Random Raves

2009-06-30T01:44:00.002+08:00

Gyaaaah! 7 days of house arrest, aka self quarantine. All in the name of not passing a little harmless flu around....

I'm back in Malaysia!! Flew in on Saturday morning and am now braving the sweltering heat. The air-con in my room must hate me, the remote died in my hand as I tried to turn it on. Brought back the usual assortment of cookies, chocolate and sweets. And also with 3 bottles of wine, a red, a white and a Chandon!! LOL my cousin remarked that he drinks up all the wine anyway, so the wine I buy have to pass his inspection.

So far, since I'm under the "quarantine", I just go online and surf the net. And also download massive amounts of manga to read. Need to clear the backlog of mangas waiting for me. Can't be bothered to download and watch anime anymore. Next sem, I'll just join the anime club and watch it from there. Besides, he's there too, so I can kill two birds with one stone :D

I've been reading this food blog a few days before I got back, and boy, did I develop cravings!! After all the posts on dim sums and xiao long baos, I went to Camy's Shanghai Dumplings and had my fix there. Steamed pork dumplings, xiao long bao and hot pork noodle - delicious! Came to less than $20 for 2 people. Probably one of the cheapest places in Melbourne to stuff yourself silly.

My msian number will be open starting tomorrow - it's the same old number. If you don't know the number, MSN or YM me or leave a comment and I'll give it to you!

Oh, and looking for people to go to DaiCon!! I'm really intent on going to Minori Chihara's concert and seeing all the anime figurines there! If anyone is interested, call me! Details are as follows:

Venue: MMU Cyberjaya, Putrajaya
Date: 11-12 July
Time: 10am-6pm

2009-06-18T22:55:00.002+08:00

I took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test!

""Longs for a loving, caring, and supportive relati..."

Click here to read the rest of the results.

Probably one of the most accurate quizzes I've taken ever.

How is it that I always doubt myself?

2009-06-14T14:50:00.002+08:00

Has it been a long week! Finished 3 exams so far - last one is in a week's time. Thank goodness. I had to sit for two exams in a day - a very rare occurence. It's also a terrible thing to do to a poor student like me T__T Imagine getting up at 7.30am, finishing a 3 hour paper at 12.30pm, have a short lunch then starting the next paper at 2pm! Thanks to Kai and Emir for all the moral support and tips on how to study, and Lionel for helping me to grasp certain concepts last-minute (which ended up saving my life!)

After Friday's 'double trouble', I woke up on Saturday just in time to prepare to go out for lunch with the other guys. As usual, it was Ramen-Ya again. Not that I'm complaining. Apparently the guys found out that after 2.30pm, most of the food goes for $6.50 - a drastic reduction from the $10 price! The bentos are pretty awesome too - I asked Emir to bring me back one when I refused to touch Tuesday's cold lunch and studied in my room instead while the guys went to Ramen-Ya (again).

After lunch, me, Emir, Evan and Tet made our way to Ian's place. There, while Emir DOTA'ed and the others played Orochi, me and Ian started on a visual novel - Planetarian. It was more than two hours long, and supposedly a tearjerker. I shed a tear for it, but mostly I was annoyed at how slow the plot was. I never was a patient girl at all.

Soon after we finished Planetarian, we had dinner and started on a Star Wars marathon :P Yi Jien came over for it, but left after the second movie. We watched Episode IV, Episode V and Episode VI in succession. It was partly boring, but I found the Luke-Leia-Han Solo love triangle hilarious. Also, the graphics were in some parts reminiscent of old-style space shooter games :D I also managed to find out that Looking for Group (LFG), a D&D-based comic was parodying Star Wars in parts of its' comics.

Speaking of comics, check out Zisa's work here: http://scarlet-dragonchild.deviantart.com/gallery/

Kai showed me her work, and I was taken aback by the beauty of it. My most favourite pieces are her 3-page Home comic and her piece on Bandung street life. The coloring is amazing as well - the way the colors flowed and mixed and conveyed the atmosphere. Kai has promised to get me a copy of her latest comic (just released yesterday!).

I'll be taking the whole weekend off to chill out, then resume studying again on Tuesday. On another note, I heard 4th floor Wadham is starting a D&D campaign =.= Is it not enough to have poker and mahjong and DOTA on your floor?!

2009-05-31T01:14:00.002+08:00

Had an awesomely good week. Spending time to catch up with friends after the stress of Cafe - priceless. To just be myself and not care how others perceive me (screw the stupid announcements and the students' listening skills).

Currently I've turned my bedroom floor into a massive study table/bed. The weather here is getting colder and colder - tomorrow, according to the weather forecast, the min temp is 6 Celcius. 6!! Since my floor is heated, why not make use of it? I laid a huge wool blanket down on the floor, put my laptop and books next to it and commenced studying. Best of all, when I feel sleepy, just roll myself into the blanket and snooze for a while.

Ramen-ya is a pretty good place to eat. I went there again this week (the last time being last weekend). E loves the atmosphere there. The rest loves the food. I must admit, it's a pretty nice place. Small ornate lanterns decorate the wooden tables, and the lighting is dim, providing a sense of privacy. Ramen-ya serves pretty good food at reasonable prices as well - $10 for a ramen or a bento box. Since I tried their specialty ramen last week, I tried the chicken katsu bento box this time.

Now I feel hungry for Rose Garden's Spicy Fried Chicken Ribs - the MUST HAVE dish.

Just tonight all of us had an intense conversation about politics, religion, genetics/eugenics and pokemon. Very random, very funny, and most of all, the type of conversation I missed from last year. When Dominique (an American exchange student) came in we started arguing about society and marriage - why do we need to follow society's dictate to marry by a certain age? The answer is logical, from the genetics view, the biological view, the societal view as well as the government view.

On a random ending note: I've just realised that the amount of support we give and receive is enormous.

2009-05-13T00:26:00.003+08:00

An interesting quiz from this website

Your view on yourself:

Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:

Your have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates.

Your views on education

Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:

You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

Now that Cafe is over, I find myself with so much free time. It's to the point that (as I told Pam) "I feel like I've just escaped prison". I barely remember the weeks (and free time!) before I took up Cafe. It's seriously that bad. But I've come out of it a better person, and with more time management skills than ever (try juggling assignments and prac and work....every second is precious). I'm going to keep a distance from Play next semester, I swear - and I've told Emir he have the right to smack me if I try to go for it. It's bad enough taking on Cafe.....Play will be 1000x worse.

I'll stick to enjoying life and studying than trying to head another committee.

2009-05-09T00:37:00.002+08:00

I always thought that I would never get mad in front of people other than family. After all, I never really thought bad about anyone, and at most I hated my enemies with a quiet vengeance that soon fades away. I've been proven wrong, time and again. My anger bursts through the bars and I burn with it.

I thought it was under control. I try to think, to be rational. It did not work. My mind veered towards the irrational. Oh, it's so tempting. To just let out all the anger and frustration of dealing with those who can not keep up, who are not able to understand. And try as I might I cannot resist the call of temptation.

I shouted at the person I once called a friend. The frustration of dealing with group mates who are not up to par, the fatigue from practicing dance steps and cymbals beats again and again all came together to form a burning blaze. Was it so wrong to give in to it? Should I just have tried to let things be, and forget about it? Maybe I should have. But my anger reached the boiling point and bubbled over.

I do not feel sorry over it. Maybe I could have done something else, and be the vengeful demon I am. But I will not. I will not let my work, my child be left behind. And despite everything, we've made it this far. I will not give up now.

2009-05-02T20:24:00.003+08:00

Grr... the flu has got me. Not the swine flu ( i hope) but a common flu, most probably due to stress. Sigh. So many things happening, and so much to do. Just because you don't see me doing anything does not mean I don't do anything. I run around a lot to get things settled, and if you don't do your share of the work, fine. But don't start accusing me of not doing anything. Thank you to everyone who have been very supportive, I appreciate it :)

Anyway, Cafe is almost here!! Our charity event of the year is almost upon us, with one week left to go. IH will be a grand place comenext Saturday, with replicas of the Wonders of the World, and pictures of the wonders as well. Ushers will be in traditional costumes, and there'll be alcohol in free flow. Tickets are $75 a head, but if you can't make it...... then come for our........

CAFE PREVIEW
Cafe International 2009 ~ Wonders of the World
Venue: Dimmicks Dining Hall, International House
Date: 7th May 2009
Time: 8pm

Australian Gold Coin entry. There'll be games and prizes up for grabs. Experience the performances without paying cutthroat prices!

2009-04-24T01:21:00.003+08:00

Went out for dinner at Pacific Cafe for roasted meats with Lionel, Dominique and SY. Came back in time to see that Scholar's Dinner was just over, and found out Heng Lin got the Sundarason award. Congratulations!! Should've tried out for the scholarships, since i'm a 'well-rounded' person hehe.

One more mid-sem exam to go, and then I can relax for a wee bit until Introductory Econometrics assignment comes in!! Cafe is in two weeks, and the acts I'm in are not even remotely perfect yet. Not telling what I'm in yet :P but you'll all know soon enough. Thankfully Raffle is going well. Despite my concerns about the lack of prizes before Easter the parents have been really supportive and donated stuff. It's nice to know despite all my stumblings Raffle is doing fine, and even Vong said it looks okay (but he isn't in IH anymore, so he wouldn't know much, anyway). Anyway, support us by buying a Raffle ticket!! The prizes are awesomely good (hehe of course, personally went with Yi Jien to pick them out, and thanks to the shop managers and staff for their help!!) Hopefully there'll be no more hiccups on the way, and then I can breathe easy once I start calculating the profit >3

Have to apply for internships soon, and fast. Crossing my fingers in the hope that I fit what the companies are looking for!

2009-04-14T11:30:00.002+08:00

Had noodles in spicy tomato sauce and honey soy chicken! What a difference from IH's constant beef dinners.

Currently, it is Easter and I am staying at a friend's place near Queen Vic Market. My friend seems to live on sunshine and air and sushi, while I eat at least two big meals a day. Man, I feel like a pig (oink!) I planned my meals and bought the foodstuff I need already, and 3 of my meals are going to be sponsored by IH, since I'm doing my 9 hour self help there in the kitchen.

Easter is really fun here, with chocolate bunnies and eggs. And free chocolate! I've been getting choc eggs which is really cool. Easter is a really welcome break from uni too. I've been burning out over the weeks, what with the assignments, Cafe and uni hours and extra tutorials. For the first time since arriving in Melbourne, I shopped the whole day yesterday. There's bargain sales all over as the stimulus payments are received and the retailers tempt people to spend.

I spent friday and saturday of the easter break slacking off. I had lunch with my girl friends in Lygon at Taste of Asia (not bad for malaysian food), and while walking back through uni, saw Emir's friends, Nathan and the other guy (forgot his name, although I talked to him alot), which I then walked back to IH with, since they were going to visit him :P Hanged around in the common areas, then went for dinner at Lygon again with Emir, Nathan and the Other Guy, and Vong, whom we met up with in Lygon. This time, MyCube Cafe, which serves good malaysian food, like ramli burgers and chau tau kuay. Then, back to IH to play Guitar Hero on the wii.
Saturday, cleaned up my room and moved out, and had dinner at Rose Garden, where they served up their famous Spicy Chicken Ribs (chiu ying kai fan). Smacking good.

The rest of this week will see me trying to study for my mid semesters, as well as bake my jam tarts, using my home made jam ^_^ Also will be doing my self help in one shot, and doing my assignments. WHY DOES THERE HAVE TO BE EXAMS AFTER EASTER????

2009-03-03T22:11:00.003+08:00

I found out that confidence is the way to get to the forefront of the world. Opportunities open to people who oozes confidence and optimism, as well as the 'can-do' attitude. I, as an observer of human behavior, should know this. People with confidence gets jobs and tasks because others are impressed by the way they say 'yes i can do it,' not 'erm...maybe i can do it, if...' Because that confidence causes those with less confidence to look up to them as leaders, and those higher-up are impressed by their enthusiasm. Even if one isnt physically attractive but confident there'll be people who will love you because confidence creates a sense of beauty. There is something in the way a confident person hold his/herself up that captures the attention of others, compared to a shrinking violet. And the more confident one is, the more things one can do.

Just my jumbled thoughts on confidence.

2009-02-21T00:19:00.004+08:00

Currently spending my days lounging around.

After reading Bryan's blog, went out to search for creative bento pictures.

Valentine Day Bento - http://motheringcorner.com/

Everyday, I keep my mind active by playing puzzle-based games. It requires skill and plenty of thinking. Walkthroughs help when stuck :)

My friend and I were talking about Chinese restaurants in Melbourne. He recommended Shark Fin House. Sounds a lot like Dragon Boat Palace which I usually go to. But Shark Fin House has better dim sum (but terrible service) than Dragon Boat Palace at around the same price. After reading all the reviews (and the pictures) of the place, I have a hunger for dim sum now. Cheap, tasty dim sum, where I can eat as much as I want without caring about the price :)

Currently packing for my trip back to Melbourne. About 50% done.

My plans for winter break have been dashed. So much for my food tour :( 私の日本語はきえちゃった。　

"Supper was the meal Valancy liked best. The faint laughter of winds was always about them and the colours of Mistawis, imperial and spiritual, under the changing clouds, were something that cannot be expressed in mere words. Shadows, too. Clustering in the pines until a wind shook them out and pursued them over Mistawis. They lay all day along the shores, threaded by ferns and wild blossoms. They stole around the headlands in the glow of the sunset, until twilight wove them all into one great web of dusk.

The cats, with their wise, innocent little faces, would sit on the verandah railing and eat the tidbits Barney flung them. And how good everything tasted! Valancy, amid all the romance of Mistawis, never forgot that men had stomachs. Barney paid her no end of compliments on her cooking." - Blue Castle

One of my favourite books is still Blue Castle (LM Montgomery). I borrowed and read it three times before going out to buy it. A must keep book. The rebellion of a girl suppressed by society and the romance that unfolds amidst the backdrop of backwoods Canada. The description of the fictional Mistawis captures the imagination, leaving behind a sense of wonder. I never fail to shed a tear at the ending. LM Montgomery's other works are also recommended, especially Anne of Green Gables - the much beloved girl from PE Island.

2009-02-15T00:51:00.003+08:00

Whew. Work ended on last Friday, leaving me jobless and free. My work has been somewhat boring ever since the new trainee came. She gets all the nice jobs while I get stuck with keying in data. Very boring job, especially after you've done it for approx. 7 hours a day 3 days in a row. The only time I was happy was when I was asked to send out 50 letters. To me, that was more exciting than keying in data.

I went back to school to see the choir club a week ago. Since I left the club, they have steadily improved and started winning competitions. I was very happy that the club that was once avoided as being 'unpopular' has finally became a popular club, well on its way up. However, I'm still a little sad that I couldn't be with them as they joined competitions and tests. I would've loved to round up my choral exam certificates from Trinity with the gold cert :( Currently they're practising for the interschool choir competition, as well as their latest musical, Footloose. With the way they sound now, it's easy to see how they managed to climb the ranks to hit 2nd place in the interschool. Some of the choir members still remember me; they're not the young juniors I once remembered anymore, they're now seniors, well on their way to college/uni. I met Kian Jin and Eu Jin at the musical practice. They were helping to direct the musical, although KJ leaves for Melbourne today and EJ will leave for Melbourne too in another few days. It was good to see them again and to remember the fun times when they were still in the choir many years ago.

Today, I went around book hunting. Getting my textbooks here is cheaper than getting them in Melbourne. Unfortunately, the uni bookshop near Taylor's doesnt have any of the textbooks I need. Shing Yun was going to the bookshops in KL, so I asked her to help search for mine too. Unfortunately, no luck there. Looks like I will have to get my textbooks second hand again.

I spent part of my paycheck today. Many of you might think 'oh wow, belanja me' since this is my first paycheck and all. Haha. Well, this is actually my 4th job now. The first was a two week stint at Taylor's; the second was a few months translating science books from......English into Malay (I know, sounds weird) and the third was a 3 hour job manning the residential college information booth in Unimelb. Like the kiamsiap person I am, I never used the money, especially since all my paychecks came in when I wasn't around. My next purchase will be contacts - handy when doing vigorous activities, like the wushu fan dance last year. It's hard to concentrate when my glasses keep sliding down while twirling the fan. So not cool.

I almost forgot WeiVern's farewell. We had her farewell 2 weeks ago, in pyramid. Currently she's in Adelaide, settling in to her new lifestyle there. And here are the photos of the reunion:

Wei Vern, Shu Ning, and me

Chun Hon also had his farewell last Monday, as he was going to fly to Melbourne on Thursday. All the best, Chun Hon and Wei Vern!

2009-01-28T23:01:00.005+08:00

I attended the University of Melbourne's pre departure orientation on the 18th of January! We had to arrive 2 hours before the orientation started, so I arrived at KLCC Convention Center 3 at 11.30am, with only a cup of Milo in my stomach because I woke up late. I saw Leon and Sulfya from IH there, Ruwan (Shing Yun's friend) and Kar Mun, who sulked when I ignored her (I did not recognize her since I only met her once during a barbeque at Charlene's place). We started off by making goodie bags for the students, and I started chatting to a guy who was helping the other volunteers to bag the brochures they collected since I was next to him (I arranged the bags he bagged in a box). He was a fan of Heng Lin's and was going down the same path as Heng Lin, which is Genetics. After the goodie bags were done we were given a talk then we split into our jobs (signing people in, ushering, counting heads). After that when the orientation started I hung around outside since there was nothing to do inside yet. I was kinda surprised to see Heng Lin and his parents there, since I thought he was still in Melbourne. After Amy the Malaysia-Singapore counselor gave her talk we split the students up according to course and then split them again into groups of 10 for a volunteer-students briefing. I talked for about 2 hours until I was hoarse, answering their questions about Melbourne. Then later I talked to some parents outside the hall, and only left at 5pm. I enjoyed myself very much at the orientation and did not realise I had nothing to eat the whole day.

