifts.

If you were to ask me what have I learnt from this job, I have to say that, we consumers like to think that we have the purchasing power. Whether to buy the product or not is depended solely on our desire. Sadly, this is not the case. A good salesperson can pull an unfortunate victim from the sea of people, manipulate his mind and convince him that he need the product badly and that this is the golden opportunity to get it, make him pour out his hard-earned cash, and leave feeling extremely pleased with himself for ‘spotting’ his prize. All within 5 minutes.

I have to say that I do not have the makings of a salesgirl (yet), nor the heart to do so. A word to all of you out there: Prevent impulse buying by going to sales with a list of things that you wanna buy.
Promoters are just doing their job of creating impulse buying. When a customer asked, “this brand I never heard before, quality not good?” I replied, “Huh? Never heard? This is famous! Digisound products all use digital sound technology. Digital sound is very clear. (at this point, I switch on the device and play the music at the loudest volume- not movie because the sound for movie is less convincing, and switch on the lousiest product from another brand we have and let the customer compare. If the product they are interested in has a low sound quality, I will put on the earphone for them to try instead.) Then when u see them nodding at each other, let them admire it for another few seconds and push them further. “This screen is using TFT technology…..” In reality, I have no idea, NIL IDEA at all what digital sound and TFT is, let alone is that good compared to it’s peers. Sometimes when I see that they really do not need the product but they are struggling to stop themselves from buying, I stop promoting them because I know what it’s like to regret buying later. Having said this, I guess most employers will think twice when employing me next time.

Not all customers are easy. And annoyingly, they like to come in batch. I mean, when there’s no customers, there are none. When it’s crowded and we are all busy, more people will come and step in for a look. This is when we will be scolded for losing our keys to the display set and borrowing another promoter’s display. There’s a few incidence that I remember vividly. One is when a man came to ask me about everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, from the products spec to how to use it- I have to push my other customers to 2 friends beside me to answer all his questions, and yet he WALKED OFF after 1 hour without buying anything, when all my other potential customers bought their stuffs from my friends. I almost exploded when my friend exclaimed,” what? He din buy?”

Another lady came and did the same. The difference is, she told me from the start that she’s just curious what’s all this MP3 and MP4 are, and so I describe some basic functions to her without expecting her to buy. Before she go, she asked for my number, “ Do you like a job somewhere? Like part-time job or something? You can give me your number so when I know about a vacancy and I contact you.”

Some people are particularly smug. They came as if they paid us to be their slaves, and that we are supposed to kneel down and give them our best service possible. I mean, come on, you think we will cry if we lose a customer like you? Don’t like this? Fine! Actually I prefer you never to step in front of our booth ever again.

My last serve was a man who came back to me after comparing the prices elsewhere. He was convinced and so he wants to buy the product now. However, my boss told me that counter one is closed, so he couldn't pay using Credit Card. He didn't have sufficient cash. So I asked boss whether he could put a deposit first. They said yes provided he collect it within 1 week, and the deposit is non refundable. However, the man is working outstation and he's not sure whether he could make it to Lowyat within a week. I was trapped. In the end, I had to say," sorry, no deal" to the man and turned him away.

At the very end of the last day, our boss did a stock count. Most of the display set is short of 1 or 2 products, and there are a few extra stock from our hands which we are not sure from where they apprear. IC numbers were copied down and if there is anything missing, the fellas' in-charged of the set will have to pay. The only relaxing thing happened at the very end is when we exchanged phone numbers. This is when i finally know the name of the guys that i have been calling, "eh.."

All in all, it’s really tiring, and the main reason this piece of entry is that L-O-N-G is I do not have a voice to talk, so I can only write right now.

A Detour

2007-04-12T19:13:00.000+08:00

I believe I should be awarded the scholarship because…

I strongly believe I should be awarded the scholarship because…

I strongly believe scholarships should be awarded to…

I strongly believe scholarships should be awarded to those who…

I have been cracking my head for the pass 3 days to construct something out of 1600 characters that could convince members of Warwick Business School to award me a scholarship that (if successful) would make my dad hop around in glee for a week or two.
This is the 3rd piece of composition that I had to make as far as application to universities is concern, and I am growing less and less fond of it. The reason for this is definitely obvious to those who know me, or rather, my essays. Facts and biography have always been my soft spot. Reading about those has never failed to put me in a state of lethargy. And now to write one, let’s just say it makes me try to put off the job for as long as I could.

NO! I am not procrastinating. Definitely NOT! Just giving myself time to come up with a neat one. The deadline is the end of next month. Or is it this month? Well, never mind. I will certainly come up with something tomorrow, you know, when the creative juice starts flowing in my head. It’s just… writer’s block. That’s right.

Anyway, I paced around my house to find something solid enough to pound my head, when I eyes gazed upon, my bicycle. I hopped on the bic, determined to cycle away the extra inches formed due to inactivity, throwing the application essay to the back of my mind.

In the midst of the third round around my house, I saw a young girl squatting on the sidewalk, staring poignantly at the ground and screaming, “help, help!” at the same time. Initially I thought it was just kids fooling around, so I cycled away. It’s not until I passed by another 2 times noticing that she’s still there that I finally stopped.

“It’s dying…” She stuttered.
“What’s dying?”
“The bird.”
“How do you know?”
“It fell of the tree. The nest is broken.”
“Where is it?”
“Neh…” She pointed at the small bird on the ground. “There’s another one under the wooden door there.”

I looked at the poor creatures. They kept opening their beaks and shivering. At this point, my mum and brother also stopped by. I picked up the remains of what look like twigs from the nest and tried twisting it back to shape on the tree where it had fallen. The twigs twisted and snapped, refusing to be put back into the original shape. I groaned in frustration. (I really should sit down and watch how birds build their nest. They have only one beak and I have two hands!)

The girl squealed, “What to do? If I have a basket I would have brought the birds home, but…”

Whoa, this girl really has a kind heart. My mum said, “wait here, I get a container for you.”

With the paper box (made by my grandma), I picked up the birds (it’s hard because the birds kept flapping their wings and pecking me, but I couldn’t hold them tighter in case I squash them) and laid them in. The girl nodded as we told her to let the birds go once they have grown up, and hopped home, lovingly stroking her new found pets.

