Sunburnt!!!

I got sunburnt!! :( very sad... after 2 days of trudging under the hot hot sun I got burnt... First day act like Monkey... was climbing up and down car carriers fixing some last minute accessories.... Fuiyoo... I am so proud of myself.. Those carriers are so precarious.... Can you imagine they dont even have a proper staircase to climb so basically I was just climbing up one of their pillars.. and some units were hanging at the end of the carriers and there was no bar or any sort of barrier to stop you from falling off... and because i was always looking downwards to do the installation, I got burnt on my forehead, nose and cheeks only... my chin was spared... so now look farnie... chin particularly fair... hhahaha!! I look like a cooked lobster... hopefully my freckles did not increase in size or else I need to claim medical compensation coz need cosmetic treatment... haha!!

Worst of all... all those guys (carrier driver, forwarding agents etc) just happily looked at me and one of my company's supplier do the job.. So un-gentlemanly!! Hmmph!!! Could not even volunteer to bring the vehicles down from the carrier so that I can have easier access... haai... sad sad...

I thought that was the end of it.. see see next day went to MTB, endured it again... haai.... all these urgent matters always puts me in such scenarios... and MTB is one place where the sun always shines....and shines... and shines... there are no clouds whatsoever.... God knows why...so once again I had to endure the scorching heat of the sun in Pekan... came back to the office looking like an over-cooked lobster this time.. haha!!! so now still a bit red.. some skin is peeling off..

Only thing that is good is that my skin burn instead of getting tanned... if I easily tanned, I would be black by now....

Tickled my funny bone....

Something real funny happened yesterday... At least it was funny to me la... My colleagues thought I was nuts for laughing so much... So here is what happened..

I was on my normal trip to MTB as I always do... so we carried in this box of parts which we were suppose to bring to DHAS. Unfortunately, since we brought it into MTB premises, to take it out again we needed a MTB DO which we could not get... so we decided too smuggle it out in our vehicle that we drove...

My colleague, Marwan decided to place the box under his leg at the front passenger seat but when the box went in, it took up the entire space aand he has to sit cross legged... So we were thinking how to hide the box from being seen...

Chandran started driving towards the guardhouse, then everyone was thinking "Quick Quick... how to hide?" Then we told him to pretend he is reading the newspaper... He grabbed Chandran's newspapers and flipped it open to read... Now here comes the hilarious part...

My colleague is Malay, and the newspapers is in Tamil... hahah!!! I was rolling about the back seat laughing and Shee was saying I was nuts... but to me the scenario was really really hilarious... hahah!!! imagine... Marwan sitting cross legged in the front seat over a box while looking as if he was engrossed reading a Tamil newspaper... could even say, "oh, this movie looks interesting. Chandran have you seen it?" hahaha!!! I was really utterly tickled by the whole scene... Even thinking bout it now makes me laugh... :D

Just thought I would post this story up.... farnie... :D

Movie Update....

It has been a super long time since I have caught a movie... I think the last time I caught a movie was about 3 weeks ago.... or so... haha!! yup... you are probably rolling your eyes at the 3 weeks... Hey!! 3 weeks is long for me... I usually catch a movie every single week. So it has been like a movie draught.... had so many movies i wanted to catch... Shrek 3, Fantastic 4, 200 pound beauty, ocean's 13 etc.....

So finally yesterday I managed to catch 2 movies back to back.. would have caught 3 if the movie timing was right.... but oh well.. 2 is better than 1... haha!!

Didnt bother watching Shrek after all coz everyone I know who watched it said it wasnt worth the effort, money or time... Ooops... might have insulted some ppl...

Anyway... So what did I watch? First up, 200 Pound Beauty....

The gist of the storyline was actually ugly fat but talented(voice over) girl falls in love with handsome music producer, got her heart broken, nearly killed herself, then decided to go for a total full body plastic surgery, came out looking hot!! Then crosses path with the same music producer again this time as a talented and beautiful girl, gets signed on as a singer... somewhere down the road, guy falls for her.. then realized she is the fat ugly girl, is repulsed... broke her heart again... she confesses to the world she is a fake (her marketing gimmick is that she is all natural), shocks everyone.. told her sob story, everyone symphatizes then everyone forgives her... becomes extremely popular... guy falls in love with her all over again for the right reasons this time...

How I rate this movie..... hmm.... 3 stars or maybe throw in another half coz i cried at the end when she confessed...

Not too bad a movie to watch..quite entertaining at times... goes to show that in this world we live in, everyone is judged at face value first... Storyline is quite a well-used theme... just with a different concept... but at the end of it all.. the good always wins at the end... :) One thing I do appreciate is that they did not portray plastic surgery to be the answer to all woes... at the end of the day, there is only that much plastic surgery can do... you still need to exercise to get where you want to be... it still does take effort... albeit less with the aid of plastic surgery... It has a touching ending and a few endearing moments.... If you are looking for a movie you will enjoy yourself watching, this should be it...