Chinese New Year is fun as well as boring. Fun because I get to meet relatives that I don't get to meet during the rest of the year, and boring because the old routine of chotaiti and blackjack is well, getting boring.

This year, as usual, started with the reunion dinner. My uncle came back from Singapore, and it was good to see him again. I felt kind of sad when he said that one must learn violin at a young age in order to reach the professional level. There goes my chance of learning violin! Then all the youngsters (me, my brother, and my cousins Helena and Alvin and their cousin Henry) went to the computer/piano/storeroom to play games and surf the net. This time round I brought my laptop there, so that we wouldnt fight over the 2 computers and my cousin Alex's laptop :P

Picture stolen from my cousin's blog!! hehehe

The first day of Chinese New Year was normal. Cousins did not invite their friends over, so there was less people. Usually many people like to visit my grandmother's house to eat her keropok udang and savor the many dishes she and my aunt cook. My aunt also makes really good peanut biscuits and assorted cookies. Whereas my mom has promised 5 years ago to make a quiche with me but until now I haven't seen any. In fact, I always thought quiche was a kind of fruit tart (the ones with kiwis and strawberries and grapes and with custard) until one day IH served up a bacon and egg quiche. My second cousins which I had not seen for two years also came over. When Shyuen finally gets round to putting up the *current generation* portraits up on Facebook then I can post some pictures of us girls camwhoring. At night Alex drove us cousins and my uncle to Cheras for some pool.

Second day started off with Alvin annoying me. He keep wanting to play chotaiti with money, even though me and Helena did not let him. Reason: he's too young, even though by his age we were gambling already :P We went off to KL Sogo while my cousins' family left to go back to their other hometown. We ate at Siang Seafood Restaurant in Sogo (excellent service, great food, killer prices) as my uncle wanted to eat dim sum. I recommended that place because the last time I was there Shing Yun's mother treated us to dim sum and it tasted really nice.

Halfway through the shopping my grandmother said Kam Poh asked us to go to her place near KL, so we hurried there. We had to go up a winding road leading to the top of the hill to get to Aunt Me Li's place, who is Kam Poh's daughter. Apparently I havent seen this branch of the family for more than 10 years, since Aunt's Me Li's brother married ten years ago (he has 2 kids now). They expected me to be a small cute little girl, but I've already grown beyond that :P I got very excited when I heard Aunt Me Li and her husband are chartered accountants; I ended up following them round the whole time, asking lots and lots of questions. Their answers enlightened me and my interest in Accountancy was revived. I want to do be like them, who loves their jobs and is still interested in it.

Busy playing PS3

Chatting away

A beautiful picture...

Once we got back at night my grandmother said that I left my handphone at their place and I got a scolding from my mother. I just totally forgot about my handphone at that time since I was busy. Anyway, my cousin took out the mahjong set and me, Helena and my bro played mahjong while my grandmother grumbled that small kids shouldn't play. My mother watched as we played and said "How come you all know how to play I also don't know how to..? I must learn next time!" I won the first few rounds because I managed to remember what I learnt from last CNY and I last played with Ian and Luxian once 6 months ago while the others last played last year at CNY. Then the luck changed and favored my cousin, although I managed to win again after a few rounds. My sneaky brother saw I was winning, and when I left the room for a minute he stole my seat for the *good luck*.

Tomorrow my relatives are coming over for a house visit, so more updates in a few days!

2009-01-18T02:01:00.001+08:00

The chocolate cake I baked. Yum!

2009-01-16T00:14:00.004+08:00

I so badly want to blog but I wasn't sure what to blog about. In the end, I decided to blog about my foodie experiences here. I still have the restaurant reviews I used to submit to the IH Globe last year, so I'll post it up one by one. Of course, I've tried more restaurants than I've ever written about, but I never bothered to write about it. If you do go to Melbourne however, I'll gladly bring you on a foodie tour of good places to eat =)

I've gotten a job at Taipan, near my house. It's an accounting cum secretary firm, and although both are separate firms it's in the same office. There are only four people working there: the owner, two permanents and me. I mostly handle secretarial stuff like filing, photostating and modifying documents, but just recently they've taught me to use UBS, an accounting software. That brings my knowledge of acct software up to 3 programs - I'm so proud of it :P

A surprise awaited me in the spam section of my mail yesterday. As usual, I browsed through the spam to check out if any legit mail accidentally got in there. I stared at the words Peter Grant Cole and your room allocation for a minute before I realised that omg, they're actually sending out our room info for next year!!!!!!!! In IH, at the end of the year we'd tote up our room points (gained from participating in college activities, sports and doing well in studies), survey the rooms we're aiming for the next year, write down our preferences (I put down about 25 rooms!) and then hand it in. Then just wait for the results. It's quite a fun process, especially if you're applying for the best rooms in the college. No one has any idea of who their opponents are for the room, so getting the results is the only way to know whether you got it or not. I stared at the words room 53 for a bit before checking out the IH portal for which room is that.

Anyway, this is the first restaurant review I did for the IH Globe - I usually write the themed articles. My best and most enjoyed article is still The Fresher's Guide to IH. Enjoy.

Vina Bar

Vina Bar, located at 253 Lygon St, is a rather small, unassuming restaurant. However, it has an extensive menu to cater to meatarians and vegetarians alike. I had the Grilled Pork Vermicelli, whilst my friends had the Beef Soup Noodles and the Vermicelli with Rice Paper Rolls. The soup from the beef noodles was flavourful and tasty. The vermicelli noodles come with tangy peanut sauce, chilli sauce and tasty mint leaves. The prices are a little bit higher than the average, but the generous portions make up for the price. Prices range from $8 to $13.

2009-01-06T00:22:00.005+08:00

Happy (belated) New Year!

Nothing much over the last few weeks. Mostly I've been going around with Stephanie, shopping for Xmas presents. We went all over the place, although mostly to Pyramid (what can I say? it's the nearest...). We did make an excursion to Sungai Wang (my first time there). The food court there trumps AsiaCafe in terms of entertainment and prices. There were many big, flat screen tvs all over the place, showing a variety of channels (Jackie Chan on one, football on another). Sungai Wang wasn't all it was said to be, although the variety of goods sold there impressed me.

Korean lunchbox

Besides that I met up with some of my classmates from Taylors. We were the girls who mostly sat in front of class, with a little tinge of nerdism surrounding us. We were pretty sarcastic to each other, but it was more funny than hurtful. The three of us met up at Pyramid (...again) although Lean See wasn't there as she couldn't get a bus ticket from Penang. Went to 3JC and then walked around window shopping.

Look at the sparks between them!They made up long enough for me to take a picture...

My schedule has been pretty much booked for the weekends now. This weekend I'll be spending a night at Shing Yun's house, head to Sogo the next day with her and then go for the E4 class reunion at night. Next weekend will be the Melb uni pre-departure orientation at KLCC, and maybe a gathering.

E4 reunion: 7pm, Chillies at 1U. Contact me to confirm attendance. Please help to inform/remind your fellow classmates!

To Steph, Loh, Soo Gee, and whoever else who reads this who knows Bay, he's coming back on the 16th. And he wants a gathering. Contact me for the details.

Vanity Fair

2008-12-10T17:02:00.004+08:00

With not many things to occupy my time, I have been eating, sleeping, playing and.... shopping. I've gotten some new clothes, including jeans and a new prom dress as well as working clothes, at big discounts (we're talking 50% to 70% here :P)

This year seems like a good year for footwear for me :D Look what I've got this year:

Slippers with butterfly deco from Colleen, 1 Utama

White sandals from Carlo Rino, Sunway Pyramid

Black and White sandals in different sizes from Bata, Subang Parade

Heeled slippers from Bata, Subang Parade

Nice or not??? I was practically jumping in glee when I found the white sandals in Bata. I bought a pair very similar to that before in Bata more than a year ago. I really loved the versatility of the sandals, but sadly, it was really worn out by now. So I was really excited that I managed to find a replica of it again. And since the slippers there were so cheap I just bought everything I liked. It all came up to RM50 for 3 pairs, which seriously is a bargain. Luckily I managed to find my size for the sandals I bought there, as it was all last pairs or in super big or super small sizes. I'm still so excited from managing to find slippers and sandals I really like at such a cheap price as well! I'm not really a fan of Bata because their designs are not to my taste, but these were really nice. Shows how lucky I am in finding such beautiful things, all in one shop :P

I haven't worn those sandals yet as I could not bear to wear it. The first two pairs were bought during my winter break a few months ago, and I did not want to bring it to Aussie with me as I won't have a chance to wear it there. In Melbourne I'm used to walking wherever I want to go (especially to uni) so wearing those sandals would be a waste, as they would break from the harsh treatment. But next year I'll definitely bring some back with me, since they're so versatile (formal wear and casual wear in one!).

My Room

2008-12-03T18:03:00.005+08:00

It's amazing how much things one can accumulate in a short period of time.

In International House, my sanctuary was my room. Living in a residential college with many other students sharing facilities does not provide one with the privacy that those who live in apartments outside get. We eat together, we play together, we work together, and in some cases, shower together. It's not like I totally hate the lifestyle. Living together means making friends. Having someone near by. Friends that are only a few rooms away. Events that we work together to accomplish. But even so, sometimes we want our privacy. Somewhere to retreat when we're tired of keeping up with the crowd. And that is the room we have been allocated to.

In Room 135, Ground Floor, Scheps building, I slowly build my sanctuary. On my first day in Melbourne, I washed and cleaned the room. From the huge suitcase which held my 30kg of stuff I took out my clothes, toiletries, stationery and other miscellaneous items. I went out the same day and bought myself a table fan. I set up my laptop on the huge study table. The room was beautifully simple and clean. Minimalisation, I realised, was the key to simplicity and cleanliness.

My sanctuary wasn't the same after that first day. In the next two weeks I accumulated a stack of papers from Unimelb. Brochures, ads and advices from goodie bags to help me adjust to my new lifestyle. Free stuff, like cds and hairbands and condoms. Receipts littered my desk from my purchases. Foodstuff tossed into the cupboard for my late-night snacks. Bags of plastic and fibre lay around the floor.

I did not have the time nor energy to clean my room, so it gradually became a mess. Then from the roiling activities of O-week I passed into the start of the semester. Life slowed a little (Oweek timetable, was basically 17 hours of non-stop activities and 7 hours of sleep, if you're lucky). I still did not have time to clean my room. Instead, I went on outings, to Philip Island, to the Moomba festival. And I brought back even more things. Namely, soft toys. Small, little toys from Philip Island. A huge Husky won from Moomba took up a corner of my room. The huge study table disappeared from sight under a mountain of papers.

Did I finally get the time/energy/spirit to clean it? Yes, I did. I did the whole works: Filing my notes, packing unwanted papers into a bag, doing my laundry AND keeping it away, changing my bedsheets, wiping and vacuuming and polishing. The room was once again clean. It did not stay that way for long. Soon after, things started piling up again. And of course, I couldn't be bothered to clean until weeks later. Thank god the toilets and showers were not cleaned by me but by the cleaning staff everyday.

In second semester I came back with more stuff. More clothes, more food, more things. And the whole fight between cleanliness and messiness started again.

It was compulsory that at the end of the year we would have to pack all our belongings up into boxes or bags and store it in the college basement until our return next year. My stuff went into four boxes and a small bag. I packed my huge suitcase (the one from the beginning of the year) with food and some clothes to bring back home. It's amazing how much one can accumulate over a year. From one huge suitcase filled with clothes I ended up with boxes full of textbooks, files, toiletries, shoes, clothes and toys. Not to mention all the things that made a transit through my room, like food and papers and all sorts of things students use.

Ever heard of 'one man's meat is another man's poison'? While I consider my room to be messy and cluttered, to others it was homey and tidy. And, peeking into some other students' rooms, I can see why.

At least I never had clothes littering the floor and have less than eight boxes of stuff at the end of the day.

2008-12-01T17:45:00.006+08:00

There's probably no one reading this blog anymore. Especially since I don't update regularly. There's not much excitement in my life, or rather, not much that is exciting to you, my readers. My life in Melb is divided between lectures, assignments, college activities and my friends. I don't do clubbing, and outings with friends are just to restaurants where invariably we'd forget to take pictures of the food and dig in as soon as the dishes arrives.

If I can say what was the best moments in Melbourne, it would be:

1. Making two new friends at orientation who later became my good friends.

2. Making a whole group of friends over at college during Easter Break over games of Catan and Dungeons & Dragons.

3. Going to Melbourne U and living independently. I probably have it easy, staying at a residential college, IH. I have no need to cook and clean, and pretty much everything is provided. However, I still need to do my own laundry, clean my own room and pick up after myself (LOL!). And there's the whole time management thing, the importance of which I discovered the week I had to attend Play practices at night, sew a pair of furry gloves, study for 2 tests and do an assignment due that week with my group on top of going to lectures and tutorials in the morning!

4. Coming to International House. The first week there was a killer, with non-stop activities and lack of sleep. But after the hectic O-week life slowed down, and I made many new friends. There are many event at IH that really enlivens the atmosphere, and I really like how we get to do what we're good in, whether it is singing, dancing, making decorations, or dealing with lights!

5. The Catan games we used to play like crazy. By introducing myself in the first week as a Catan player, I got introduced to the seniors who played it as well. Need more players to make up a game? Give me a call at ext 435. We even have a group on Facebook, where active players get titles for their playing styles. There used to be an elite group as well, made up of those who managed to win Catan games. They can then play the expansion set, Catan: Cities and Knights, a harder version of Catan. I nearly cried during a basic game of Catan when Vong led all the other players against me to prevent me from getting my first win. But I managed to win the game, and managed to be the first serious female player in the group.

6. Eating out. Me and my friends would go out to find good cheap eating spots in Melbourne. We've had all sorts of food together with good times.

7. Lastly, playing games. Whether playing with friends on Ian's Xbox 360, or roleplaying in D&D, or even playing Magic TCG, it has been fun and very enjoyable. It's not playing that makes it fun, it's the people you do it with.

My first year of U is now over. Does anyone realise that one Uni year is only 8 months long? The rest of the year is a holiday. So many things have happened that make me feel: I really am lucky.

2008-11-16T22:48:00.002+08:00

I'm on my way back!!! Woohoo!

La Bamba by Los Lobos has been haunting my mind.....

2008-10-21T13:39:00.003+08:00

Life crawls on again, as usual....

Plenty of things happening in October. Last week, we ended High Table on Thursday with Valedict Night, a formal dinner at my college, IH, to celebrate the students who are graduating at the end of the year or those who have reached their third year of uni. I actually attended the formal dinner this time, cause I knew plenty of the people who are the valedicts....

I realised how much I hated formal dinners here when I see students walking around being drunk and somewhat...hyper. I was at my assigned table, standing up as the Head of College gave a speech, when Maud at my table whistled shrilly twice as the students cheered. I changed tables after that, to protect my ears just in case.... The valedicts sang a rather...spirited although awful rendition of Seasons of Love. And I got tipsy after a glass of wine and another of champagne.

I remembered that I had a test at the Law Building the next day after Valedicts Night ended. I had to decline the invitation to join the rest to go to Freddo's for some gelati to study (I was too busy the past few days, and this was absolutely my last chance to study for the test....). I went through all the notes, woke up the next day feeling dead and groggy and sat for the test. I thought I was going to screw this one up. This was the third and last test for Principles of Business Law and it was the hardest test so far.

Last Sunday was another busy day. Woke up, had brunch, and then finished my powerpoint slides to hand in to Sarah Flynn, the Activities Committee(AC) Secretary to edit. Then attended Student Club(SC) training by a guy named David Moore. He was really funny, and made the whole 3 hour session interesting. He managed to get us to recognize our goals for next year, and to tackle these goals. Towards the end, he showed us a video on how to communicate effectively.
After SC training, had dinner, then prepared for our first General Meeting(GM) as the new SC. We had several motions to pass that we've been preparing for. Firstly, the purchase of new washing machines @ $22,500 from SC reserves over the past 4 years. This was to enable IHers to get free washing. The downside was that drying would increase from $1 to $2. I didn't really approve of the idea, free washing. Firstly, paying for washing would stop people from simply washing for fun. Secondly, by changing from pay-to-wash to free washing, the electric and water bill will increase (not to mention that currently, the company we lease the machines from pays IH $5000 to subsidize our electric and water bills). High possibility that IH will increase our fees next year due to this. Why don't anyone see it??

Secondly, purchase of Gym equipment by Ton, Shop and Gym Rep. Thirdly, a new IH mascot (a panda). Then we passed motions to buy other stuff, like a computer for HD video editing and dance mirrors and new sound equipment. We had O-week auditions towards the end. The craziest act was by Andrew Nielson, who waxed his chest hair to read IH. Ouch.

Next up is Music Night this Thursday. I'm in two performances, the Disney multilingual song Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas and an a capella performance.