Abandoning my goal to cycle 30 rounds, I went home. After dinner, I resumed my place in front of my computer.

I strongly believe scholarships should be awarded to…

Arghhhhhh. This is frustrating!

This is how Accidents CAN happen

2007-02-27T22:08:00.000+08:00

First, an innocent girl poses in front of her phone and snaps her own photo out of boredom, not knowing that what she's doing can be dangerous, even fatal!

Then, the guy in the driver's seat pokes his head in, feeling he's too good-looking (ahem ahem) to be left out of the pic.
He moves closer... He looks into the camera... All of a sudden, a blaring horn rings into his ear. And he swerves to bring the car back to its rightful lane. End product? The picture above!

Abondoning his wish to reach the destination early, he stops the car at the roadside and switches his attention wholely to taking photos.

This is a case when the couple in question are rather lucky to be able to pose these pics online after the incident. I would suggest you readers not to attempt this at any point of time for, as mentioned earlier, you could be risking your head!

VDAY and CNY

2007-02-27T20:32:00.000+08:00

Clockwise from top right: Me with presents from KL ; KL posing with the pressie I gave him ; Us at his house ; and a rose! Don't be fooled though, it's from Kam Hei. I seriously thought KL would give me flowers since he had been hinting for days beforehand, so I didn't think twice when Shin Yi said she wanted that rose. End up I gave her the ONE and ONLY flower I got for the day!

Happie Chinese New Year to all! I had a steamboat dinner with my family on CNY eve, and our family performed some chinese ritual that night. Then we dressed up in our new clothes and recieved our first AngPow from out parents for this year!

Thanks to Beatrice and the twins, 5sc1 had another round of house to house visitation this year. It's rather successful as 17 people turned up (of course! As it involves getting angpow's! haha). We went to nine houses and had our dinner at Connaught's Eat All You Can Steamboat. Well, it's human's nature to be greedy right? Look at the guy's table and you will know for sure. They stacked up food enough to feed a whole village of starving people and ended up trying to force down the leftovers until Beatrice (their saviour!!) told them that they can put back the food. Haha.

This could be my last CNY celebrated with my friends and family in four years time as there won't be holidays for CNY in UK. In the attempt to enjoy it to the fullest, I am now down with sorethroat, flu, and also an extra 2kg under my belt. *Groan.

Off to AuStraliA

2007-02-12T23:19:00.000+08:00

Going to Shim Hwa's farewell party ( actually, it's just a pay your own yam cha gathering) has totally change my perspective of my going to UK this coming september. Or mayb it's because KamHei keep on repeating that he's starting to feel "it" coming. Whatever it is, a week ago I was still thinking, oh... how's the weather in UK? Where is the location of the unis I applied to? WHAT Uni did i apply by the way??? And now I am starting to wonder what I should pack in my luggages to be brought over.

Alright, maybe it's still early. Maybe it's pathetic to think about it before i even get my grades. But you won't know what you have missed until you started working on it right? Anyway, Shimhwa's departure tonight is making things more realistic. Right before he went off, KamHei and I went over to his house to just wish him luck. For someone who's leaving his family for the first time to be going off into a place foreign to him, he's unbelievably calm. Except for the 3 extra heavy luggage (still open and only 80% packed), nothing gives away that the "Ah Chai" of the family is leaving in a couple of hours.

After chatting with him, we realise that we too have to get those luggages that are about my weight for there really is many things to pack. Clothes aside, we need a multipurpose cooker, testpad and stationaries (in case we couldn't get any before the commencement of semester), iron (for clothes), medicine, can opener, basin, hanger (???), adapter... the list goes on. I can't imagine what would happen if i were lost somewhere in Manchester with nothing but those chapalangs.

Okay okay.... back to reality. I still have to finish my math work or else i might not even get the chance to worry about what I should bring.

Tuesdays with Morrie

2007-02-10T11:48:00.000+08:00

A book by Mitch Albom, inspirational, filled with emotions and love.
For those who are busy pursuing their dreams, those who feel lost, those who constantly believe that someone will be there to help you whenever you fall, and those who have nothing much to think about recently. This book is something that triggers my braincells. It gathers teachings from Buddhism, Christianity, and every other sources that teaches us about life and death.

all in all, it's about something that most of us knows but did nothing about.

New PhoNe, New TReat

2007-02-01T01:04:00.000+08:00

That's my phone! It's a little more expensive than the black phone cause according to them, white material is harder to find. It looks pretty much like a camera though.

These are photo's taken using my new phone. The five of us (it should have been six, but Wei Yin left feeling frustrated before we even reach the place which is actually very near to our college. Blame the Sri KL kids for causing all the jam at the junction. We couldn't move as there was CARS parked right at the back of our car, blocking our ENTIRE way out!) went to try the seemingly popular Rojak at a roadside after class ended for that day. People are queueing up despite the heat and dust blown into our eyes for there were cars moving about at both sides. You even had to sit on the road to eat!

Anyway, when we were having our cendol while queuing up for rojak, a FAT man behind us said, " Excuse me, if you are eating your cendol, please go somewhere else. You all are eating and queuing up, and you are creating such a mess here. I don't know if which of you are queuing up and if you want to eat, sit there."

At that point I wanted to shout back, "Excuse me, i don't think it's any of your business if we are eating cendol while in the line as long as we did queue up for it. It's just like telling someone not to drink water cause you feel thirsty." But seeing that most of my friends simply ignored him, we just continue lining up, and eventually some of them crept away to eat at the road side.

That gigantic "fat-full" man with a belly bigger than the size of a football and a butt hanging in his pants looking as if it would touch the ground any moment did not spoil our mood at all as we finished the Cendol and the Indian Rojak while taking photos using my phone. It wasn't until i reached home that I remembered that hedious looking fella that probably just got fired by his boss, and get heated up again.

Ramdom pics

2007-01-29T22:02:00.000+08:00

This is Fushi... The very cute baby that Kit Loong "adopted" (He's actually his lil cousin)

He complained that there isn't any pic on him here, so here it is... a big fat photo of him posted the wrong way!

SMelly Feet! Yikes!!!