The results for the test last week came in! With trembling hands I clicked to download the results list and the test feedback application. I scrolled down to student number 320--- and slowly turned to look at the result. I couldn't believe my eyes! H1!!! Yes!!! hhahahaha. With just four mistakes out of 32 questions I managed to retain my grade. With this, I have a current cumulative grade of H1. Now the rest depends on the final exam.

*Back to study...*

2008-09-24T13:20:00.003+08:00

Where did I stop at? Oh, the Play.

Well, since the Play ended I had 2 assignments to finish, a test to cram for, and now, in the 2 -week glorious glorious holiday, 3 assignments to do and hand up in the 4 days after the holidays end. So this is now the 2-week-holiday-yet-not-period? argh. Since moving over to Hwei San's place on the other side of Parkville (IH is on Parkville, a km away from uni) on Saturday, I've been going out everyday....to uni. Yep, to meet up first with Ming Chin for ATA and with my groupmates for BPA. The ATA assignment is so so so hard that everyone feels half-dead doing it, while BPA is giving the creeps to everyone. I mean, for the first BPA assignment (which I finished with HuiYing, Yond and Lip Ee during Play), our group only had 22.5 marks out 30. The scary part? The highest marks awarded was 26/30 to one group, and the average lies somewhere around 18-20. So, everyone is creeped out, since assignments take up a total of 40% of final marks, and no one wants to screw up the second and current assignment. Haih. Oh, the stress!

Beyond that, life at HS's place is pretty relaxing and tasty. Home-cooked food is awesome after weeks of IH food. Yesterday we had home made wantan noodles, and the day before, pasta. Yum! There's a BBQ coming up this Saturday at Charlene and Jac Kee's place, with the shopping for food stuff on Thursday. YAY!

The consequences of staying at HS's place is that it's too far from uni (hence spending money on the tram) and that the Graveyard Crew (GYC) are back in IH. So I missed out on watching Tropical Thunder with them, as I refused to go out late at night alone. That and all the games of D&D I missed. This holiday is much much more different from the Easter hols last sem. During the Easter I made many many friends while playing games, culminating in the GYC. Then again, I didnt want to pay for staying in IH for 2 weeks when I can stay at HS's place for cheaper.

I watched the Mummy 3 last Friday. The movie wasn't too good, with a rather holey plot and bad cinematography. And since when did terracotta warriors qualify as 'mummies'? But some of the lines were memorable. Like, when a revived skeletal soldier (on the good side) accidentally swung his spade and knocked off his comrade's head (ni de tou zai zhe!!) and tried to stick it back on. Me and tz laughed hard at it. I plan to watch Wall-E sometime soon, by getting it from HuiYing *evil grin*.

Fish and chips at St Kilda (HweiSan, HuiYing and me)
Sheryl, HuiYing, Charlene and ShingYun (background: a beautifully decorated hairdresser's shop =)
The Birthday Girls!!! Celebrating their 18th =)

Group pic at Universal Pizza

2008-08-24T21:35:00.003+08:00

A post, just for fun.

Play's just over. Yesterday, we had our final show. It was a blast. It was worth sacrificing all those hours to see it become a success. Wondering what am I talking about? Read on....

IH (in case you forgot, my college of residence) does a play every year. Last year it was The Goodbye Girl, this is it's the Curse of the Werewolf. Admittedly, not many know that these plays exists. And why not do a more popular play in the first place? Well, the rights to do the more famous plays are too expensive, and we are already running on a tight budget.

The Curse of the Werewolf (CW) is awesome tho. I really liked the plot - A British family goes to Germany for a holiday, only to find that the village has more secrets than they think it has... The script was simply hilarious. It was a comedy musical. And coupled with the amazing cast (Grace as the stiff and stern Mrs Bancroft, and Fitzy as the dark Prof Steiner and Pam as Ingeborg the assistant) it was really, really good. We only had three shows, and while the first show was partly a disaster (forgotten lines, bad lights timing) it evolved to be a lot better the next day, with alot of improv to make the scene funnier. And when James Downing fell and 'died' in the scene his kilt lifted to reveal his underwear.....it was a real mistake, of course =P

Doing CW is pretty hard by itself, but as an extra I had very little to do, and so I didnt spend as much time on it. I just played the deceased Baroness in the first scene (I had to curl my hair and put on deathly white makeup) and I had to bite my tongue to keep from smiling as I lay dead in the 'coffin'. And the amount of foundation Andrea used on me made me look a lot better than I do. I really liked the costume too - a frilled black skirt with a corset-like top. Awesome.

There's no pictures tho, because I didnt had a camera and no one put it on Facebook yet. Facebook is really awesome. Friends link up pictures to me, so I get the pictures they take of me. It's awesome when I dont have a camera, or when I want pictures from that person. And I dont have to upload pictures at all!

But, I digress. Being in CW was great fun, although tiring. But I got to see how a play is when done properly. Admittedly, while CW is just a small play, it was nice to see how professional it was. Lights, sound, background, costumes, makeup, acting..... And all of these staffed by people from the college itself. It's amazing how many talented people we have here.

And with CW over, life's back to normal. Except that now I have to grapple with more assignments instead. Sigh....

2008-07-03T18:52:00.002+08:00

Everytime I go on a massive blog surfing spree I always get wowed by the blogs I see. The style of writing, the pictures... it's almost like it's telling me how grown up, how funny and how mature they sound. And inevitably, after I finish viewing the blogs all sort of ideas on how to write my next post runs about in my head. However, within minutes the 'mature feel' that inspired me would run out and then I'd be myself again.

Whenever I read those commentary blogs I feel so amazed by these people. They know enough to give comments on politics and social issues and things like that that I often feel overwhelmed and rather silly for writing about nonsensical stuff like what I ate yesterday. And the thing is, these blogs belong to people I actually know. Which make me feel doubly like a small kid. Someone once told me "Your blog is rather like a typical blog," which I take to mean that it's filled with fluff and normally wouldn't interest anyone else besides people who know me well.

Sadly enough I do not have the mental ability to write witty posts on life, or ranting posts on the government, or even views on social issues like religion or world hunger. Quoting from someone else again, 'Impression you have of her(me): easily influenced'. Which show how much of a 'yes' girl I am, (mostly) agreeing with everyone's view of {insert topic here}. Although it could be their views were similar to mine in the first place. Hmmmmm...

I wonder what happened to my plans at the beginning of the year. I was planning to blog about the places one could see/eat/shop in Melbourne, but in the end that plan vanished into thin air. So, despite all the restaurants I've been to and ate at there's no mention of it anywhere in my blog (The food's mostly great, btw).

There's also a lack of pictures of my friends in my blog, due to them being mostly guys, and well... guys don't take pictures without any valid reason. (Taking pictures of them to stuff in my blog is not a valid reason). I think it's due to their genes, which commands them to stay away from cameras of any sort and especially from girls who camwhore 99999 times a day. So, beyond a very blurred picture of them playing D&D (some hiding behind books and paper due to Ian's warning "She's going to take a picture!") and Shreenal's surprise photo of some of us playing Catan there's no pics of us at all.

Which (probably) explains why I only blog once a month. Heh.

2008-06-30T19:55:00.004+08:00

I had nothing to write.

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

Yea well, maybe I do, but maybe it's just that I'm too lazy or that I consider the activities I've been doing lately of no interest to anyone except those who has been doing it with me. So there you are.

And yes, in case you didn't know yet, I'm back in Malaysia. For one month. That's right people, start including me in your gatherings and what-nots :)

It was quite hectic last Thursday when I was due to fly back. Due to some misunderstandings, it turned out that I would be flying back the same day as my last exam. As soon as I heard that news I panicked like crazy. I started packing up my belongings into the wardrobe (college wants us to pack up so they can rent out our rooms while we are away) was trying to make sure all important documents were around. The night before my exam, I tossed and turned in my bed as I plotted out the next day's schedule. It was a tight fit with me having to do my laundry in the morning, go for the exam in the afternoon, come back and bath and pack and fold my laundry and pack.

Luckily, I packed finish in time to head to the college's foyer to wait for Starbus. Emir commented that "that's the first time I saw a girl pack so light" as I was only bringing back a small box, a backpack with my laptop and my handbag. Tanid and Heng Lin kept me company while I checked and double checked that I had everything I need (passport, check; ticket, check; wallet, camera, handphone check; oh, we only need a passport and the ticket to get through right?)

Well, at least nothing went wrong, what with my obsession that people would slip drugs into my bags when I'm not looking or run away with my handbag or laptop (the latter it's cause of all the stories of thieves in the papers). I was also momentarily frightened when at the check-in they asked what I packed in my box; I guess travelers who only check in a box are extremely uncommon or stupid or both. Yep, I get scared when I am caught unprepared, and I am very bad at dealing with sudden situations.

The best part of traveling without my family, without doubt, is when I open up my luggage and unpack all the goodies I brought back for them. Dark chocolates, biscuits, sweets and so on and so forth. It's the same reason I spend like crazy on Christmas presents for my family members. As long as they like it it's worth it. Just to see the smile on their faces :D (Although, I couldn't buy a bottle of wine like I did in Spain. Still, I can do it next sem when I finally turn 18 and the alcohol shop can't boot me out for being underaged.)

2008-05-19T01:35:00.002+08:00

It's been an interesting 3 months so far. From starting my university and college life, to fitting in and finding friends, as well as juggling assignments and fun activities. The slight depression when I first came here, friendless and lonely, has changed to the enjoyment of the company of people.

Mixing around with the the seniors who has stayed for more than 4 years in IH has opened my eyes to the world of *politics?* for the lack of a better word. Stories of the previous year's rebellion led by Vong, and the subtle political machinations behind the running of IH makes one aware of the enormity of things beyond.

On a lighter note, I've been going around Melbourne trying out restaurants! Now, if any of you come over to Melbourne, I can bring you out to eat :)

I've been rather addicted to Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics over the past few weeks. Before this, I've never been much of his fan, and had never read his comics before, although I've read some of his novels. But ever since Higgins loaned me two of his Sandman comics I've been hooked. Speaking of reading, I'm on the lookout for Garth Nix's latest Key to the Kingdom book, Superior Saturday. I've been collecting his books for several years now, and now that my dad also likes his books make it easier for me to buy his books :P

Remember Asia Cafe, or AC for short? There's a internet cafe at the back by the name of FTZ. I've always wondered why students like to go there to play DoTA. Yesterday, at a LAN party (bring your computers, hook up to the IH network, and play games with your friends!) I was introduced to the world of Warcraft and DoTA. I can see why people are addicted to DoTA now, although I still am not interested in the game yet. But TD (Total Defense) is really fun, and addictive! We played from midnight til brunch at 11am, and I was so tired that I had to miss going to the Japanese festival in Box Hill.

Minor things of no interest:
- unadon is addictive
- improving in ping pong thanks to Ian
- SWOT vac nearly here! time to cram cram cram!
- weather turning colder, need a new jacket
- dessert wine is delicious
- playing Pictionary with Monica, Luxian, Naomi, Aaron P and Mark is guaranteed to be loud and noisy
- don't ever forget the 5 rules of Catan (PS: Emir the Shepard has stolen Ian's title of General of the Largest Army; that title now combines with his other to become Knight General of the Black Rams)
- NEVER do assignments last minute
- sleep moar!

*no pics, sorry guys. wait until i return*

2008-04-18T12:06:00.003+08:00

IN THE NAME OF THE MIGHTY REGINA WONG, THIS BLOG SHALL BE REVIVED!!

Ok. After countless "this blog is dead" and "update!" messages from my friends I decided to write another post for now. A summarized version of my activities over the past one month.

Okay, so Uni started in March. If you asked me whether I was excited that uni started, my answer would have been a resounding 'No'. It's hard for me to get excited over events like this (aka 'normal events'). Just like me not getting excited over coming to Melbourne 2 months ago.

We IH freshers had our first taste of the formal dinners to come at the Commencement Dinner. Dress code: Formal wear + academic gown.

Then, my trip to Phillip Island. Me and Hwei San had signed up on the Melbourne University Outdoor Program trip on the 8 of March. We saw kangaroos, koalas, wallabies... It was pretty awesome.

And after just 3 weeks of university, we had our Easter break. IH became empty as most of the students left to go home, or to go on a trip, or to stay with friends/relatives outside IH. I had planned to study throughout Easter, but after joining Emir's D&D (for you people who don't know what D&D is, it means Dungeons & Dragons) I just could not study at all. So began a week of D&D and Settlers of Catan (a board game). And at the end of the week, my assignments were still not yet finished, but I made a lot of friends. Now we mostly hang around the JCR (Junior Common Room) 24/7.

With the start of uni again, preparations for Cafe Night started. Cafe Night is basically IH's fundraising event where paying guests come for dinner and performances. So now, I'm doing balancing act between Wushu Fan Dance (yes, for Cafe), playing in the Catan tournament and doing my assignments and going for tutorials.

(And that's why you stupid little girl, you're getting a flu)

Today, the day of the IH Ball and the Beautiful. Basically an excuse to dress up, spend tons of money, and to drink. Now, with my bad experience during MPT5 & 6 (my highschool's prom night) I had no desire at all to go. Besides, when you think of it, the ticket price is equivalent to one day's stay at IH... So, we, the JCR gang decided to go out tonight for hotpot (which I hope will cure my flu).

And that is basically all for now, the pictures will come later (maybe) so just keep checking.

2008-02-25T21:21:00.004+08:00

So here's the pictures of the college I stay in =)

My round, "nuke silo" building, Scheps

The laundry room

The locks and keys in IH

Bed + study table

Sink + wardrobe

The kitchenette at every floor

Part of the gardens

The dining hall

Some of the games offered

Orientation for us 'freshers' started last saturday and will continue until this sunday. For starters we learned the Fresher's Dance, which was pretty cool. Last sunday, we had a party at night called the 'Poor Taste Party'. Earlier in the afternoon we were brought to a second hand shop to buy the worst outfits we ever saw. At the party...

Cross-dressers?

Charlie, one of the organisers and me

The organisers

Tonight we had a cocktail party as well. The difference to yesterday's party was that instead of dressing in bad clothes we had to wear semi-formal to formal clothes and there was alcohol around. Too bad though, I'm still underage and banned from drinking =(

Cocktail party

Tomorrow I'll have to go to uni for further orientation and to collect my timetable. It's a 10 minute walk from IH to MU with windy weather. COLD!

2008-02-22T19:52:00.003+08:00

I suppose that it was a momentous moment when I left my family at the turnstile to immigration. Even though I did not know it, it was a start to a phase where I am gradually learning to live on my own.

At Monday 9.40pm the Boeing 777 code MH149 left KLIA.

Destination: Melbourne, Australia

After 8 hours and several turbulence during the flight we reached Melbourne at 9am Melbourne time, where I would spend the most of the next 3 years studying. After passing through Australian Immigration I went to collect my huge 28.8kg bag from the baggage carousel. It was rather funny, with me chasing my bag around the carousel trying to heave it out. Finally I succeeded after 5 minutes, by forcefully chucking it out of the carousel.

I had booked UniMelb's arrival services weeks ago and they met me and several other students and brought us to our destinations by bus. My destination was their first stop and so it was that I reached International House at 241 Royal Parade where I would be living in this year.

I was assigned to Scheps, a round building at the end of the grounds. Rumor has it that a student had suicided there 18 years ago. brrrr. There are many buildings in IH, such as Scheps, New Building, Clunies, Hilda Stevenson, Greycourt and Waldham. At Scheps, my room has a sink and thick fat walls. According to some of the seniors, Scheps' rooms are small, but they have sinks and thick walls to mute sounds. "Big is not better," said Christopher, third year UMelb med student. He described his previous room at Greycourt (it stinks and maggots fall from the ceiling. yucks).

The other students at IH are generally friendly. There's Charlie, the so-called short-term memory loss guy; Ted and Han the IT experts; Ruvi and Hash the Catan players; Jubi the postgrad student from India; Oliver and Shunsuke the exchange students from China and Japan and many more. Today Charlie and Lushien taught me ping pong!!

After unpacking my things on Tuesday I made my first foray into the world outside IH. I took the tram to Barkly Square, a place where we can do some shopping. Guess what was the first thing I bought since I arrived? A FAN!!! It's tiny but cheap (so what if I am a cheapo hmph!) and it gives some much-needed ventilation to my small room.

The International Students Orientation was on Thursday. After it was various talks on the different subjects we could take as breath subjects. I had earlier made a list of talks I wanted to attend, but it didnt work out. I went for the Accounting talk at 1pm in the Commerce building, and 1/2 hour later I was rushing to the Geography building 0.25km away to attend the 1.30pm Informatics talk. UMelb is a big place with many buildings and small shops scattered around.

So now I'm trying to make up my mind on what subjects to take. While the subjects I need to take as part of my accounting major is mostly set, I still need to pick 4 or 5 breath subjects from other faculties to complement my degree. And that's where the cause of my headache is. Should I take Japanese, or Math? Or maybe do Renaissance Dance? Perhaps I should take Psychology? It's very confusing @@. I am already taking Law as part of my breath to gain my accounting accredition.

Tomorrow the orientation at IH starts. It will last for a week and coincide with the orientation at UMelb. It will be alot of fun ;P

PS: Wait for the photos to come. I am pretty lazy right now.

2008-02-13T21:35:00.003+08:00

Sakae Sushi for lunch with Jia Yi ;P

2008-02-12T21:00:00.001+08:00

So I went back to my hometown for CNY, and that's why you never see a new blog post (that's the story I'm sticking too anyway).

It's been a tradition that we kids would gamble on CNY by playing cho tai ti and Black Jack. However, this year the stakes were too high (rm1 bet for black jack, anyone?) and there was just no fun in playing cards. So me, Helena and Aidan decided to learn MAHJONG. Despite my grandmother's nagging that only old people play mahjong, we still managed to get her to teach us.

With nothing better to do, we went back on Friday night. Then I had open house on Sunday!!! Bryan, Ji Yung, Mei Kim, Wy How, Kein Yip and Ken Hon showed up. Ack! That day my house had an overload of the Y chromosome since most of the visitors were male. We played cho tai ti and...mahjong.

While I was at the hairdresser's yesterday, Steph smsed me. We then arranged to watch CJ7. The story was quite nice and I actually shed some tears for the "pet". After that we had dinner at Ajisen Ramen and went SS all over Pyramid =)

Chicken Teriyaki Bento set

Today went skating with Wei Vern at Pyramid Ice Rink. Then some arcade, and some shopping. Didn't buy anything though. Kinda lost the shopping impulse ever since I started going out with male-dominated groups (going out rule no.1: dont shop when guys > girls in the group). Besides, no use buying any clothes when I'm limited in things I can bring over to Aussie lol.

Anyway I'm posting again 2moro, check out fo it!!! xD

A lil' something Stephy made =D

2008-02-06T15:36:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, at Strawberry Fields in Taipan, I had my farewell.

Wei Vern had organized the whole gathering (Thx WV!). We met at 1pm. Well, actually when I came there with Steph the rest were already there. There was: WV, Steph, Susan, Mei Kim, Shu Ning, Mandy, JC, Wyhow and KY. We talked and chatted about our future plans and current news until around 3, when some of us decided that we should do something else besides sit and monopolize 4 tables at Strawberry Fields. The rest had to go back home, so me, WV, Ning, Wyhow and KY went to Summit to watch the Game Plan.

Unfortunately when we arrived there we found that the next screening of all the movies would start at 4.30 or 4.30pm. So we gave up on the cinema and was thinking about buying a DVD and watching it at WV's house. While we were discussing in front of a DVD shop, Wyhow started wandering into the arcade next door.

Since me and WV always go to the arcade whenever possible, we went in to play. Me and Ning head towards the House of the Dead game (which was expensive but good fun). Then played the taiko with KY and DDR with Wyhow. Somehow all of us developed the fever to play taiko (a japanese-style drum which you hit in tune to the music) and we played until our arms hurt. Then on to Monkey Ice for some fruit flavored ice. Met Elaine who was working there :). And that was the end of a really fun day xD. Sorry, no pictures tho.

And who could forget what today is? CNY eve! Happy Chinese New Year all!!!!

2008-01-31T16:45:00.000+08:00

Oh no, my blog's collecting dust! *blows*

Yups, it's the case of the Lazy Syndrome. The sickness where bloggers (like me!) are just too lazy and unmotivated to update their blogs. Ok, so now for the updates~

Jan 21, celebrated Wei Vern's birthday at Pyramid. Met her at 4pm and went shopping before the rest came XD. Ken and Kein Yip came at 6.30pm when me and Vern were buying J.Cos. After wondering why some other people seem not to be coming (meeting time was 6pm, but you-know-lah, MRT Malaysian Rubber Time) went and called them. Ended up JC and Mandy came late whilst the rest never even show muka. See la, my planning skills suck :(

Jan 24, Jia Yi's birthday. How not to know la, this girl constantly give hints that her birthday coming.. :P So I went and belanja her at Secret Recipe. While talking we saw a reallllllly outdated ad for Enchanted. Ah so kesian, if I knew she hasn't watched yet I would've asked her to watch it with me (I havent watched yet). But I thought she watched d.. T__T

Jan 25, saw Sweeney Todd. Wanted to eat sushi but 2 guys ffk'ed on me (too little people, how to eat?). Hahah Sweeney Todd was a bloodfest. The whole show was gray black and white except for the red red blood. Been waiting a long time to see this show. Johnny Depp is my one and only fav. actor since I was a kid. And who isnt curious after reading the synopsis? Ok, I admit, I wanted to see the human meat pies. KY came along to enjoy the bloodfest (this guy is like some blood and gore magnet).

Jan 27, went to Novotel KL. It's some hotel at the Golden Triangle KL. There was a briefing by the U for students. Managed to get alot of info (like what to bring and so on). Of course, my real target was to see who is going to the same U as me :D. I saw some of my classmates from E4 (they're going too! wee!) . Vern Ming, Ming Chin and Shawn. Joyce, Jenny, Yi Jien, Hui Wen from Seafield is also going. In fact, so many people are going (and all the good students too!) that I'm starting to feel quite dumb. Saw Fiona also from my joint Econs class with E3.

Jan 28, I got my new laptop!!! It's a Compaq and specs include 1.8ghz processor, 2gb RAM and 14" screen. Hahahah damn cool. But since I got a freedos one (empty laptop, no OS), I had XP installed. Then had to dl and install all sorts of programs (adobe, nero, winzip, winrar, itunes..)

That's pretty much all, I'll update another time. Oh, and February is just hours away!

2008-01-13T16:07:00.001+08:00

1. the person who tagged u is?
Bay Shing Shen! (did i spell it correctly?)

2. Your relationship with him is:
Same school, same college...

3. 5 impressions u have of him:

Cynic

Funny

Nice

Easily depressed

Talkative

4. the most memorable thing he has done for you:
playing a game that in the end konked out all the others... heheheh

5. if he becomes your lover, u will:
eh...impossible... cause i wont be able to stop laughing ... he's so funny!

6. if he/she becomes your lover, things she has to improve on will be:
cannot be so emo... =P

7. if he becomes your enemy, u will:
do nothing. what can i do? so weak *sobs*

8. the most desirable thing u want to do for him now is:
writing this tag out...

9. your overall impression of him/her is:
oklah...easy to make friends with, nice guy...

10. how do you think ppl around you will feel about you:
ignorable... nothing more than a bug...

11. the characteristic that you love about yourself is:
independent!

12. the characteristic you hate about yourself is:
lazy, useless pig... when will i ever change?

13. the most ideal person you want to be is:
no idea. i like myself

14. for ppl that care and like you, say something to them:
thank you so much... you are all so kind!

15. the 10 victims:

Alex

Helena

Alyssa

Bryan

Kenny

Lye Wan

Bay????

Ho Sheng

Jia Yi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *nyek nyek*

2007-12-29T16:26:00.000+08:00

Christmas is over, and the new year is approaching. I believe that even though it may seem overrated, with all the commercialism attached to it, it still represents a new beginning. It is the time when students advance another year, when people have new beginnings, when we experience renewal. Isn't the new year a time to make resolutions? A time when we try to change for the better, to improve ourselves.

It is a time of reflection also. As I think back, it amazes me how much I have changed over the years. I am only 17. Still young in some older people's eyes, yet to the young I am old. As I child I thought of how nice it will be to be 17, with all the privileges of that age. Well, it is no different to me. But this year, 2007, has been a turning point. I had finished my secondary education, and was enrolled in the South Australian Matriculation, a pre-U course. Now I have also completed it and got my qualifications. This year is marked with milestones: Learning to drive, traveling on my own, making new friends, enjoying more freedom, studying for myself, and so many more. This year has been full of experiences for me, good and bad. But I enjoyed myself this year. It is something I will cherish when I grow further.

Next year will bring more changes. Friends will grow further apart as we spread out to different colleges, different universities. Families split as we teenagers leave home to further our education. With all this changes, we will definitely change ourselves. But will we manage to keep the memories that link us together, and maintain our relationship as we grow further apart? I certainly hope so.

Once, I thought that being 17 was great. Now, I just realize that it is the threshold to something greater. But it also comes with sacrifices. So, as the new year comes, let us go forward to be who we are, to challenge ourselves, and more importantly, to cherish out time together.

2007-12-22T18:12:00.000+08:00

Time really passes by fast. By Tuesday word of the SAM results coming out on Wednesday came out. On Wednesday I snuck off to college, prepared to receive the results of my 7 month education. After that off to shopping with Wei Vern and her siblings for Christmas.

Anyway this is the end of the post, I wish everybody out there

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

FELIZ NAVIDAD Y PROSPERO ANO!

Genting Highlands

2007-12-16T16:12:00.000+08:00

This happened a few days ago. Bryan had planned a trip to Genting and called us to go. (Who is us, you wonder? Soon you will find out) Since Bryan wanted to beat any existing traffic jams in the morning we had to leave our homes early in the morning. We reached KL Sentral by 7.15am and met up with Priscilla and Keith there. Then we took the earliest shuttle bus to Genting (which was at 8 am) and then continued our journey up by skyway.

I found out something: Bryan is afraid of heights. Hee hee ^^

Misty after a downpour.

~Steph and Regina~

Hon Fu and Bryan

Having fun are we?

Posiiiinnnnnnnnng!

Priscilla

Round and round and round and round... @.@

Miniature Genting!

Posaaaaaaaaaaaa!

We took the Corkscrew twice, the go-kart and assorted other rides. Although I couldn't bring myself to try the Solero Shot and the Superman - which, in my opinion, would make me ultra-sick. I mean, even the Teacups make me dizzy. And I thought this ride was only for the kids. But Steph and Bryan loved this ride so much that they went 3 times on it!!! Once is enough for me, as it is much much more scarier than the Corkscrew. Seriously.

One thing I hate about Genting - the inflated prices!!! Food up there is like x2 the price of food down here in the lowlands. But the trip itself was enjoyable.

The Genting Experience

We caught the last bus back at 8.30pm. Not that we wanted to, but because all the other earlier buses were fully booked. Well, at least we had the whole bus to ourselves, with all the seats we wanted. We bid goodbye to Priscilla at KL Sentral and went back to Subang by KTM. To round off that night we went to the mamak at USJ 2, where we ate satay and kerepok lekor with cheese. Only arrived home at 12midnight. Whew, what a tiring day~

2007-12-08T22:31:00.000+08:00

It's amazing how ignorant of things we can be. I never realized how many things happen in the background; things that we never see and take for granted.Why do I realize this now? Well, actually, I'm working at Taylor's University College. So far it's only been one week, and boy is there alot of things I found out. In one week, we (the student helpers) have done so many things I don't know where to start. We have packed and repacked pamphlets and brochures (like, thousands of it), served parents who seek counseling, packed letters, carried stuff and ran around like mad. It's not an easy job.

Today is Open Day at Taylor's. A very busy day too. Any parent who comes in just see a hall filled with people, and counsellors and student helpers. But we do many things behind the scenes. We make sure the place is kept clean. We make sure there are enough pamphlets in every booth. We make sure parents are attended, and run to find counselors and tables and chairs. We keep watch and conduct campus tours. Basically, we're on our feet the whole day. And so is the lecturers and staff.

Anyway no one will appreciate our work. Well, except those who really know what we went through. It's like this all over the world, no matter who you are and what job you hold. It's a thankless life, and at least it pays.

2007-12-01T23:33:00.000+08:00

The weather is like hot hot hot. Every minute I'm out in the sun drains my energy. I am never good in hot weather. I'm the type of person called the 'puteri lilin' - someone who cannot stand the heat. And yet I loved the weather when I came back to Malaysia after my student exchange. Spain was really really cold and to feel the heat again after two months of constant freezing was really nice. Until now.

Ok, actually this afternoon's 'exercise' made me really hate the hot weather. I was shopping with my mom in Giant. From 10am to 3pm we were there. 5 hours! My mom filled two shopping carts full while I ran around getting ingredients for my pasta and lasagna. When we were at the register I had to unload everything in the carts to the conveyor belt and then the packaged stuff back into the carts. Haih. By myself, too, since my mom ran off to do some other stuff. Then I had to unload everything again into the car, and once back home from the car to the house. Very very tiring I tell you.

Nothing much going on. Can't believe that 2 weeks has passed since my finals were over. It feels more like 2 months. So far I've watched 30don and Stardust and went walking around Pyramid. This week I'm going to work a little. The money should be useful for my Christmas shopping. Now I better make up a list.

2007-11-26T15:47:00.000+08:00

Ok, this is the updates over the past few days...

Thursday: Dinner at Tony Roma's @ The Curve. Half the class turned up. Later we moved on to Laundry for an after-dinner drink ;P Unfortunately I had to go home before we started drinking. Haih.

The guys

The girls

Today I finally caught Stardust!!!! Woot! It was quite funny. Hilarious at some parts. And sweet at others. Especially the parts with Capt Shakespeare, cruel pirate. Well, supposedly. You have to watch it for yourself.

2007-11-20T21:42:00.000+08:00

Great. The last day of the finals, and this have to happen to me. Here I am, miserably sick. Unable to celebrate the end of finals in style. I have a headache that's making me dizzy. I can't seem to focus at all. I feel like retching. And.... I'm having a slight fever. This is so not cool.

I watched 30 Days of Night today. Before my sickness hit me. Sitting there, watching the screen. Thinking how dumb the characters are. How warped the timeline is (Hello, 10 days pass so suddenly, but 3 days takes forever to go through?). It was okay though. Josh Hartnett looks so cute. A little like Tom Cruise though. But really cute. As expected, not much horror. But blood and gore aplenty. But the ending...it was creepy. Bluek. I stumbled out of the cinema, dizzy.

We decided to go TGIF. Unfortunately....the place wasn't open yet. So sad. But good for my wallet though. Even a set meal is at least rm35. But it comes with appetizer, main course, and a scrumptious dessert. Doesn't matter. Tony Roma's is a few hours away. My mind is beset with the images, the taste of food. After I finished my Accounting paper with time to spare I doodled on the scrap paper. The first thing I drew was... a pastry. Oh to sink my teeth into one!

But at least the finals is over. Plenty of time to do things I want. Go on the internet. Watch movies. Play around. Driving practical. Sleep. Read. Oh, the joy~

But wait. No one is free to teman me. Nooooooooooooooooo!

Oh, the horror.

2007-11-16T11:25:00.000+08:00

Feeling rather down these days. Haih. And it's not because of my hormones either. Usually I get depressed when the time-of-the-month-thingy arrives, but not this time. Just plain depressed. And over some stupid guy. I think it's true what people say: Love and hate comes together. This is the first time I felt so strongly for someone. I guess only one thing can cure it. Distance. Out of sight, out of mind. That's going to be easy, since college is now over. I'll probably never see him again. Well, at least now I know what those people who write in to agony columns mean about unrequited love. I used to think they were stupid for waiting for someone for years. Wait...they are stupid. Remind me never to follow their way. Pining is dumb.

The finals probably had a hand in making me emo too. The thought of not doing so well in the finals is unthinkable. I badly want those As. Not sure why, though. Maybe it's my kiasu attitude coming up again. Oh well, kiasu-ness is good, as long it's in moderation.

I am a real lazy person. Three whole days to study my Spec Math and yet I didn't. Instead I was reading some new books in my house. Simon the Coldhearted by Georgette Heyer and The Mammoth Book of Science Fiction. Not to mention I went through Blue Castle (L.M. Montgomery) again in one sitting.

So that's how I wasted Wednesday. On Thursday I went to the library. Then came back in the evening and entertained my absent brother's best friend, Timothy. These kids sure grow fast. I used to remember him as a small boy, shorter than me. Now he's taller than me. Sigh. It really makes me feel short.

Thursday night. Cram study. Rushing through the past-year papers, then updating my formula sheet. Ended up having my mom shouting at me "Why never study earlier hah?????"

Anyway now Spec Math is over. And there's one last paper left. Then freedom!!! After the last paper I'm going to do all the things I want. My driving practical, movies with my best friends, gatherings, shopping.... Oh and the class farewell party. That's not to be missed.

This is one jumbled post. If you read until here, congratulations for not losing your patience.

2007-11-13T22:04:00.000+08:00

Another week. Another two papers down. Two left to go. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Since my last post, MSU (Mathematical Studies) and ECO (Economics) has came and went. Both were morning papers, requiring stamina, energy, and lots of groaning in order to make it in time for the papers. Being at college by 6.30am is no joke. Especially if for the past 3 nights you have been sleeping at 3am, and then on the night before the paper you try to sleep at midnight.

Anyhow, I feel very bad. I thought I could do my MSU paper. I was confident when I walked into the MPH that I would at least manage an A-grade or a high B-grade. I was still confident as I did my paper. Then, halfway through, while using my GC to complete a statistic question... the GC returned a "ERR: ARCHIVE FULL" message. I frantically went through my GC. Did I have enough memory to operate the calculator? I should have. My GC was fine...until that day. Okayyyy... this I could manage. I erased my calculator's memory (mental note: borrow Jia Yi's later to copy-back the programs), got it working again and continued on. But I wasted too much time and by the time I handed up the paper I didn't manage to finish all the questions.

Same thing happened for ECO. Lack of time, not enough studying. Came out of the MPH with a heavy heart.

Throughout the last hour for these two papers one thing happened. I kept swearing. %^*&^*(&)! In my mind, of course. Lately I seem to be doing that. Not good. I have to kill this habit of mind-swearing.

2 papers left. Specialist Mathematics and Accounting. I feel scared now. The bad experience from the last 3 papers has shaken me. I wish all this was over and done with.

Then I can really play, yeah!!!! Woot!

Ok, concentrate....2 papers left! Cannot enjoy first!