HapPY

2007-01-28T22:25:00.000+08:00

Using the newly bought phone to take photo at kfc. Saw lee hom at sg wang too.. He's so cute! Too bad we haven got the phone at that time so there's no picture of him.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The above post is sent online through a feature call BlogIt, using my new W850i. After checking my credit, i realise that it cost me a grand TWO BUCKS ++ to just send that miserable picture and some text online!!! Duh... BUt still..... I love my new phone! At least I can take some pictures that live up to their name, not just dots and colours blurred together!

What?!!!

2007-01-20T22:20:00.000+08:00

I can't believe it!!! I just can't.
Who could believe I was stopped, AGAIN, by the traffic police on FEDERAL highway, a mere 2 days after my first incident? Worst of luck.
Thursday, after my Econs tuition (sigh, who takes tuition nowadays), I drove past the spot where i was found guilty for not putting on the road tax. The police was there again, but none even as glance at my car when i drove past, as they were busy negotiating their "terms" with the grumpy-looking owners of the line of cars.
Just when I thought eveything would turn up better today, i suddenly saw a row of road-blockers put on outer lane of the highway, forcing me to go into the left lanes, and the worst part is, the damn police was there, waving a red flag right infront of my car!
Sighing, I rolled down the side window. This time, the charge is speeding.
"Ah Moi, jangan laju sangat la... Sini 80 tau... Mana lesen?"
Frustrated that I had been asked for my license TWICE in 3 days, I passed him mine. He scrutinised it, and peered over to the front part of my car. Then he looked at me, and LET ME PASS!
I practically flew away.

M0neY SuCker

2007-01-20T21:34:00.000+08:00

Just like every other college day, I headed to my “car-park” (a.k.a the pool of sand in front of some housing area) to drive back home. The only difference is, this time, instead of the usual uneventful ride home, right when I turn out from a round-a-bout, I was stopped by the police.

The police signaled me to pull aside. Thinking that it was a mistake as I had my seat belt on, wasn’t speeding, and did nothing I knew of that violate the undang-undang, I was prepared to let him check and go off. He denoted that I roll down the window, and I meekly did so.

“Rodex,” He said. I was puzzled. What on earth is that?
“Rodex,” There it goes again. Or maybe he meant “Rolex”. I did not wore any watch or any watch-look-alike on my bare wrist and could not think of anything that triggered him to say so.
“Mana Rodex?” He was starting to get impatient. It was then that I finally caught what he meant. Road Tax!

Stupidly, I asked him, “Road tax, ya, kenapa?” I didn’t know what the hell road tax has to do with him stopping my car, and certainly didn’t know what was wrong, yet.
“Rodex mana?” He persisted.
Being as blur as ever, I shot him back, “ Road Tax mana?”
“TU!” He pointed at the sticker on the left side of the windscreen.
“Ya, kenapa?”
He was frustrated. “Expire!”

I stole a look at the sticker, OH Mee God. 2005?!! That’s history!
“Macam mana?” I stammered.
“ Ni, nak saman tau? Tau?”
“Okay…”
“SAMAN tau?? Saman?!!”
“Ya”

He must have thought I was incredibly stupid, so he said, “Call bapak.”

Again, I obediently followed, hoping my dad would pick up. I was in luck. He picked it up at the last ring.
“Daddy,” I screamed. “Did you not pay the R-o-a-d T-a-x ?”
“I did.”
“But the police here had just stopped me, so, obviously, you did not.”
“There’s two sticker there, the new one’s at the bottom.”
I cast a glance at the police and pointed. He bellowed, “Moi, tu 2006 Nowembe. NOWEMBE tau? Turun tengok. Turun.”
I ignored him and asked my dad, “what now?”
“Let me speak to him.”

I passed the phone to him. My heart missed a beat when he pressed my precious phone against his greasy head. He repeated the whole “Rodex incident” to my dad and with some “ Ni P license tau?”, “ SAMAN tau?” “You KL nak datang jauh la, tak boleh”, “SAMAN ya?”, “Betul SAMAN ya?”, “Memang expire,” “Tak Boleh,” “So, SAMAN anak ni ya?”, he grudgingly handed the phone back to me and said, “Bapak suruh Saman.”

Seeing I was quiet, he added, “Moi dating dari mana?” He eyed my bag with a hard to read impression, “College ke?”
Somehow a voice in my mind told me it was unwise to tell him the truth, I answered, “ tak la, ambil orang. Saya ni tak sekolah.”
“ You ni P tau?”
“ya, kenapa?”
“P lah! Ni point!” He seethed, poking furiously at my now handed over P license.
“Point berapa?”
“Sepulo! Lima Belas gantung tau?”
“Aiyok, jadi nak macam mana?” I started to sweat.
“Ambiek undang lagi la. Boleh macam mana? Bapak tu tak nak belanja pun,”
Finally he let it slip.
“Ya ke?”
“Kamu ni ada berapa?”
I opened up my purse. Shit, my entire month’s allowance was in there. Luckily for me, only 20 was laid out, the rest was bundled up behind a hair saloon coupon.
“Dua puluh la”, I showed him half the content of my purse, blocking the rest.
“Sikit saja, tapi, ni student saya boleh tolong la. Boleh la…”
“I extracted the bill (with some difficulty as I was still trying to block the rest of my hard-earned-money in the process), and raised it to him. He rapidly pushed my hand downwards and hushed, “Letak bawah license,” Still in a trance, I did as I was told. I barely heard his last comment, “lain kali jangan a?” when I stepped on the accelerator and was more than happy to speed off, cursing over and over again his name in my head.

Reviving the past and anticipating the future

2007-01-11T21:17:00.000+08:00

Year 2006, to me, was an eventful one; I’ve made friends, found new experience, had some heart-wrenching life lessons, laughed, cried, and grew up (or at least, in size)
Skip this part if you must, cause I would be faithfully listing down what happened to me for the last entire year, boring you readers to death.

At the beginning of the year, I began a whole new phase of my life in Taylor’s College, now known as Taylor’s University College, uh, like it makes a difference to us students. Growing up in a Chinese speaking family and having studied my entire secondary-school syllabus in Malay for 5 years, you can imagine my anxiety when I first step foot in the highschool-like building.