2007-11-06T12:19:00.000+08:00

This is boring... Frankly, I dunno what I am doing... Right now I'm in the library, writing this post when I am supposed to be studying. Maths is on Thursday, Economics Tuesday, Specialist Math Friday. Somehow, all my study spirit is all gone. The sight of my Economics notes makes me feel sleepy.

Yesterday was ESL; English as Second Language. 3 hours and 10 minutes of sitting in a cramped room. The listening comprehension was tough, and the format of the extended essay has changed slightly. Please, please, SSABSA, don't play around with our papers...T_T This exam is important to us...

Anyway it's kinda boring in-between papers. I know, I know...it's good that I have plenty of time to study in-between... But frankly, ESL is over, and I've spent one month studying my math. Accounts is last, and my best subject. Econs...hm..well, I need to worry for that. And specialist math as well... aw damn... Can't do anything until my last paper is over... somebody just kill me...

2007-10-29T16:39:00.001+08:00

SAM is finally over!!!!!!!

It seems like time has passed by so fast... We started in March, and now 8 months has passed and we are now preparing for finals. Time really flies when you are busy enjoying yourself.... So anyway it's a surprise that most of my classmates came on Friday, the last day... well, except those not expected to come la... And the Economics teacher gave us a surprise!! She baked muffins for the whole class as a good luck wish!! Took plenty of photos for memory... This year is one of the best years I ever had, and my class seriously rocks! Classmates, you're the best!!!

With our lecturers, Ms Yong, Mrs Soh and Mr Woon

My classmates

Today was Lee Su Yen's 17th birthday. Happy Birthday, dear! Finally we're both 17. Some of her friends got up a surprise birthday party for her.... We came early and decorated the place, blowing balloons, putting up streamers. Some of them got the cake(s) and the food. Lye Wan was supposed to hold off Su Yen until noon and then bring her to the ECA office. But they came too early, and we thought that our surprise failed or something. But anyway, we had a great time. Bryan gave a lot of advice and comments, which ended up in Su Yen getting some "marking cream" on her face and a kiss from Sean. Too bad I didn't manage to take many photos, as my phone's camera is really cacat T.T

Patchwork cake

After eating we hanged around. Lye Wan, Ian, Sean and Su Yen played foosball, and then later we played Blockus, some board game. We decided to go play pool, but since Ms Shirley and Mr Albert were out we were the 'caretakers' of the office and so we could not leave. So we cleaned up our mess, and since we had so many balloons and streamers around we decided to decorate the ECA office with it ^.^ After Mr Albert came back we went off to AC for pool, before we went back.

A 'decorated' lamp

2007-10-24T16:09:00.000+08:00

A little conversation between Jia Yi (pea) and me (IOSYS)...

pea says:

IOSYS says: pig
IOSYS says: i feel like eating bacon now
pea says: lol
pea says: go ahead
IOSYS says: *sharpens knife*
pea says: *tied on the board*
pea says: *Waiting to be slaughtered*
IOSYS says: *stand over little pig, tryin to decide how best to cut it up*
pea says: *sobbing and wailing madly*
IOSYS says: *goes away*
pea says: *snoring loudly*
IOSYS says: *comes back with pen*
pea says: *eyes opened widely*
IOSYS says: *starts drawing on pig*
pea says: *shouting like mad*
IOSYS says: *labels bacon, ham, head, roast pork*
pea says: *struggling with much effort*
IOSYS says: *takes knife, say prayer and start slaughtering*
pea says: *YELL*
pea says: *------------* died
IOSYS says: *continue slaughtering*
pea says: *----------------*
IOSYS says: *thinks of ham, bacon, sausage, roast pork, char siew, etc, etc*
pea says: *thinking of after life, waiting to slaughter you in the next life*

pea says: cool wey! post in on ur blog
pea says: hahahaahhahha
IOSYS says: lol
IOSYS says: why?
pea says: cos its just damn gila

2007-10-23T18:53:00.000+08:00

I hate/love the rain. I like it when after a hot day, a drizzle cools down the stifling heat. I like listening to heavy rains when I'm all nice and warm in my house, when I'm on the verge of dozing off. But I don't like it when I have to go out in it.

It's been raining for two days. Heavy rains. Yesterday wasn't too bad. It didn't rain when I went out to lunch, nor when I left college. But when I woke up to the heavy pitter-patter of the rains this morning I almost gave up. I don't want to go to college! I thought to myself. The idea of squishing my way through rain puddles while holding my umbrella, with strong winds blowing, was unattractive at the least. After brushing my teeth, I started to put on my clothes...then took them off and put on my pajamas back. I went back to sleep under the warmth of my comforter.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the rains stopped by 6.45am. So I dragged myself out of bed again and prepared for college. But of course it rained again when I was in college. Now as I write this it has stopped. Who's gonna bet me that it will rain again tonight?

2007-10-20T18:17:00.000+08:00

"So who's going for the Corroboree?" asked Ms Yong. Silence. Then a few hands went up. "WHAT???? SO LITTLE????" she said with shock.

The SAM Corroboree is a prom night organized yearly by a prom committee. It takes place after the end of the SAM Finals in November. Corroboree is an Australian word (and I forgot the meaning of it). Like all classes, my class had the green forms to fill out with the names of the students who wanted to attend. Tickets are at RM100. Well, the sad thing was, no one put down their names for it. So our class didn't manage to even get a table. Some who wanted to go joined their friends in otehr classes, like Kah Ho (we can deduce that he joined his girlfriend) and some of the girls. Ms Yong was really shocked =P She told us that we must be the only class (!) which dont have a table for the prom night. Then she started pointing her finger at us. "Iskandar, you must go. Neal, Nicholas, go. Regina, Jia Yi, Yap Ning, go!" Well, despite her trying to force us, we didn't even sign up. So much for Ms Yong's plea.

A bloodied puppet, on a stool.

"What happened? She thought. The puppet was not merely a puppet, it was a representation of a person. She was determined to find out the murderer.

A sculpture of a human. But only the upper torso remained. The arms had also been broken off. Part of the head was gone. Another representation, the torture of the puppet's murderer.

"You must avenge me. You must." The puppet's murderer said defiantly. She hesitated. This was a murderer, after all. Should a murderer be avenged? She would avenge him. A murder was a murder.

She was in a garden. Searching for the murderer who had killed the sculpture. A man stood beside her. A companion in Her search. She touched the ground lightly. Trying to get an image of where the murderer might be. She knew that when She touched the things related to the murderer She could see the murderer's next step. Suddenly they were surrounded. They were from an organization. They were armed. Run! She shouted, and She and the man ran, escaping from the enemies' deadly fire.

They ran into another garden. She could feel it. The murderer would be coming. Soon. There would be another target. Who? She touched a dead leaf on the ground. An image of a man, the murderer, holding the corpse of his latest victim. She looked up. A beautiful Lady walked through the garden, melancholic. She approached the Lady. "You are the next victim."
"I know."
"Why don't you run?"
"I can't."

She came closer, and suddenly picked up the Lady. Wha- screamed the Lady, but She was already running. The enemies from the organization were here. They surrounded the garden. She ran, carrying the Lady, and crouched behind a pillar. The barrage of fire stopped. She took a deep breath, and ran again. The path She took led out into the open. She ran, praying that the bullets would not hit her. Suddenly a woman in a bulletproof vest came up, holding a gun. No! She thought, but She knew it was too late. She would die, the Lady would die. Then She...

Okay, that was a dream. I don't know how my brain put together such a plot. I was reminded of Ghost Whisperer and some action movies. Weird.

2007-10-11T23:06:00.000+08:00

I've been feeling down and depressed the whole week... My emotions were on a rollercoaster. I'll be happy one minute, and then sad and moody the other minute. My thoughts keep swinging from one extreme to another. I need to learn to make up my mind, and to release myself from my wishful thinking. It leads nowhere and destroys my soul.

Today I was in a better mood. Until my mother called, that is. She called in the middle of my Economics class, and of course I couldn't answer. Then after class was over I saw "You have 3 missed calls" message on my hp. I panicked (obviously) and called back. The first thing she said was "Oi my friend told me her daughter got her trial results already. Where is YOURS???" Shit. I never told her my results, first of all because she always thinks that my results are bad (of course it's bad, but actually my results are average). Then I had to tell her my results. Sooner or later I had to anyway, so might as well get over it now.

My second shock came at around 3pm. I attended a briefing on "Under 18 students - how to apply for a visa to study in Aust". After going through a long list on how to apply for a visa (includes getting a health screening, getting and staying with a guardian, blah blah blah) came the shock... Only SOME Unis accept under 18 students. wth? So I cannot study in Aust?

Luckily today I had some entertainment plans to make up for my disappointment. I went with Alyssa/Su Yen and Sean to Pyramid. My first time seeing the brand new, upgraded with new wing Pyramid. Not much really, since most of it is under renovation for the new shops moving in soon. The shops in the new wing were upper-end shops, like Mark and Spencer. Since we arrived too late for the 4.20pm screening of 'I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" we went to the arcade and played, then had dinner at Manhattan Fish Market. Then we went in to watch IPYCAL. I thought it wouldnt be nice, since some bad reviews came out about it. But it was hilarious. Totally omg-funny. Although some of the jokes are a bit too harsh...But good. And now I feel much better. Thanks, Su Yen and Sean.

2007-10-10T17:37:00.000+08:00

Same old, same old. Nothing much to blog about. The only interesting thing happening was that I spend the whole of last week and this week exploring the food shops. So far, I've visited Coffee Cabana, Noodle Station, Lisa Spaghetti, and Tuna Twist. And today I went to Uncle Sing with Mandy, Ee Ann, Su Yen, Lye Wan and Shawn. New friends, new environment.

Hari Raya is coming up! Haha, a 4 day holiday for us students to celebrate. How nice! College is getting boring with all the past-year final exam papers. And the stress of calculating internal marks and praying that we'll do well enough to enter into our desired universities. I hope that when I do enter university I will still keep contact with my friends. This year has been one of the best in my life, with my newfound freedom and new friends and meetings with old friends. And entertainments.

Well, anyway...Selamat Hari Raya to all who celebrates it!

2007-10-05T15:12:00.000+08:00

My trials results are 80% out. I think this time my grades did not slide backwards (yet). Makes me scared to think what will come out in the finals.

One month of revision. This is getting boring. Accounts is tedious due to its need for thinking skills and copious amounts of calculation. Economics is boring as tons of essays need to be written. English, mercifully, is not too stressful yet as the lecturer has gotten bored of marking our essays, hence she has not given us any work yet. Mathematics is not too bad, (as I said in my earlier post) I don't need 100% brain power for it. Specialist Maths... is just plain creepy/tiring/agonizing. We have tons of past-year final papers to do, and money to be forked out. The class thinks I'm a bottomless piggy bank, as I keep asking for more and more of their money for photostating. Also, I'm pretty tired of lugging boxes of photostats up 3-4 floors to my class, and then carrying around leftover papers which several morons will always forget to take. (it's heavy, dammit!)

Ok, post-trials and pre-finals stress aside, life is getting pretty boring. Wake up, go to college, go home, hop on to the internet, do my homework, sleep. Repeat countlessly every weekday. Automated bot? Perhaps. Even doing something else other than the above would be exciting enough. Maybe next Friday I should try watching Seeker: The Dark Is Rising. Shouldn't be too bad. (Steph, if you're reading this, and if you're free on Friday afternoon, sms me. Let's go out.)

Can someone recommend me something to do? Besides studying. Maybe a nice, interesting MMORPG, or a really good book. Invitations to do something?

2007-10-03T16:03:00.000+08:00

Bang: a cant term. Widely used in group E4, SAM, Taylor's University College. Means to insult or to be insulted.

- Regina's Definition Dictionary

Yes, I got 'banged' today. It's all my fault, really. Mr Munin had told us to bring our common test papers to check our marks. I just plain forgot. Just like the other 80% of the class. So Mr M went around asking the students why they didn't bring. And in typical Mr M fashion he banged them. After that he showed us our total internal assessment marks. He gave a lot of comments, ranging from our poor performance to an analysis of our marks. He peppered his lecture with more shots at several students. When he came to me he said "Regina, what do you think about your class?"

Me: Dunnolah. I dont think. (This response was designed to evade the question, as well as lighten the mood)

Mr M: So you don't think? Tell me, when do you actually think?

Me: I'd have to think to answer that question, right?

Mr M: Yeah. So you dont think during the exams? *sarcastic*

Me: (smiling) Yup! I dont think during the exam. I just do it.

Mr M: What...

Shawn: Aiyoh, like that she must be very smart-lah!

Me: (thinks)*If I was that smart I would've gotten an A for trials*

je vous déteste mais je vous aime

2007-09-30T15:48:00.000+08:00

At 7am Friday morning I was pinching myself to stay awake. By 10.10am I was wide awake and grinning happily. Economics by then had just ended. FREEDOM!

So I watched Hairspray.
The dancing and singing were quite cool. Not that the songs were anything to scream about. But the dancing was nice. Sometimes I wish our generation dances. Not hip-hop, but dances like ballroom and american styles.

That is a picture of Edna Turnblad and Tracy Turnblad. Edna is played by John Travolta. No, they didnt just put him especially in a fat suit and women's clothes for this show. Apparently in every Hairspray play Mrs Turnblad is played by a guy. Don't ask me why. When Travolta appeared on-screen I was like "So that's him." But my friend was aghast.

Look at how much Hairspray they need for those hairdo!

Amanda Bynes also acted in this show. Personally, I used to think that she would make a lousy actress or something. But she wasn't too bad in Hairspray. But with her hairdo and her wide eyes she could pass for a barbie doll. And she sucks lollipops during the whole show.

Well, Hairspray wasnt too bad on the whole. Except that it was boring in some parts. But tolerable.

Hairspray pollution! Ackkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!

2007-09-27T16:12:00.000+08:00

One more paper to go. Economics is the last paper in the whole trials. So that means that the science students end earlier than us business students. It's sad to see that they end earlier... while we suffer another day.

Since today I didn't have any paper, I slept in. What a wonderful feeling!!! You see, despite having holidays and weekends I never really had the chance to sleep in. In the holidays I usually wake up by 6 or 7 am and go to college.... to do my homework. And I'm always up by 7.30am on Saturdays. Sundays are the only time I sleep in, where I wake up by 9am. So even though today I woke up at 7.30am, I really felt happy! Especially since for the past week I had to wake up at 5.30am for my morning trial papers. Anyway, even though there's no trial paper today I went to college. Main idea is to study Economics, but in the end I studied nothing. Haiz.

I met Ee Ann and Ee Wei in the library today. They had just finished their last paper, Physics. I let Ee Ann listen to a song by Weird Al, Don't Download This Song. She cracked up at it and listened to a few more songs by him. Then she said "Hey! He has a good voice! Is he cute?"
Me: Why?
Ee Ann: Because if he is then I'll like him
Me: I dunno. But what if he turns out to be a fat, short guy, with pimples over his face and is a person who digs his nose in public?
The ever optimistic Ee Ann didn't even hear me. "I'm sure he's not so bad lah."
So anyway being highly curious she immediately logged on to a computer and searched up his pictures.
Me: So how does he look?
Ee Ann: Cheh. Not cute also.
Me: Told ya he could be fat and short.
Ee Ann: It's not that lah. In his pictures he poses as things like pirates. Oh well, he writes all those crazy kind of songs, so no wonder he's a bit crazy as well.
Me: Haha. Who knows? Maybe he's actually in an asylum, writing all these songs from there.
Ee Wei: Haha. Very true.
But anyway Ee Ann still want his songs.

Well, people, wish me luck for my final paper.

2007-09-25T17:26:00.000+08:00

Gwaaaaa!!!!

Trials is killing me. My Accounting paper sucks, and to top it up, tomorrow is Specialist Math. I am sooo not ready for it... Somebody please kill me!

Zomg, Friday...please come fast fast fast!!!

2007-09-23T16:02:00.000+08:00

Owh~ tagged by Alyssa.

Rules:
1. The tag victim has to come up with 8 different points about his/her perfect lover.
2. Have to mention the gender of his/her perfect lover.
3. Tag eight other victims to join this game and leave a comment on their blog.
4. If you are tagged the second time, there is NO need to do this again.
5. Lastly, and most importantly, HAVE FUN DOING IT.

So....
8 different points about my perfect lover (male)
~Interesting
~Funny
~Loves me
~Caring
~Taller than me
~Considerate
~Makes me smile
~Understands me the best

My perfect lover doesn't have to look good, or have tons of money. Just as long as I like him. And if he's not funny, or interesting, goodbye. I hate being bored the most =P

2007-09-21T10:47:00.001+08:00

Phew! One down, four more to go. What am I talking about? Well, SAM Trials have arrived. The trials are important for us, mostly because a chunk of our internal marks are from the trials. Just thinking of the trials make me nauseous. I havent really been studying for it, so now I'm praying hard that I dont do too badly for it.

MPH is the biggest and coldest exam venue around. However, even though I stole my bro's thick jacket for today I didn't even wear it. I suppose it's because I dont feel very cold. But when our mentor (also the head of the Math dept.) announced that there was 10mins left I started to feel very, very cold. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. Is it nerves, or something else? Or maybe because my mind had flown away during the exam it ignored the fact that my body was cold the previous 3 hours? Yes, my mind do wander a lot during exams. Basically, I do my exam papers with half a brain while the other half dreams away. Almost as if a part of me is detached during the exam.

2007-09-19T15:39:00.001+08:00

A new lesson in Math, Rotational Motion, that made our heads go round. Learned a new equation, which when keyed into the GC gives us ellipses and circles. Being bored with the lesson, I played around and got...this....

Who says you cant do art with math?

Camwhoring for no reason at all =P

2007-09-16T17:52:00.000+08:00

This is just so cute >.<

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.

- WC Fields

2007-09-15T11:00:00.000+08:00

Neglected my blog. Not that it matters anyway, since there doesn't seem to be many readers :P

Today I sat for the mock math exam. Not compulsory, but went anyway to gauge myself. My class was assigned to the MPH. It was freaking cold. Imagine sitting in the same chair for 3 hours straight, with a small table to work on in a very cold room. But now I know what to expect for the trials....
1. Must eat breakfast!!! Breakfast provides energy to last 3 hours in an arctic room.
2. Wake up early! If not sure will miss the morning exams which start at 7 am.
3. Wear a thicker jacket. Next time I'll bring my super-thick jacket which I wore to stave off the cold in Europe.
4. Prepare the formula sheets. Especially important since I'm taking not one, but 2 math subjects. Without the formula sheets, my mid-year Specialist Maths would have been a disaster...

I managed to get my hands on the piano scores for the songs in Secret. Right now I'm attempting to play Secret. Luckily the score is not too hard. I still can't play songs with more than 3 sharps or flats. I managed to get the hang of the hand crossover (where the left hand goes over the right, if you saw Jay play Secret in the movie you would know what I mean).

Hairspray came out in cinemas just recently. I really want to watch it!!!! Besides having John Travolta as a mother, it's a musical. I always had a weak spot for musicals~ Hopefully TGV will continue screening it until I can watch it...

2007-09-08T11:41:00.000+08:00

Okay...this is one of those 'tag' things, except that I didn't get tagged. But it loked interesting, so I thought I might as well do it ... with some modifications, of course =P

Seven favourite songs of all time
1. Sound of Music - Julie Andrews
2. Manana Me Voy - Lagarillo Amarillo
3. I Say Yes - ICHIKO
4. Songs by B'z
5. Some songs by Shiina Ringo
6. La La Love Song - BoA
7. Angel To Me - The Click Five

Seven favourite books/movies
1. Blue Castle - L M Montgomery
2. Ogre Ogre - Piers Anthony
3. General Sector - James White
4. Boy Meets Girl - Meg Cabot
5. Sound of Music
6. Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer
7. Some other books/movies of which I cant think of right now

Seven things I do away from public
1. Sing
2. Cry
3. Bath
4. Emo
5. Whatever people do when they're away from public

Seven things I'll make you wish you didnt do if you did
1. Make me cry
2. Try to make me feel guilty
3. Never listen to me
4. Never trust in me
5. Try to ignore me
6. Treat me like I'm nothing
7. Make me angry

Seven things I will not do even if it kills me
1. Smoke
2. Drugs
3. Be vegetarian
4. Be a doctor
5. Platis surgery, unless there's a really good reason
6. Kill
7. Suicide

Seven things to be done before I die
1. Write my will
2. Have sex
3. Travel the world
4. Be popular
5. Find someone who loves me as much as I loves him
6. Go on a roller coaster ride ( one of those heart thumping, terrifying ones)
7. Be rich

Anyone who wants to do this can do it. It's bothersome to tag people.

2007-09-06T17:09:00.001+08:00

Celebrating with family is quite fun, especially so if it's with my cousins. I went back to my hometown over the weekend to celebrate my birthday with my cousins and the rest of my family. This time round though, I celebrated with...birthday boy Alex!!! Happy 20th Birthday, Alex!

After arguing who should cut the cake...

When me and Helena tried to feed each other...

10 YEARS AGO....

Can you spot me in the picture? XP

NOW....

How much 10 years has changed us!!!

2007-09-01T23:22:00.000+08:00

To celebrate... my parents brought me to TGI Friday's on Merdeka day!!!!! I haven't been there since I was a small kid... We had the set meals from TGI Friday's.

Chicken Parmesan Tortilla

Ultimate Margharita - complete with alcohol!!! =3

The waiters are dressed in traditional clothes. This waiter has at least 7 flags in his songkok!!!

There was dessert as well, but unfortunately before I could snap photos of it it was already under attack! We had Cookies n' Cream and a Mocha Pie. Delicious! :P

Then to end Merdeka Day... I did something illegal! haha... and while I was doing it... a police patrol car came! I nearly panicked!!! But luckily they didn't notice anything! LOL

So today is really my birthday. I can't believe how fast 17 years has gone by. I still remember being a small toddler in tadika. Haiz...how fast time goes by! Hard to believe that I'm now in college, a 17-year-old girl, finally a class rep, and still stinking in her studies.

I finally saw Secret today! It is good...but I wouldn't go so far to say I cried while watching it. The ending was a bit of a letdown, but I really enjoyed hearing the music throughout the movie. It makes me feel that I should have been more diligent in playing the piano...

I'm celebrating again tomorrow in my hometown... Together with my cousins and other family members. To Jia Yi and Kenny, thanks for treating me! To all those who wished me a Happy Birthday, thank you for remembering! :D

2007-08-31T23:19:00.000+08:00

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY MALAYSIA!!!!

and tomorrow... MY 17TH BIRTHDAY!!!

2007-08-30T17:41:00.000+08:00

Merdeka eve!

Today Taylor's had a flag-raising ceremony. All the students attended it. We were given flags which we waved while singing patriotic songs. It was quite fun, seeing the students enjoy themselves.

Traditional clothes to celebrate!!! =3

Many thanks to Jia Yi!!!! She treated me at Peppercorn Cafe for my birthday =D She's really nice... when she's not evil...heheheh

Bad luck today!!! My favorite pair of platform shoes spoiled!!! Argh!! I really, really heart those shoes! It's not branded and it's pretty cheap, but I liked the design and the extra height it gave me. So I went to the cobbler opposite Taylor's (he's next to 7-11, which is a blessing, since my shoes totally gave way when I reached him). At first only one of the shoes was spoiled, but then he pointed out that the other is almost spoiled as well!!! But he managed to fix it, although I don't think the shoes will last any longer. *sob* My favourite shoes!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

The worse thing that could happen to females is...when they lack money!!! I went to Taipan to buy some wire, and then I went into the clothes boutique to look at the latest fashions. A pretty green blouse caught my eye. Unfortunately.... I brought too little money! So I could only look at it...

Tomorrow is Malaysia's 50th Merdeka celebrations! And then, on Saturday... my 17th birthday!!! Woohoo!!!

2007-08-26T21:00:00.000+08:00

1. End of SAM holidays.
Sometimes I think having holidays is more boring than not having holidays. You don't get to see many of your friends and you have wayyy too much time to waste.

2. Just finished reading all the 7 Hercule Poirot anthologies in the library.

3. Embarking on a new project that will endanger lives :P

Merdeka is around the corner. I will blog on it soon.

2007-08-23T20:44:00.000+08:00

Because I don't want to start a new post, I'll just update this one.

Today (Friday) I went out for lunch with the choir's ex-president of 2004. She happens to be back from US on her summer break. So we went to eat at Old Town Kopitiam and talked all about our ex-choir days. How much difference between then and now! We also talked about our parents - mothers, to be exact. Our mothers are so similar! Asking us the same questions whenever we want to go out, and making up silly hypotheses. No wonder her mom and mine are friends =.="

After that I went to her house and watched Grease. No, not Grease starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, but the Grease performed by our school choir of which we were ex-members of. It sucked badly. Wasted my RM15 to buy it. The acting was so fake. Only good things about it was the male lead, who is a cute guy, and some of the cast who had strong voices and sang beautifully.

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

Blah. Another day spent at the library.

Every Thursday my lunch break is at 10am. When I first had this schedule my whole body rebelled. Imagine, one day out of five college days, I eat lunch so early in the day. On other days my lunch breaks are usually around noon and college usually ends 3 hours later. So on Thursdays 2-3 hours after lunch my body's timer tells me it's time evening, when in reality it's just 1 o' clock. Ended up I'll feel very tired on Thursday afternoons. However after months of this 'morning lunch' I don't feel this side-effect any more. On the other hand.... my body's tells me that i'm hungry at 11! Geez....

Since my stomach was screaming for food, I left my studies to look for lunch. Before that I borrowed a new book from the library. The Underdog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie. I was so engrossed in the book while eating that I failed to realise....that it was raining!!!! I had to run from Success back to Taylor's, and of course I got wet. Sheesh. I thought that the rain would stop by 2pm at least, but it didn't. It continued to drizzle on me as I waited for the bus. And the bus took so long to arrive somemore. Haiz.

Ratatouille is a French stew. It is also the name of a movie about a wannabe rat chef. I think teh best part about the movie is the animation. It was so nicely done, and all the small little details are included. The texture of the baguette, the architecture style of the old city of Paris, the lighting... it was all so amazing! Pixar is definitely one of the top animation studios around. There was some little details inserted in too. Like the food critic's full name: Anton Ego. (Ego for his attitude?) Or that Anton Ego's room....is shaped like a coffin. Dark like one, too. And the parody of Colonel Kentucky (fried chicken, anyone?). Ratatouille is more of a comedy, but I found myself shedding a few tears near the end. No, not because I had to pay rm5 for the ticket, but because.... I think I will leave you to find out for yourself.

2007-08-22T10:32:00.000+08:00

I'm soo jealous!!!! So many people have seen Secret and said many good things about the show... I want to watch it as well! But no one wants to accompany me T.T Everyone seems so busy even though for some of us it's a holiday week right now. I haven't seen mot of my friends this week. Most of my classmates have went back to their hometown, and the rest of my friends are busy. It's just so boring....

Evan Almighty has just came out last week, the same time as Secret. I heard it's funny, but I'll reserve my opinions for when I actually see it. Last year I saw Bruce Almighty, the prequel to Evan Almighty. It wasn't really that funny (or I have high standards) but it was okay. At least the Malaysian censor board didn't decide to cut any scenes or to ban the movie.

Just to make this post seem long...I have put up the lyrics for Suki? Kirai? Suki!!! (Love? Hate? Love!) by Kugimiya Rie. This song is the Ending Song for Zero's Familiar: The Two Knights. This song is quite funny, because it's so contradictory....LOL

Be right here! Close to me
Always, always look at me at all times
You looked away, didn’t you?
At other girls
I’ll punish those who are wavering and insolent
Don’t touch! Because I won’t listen to excuses
Touch me…because I’m tired… Hey, lend me your shoulder

chorus:
I love you, it’s a lie
I hate you, that’s a lie, too
Nay nay nay, it’s useless, it’s a misunderstanding
So I won’t say, “I love you”
Non Non Non, because I absolutely won’t forgive you
If you go to somewhere else

But the truth is, I want to be by your side more than anyone else
Let’s go take a walk in chains of love!
Listen up! To what I say
I finally explode; who? Who? Did you get close to?!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in love with you
But I’m worried; why? Why? Even though it’s nothing

Don’t kiss! Because I won’t KISS you again
Kiss me… A non-ritual KISS… What does it taste like?

[chorus]

Yeah the truth is, because you’re more precious to me than anyone else
Endure the whip of love!

Don’t touch! Because I won’t listen to excuses
Touch me… When it’s tough…hold my hand tightly

[chorus]

Yeah I don’t want to be apart from you even for just a second
Follow the laws of love!

2007-08-20T21:18:00.000+08:00

I am bored.

My holiday plans are boring.

It's so boring that I've reverted back to my old hobby, reading.

I hate holidays. My mother thinks holidays are the best time to study, and even though she's right it means that I can't use the internet as much as I like. Not that the internet is very interesting anyway, but I need to leave it on to download manga and anime,which takes time. Since my house is not a totally conducive environment for studying my plan is to go to the library and to study.

This past month I've been reading Agatha Christie. A good writer of murder stories, although sometimes I detect a similiarity in her stories. I particularly like her short stories. I've read The Harlequin Tea Set and The Labors of Hercules. Right now I'm going through Murder in the Mews. I don't know why, but some of the best stories I've read are of the science-fiction type. Back in Form Four I learned to love short sci-fiction stories by renowed authors like Eric Frank Russell, James Schmitz, Andre Norton and many more. But now that I've read through most of their works there's not much interesting sci-fiction to read anymore.

A really good read is the tales of fictitious China by Barry Hughart. The main characters are not flawless - Li Kao, the old and wise private investigator, introduces himself as "My name is Kao, my surname Li, and I have a flaw". Number Ten Ox, his helper, is stereotyped - brawny, with not much brains. But the books are interesting, with a slight tinge of the creepy and mysterious. In one book both of them killed a henchman called Snake, and then to get rid of the evidence they brought his corpse to the kitchen and made a ten-course dinner out of him. The description of the cooking is funny - "Shall we do his brains in the traditional turnip sauce, or would you prefer oyster broth?" A good read.

Crap. Been emo-ing this past week. Mom is not satisfied with my semester results. I've been lectured non-stop for the past 5 days. Not to mention that she'll start calling all her cronies then come back to me saying so-and-so's daughter/son/nephew/cousin got very good results, went to a ultra-good uni, why can't you do the same because they can, how are you going to go to uni like this, SAM March intake is hard so why are you not studying hard blah blah blah. Sometimes I get so angry that I can't move and my brain freezes up. Of course it's all my fault - everything is. I've been blamed for every single thing that breaks in the house, everything that happens. Sometimes I feel like letting it all out and cry and scream at the world. But like everyone else I keep it in. Waiting for the day when my time will come. When I can just be myself - and nobody can anything about it.

2007-08-16T18:04:00.001+08:00

with my group members

/end tutorial

zomg my results reached my house today. Jia Yi also got hers as well, and then she called me.

JY: OMG the results arrived!!!! Did yours came????
Reg: Duh. My house is just 1km away from yours.
JY: No!!!! Intercept it! Hide it!
Reg: *lol*

My dad was really understanding... he always is anyway. He didn't mind my not-so-good results considering that I did better than average this time. I doubt my mom would be so forgiving. I mean, last sem she saw the C on my report and blew her top. Now with 2 Cs, what will she say??

The Statistics project is really bad. Even with three brains and one no-brainer working on it we can't get the answers to the questions. Even our much-vaunted RM460 GCs are useless without our knowledge.

Mr Woon waltzed into class today, proclaiming that we would do something fun. That 'something fun' turned out to be today's lesson, Bezier curves. The equation for it is ridiculously long. Thank god we won't have to prove it. Just writing out the unsimplified equation can take up 1/8 of a page. Well anyway at least now we can draw 'ears' on our calculators :P

Mr Woon-alicious (and his trademark mole!)

2007-08-15T17:29:00.000+08:00

I hereby crown Statistics as the worse paper I ever sat for. How could I forgot everything I just learned 3 hours ago????

Really bad presentation. Forgot to study for it until like 10 minutes before it started. Add that, plus a cold room and you get one nervous girl who stutters and can't speak.

Me and Yi Mun before the presentation

2007-08-13T16:52:00.000+08:00

Yes!

I didn't fail Sem2!!! *Kisses the ground*

Tutorial is on today. My group is not due until Wed/Thurs. The girls look so cute in their formal wear! >.< and the guys look hot!

2007-08-12T14:03:00.001+08:00

Sunday.
A cool day, with wind blowing through.
My mathematics, left abandoned on the table, whilst I dream the time away.
The piano, desolate, without its' player.
The mysterious strains of a song going through my mind.

I dream
of my love
and my hopes
my dreams
Lost in a world
beyond this world

Somehow I feel too lazy to do my work today. Time seems to move slowly, and Monday seems far, far away. I can't concentrate. I feel languid. I feel as though I'm here and yet not here.

I think of the future. It seems so distant, so far away. Who knows what will happen in the future? I feel uncertain. All my life, I have always known what I will do. Enter primary school. Continue to secondary. Enter Taylor's/Sunway. Now my life's paths are open for me to choose. Which university? What do I want to become? What do I want to achieve? What will become of me in the future?

After thinking back (and thinking of the Aussie unis' entry requirements) I feel so useless. How do I achieve a TER of 85? Or 90? My grades are not outstanding, nor even good. All that I've achieved are not because of my hardworking skills, but do to my mother's constant nagging. Sometimes I feel so sad to be called 'smart' and 'hardworking', when I am neither. It hurts to be called 'responsible', when in truth I'm not. Many people call me mature. In a way, I feel so sad hearing this. I just want to be a child again, to count on others. I don't think I was ever fully a child. Even as a small girl I would be the one protecting others, helping them. As a PTS student I lost a part of my childhood. Instead of slowing growing up I had to grow fast, learn fast, in order to catch up with my older classmates. Just because I passed a stupid paper in Standard 3 makes people think that I am a bright student, and so I had to work hard to fulfill their expectations.

But I have friends that support me. The people who changed my life, influenced me. Helena, my dear cousin, my confidante. Vivian, a friend who understands. Steph, who cheers me up. The guys, who make me laugh with their jokes. My host family, who were kind enough to host me despite it being last-minute. The friends I made in Spain, who helped me over language difficulties and my ignorance. My classmates, who are more caring than imagined.

Perhaps I shouldn't be scared of the future. Shouldn't be too scared that I will fall. Because somehow, there will be people helping me to get back up. Thank you all, for everything.