I could still vividly recall the first few days in my college, which I spent switching around classes (/colleges) and struggling among options of pursuing bio-science or business. Two weeks later, I finally settled down in PB2, opting for accountancy. Months later, it’s my moment of getting my SPM results and of course, preparing for the JPA interview. My SPM results was not I expected but no, I really don’t want to talk about how did my JPA interview ended. Well, guess it’s rather obvious, as I am still here in miserable Malaysia, not battling with the cold somewhere In Europe or tackling food-poisoning in India.

Around mid-year, just like its precedents, everything in my life went down the drain, or maybe it was just my mood that fell into the pit. I felt alienated among my friends, I met transport problems to college, I received my dreadful results from college admin, I faced never-ending quarrelling and breakup sessions with my boyfriend, and I pondered on all the what-if’s. Why, it seems just alike my year 2005!

Certainly, a year wouldn’t be complete without its joyous moments. Did I mention I started my blog this year around March? Haha, that’s something worth celebrating. And not to forget all the surprise party (gathering in disguise) that I had with my fellow 5sc1 member. Thanks again for that fabulous moment that would rot with me in my grave (whoa, what am I talking about?).

Though I am regretting it now, I dropped business studies. With all the free slots in my timetable, I began skipping classes, (I’d never went to the extra-classes that Ms Jean conducted, which explains why my Econs sucks) just to rush home to either go hang out with Pig or sleep. I shun thinking what would appear on my results slip when it’s disclosed.

Anyway, life began to get busy when the year’s nearing its end. I attended a toastmaster’s talk, which was an eye-opener to me, rushed around to complete my UCAS personal statement, searched on the net for Uni’s to apply for and also went to the first 2 concerts in my life! And I’ve got the complimentary tickets for both! right after the semester 2 ended, I went into HLG securities and worked (learned) for 2 weeks, which was a whole new experience to me. I had learned to appreciate student life more and grumble less about homework and exams! Then it’s Christmas and suddenly the year is over. The countdown trip at Genting was cooler than at Bukit Bintang, and I mean literally. Eventhough I had just been there one month ago with Pig, it’s still pretty refreshing and I had a tremendous time celebrating and welcoming 2007.

Happie New Year everyone! With a chance to go to UK to further my studies, I am hoping real hard I have the courage to move on without any regrets, and hopefully this would be a fruitful year for me… And of course, to any of you reading this blog, all the best!

2006/7 Genting Countdown Trip

2007-01-03T16:09:00.000+08:00

On the last day of 2006, I wake up (late, as usual) and hastily pack a shirt, a facial cleanser, some cash, and not to forget, my festive spirit, and wave goodbye to my Grandma. Kitloong’s parents fetch us to Maluri LRT station and we begin our journey exactly like what we did 1 month ago, with the exception of having FuShi (Kitloong’s second cousin) crying goodbye in the car.

After the same bumpy ride up, we reach Genting bus terminal at around 5pm. We decide not to stay over at ShiuhFeng and the gang’s place as, I am sorry to say this, their plan is a bit too jumbled up and we really don’t know what’s going on for, up untill 2 weeks before that, I don’t even know if their plan is still on. So, feeling generous without having to pay for the room rates, Kitloong treats me with a pint of Baskin Robbin’s ice-cream which we enjoy in the oh-so-cold weather.

Then we receive a call from Sengloong, who wants to meet up for dinner. We spend 20 minutes standing in front of the escalator, waiting for them, only to realize that they have already started dining at KFC, failing to notify us. Duh. In the end they only come to meet us when we are wolfing down our burger at the electricity-less MarryBrown.

The next 2 hours are spent walking around to find a spot to countdown. At one point of time all of us sit on the train and take hilarious photos and the boys even suggest taking photos with pretty girls walking by. Well, none of them manage to work up the courage to actually DO it. Too bad.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Boom! YooHOo!!!! We finally decide to join the 2007 countdown with the crowd outside, ditching Yu Heng’s performance at Genting Timesquare. Snow flakes are sprayed everywhere despite the tight security up there. Luckily I brought along a cap, or else I would end up like the guys, with bubbles in their hair and eyes, poor Yuanruh.

Ohh, it’s sooo difficult to write about things happening on 2 different years on the same page. Well, on 1st of January 2007, right after the countdown, we approach the Awana Skyline station only to realize that there’s a long queue awaiting their ride with grumpy and exhausted expressions. WaiFai and his girl are among them, quite in front of the line. After another half an hour debating whether we should wait, go into the pub (hey, we’re 18!), or just hail a cab back to Awana… you know how it is with a big group, they finally decide upon the last option and off we go, leaving Genting and our 2006’s memory behind us.

You might start to wonder, I thought you said you are not joining them to stay at Awana? Well, we admit that having a room to stay is better than chilling our butts off in the cold night after all. *hehe. I followed them to their President’s suite at the top floor. Oh my, no wonder it cost them a hefty 700++. The suite consists of 2 rooms on top, taken by ShihAng and WaiFai + their counterparts (I wonder why did they arrange it that way); and another room at the bottom with a kitchenette and a living room, where the remainding 14 of us have to squeeze into.
Anyway, we spend the rest of the night fooling around and of course, surrendering to the temptation of closing our eyes and snooze without any blanket on, and thus, chilling our butts off through the night.

What feels like 5 minutes after that, I am awaken by the noise of people slurping instant noodles. Being the last to wake up, Kitloong and I decide to join them for basketball and swimming later. After we pack out stuffs, we set out to look for them. 10… 15… 20… minutes of searching around, we still couldn’t identify a single trace of their footsteps, and so we give up and doze off again.

It is only when we are on our way back to KL that I finally see ShihAng’s girlfriend. I’ve heard that she’s a girl he met at work and that some of them don’t really like her as she’s too cool towards us. Well, she does look older than us, probably that’s why she didn’t bother to mix around.

At about12:30, we check out and board the bus back to KL. As we didn’t pay for the room rates yet we stayed overnight, Kitloong bigheartedly offers to pay for all the bus fare (I am still not used to him being that generous) But of course, I pay my part.