2007-08-10T23:05:00.000+08:00

My life is so packed. This week there was the Moral presentations by E4 and E5. Then the Creative Writing exam for English. Then it was the deadline for the Moral project to be handed up. Haiz. And then next week there's the English tutorial and more exams. Life as a SAM student is very hard, more so if you're in the March Intake. After several days of reminding our Spec Maths lecturer that we have 4 bloody weeks left to cover the last 5 chapters he finally realised the seriousness of the situation. I don't think we have the time now to finish the chapters and REVISE for trials.

So we have MYOB Accounting exam today. The class was in jitters over how to key in certain entries for Depreciation and Amortisation. The test started at 2.15pm, and we had until 4pm to finish the test. Due to my desperation-for-movies-syndrome I kept telling myself "Reg, you must finish fast. You must finish before 3.30pm so that you can catch the bus to Pyramid". So came about my fastest record for doing MYOB Accounting: 1 HOUR. Finished at 3.15pm, printed my work and high-tailed out of there way before any of my classmates even finished. Bay was going to watch Rush Hour 3 at 3.20 pm, but somehow because of certain factors *ahemtingyuahemtgvahem* me and Kein Yip didn't watch the movie. So we decided to watch Die Hard 4.0, but sadly the only screening was at 11.25pm. In the end watched The Invisible. I think by the end of it I wanted the movie to be invisible as well. Americans just destroy any movies they remade. Just look at The Ring. Anyway I bet the original Swedish version of The Invisible was way better. Europeans make very sad, touching movies on life. I remember watching L'enfants, a French movie on a flight once and I cried. It was about a boy and a girl who when small kept challenging each other until they grew up. They were best friends and yet rivals. It wasn't until they were married to other people that they realised they love each other.

Today in Moral class E5 showed their movie. Kenny, congratulations on the good editing you did. It was a very good movie for an amateur :P I will forever remember Gerard and Lim as the gay couple, playing hide-and-seek and dancing around trees. And the part where they were doing *something* behind the wall. OMG, it was more gay than my class' presentation. You have to watch it to really understand what I said. And then you will laugh like I did :D

2007-08-08T17:44:00.000+08:00

Changed my layout. The last one had too much green in it, and I was bored by the layout anyway. Also changed the picture at the top, as the old picture was just so not me anymore.
Anyway to cut it short this blog has been changed to reflect the new me, different from the me that started this blog 4 months ago. Not that I changed a lot anyway...

Most of my mid-year marks are out, and while the marks are not too good it's what I expected anyway. I'm just waiting for my Specialist Math marks and English marks now. I'm definitely not telling my mother any of this marks until the day I have to. Jia Yi predicts that when the 2nd semester marks arrive at my house there would be another tombstone in this blog :D

Taylor's Placement day is this Saturday. I looking forward to it. Reps from many Aussie Unis will be there, and my mom has been bugging me to send in my apps. At least she no longer harbour dreams for me to enter Cambridge, Oxford, or Melbourne. As for me, with my bad results, I just hope a good uni will accept me. I don't wanna be a road sweeper!

Also on this Saturday is the Merdeka Treasure Hunt. Entry is RM60 for a team of 2. Apparently the contestants will be going around Subang and KL. Public transportation only, and money will be given for that. I do so hope to enter for fun, but who would be my partner??? RM30 is a lot of money, and many people are just too lazy to step out of their house to join in. Besides, trials are coming soon, no matter how hard I try to forget. Taylor's is already entering the exam season.

Moral presentation tomorrow, MYOB test Friday, Math mini-project Monday (we're supposed to monitor garbage =.="), Math Common Test Wednesday, LAN finals Thursday. Lean See's asking for help in Statistics, which is totally useless as my knowledge of statistics is very bad. I just keep misinterpreting the damn questions. Oh well...

2007-08-05T20:14:00.000+08:00

My house don't have cable TV (Astro) so I rarely watch TV nowadays. However yesterday I took time to watch Turn Left, Turn Right, a Chinese movie starring the hot Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung. It was a story of 2 students who once met 13 years ago. They met again in the present and exchanged phone numbers. However, both got stuck in the rain and the numbers were washed out. Since they don't have the numbers anymore they waited patiently for the other to call, not knowing that they just live NEXT DOOR to each other. Throw in one crazy takeaway girl from the local fast-food store and a maniac doctor and you have a comedy yet sad love story.

I have the typical problem experienced by teenagers-in-love worldwide: I'm too scared to confess. So my mind's been in limbo for months now, over the should-I-should-I-not question. I even repeat to myself everyday reasons why I should not confess during the time I was depressed. However now I'm not depressed anymore, yet not fully normal yet. I'm still waiting for this crush to fade out of my mind.

My mid-year and semester 1 1/2 marks are still coming in. It's worse than last semester's marks. If my mom had freaked out over last semester's mark, she would go totally crazy over this. I'm never gonna have any peace for the next 3 months =(

Moral exam 3 on Wednesday, Moral presentation Thursday, Accounting exam Friday. Stupid MYOB aka Accounting software. Looks easy but is complicated. One mistake and can fail already. You either know how to use it; or you don't. But I feel really, really happy to help my classmates with their input. At least I can do something useful and beneficial. And they wont fail this exam. I hope. We need this marks!!!!

2007-08-03T20:58:00.000+08:00

Almost forgot it is already AUGUST... 3 months to the SAM exam, 2 months to trial, 1 month to Hari Merdeka and my birthday. Oh yeah. my calender is totally packed :(

Yesterday we my class entered the lecture theater for Moral we saw... A CONDOM BOX. First thing that came into our minds was... WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING WITH CONDOMS??? Hello, you just don't simply see condom boxes lying around, especially not in school/college... Then my loco classmates play with it lah. One of my classmates told me that the condoms are the Glow-In-The-Dark variety... based on the picture of the Halloween pumpkin on the box. Sheesh. It wasn't until later Kein Yip told me it was for an AIDS presentation...

Today my LAN teacher went off happily to Penang. Taylors organised a staff trip to Penang. Sadly none of my teachers went. When Mrs Soh, our Econs teacher came in, I asked "Teacher teacher, why never go to Penang?"

Mrs Soh: I'm from Penang. I don't have to go there, I can become their tour guide already.

Later Lean See told me, "Wah teacher's english so good one. Somemore come from Penang..." Then Jia Yi said "Hahah if not sure she cannot find job d mah!"

Since dear Sharifah our LAN teacher didn't come our class practised for next week's sketch. E3 did some sketch on bullying already, E5 is preparing their movie. And so E4, with all its crazy and perverted students decided to do...

SEPET meets BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

Well, to tell the truth, we decided to do Sepet. But when we started casting, we ended up casting 2 GUYS as Jason the vcd peddler and Orked the Malay girl/guy. I cant wait to see Sharifah's face when we present it!! ^.^

Extra Accounts class today for MYOB. I wanted to skip, but then the teacher sure will notice I'm missing. So in the end, resigned to my fate, I went for it. 2-4pm in the computer lab, typing furiously into the computer. Finished in one hour. Then taught the girl sitting next to me how to key in her data. Haiz. If I know I could finish the stupid accounts in one hour I would have been able to run off and watch movie. Sadly I was too late. Bloody. And tomorrow still got extra Accounts class, but this time we jump to Bank Recon and continue MYOB later. Gah! Annoying annoying annoying....

2007-08-02T22:53:00.000+08:00

We learned something new in English today: Journal for Creative Writing. For the CW component journal is another way of being 'creative'. Sadly, I'm not a creative person. The narrative I wrote on a gangster for CW totally sucks. The teacher commented that it sounded like I plagiarized it from 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' series. Thing is, I don't even read Chicken Soup!

So for our class work Pn Zaidah, our English teacher had us listen to Black-Eyed Peas' Where is the Love? since she was already bored of our last class works (watching Bend It Like Beckham, reading Samphire and Lamb To The Slaughter and the songs Luca by Suzanne and 18 & Life by Skid Row). After listening to the music and seeing the music video of it she told us to write a journal based on the song's message.

I based my journal on 'war'. And then I decided to take on the persona of a...7 year old kid.

So for the last hour of my college day I was thinking like a 7 year old. So much that I acted like a childish, annoying girl until I snapped out of it. Phew...

7 strange facts/habits about me

2007-08-01T17:47:00.000+08:00

Tagged by Paul from UGS.

1. Easily bored. When watching movies I tend to look at my watch (not once, not twice, but at least five times) to see when the movie is going to end. And when I read books I usually start at the beginning, and jump to the back.

2. Impatient. I get extremely impatient all the time. Unless I'm in a good mood.

3. My face don't reflect my feelings? Once when I was sad my classmate thought I was angry. And when I was depressed the same classmate thought I was sad. Is my face really that bad???!!!

4. Lost my marbles. I'm a little weird in some ways. Like telling un-understandable jokes and laughing at not-so-funny things. And doing weird things.

5. Live in my own world. Half the time half of my brain is wandering around. Like the time I sat for my mid-year. After one and a half hour I realised I didn't know what I was doing. And there's only 1/2 hour left to finish the paper!!

6. Psycho-analyst. I like to analyse things. Dissect them into facts and them rebuild them into hypotheses, which I then test out. That's why I'm so curious about things. I have this great hunger to know everything and anything. Well, except for things that do not interest me. So far one of my hypotheseses worked - how to gain power and popularity.

7. I want to be a girl? Sounds weird, but true. Right now I'm a tomboy, not a real girl. Too rough to be one. I want to be the helpless one, the pretty one. Not someone that runs herself ragged taking care of others. I need time-out! Or better, a boyfriend.

2007-07-31T16:57:00.000+08:00

PROFIT!!

Yay! Our stall was a success!

We earned 1.7k, which exceeded our expectations (we thought we could only get 1k).

We had lecturers from SAM, ICPU and the LAN. Too bad Mr Karamjeet from CAL didn't come; if not we could make another hundred :( Mr Krieshler from Student Services also sat at our machine... and then all the staff came and tried dunking him :) Damn he's popular... so popular that we probably made rm100+++ from him :D Mr Munin our mentor also attracted the students... haha you could see the cameras clicking and students lining up. Since it was for charity I paid rm10 to dunk my Spec Maths lecturer, Mr Woon. Haha dunked him once...now just pray he don't sabotage my exam results :P

Students also sat on the machine... some students put their friends on and then dunk them... one girl wearing skirt got dunked...and then her skirt flew up! o.O In between the lecturers my classmates sat on the machine... 4 guys, 5 girls. I also sat... the moment I got up... my class lined up! They're willing to pay money to see me dunked lol. In the end kena dunked 5 times!!! Soaking wet when I got out...drip drip drip

But it was so fun! Hahaa and it did give my classmates a chance to dunk me :P

PS: Today I sat with Ee Wei and Ee Ann in the library. I have known Ee Ann for a few years and I know Ee Wei by name. I always thought that Ee Wei was the quiet type, studious and so on...you know lah. Then today as I was talking to her... And then she told me I said something bad about someone! *gasp* I seriously don't remember, but apparently it took place in 5E when I was talking to Wei Vern...and the worst thing is I don't remember saying it and that 'someone' was from 5E!!!! OMG!!!! Ee Wei is so cruel! Behind her innocent silent outside she is evil inside! I was so mortified and yet I couldn't help laughing...OMG THIS IS SO SICK!

2007-07-30T17:28:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow is the SAM Charity Carnival. Charity Nite was last Friday in MPH, and tomorrow the charity drive will end with the Carnival. My mentor has pushed our class to do the dunking machine - if not we lazy class would not do anything :) Anyway I dunno what the other March SAM classes are doing, perhaps nothing. After all, we just finished our Mid year last week, who of us actually have the time to plan a stall?

Last Friday after the Accounting paper our class had a meeting, where the teacher practically twisted our arms to get us to plan the stall. So me, Azfar and Lean See was supposed to find lecturers to sit on our dunking machine. After one hour and a half of running around me bumped into Mr Munin (our mentor) and he told us our dunking machine is....GONE! OMG! We actually booked St John's school dunking machines, but celaka they rent to someone else d >(

But by Monday (today) Vern Ming managed to get another machine, PLUS arrange transport. It touched my heart to know my class can be efficient *sob*. So today the machine arrived, and they guys set it up. Meanwhile with the stall back on me, Azfar and Lean See ran around finding lecturers, and confirming attendance. We even had to go to the main office to ask the programme directors! Anyway, today everything is settled, from banners to flyers and lecturers and the machine. Woot! Cheers to E4 for making this happen in 4 days!

So anyway we have around 15 lecturers and admin from Taylors for our dunking machine. From SAM, we have Mr John, Mr Yap, Mr Yap no2, My Kevin, Mr Woon, Mr Yong, Mr Munin. From ICPU, only Mr St Germain (he's hot!). CAL, we have Mr Karamjit. Pn Norah from LAN agreed, and we also have Mrs Hoe and Mrs Chong from the SAM office, Mrs Mary Ng from the CAL office, Mr Thou and Mr Krisler from Student Services. This promises to be FUN!!! I also wanted to ask Dr Shantha, unfortunately, she's always not in the staff room whenever I pop in :(

Our stall is next to the guardhouse, you can't miss it (unless you're blind -_-"). So come to our stall nya~! Satisfaction guaranteed! Oh and of course you can dunk any student from E4, and you can drag your friends to sit on our machine also!

2007-07-27T21:24:00.000+08:00

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF 27th JULY 2007:

1. End of the March Intake Mid-year. Prepare for the next (or the next next) week's unveiling of the results.
2. Watched The Simpsons Movie. Typical Simpsons show; funny and silly. Perfect way to end a crazy week.
3. First time I bought popcorn in 4 years! hehe
4. Another time when we can see Metrobus show its erratic-ness.
5. Wore green again! my favourite~
6. Stupid Charity stall. Not that I mind doing it, but when everything goes wrong... *
7. A quiet night on the internet perusing manga and anime without anyone scolding me. Oh the joy~

2007-07-26T11:49:00.000+08:00

AHAHAHAHAHA
Second last day of the mid-years.
I've completed the 'devil paper', Specialist Maths. I have no comments at all about it.
Right now I'm happily laughing at the Legal and Bio students who are taking their papers (Psych and SM is on the first exam period, Legal and Bio second).

I've really run out of things to blog about. I'm sure my exam life is not very interesting at all to the readers, much less to me. So forgive me if I just go on and on in this post. (warning: there'll be many pictures!)

I'm used to travelling. I'm not air-sick (unlike mom) and land-sick (like Wei Vern) although I do get dizzy on a boat. Travelling can be quite fun, especially if you don't worry much about it and get past the packing stage :)

For the first time in my whole sheltered life, I actually travelled alone. Okay, not exactly alone, but without my parents (or relatives). It was quite fun, actually (although my mom made it sound like I was leaving forever or something). If you haven't tried travelling with a group of people your age, you should. It's much more fun and relaxed (no nagging parents!) and less stressful.

So I left on 9 Dec 2006 (just a few days after SPM!) to another country. The group I was in had 3 guys and 6 other girls. We just got to know each other one day before, although I had been chatting to Hansen (one of the guys) for the past month.

While waiting for our flight to Singapore the others whipped out their dictionaries and phrasebooks. And then we began our No.1 lesson in learning a foreign language: learning swear words ("Look! Look! Here is how to say *sonofabitch*!" "OMG! There's a whole page of swear words in here!" "Hey, lemme see!")

After a 3-hour transit in Spore we went on to the second flight, this time to CDG, Paris, France. Oh yes, a loooong 13-hour flight sitting in a cramped space.... We landed at Charles de Gaulle at 6am French time. There we experienced our first misfortune - we missed our next flight due to unforeseeable circumstances. After many phone calls and arguments with Air France representatives it was decided we would remain in Paris until Tuesday (it was Sunday). So we spent our one day there exploring Paris by foot and metro.

How did the musical notes appear???Eye of the World Wheel and the Egyptian ObeliskThe Louvre

It was winter in Paris. No snow as yet, but the temperature was around 5 degrees. It didn't deter us from seeing the sights, though :P

On Tuesday we made our way to Madrid, Spain. Marcel met us at the airport and brought us to the AFS Intercultura office. We were given a briefing (due to the fact that we missed the orientation 2 days ago). The guys (Kumar and Hansen; Prem was already in Zafra) were then collected by their host parents, as their foster homes were in Madrid. The rest of us were to leave the next day to the further areas of Spain. We had our first taste of Spanish food that night - tapas and tortillas.

The next day Denise and Yen Ying left on the bus to Oviedo, a town near the Atlantic Sea. Phui Yi took the bus to the north too, but to Basque country. Me, Alithea and Yi Peng took the train to the east and Bella took the fast train to Sevilla, in the south. It was a five hour journey to the east coast of Spain. Yi Peng got off the train halfway, as she was to live in Zaragoza, a windy town 300 miles from Barcelona. Me and Alithea continued on to the last stop, Barcelona Sants. Alithea went with her host mother, a English professor, to the village of Santa Margharita; my host mom, Silmara, took me to the town of Segur de Calafell.

2007-07-24T17:45:00.000+08:00

MwAHAHAHAHAHAH

2 papers down. 3 more to go! Continue the hard work!

2007-07-22T17:46:00.000+08:00

*sigh..............*
Exam in less than 2 days... I still go online... seriously I have no sense of what's right or wrong. Spec Math guarantee fail already, English and Maths if can get A I am lucky, Accounts if never get A can go kill myself, Economics... if don't get C... (fill in the blank).