This might be the last trip that I go with my friends here before leaving KL; it might even be the last trip which it could still be called a 5sc1 trip. So, let’s keep all the happy memories and anticipate the next one that we may have, be it the next year or fifty years in the future.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-28T14:25:00.000+08:00

It’s Christmas!
On Saturday I receive 3 invitations to go for a party, a scout party at Wenworth Hotel, a Christmas party at Beat’s house with 5sc1 fellas, and a dinner with some relatives. (Why can’t they arrange them on different days….haha) After giving it much thought, I decided to forgo the scout party, as Kitloong didn’t want to go and I wasn’t supposed to go single, and go for the Xmas party instead… though I felt sorry for letting down KahChing and Kamhei. Well…

Anyway, the party went on great, thanks to Beatrice and Twins’s superb organizing skills. The food was d-licious, mayb with the exception of Yolanda’s what was that? Pasta? Since when did Kenny Rogers come up with this kind of weird paste-like thingy? Haha… Just joking. Pei Yei and twin’s cake/breadpudding was really yummy too.

While we were eating in a circle, Peipei suddenly came and lean on Roshan’s leg! I think she even pinch his leg or something, though I missed most of the action. Haha, suddenly, Roshan a.k.a JaySean, being his usual Roshanic self (translation: shy), jumped up and immediately called his “gf”, probably to apologise. And the whole place erupted with laughter, well, a new couple is born, it’s something worth celebrating right?

After we played the usual musical chair, chairless but with pillows.

Here are the pics

The Long-lost

The food The punished

The cute

The weird

The lovebirds

And the friends

YOu might start to wonder where am I in those pics. Well, where indeed? I am starting to wonder if I ever did go to the party. :P

Working in HLG securities

2006-12-11T19:56:00.000+08:00

DAY 1
After a nervous morning (cause my mum told me a bunch of Do's and Dont's I couldn't really adhere to, like don't use handphone), I reach the company my parents are currently working in at 8:30. Christina from Retail was supposed to make a pass for me, but because the person-in-charge wasn't around, I had to be pass-less, meaning, I wouldn't be able to even go to the washroom without harrassing someone to open the door for me.

Anyway, upon reaching the Credit Control Department, which is the place I would be at for this two days, I was disappointed, yet relieved. It was a small office, consist of around 10 person, including Goh, the Manager of the department.

The morning session was DAMN boring. Everyone was busy making calls, printing stuffs, typing... So none of them gave me as much as a glance. Being given a Standard Operating Procedure handbook about 1 1/2 inch, I began to read and eventually, day-dream. Dream, dream.... zzzz....sms.... come on, the time couldn't be that slow!! ..... Finally, my dad came into the department and rescued me away for lunch.

The second session was much better. Goh gave me a briefing about buying and selling of shares in relation to remisiers, and then Yap continued on Limits and other basic stuffs. Still, I wasn't of much help to them as when I offered to help, they answered," It's ok" (translation: just sit down don't disturb) Then a person came out from the inner office and asked to talk to me. So i went in and he went on about Accounting, CPA, and stuffs. When I finally squeezed out some courage to barge into his room to ask him some questions, I then realise that he is the Executive Director of that company! OMG, Imagine how he feel when I asked him,"What do you do for the company?" Opps.

DAY 3
Today, I went to Research Department. What I would have to say is.... the people in the 2 departments differs in many ways. Everyone here is English speaking, and the whole environment is more lively. Surprisingly, most of them are quite young, the oldest being 30++. It's like walking into a college. YenLing, a girl who just started working here as a Research Assistant (RA) after graduating from Manchester U (UK) earlier this year helped me a lot. She gave me some stuffs to do and gave me her user ID so i could log on to the net and do "whatever you want". (really?)

That night, I followed my parents to a dinner, again. It's a welcoming party for the new boss, David. The food was okay but I really wanted to get outta there as it was so boring for me and most of them were smoking and drinking. (It's their tradition to test their boss's drinking skill)
-.-"'''

DAY 5
I followed the research people to the morning meeting which they would be presenting their report every morning. I felt lucky I wasn't the one presenting. It's Issac's turn today, and I think most of them were unhappy with his presentation. One of the dealer shot him with a lot of 'ridiculous' questions which he could not answer. The dealer, dissatisfied with the answer, shook this head and started to walk out of the room, until the research departmental head, Andy started to explain that the question was out of the scope (they don't need to know the answers), and then both of them began to raise their voice. Feeling angry, the dealer just walked out and slammed the door!

After going with them for breakfast, they went back to the room and did an international report. YenLing turned on a weird radio-like machine and dailed two numbers (I think it's to Thailand and Singapore). The all the research analyst began to present their report in front of the machine in turn. There was not even a sound from the other end that I seriously doubt if anyone's listening at all. When the last person finished, I was anticipating another question-answer-quarelling session, but instead, they just turned it off without even listening to the next country's report. Then I wonder, what's the point of reporting if no one cares to listen? Puzzling indeed.

Right after that, Andy held a meeting. Of course, he commented on Issac's presentation. Not clear enough. Next time, record his presentation and let him listen. I doubt he even know's what he's presenting. Then he went on with a new format of report, and everything went back to normal.

DAY 8
This time around, it's Settlement department. Out of the three, I think this is one department that I can actually understand and help a little, as basically, what they do is mostly proccesing forms and as for the main counter, cheques. The Head, LiFen, was more organised as she arranged people to actually explain what they do to me. So... I got to help out here in the backroom and the main counter. But still, it's not something one would like to do for the holidays.

DAY 10
Yoohoo!! Last day! Today, I was put under 'Transfers' and a Malay lady kindly taught me the procedures and tricks that the remisiers do to make money. Then I went around giving presents to all of them as a token of appreciation, and off I went to celebrate! Haha.

Comments
The one thing I learned from this whole experience is, appreciate and enjoy your student life before its gone! Really, it's much better, and yes, even the burning-the-midnight-oil part. Well, at least a got a RM300 allowance for being a two-week-disturbance to them.

Jolin Tsai Dancing Diva

2006-12-10T10:43:00.000+08:00

One word to describe the concert.
Thunderous.
Imagine the sound loud enough to lift up the mood of the entire stadium blast off right in front of you. That's how close I was to the stage. Even my jeans was literary moving due to the sound.
Just like the last concert, we didn’t have the chance to have a proper dinner. Only difference is this time, we had KFC instead. At around 7:45, my family, my aunt, my young cousin, Kitloong, and XiaoYan arrived the Kelana Jaya Outdoor Stadium. Many were queuing up to get in, thanks to the SVVIP ticket we had, we went in from the other entrance, skipping in the queue.

We decided to go to the mobile toilet. Immediately I regretted once I got in. The whole cubicle smelled of, ahem, you-know-what. NO water was supplied so I couldn’t even flush or wash my hands. And yet the whole cubicle was WET?!! even the top, imagine what that is. When I came out though, I saw all 3 of them wore the same expression as I, so I guess it’s not just mine.

The next 20 minutes were spent finding a water supply to wash our hands. And somewhere in between, the rain stopped. At 8:15, the concert begun.
Immediately I started to think, hey, maybe having an ordinary back row seat at a concert wouldn’t be a bad idea after all. I didn’t expect it to be that loud. It was like, the whole stage exploded when the music came into life. I swear I couldn’t even breathe properly throughout the concert.

Now there she is.

Fast beat, lively, dancing through the night, that's her.

Yet when we looked closely, we noticed how tired she was. Fragile and thin, I couldn't even imagine how hectic and strict ( in terms of food) her life must be. Camera can really widen a person. You couldnt even spot a single piece of fat on her. Really, people, stop harrasing those actors/ress and singers with your criticism, it's really unfair to want them to be perfect when we ourselves don't.

Energy came!

That's 天空 's songwriter, wei si lin.

The only drawback, not much people shouted for Encore. (She said she might perform again if the audience insist)

Terima Kasih!

Dancing Forever

2006-12-01T18:43:00.000+08:00

Does any of you like Jolin Tsai? She's performing in Malaysia on 9th Dec. ANd the best part is... I've got tickets to the concert!! FOC. Haha... I can't believe my luck. Well, eventhough I am not that huge fans of hers, I like her song. I wonder who wrote the songs for her. It's somehow, "uniquely off-beat, hard to catch, but still sounds right" Unlike some songs which, eventhough u've never heard before, you can guess the tune within ten seconds. The fact that she can dance is a plus too.

:::"Looking forward and counting down. ":::

Of Toastmasters & UCAS

2006-11-30T14:17:00.000+08:00

Last weekend, I attended a public speaking seminar organised by Taylor's Rotaract Club. They manage to invite representatives from Toastmasters (including some CEO's and presidents of clubs) to give us a speech. I had to say that they've done a great job for being able to get everything going. Perhaps it would be even better if they had organise the schedule better (many- including the committee members, are late).

On the first day, I was accompanied by my brother. We were divided into groups and were given an intro to public speaking, impromptu speaking, gestures, organising your speech... The scariest thing of the day was that we were required to give a 2-mins speech in front of everyone with half a second of preparation. Mike, the speaker, gave us a topic (mine was "is money important in choosing a career"), and we were to express ourselves right there. Surprisingly, most of them did very well, perfect English, humourous, well-organised... One would have thought they'd prepared them overnight. On the other hand, I sucked despite getting the easiest topic.

At night, Kitloong called and said he wanted to go as well. When I sms-ed the organiser (Ken Sing) on whether he was eligible for a cert, he responded, " well, if u ask me nicely, i might close one eye on it." After one sms filled with nice words... "you have convinced me, i will try to do something." Haha. Well, that night, me, my brother, and him, spent the night brainstorming for the ideas on the speech we were supposed to give for the competition on the next day. (There goes my sleep).

I was surprised to see Kam Hei at that seminar the next day. We were among the first to arrive. I guess the speakers were frustrated to find that the door into the LT room was locked when he arrived with his family, resulting in all of us standing outside, waiting for the organiser; which was why he scolded us once we got in. Throughout that day, I was forced to sit up straight and nod then and again, because due to my sitting position, the speakers all kept looking at me when they speak. Finally, the competition began (Kam Hei had sneaked away just before the competition starts). Some of them came up with very very good speech, even the Toastmasters said if they were to speak in their Toastmasters Club, they would have beaten most of the toastmasters flat. Of course, I would have to say, I was among the bottom, again. The winner of the day was Tong Kezanne, with "How to Die Early". *I was disqualified for not being within the time-limit. * Hahaha.

Anyway, on my way back home, exhausted and thinking about my sweet and soft pillow, my friend sms-ed me and said that the dead-line for UCAS application for Taylor's students(FYI, the application to UK universities) was the coming thursday!! (What?! Just a few days to go, and I didn't even have any idea what I want to study!) So, that few days of mine was spent on going to college, rushing through my home work from school which was getting harder, surfing the net, filling in the form, and dashing to and fro -about 5 times- between my house and Mrs Yuen's tuition center, because I need her help in writing my personal statement, as that is the key to successful application. (Mrs Yuen kept saying that my English has lacken and that I used to write better English than what I had written. Sob Sob.)

I finally managed to pick 6 uni, all of which I decided to apply for accounting and finance, and sent in my form online. Phew, one more thing down. Bad news is, I have a few topics to cram into my head this weekend for my final 4 tests of the year, a badminton date with my friends on saturday, movie in the evening, and Yoga on the next day.

Gosh, there goes my sleep again.

GentinG TriP

2006-11-21T12:57:00.000+08:00

I woke up even before my alarm goes off. I knew, this is going to be a special day. I laid on the bed, tossing around until my boyfriend called. Then I got up and did most of the things gals are "supposed" to do before going out. (Actually, it only involved tying up my hair)

As usual, he arrived a bit late. But i wasn't ready yet. So i took my time and made egg sandwiches, thinking that it wouldn't hurt to let him wait for a while. However, I was shock and embarassed to find out that his parents were both in the car too, waiting for me. Opps.

His parents let us off at the bus stop near his house, and we got on the bus heading for Maluri after snapping a few photos. Using the touch-n-go card, we boarded the STAR Lrt and then at Titiwangsa, we bought the tickets and went onto the Kuala Lumpur-Genting bus, beginning our journey.