Ish get back my Economics Common Test 3 paper, I feel so sad... I just ngam ngam pass... got 10/20, or 50%. Like that sure my end-year marks kantoi already. And just when my mom said if i do well for my mid-year she will give me a present... there goes the present out of the window. Considered lucky if I don't get grounded and retain the rights to watch TV and go online.

Tuesday is Math and English...oklah not too bad... at least 2 medium papers together, not 2 super-hard papers.... Wednesday Economics... one of the cruelest Arts paper around... Thursday... the devil paper, Friday... relax :)...
Economics... very confusing... 2 hours to write an essay, do 3 short-answer questions (SAQ), 25 multiple choice questions (MCQ) and 2 extended response questions... When you sit for the paper... you have NO TIME to think... just write and write until your hand drop off. If you stop writing/go to sleep/go to toilet/smile at the teacher... you are either super-smart, cool, or just plain crazy.

Anyway... good luck to all SAM March Intake 2007 students... Let's try our best to be the best... Let's beat all those SAM January students...heheheh...

2007-07-21T00:43:00.000+08:00

A FRIEND - Charles Hanson Towne
Around the corner I have a friend,

In this great city that has no end;

Yet days go by, and weeks rush on,

And before I know it a year is gone,

And I never see my old friend's face,

For life is a swift and terrible race.

He knows I like him just as well

As in the days when I rang his bell

And he rang mine. We were younger then,

And now we are busy, tired men:

Tired with playing a foolish game,

Tired with trying to make a name.

"Tomorrow," I say, "I will call on Jim,

Just to show I am thinking of him."

But tomorrow comes - and tomorrow goes,

And the distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner! - yet miles away . .

"Here's the telegram, Sir. . .

'Jim died today'."

And that's what we get, and deserve in the end:

Around the corner, a vanished friend.

The poem is touching... Yes, it is one of those poems that circulate around the internet and spam our mailboxes. But this poem so clearly reflects our relationship with our friends. As children we have lots of friends that we spend a large amount of time with. Yet, as we grow up, and become more busy with school and work we tend to ignore them. How many times have we said "later" or "next time"?? Time waits for no man. Nothing can replace the friends you have. In fact, we should not be anti-social. If you see someone who's not close to you, or you barely know the person, take the time to say hi, or wave your hand. It makes a difference.

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND UNTO HIMSELF.
How true is that! Communication is one of the most important skills one must have to survive. Humans learn to communicate in order to defend themselves, to find food, to perpetuate their lineage. That is why we usually try to conform to society rules. To ignore the rules of society is to invite ostracization. Humans take comfort in being with others. Wouldn't it be too lonely and terrifying to face the world alone? As a child, we have our parents to support us. As adults we have our friends, and later our partner. As old people we have our children. Being with friends helps to create warmth and laughter. Being alone is to invite sadness, depression and melancholy. That is why friends and family should be treasured. A small gesture, a smile is enough to brighten everyone's day.

The next time you see your best friend, think of how life would be without him/her. Then think of all the things that he/she does that makes them your best friend and confidante. Then treasure every moment with them, for time thrown away cannot be gained back.

2007-07-19T17:26:00.000+08:00

Nothing much to say. Been a long boring week.

Economics research to be handed in tomorrow. Hopefully Kah Loon and me can finish it in time >.<

Exam countdown begins NOW. Four and a half days left to my extremely important mid-year. This could make or break my social life until I sit for the SACE T.T

I never realized until I entered college how busy secondary school was. In secondary school, we students could do as many as 10 subjects at once, with the result that we get stressed out when the exam season arrives. Now that I'm only taking 5 subjects, it's such a joy that I don't have to worry so much about being able to cram. However, since it's so important to achieve good grades for this coming mid-year, I find myself worrying more than I ever did for my previous exams. Not to mention that just doing homework takes up alot of my time that I only have weekends to study...which I don't since weekends are my lazy period xP

Ah...feeling sleepy all the time now. Lack of sleep is one of my major problems. Getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night is not enough for me... I end up moving about like a zombie in the morning. At least I don't snap at people anymore and have lost the cranky mood... Recently I even feel dizzy in school....ouch. I'll be glad once my SACE is over and I can finally sleep in peace...zzz

2007-07-15T15:32:00.001+08:00

Watched Harry Potter 5 on Friday, with Hon Fu, Bryan and Simon. I must say, the THX cinema really rocks. Big screen, nice sound effects... Unfortunately the movie was boring. I yawned when the movie ended. Even without reading the book I knew that plenty of scenes had been cut out. The movie seems to be missing scenes, as one scene just jumped to another without any connection >.<

Went back to school on Saturday, for the Library AGM. Meet alot of old friends there. Their reaction were...funny, to say the least.
Jen Chong's reaction

Roshni's reaction

It was just so hilarious xP. Jen Chong thought I changed alot. Roshni wanted some 'advice'. xP

Meet so many old schoolmates there; Susan, Bryan, Hon Fu, Jen Chong... old seniors; James, Jia Ying, Jia Xing... juniors; Roshni, Carmen, Adrian & Adriel, Shin Ying... teachers; Pn Loh, Pn Tan, Pn Chow... and the Library Angels; Mrs Wong. It was so nostalgic. How I miss school and all my friends there!

Edit: WTH, my pictures disappeared. Reupload again...
Edit2: Due to some *ahem* misunderstanding, I've reuploaded the BRAND NEW COLOR pictures...

2007-07-13T14:06:00.000+08:00

HORMONS MESSING WITH MY BRAIN

2007-07-12T17:39:00.000+08:00

So STRESSED today.

Last night I didn't have much sleep, due to the fact that today I have to hand up my English project. Managed to finish it on time, but lacked sleep. I'm surprised I actually lasted the whole day without falling asleep in class.

Since the mid-year is in 1 1/2 weeks, the teachers are all asking us to do revision. How could we do revision with all the projects we have to do? First there was the English project (now complete), and tomorrow we're starting a one week Economics research paper. Anyway, the Math, Accounts and Econs lecturers all gave us the past mid-year papers. Thanks to that, I had to run all over college and to the photostat shops just to have all this things photostated so that we could study. Not to mention that I had to squeeze my classmates for money, as the money in the class fund is too little to support all this photostating. They complain so much!!! When I am doing all the running and the carrying!!! Today's bill came up to RM 150! Now the class owes me money - again.

The English teacher had me collect all the projects today. I was just supposed to wait til 3.30pm, after which I could go home... but 2 of my cmates had went back to finish their projects, and DIDN'T COME BACK TO HAND IT UP!!! Finally they handed it up at 4.15pm.... after making me WAIT for one hour!!! Argh I'm so stressed now...

This past few days have been very hectic. I had to study for my Economics test, which I'm sure I've now flunked, and then later complete my project, ALL IN THE SAME WEEK. Not to mention revising for the mid year. And then came that Spec Math shocker. This stress made me EMO... I'm starting to have mood swings again... plus I'm trying to forget someone...and my mom keep pressuring me... I just feel so tired... one moment happy, and then suddenly one moment sad...I need to have an outlet to release all this stress...too bad my best friend sit in Inti... lucky for her, or else she's gonna be so fed-up with me...WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME???

I have to go out this Friday. Or else I'd just fall straight into DEPRESSION.

2007-07-11T16:52:00.000+08:00

Feeling EMO today.
Actually, it's more like DEPRESSION.

The No.1 cause of my depression: I failed my Spec Math Common Test 3 paper.
If I don't get an A or a B for the mid-year, I'm so doomed T.T

In times of EMO-ness I tend to reflect on my past. Yesterday, Bryan put up a prom nite class picture on his blog. Because of that, I started to think about my school life in the past.

I remember being a small girl in primary school. I remember excelling in my studies, having lots of friends. I remember playing tag and chase and masak-masak with my classmates. I remember making friends with the school's rabbits and feeding them half of my food. I still remember spending the evenings (Std 1 and 3) playing hopscotch.

I remember hating Std 3. Having gotten good grades I managed to become a PTS candidate. I remember spending my holidays doing a whole pile of workbooks while crying and with my mother holding a cane behind me, making sure I study enough to pass the PTS. I remember getting my first confession (in the form of a card) from my classmate, also my competitor in math and in abacus. I remember the day I got my PTS results (pass).

And then came Std 5. Days of staying back in schools just so that I could catch up on my Std 4 work. Feeling tired all the time. Scolded because I flunked my Science, because I could not be first in class. Having to make new friends all over again.

Std 6 was hell. I was probably the class delinquent. I regularly flunked BM and Science while getting good Math scores. I never did my homework, and was tortured and humiliated for it by my class teacher in so many different ways. I remember the pressure to get straight A's in UPSR, "because you're a PTS student".

When I started secondary school I vowed to start over. I never want to repeat my sad days like in Std 6. I had to make new friends, as I was one of the few students in my primary school who came to Seafield. I remember fighting like cats-and-dogs with Sze Luan (and Devastry immortalised us in a poem :P). I remember blur days of reading books and more books.

In Form 2 I had an ambition. A very silly ambition; nonetheless it meant alot to me. I wanted to win a prize. Any prize. So I wrote and wrote and wrote in my Buku Nilam. It meant alot to me that I won the first prize that year. Nobody else may want it, nobody else cared, but it meant something to me who is always compared to her genius elder cousin brother (always have, always will). It was then I found that by trying, I could win prizes for various English related competitions. Just as long as I tried. That same year I made a vow: never to be too dependent on my friends. I had to tamp down my shyness, to do things on my own without my friends' support. And so I joined the school choir (then one of the unpopular clubs around) as the youngest and only junior, until Yvonne, Shahira, Melissa and the rest joined.

Form 3 and Form 4 passed by so fast. Form 3 was dedicated PMR year: I had to do well again because of the "you are a PTS student" shit. In Form 4 I was stuck in a class I never really liked. I found myself liking and pitying the teachers, who had to put up with the "noisiest class". This is the year I made new friends: Jen Chong and Ken Hon (while playing Maths Magic), and a whole lot of other students, especially the young librarians at the library. I remember the joy of being a crew member in the drama production, "A Daughter's Hero" and the experience gained from it.

Form 5 was a lonely year. I had never got on well with my class; my grades were shit; and I felt alienated. I mostly spent my time in the library, away from class. It wasn't the class I hated; it was the presence of a few classmates whom I could not tolerate. I spent recesses with Wei Vern, who was in 5E (I was in 5B). Recently I got to know from Wei Vern that my classmates (read: those annoying ones) thought I was some introverted girl. Haha. This was the same year I became anime and manga crazy. I also managed to learn some ballroom dances that year in school, which then fired my interest.

Being my last year, we Form Fivers had the MPT5 - our prom night. It could be summed in four words: boring, lonely and stupid. I just went because I paid for it and to watch my friends and schoolmates in their finery :P

Now I'm in college. I find myself thinking "what-ifs". What if I never skipped a grade? I could have been less stressed, less pressured. But then I'd never have met such great people like Wei Vern, Stephanie, Mei Kim, Susan, Ken Hon, Jen Chong, Kein Yip and all those people I owe my laughter and my memories to. They made my life brighter. I'd never might have done all the things I've done. On some days I thought of what life would've been if I had been more carefree, more friendly to my classmates and schoolmates. I regret having been in a shell all this time. Now I try to make friends, to know my ex-schoolmates better, to treasure my current classmates. I will try not to make the same mistakes again. Better late than never, and never regret anything; just look forward.

2007-07-09T17:22:00.000+08:00

Some random quiz. Post your score here! :P

2007-07-07T09:19:00.000+08:00

2007-07-04T18:09:00.000+08:00

Lazy to update.

So now I'm doing it.

1. Kinda studying for the mid-year (if you count doing hw as studying).
2. Trying to source for 29 YELLOW pocket files for the ESL project.
3. Trying to dig up at least rm50 from my classmates (they OWE me RM30!!! aRGH! stupid class fund always empty).
4. Making more friends amongst my ex-schoolmates.
5. Trying to budget.
6. Make myself study!!! (and do homework, and finish projects, and do more homework, and read my Econs...)
7. Trying to get my mom to agree to me taking driving lessons.
8. Get more sleep (omg, i sleep in class, my reputation also gone d... T.T)

2007-06-30T17:52:00.000+08:00

OK, so yesterday we celebrated Ken Hon's birthday. We were supposed to meet at Sunway Pyramid at 11.30am, but the others got there first (Ken Hon fetched them...=_="). They were still arguing over where to eat when we met up. I thought we were going to Secret Recipe, but then they had decided not to. Due to Birthday Boy's unwillingness to pick a place to eat, they keep on arguing until finally we just walked to KFC. When we passed Pizza Hut, I said "Hey want t eat here or not?" Problem settled. We went in for lunch.

Next up was pool/bowling. We had to go bowling, due to a snooker tournament going on. We played 2 games, with me winning the first and Ken Hon winning the second. Wei Vern and Kuan Leong were so surprised...

Then we went to Secret Recipe, where we stared at the cakes.

Ken Hon making a wish (looks like a small kid!!)

mmm...Mud cake

2007-06-30T09:26:00.001+08:00

If I had to rate all the movies I watched this year, then it would look like this:

5. Shrek 3 - This just wastes your money. Seriously. Well, unless you are an 8-year-old kid...
4. Fantastic Four 2 - Not quite too bad...
3. Pirates of the Carribean 3 - All hype and no plot. Only good thing is Jack Sparrow aka Johnny Depp.
2. Wild Hogs - Funny!
1. Transformers - Fast-paced action, rather good storyline, funny and interesting!!

Yes!!! Transformers came out on Thursday, and everybody was waiting to watch it, it seems. On Friday many of my cmates were discussing about watching it. Bay's group had 26 ppl (including yours truly) and I also saw some of my ex-classmates and their friends! Talk about the most popular non-sequel movie of the year!

AND it certainly lived up to it's hype.

I must admit, I miss seeing full-blown action on the screens. The last decent action movie I saw was Deja Vu last year, but it didn't have much action at all. And Transformers is FUNNY. In my book, funny is good. Very good.

So yesterday, my plot sprang into action. The whole week after that PTM debacle I was the good, studious girl who could do no wrong. Then yesterday (yes, yesterday) I called my mom from college asking for permission to go out (the less time given to her to think over it, the better). Of course my psychoanalysis worked and I got the permission!!! Then it was off to Pyramid for me!!!!

As usual, I was in Bay's group again. This time round though I saw alot more of my schoolmates ( Chun Hon, Logan and Wai Chien). And also I saw Bryan and Dham, waiting for the 5pm movie (I watched the 3.30pm one).

The movie ended at 6pm, after which I went home. Loh and I took the M99. It was one of those mini-buses that looked like it was in service 30 years ago. There was barely any seating space, much less standing room. Why is Metrobus so reliable (much more reliable than RapidKL) but the buses are so horrible?? Those buses look like they can break down at any time!!!!! Only thing good is that they get you to your destination (RKL just service some areas).

So now, for today's plan: celebrate Ken Hon's birthday!!!

If I can get out of the house, that is.

TRANSFORMERS!!!

2007-06-26T11:01:00.000+08:00

Dueling alien races, the Autobots and the Decepticons, bring their battle to Earth, leaving the future of humankind hanging in the balance.

JUNE 28!!! MUST WATCH!!!

2007-06-22T15:44:00.001+08:00

THIS IS WHAT I DID TODAY

WITH THIS GUY.

In case you didn't know, this is Kenny.
Yay! After like one month, I managed to play p**l again!!! LOL
Of course I didn't win. That credit all belongs to Kenny, who won EVERY single game. But I did manage to improve my shots :D So now at least I don't play like a n00b.

Got my results today. I soo gonna DIE. Please help to contribute to my tombstone fund. Thank you.

2007-06-21T17:05:00.000+08:00

I was on the bus today, going home, when a old lady came into the bus. She sat across the aisle from me. The bus-money collector came to collect our fare. Now, Metrobus charge us RM0.90 one way, and usually I'd pay in RM1 notes. When I gave my RM1 today, the bus collector asked "Ada sepuluh sen tak?" I shook my head. Then he turned to collect the fare from the old lady. He asked her the same question. She look at him bewildered. My sixth sense made me take my purse out and dig out 10 sens to give the bus collector. In return he gave me 20sens change and gave the old lady my 10sens. As he left, he said loudly (I could hear him over my mp4) "lu orang tua tak boleh dengar lagi."!!!! Whatever happened to 'respect the old"??? He was so rude to say that to the old lady! All I could do was to give an apologetic smile to the old lady. No wonder we Malaysians are so rude, if we can't even be courteous to old folks. We are spoiling the image of our country, what with some taxi drivers cheating foreigners and rude youngsters despoiling the nature. Change your attitudes!! This is Visit Malaysia Year 2007, not Rosak Image Malaysia Year 2007!!! No amount of advertising can help us if we negate the beautiful image of Malaysia that the government puts out. When I was in Spain, many of the people I know were very interested in Malaysia, even though they had never heard of the country before I told them about it. But it is a sad thing that behind the innocent picture they have in their mind there lurks a morass of garbage.

2007-06-20T17:56:00.000+08:00

No pictures today. I see that my Mandelbrot and Julia pictures have mysteriously disappeared...
Tomorrow I have no English and LAN. So I have...4 hours break. Kinda tiresome, actually. All I can do is to go online and study my Specialist Maths (exam @ 1200hours). I want to play pool but I can't. Ah, what a boring life~

Perhaps when I'm in the mood I will expound another one of my theories again. For now, it's hasta luego.