It was quite a long and twisting trip. Luckily my boyfriend was smart enough to bring along a MP3, and we spent most of the bumpy ride trying to figure out the lyrics of <只对你有感觉>

无解的眼神心像海底针光是猜测我食欲不振有点烦人又有点迷人浪漫没天分反应够迟钝不够精神花挑错颜色但很矛盾喜欢你的笨微笑再甜再美不是你的都不特别眼泪再苦再咸有你安慰又是晴天靠的再紧再贴少了拥抱就算太远全世界只对你(你)有感觉玩的再疯再野你瞪一眼我就收敛马路再宽再远只要你牵就很安全 [我会又乖又黏温柔体贴绝不敷衍我只对你有感觉体贴却粘人爱哭却温顺有时天真有时很邪恶对你耍狠就是舍不得即刻吸收养分让脑袋平衡要你现身动作慢吞吞怎么承认我非你不可微笑再甜再美不是你的都不特别眼泪再苦再咸有你安慰又是晴天靠的再紧再贴少了拥抱就算太远全世界只对你有感觉玩的再疯再野你瞪一眼我就收敛马路再宽再远只要你牵就很安全我会又乖又粘温柔体贴决不敷衍我只对你有感觉.

Actually, we only figured out the chorus part, the rest was copied from the internet. *Guilty.* Upon reaching First World, he brought me to the card counter and apply for a Worldcard. When i asked him, he confessed that he never use the card before. "Well, it feels better to have a card more in the wallet." -.-" Duh?! Anyway, we then went around to find a place to eat.

McD? No, we have that once a week in Cheras, that's more than enough. KFC? Nah... Wat-Dan-Ho? What? All the way to genting for a wat dan ho that cost triple the price in Cheras? Don't think so. We were in front of a restaurant, ( i couldn't remember the name but i think its the one that me, SKy and Yee Rui went at midnight the last time), about to go in, when someone suddenly tapped my back and said "ta kip" (robbing). I turned around and couldn't believe my eyes.

I stared at him for 3 seconds before i came back to my senses. Kam Hei? At Genting? What is he doing there? Then i saw Yvonne, then all the PE6 people appeared in front of me. Wow! Isn't the world a small place? I mean, it's Genting, not Leisure Mall or even Sunway.When one of them suggested to go in to the restaurant, Kit Loong pulled me away. Well, i guess he still doesn't like the idea of me + him+ Kam Hei (+ KH's frens).

We ended up in Ria apartments's cafe for Nasi lemak. After a walk, we went back to First World (the walk uphill was indeed tiring) to shop around. Surprisingly, there are a few shops having a sale and i would have bought a jacket from Cheetah if i'd brought along enough money (I didn't think i would buy anything at Genting). In the end, we got ourselves a glow-in-the-dark necklace, and souveniors for my brotha and his sistah.

When we finally decided to go home at around 4:35, we bought the return tickets and hurried back to FirstWorld as i forgot to buy something for my grandmother. With a picture of us in my camera, I went to make a keychain for her to bring to England.

I guess the bus left when we were waiting for the key chain. Of course we didn't know about that until we boarded the 5:30pm coach and was scolded for being late. We still managed to find two seats eventhough we were supposed to stand and we slept through the whole journey till we reached Titiwangsa. The LRT came once we reached the station and then the 403 bus came right when we stepped down from the LRT. Lucky, ain't we?

However, our luck ran out when we finished our steamboat dinner and went home. When i took off the necklace that i only got to wear for less than 8 hours, it fell onto the floor with a sickening crash. It shattered into pieces! My heart went down with it, and I hastily scrambled to pick up the pieces. Aih, what a way to waste away 18ringgit.

All in all, it was a happy day trip. At least now i know it's actually quite easy and cost pretty much the same to go to Genting as compared to maybe 1U or Sunway. (Plus i won't get headache and cooked for being under the hot sun for too long!) Nice, ain't it?

ApoloGy

2006-11-17T19:01:00.000+08:00

I never notice this. Today in my parents' office, we discussed about my training program in the departments. They began to lecture me about the way i should behave (don't twist your hair!), act... and talk. They reminded me to be smarter and talk in a manner that i would not seem too dumb nor act too snobbish. Then i suddenly realised that i have always been speaking without really thinking through what i would be saying. For example, complaining about me being too fat or too short in front of others who are also as sensitive to this issue (most gals hate this topic, including me! haha). I guess this makes me seem arrogant to others, without really meaning to. Some of my friends have reminded me about that, ya, i have been trying to do the wait-3-secs-before-u-speak thing, but it's really hard. Maybe i have hurt some of u guys, the way i talk, please don't keep it at heart.
Of course, i would try to do something about that.

Uh-Maze-inG

2006-11-16T23:12:00.000+08:00

I really don't understand this. I actually cut out papers and arrange them. Well, there's a slight difference in the area, but there has to be some illusion somewhere hasn't it? I don't get it...

2006-11-12T11:06:00.000+08:00

It was 6:30 in the evening, and i was driving with my dad sitting upright, clinging to the handrails, and scowling under his breath at my seemingly pathetic driving skills. We were heading towards the Palace of the Golden Horses (PGH), where the dinner would take place.

How my dad got the invitation, i do not know (i couldn't bothered to ask). Both my parents thought it would be "good education" for me, so instead of the usual 'mum and dad going out for dinner and me staying at home with my brother wrecking down the house', they decided to let me go with my dad.

There was supposed to be a talk, so i thought it would be a big event, like the last one i went with my dad, with fashion shows and sorts. But when we finally found the place after walking through a maze in the PGH, i was utterly disappointed to find a small room with only a round table with ten seats. A man walked towards us and shook my dad's hand, then he turned to me, shook mine, and asked who i was. I didn't know how to introduce myself (it wouldn't be appropriate to say, hello i am he xin, would it? i mean, he wouldn't even bothered to remember right?). Luckily my dad came to my rescue. "She my daughter." There. Done.

A few more people arrive, and all started to exchange name cards. Everything was very formal, and i tried to put on my best and smiled to everyone, even though i started to think, what the hell am i doing here, a rebellious teen with a bunch of business people? I started to understand why most rich kids turn rebellious. With all the tension in the air, i couldn't help but act like one
too.

It wasn't until 7:30 that all of them finally arrive, and the man who asked my name started to give his presentation. Halfway through the speech, i finally begun to understand what a fund manager is and why we were there. To cut it short, he was persuading us (actually it's just my dad, and another two business owners, as the others were the fund manager's dealers) to hand over our money to him to "invest" in the stock market.

The food finally came at eight thirty. It was a Chinese restaurant, yet everything came in plates served individually. Appetizer, shark fin soup, oyster, ostrich, prawns, fish and all sorts were served. Frankly, it made me feel like becoming a vegetarian. I mean, i appreciate it as everything was made with extra 'fineness', but i could have enjoyed a Char Koay Teow much more. At least i don't have to eat without talking and making no noise with the cutlery.

I spent most of my time staring blankly at them, nodding once or twice, imagining what they are like at home. I noticed that most of the fund managers and dealers or whatever were rather uneasy, trying to behave in good manner while the other two bosses (which are their potential clients) were being boss-like, ever so skeptical, full of themselves, and shooting many questions to the fund manager. My dad, on the other hand, was rather laid-back. Even the FM paid not much attention to him. I guess he knew than it's a waste of time to talk someone much more experience than him to hand over his assets.

He seem to have more interest in me though. After hearing me saying i wanted to study economics, he took it as a personal interest to dissuade me, saying he was tricked into studying that subject and find it useless.

All in all, it was an extremely uncomfortable dinner, it made my mood go all the way to the floor ( plus the fact that i did very badly in my stupid AS economics exam in the morning), and i hope i would never be the one giving that kind of presentation in the future.

Some pics taken on Twins Belated bday party

2006-10-31T11:59:00.000+08:00

waiting for the twins to come home
Surprise!!!
Happie birthday
oppsie

argh....

pizza at last!

It's the twins' birthday (belated). I guess beatrice put in a lot of effort to make it a surprise. This time around, i had the chance to be the one surprising others, not the one surprised. Haha... guess they had a nice day.

Stretching experience

2006-10-31T11:14:00.000+08:00

The room was dimly lit, mildly scented with a detergent-like smell, and almost empty except for mats spread on the otherwise bare floor. Walking into the room, I suddenly felt self-conscious, walking extra careful so as not to trip in front of the many eyes fixed upon me. Even though there is no age limit to this activity, I hastily sneaked a glance around the room, looking or another person close to the age of mine. To my relief, I found a few even more nervous-looking people around me.

I wasn’t going there alone, neither is it an idea of mine to go there. My mother chosen to sit in front, so I followed suit. It was then that I noticed that the entire wall in front of me is hidden behind a large mirror. My mum grunted,” why is the mirror not made to reflect a slimmer figure of me?”
When I turned to look in front I noticed that the instructor had already come in. She didn’t look like those I-can-lift-a-truck kind of instructor to me, in fact, she couldn’t have been more than 28. Call me narrow minded, but I have always thought that Yoga= Old people teaching old people + everybody wishing to stay young but effectiveness unknown.

To cut it short, the stretching was almost unbearable to me. Let alone for my mum, who has never stretched a single muscle in her life. Surprisingly, my dad, (okay, I admit it, I wasn’t paying much attention to my pose, but rather to the people around me) was doing quite well, guess the mountain climbing is working well for him. Whenever there’s a uh-so-impossible-pose required from us, the whole class tried, fell on the mat, and erupted in a painful laugh. Of course, there were people who had attended a few more classes before that, so they were busily showing off what they could do that we newbies couldn’t.

The part where I enjoyed most was when the instructor asked us to lie down with our eyes closed. I drifted off. (Hopefully I didn’t drool. Yikes,) All in all, the lesson was way tougher than I thought, leaving me aching all over for a few days after.

ConCert

2006-10-01T20:23:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the long absence of post. It's because i was really sick for the past whole week.

On Wednesday i woke up feeling horribly sick, and decided to stay at home. Good thing i did too, because by noon i began to shake uncontrollably and felt all my bones at the edge of breaking. At some point i could not even see properly, everything was clouded and blur. I remember the last time i ever come close to this was 2 years ago before my year-end exam. Anyway, everything's okay now, exept the irritating lack of voice and sorethroat.( I could only whisper loudly into the phone when my friends call.-Actually it sounded more like me -breathing- into the phone loudly. Haha)

Yesterday i went to Michael Wong's concert. That was the first time i ever went to a concert like that. I mean, excluing all those Orchestras and school concert, it's my first. It was at Bukit Jalil, and we arrived there at about 7. After wolfing down our McD's, (I went with my family), we went into the stadium. Its a waste we didn't try to sneak in our camera, the bag checking system wasn't as tight as we thought.

We had a VIP ticket, so our seat was about the 12 row from the front. Don't ask me how i got the ticket, but obviously we didn't buy. (It cost a hefty Rm232 per ticket) There's a Shanghai group of fans, from Michael International Fan Club or something like that, who stole all the lime light for the day(Of course, Michale Wong won it all back after that). They were all wearing white shirts, brought a big Michael poster and glittering boards with "Guang Liang" on it. All of them were shouting at the tiniest sound from the stage before the concert even started. Sad to say, we Malaysians, even though we made up more than 70% of the crowd, are less enthusiastic.

The concert was okay. I mean, i only know a handful of songs in his album, so, at some point it was a little boring for me. Most of the time he just walked around the stage and sang, without much dancing because ALL the songs have a slow pace (i think). Anyway, after a short Encore, we left, leaving the ShangHai-nese grumbling because they wanted another Encore.

My brother recorded the whole concert. But i guess it's no point posting it up here because you can't really hear his voice over the screaming crowd and you only get to see the image when my brother dare to hold up his phone after looking around for any sign of the securities, which also means "seldom".

Anyway, i got to go finish my math paper. Ciao.

Birthday Photos

2006-09-10T00:08:00.000+08:00

That's a group photo taken at my surprise bday party last saturday

The Gurls!!!

And the boyZ...

Gals again.. this time, we are at Sunway piramid, in front of Sushi King, where we celebrated 3, ahem, "Leng Lui's" birthday...(still waiting for photo's from Genevieve)

This two Photo Queens... Omg, they can even take photo on the escalator, in the car while driving, practically everywhere we go!!! And i thought 5sc1 is mad in front of the camera!