Second round... Ocean's 13....

Story line? As its poster says... It is all about revenge... One of their partners got conned by this big hotel/casino mogul which ended up giving him a heart attack and got everyone else angry and so they decided to avenge him... So basically they managed to find out everything and anything about how the hotel and casino runs... how to rig everything so that Bank (the hotel/owner name) will loose a huge sum of money....running into the hundreds of millions...

How I rate this movie? about a 3 and half stars as well I think...

It is an interesting show... I think the tactics used in this one is a bit more interesting than the ones in Ocean's 12... but that is my opinion.. It is great how as friends they all come together, pooled their own money just to seek revenge for a good friend... plus they did all that without actually having any financial gains except for the diamond necklaces.. (well they do need some compensation right?)... and they made some really lucky bystanders instant millionaires... :D The hotel itself was a fantastic infrastructure... wonder whether it really exist? Anyone knows? Not forgetting there is also George Clooney and Brad Pitt to drool over...

Overall an OK show to watch.... not too bad... but me being me, it would be diffficult for me to find a movie which I was fully 100% recommend... watched too many movies... makes everything seem so so only unless it really was a damn good movie...

YAAAY!!! It is healthy back again

yaay!! yaay!!! hehe!!! me heppi already....
Thank you Ming!!!
Thanks for helping me find the bug and squashing it!! haha!!!
Finally the blog looks decent... now aint that dandy... :D

HELP!!! My blog is sick...

Hey..... anyone out there knows how to fix this bug in my blog?

Everything I type ends up as one whole paragraph.. God knows why... I spaced everything.. and yet it is still in one paragraph... and if you noticed, isnt the blog senget to the left? there is like a whole stripe of wasted space to the right... dunno how to fix it..

One day it was okay and the next it wasnt... It is like my blog knew I was having an unlucky day so it decided to add on to it... so sad... now ppl wont read my blog coz it is so difficult to read... :(
Not that I got many readers la... not many ppl know... haha!! But still...!!! I want my blog to look nice back!! So please help!!! :((((

Wasted Efforts?

I wonder... is my efforts wasted if for most of the time I try to be nice... treat ppl fairly... be friendly to all.... keep a sunny disposition.... try and help them as best as I can and when the one time (maybe second time)... that I actually botch up...not without their fault but I do take responsibility over my own actions aka my temper (see the last 2 blogs to know).... then they backstab me as if I am the wicked witch of the west.... I find that just so disconcerting.... it just seems that ppl are blind to all that is good and only take note of the bad...

What kind of society are we living in?!! It is just mean, cruel and plain not nice!!!!

I got angry... but the reason I got angry was because something was not arranged properly as it should have been... and because it involves another party, I wanted to keep it as low key as possible but being that nothing was actually arranged nothing could be done... worst of all, none could tell me why the arrangements had to be switch at the last minute (without proper arrangements, I might add again)..... so I called and shouted... Yeah... and that is the only thing everyone remembers... Ai Chin shouted.... not that they didnt arrange it properly... not that the ppl who was suppose to handle the issue didnt know anything at all... not because no one could explain to me why the arrangements was switch or not done at all... none of those at all... just plain and simple.. Ai Chin shouted... making her very inmature...

It doesnt matter that they are not professional at their job but it matters that Ai Chin shouted....

Eventhough I took the effort to apologise to the people whom I shouted at... at the end of the day... or more like the whole day and the next... they were still gossiping left, right and center... I really felt hurt finding that out... that eventhough I made a mistake and apologise for it while they made a mistake and DID NOT apologise and even made it seem like it was my fault in the first place... (how can them delivering faulty part and me requesting for a replacement be my fault?!!!)... at the end of the day... my efforts to patch things up was to no avail.... :( I know the story about the fence and the nails...but there is something called putty... haha!!)

So now I ponder, was it wasted efforts to have even bothered to apologise?

Personally, I dont think so... I should not be led my other's lacking... I think that it is good that i realise my own mistake and take responsibility over it... I know it may have been better not to make the mistake in the first place but as I said... I am learning... so as part of my learning curve, I will take this as another lesson learnt on temper control... Anyone who has known me throughout my high school, university and working years would know that I have changed quite a bit and I have a better control over myself... (thank you to those who have been so patient with me... :) I truly appreciate it...)

It just hurts to know that my efforts were not even noticed....

My apologies....

Because of all the problems that has happened today and all the incompetent ppl that I had to endure, I have made a mistake by taking it out on bystanders who wasnt part of the picture but somehow or rather connected to the people who were....
For that I apologise... I have apologised to them directly but I just felt like making my apologies one more time..
Sorry....
I did not mean to shout nor blame you....
I suppose it is my temper taking over me.... Yes, I admit I have a temper.... I have always known that... I do try to control and keep it in check but sometimes when things get a bit too much I tend to blow my top... unfortunately, sometimes innocent ppl get the wrath as well...
I promise to try and contain my temper... Hopefully one day, I will have full control of it instead of the other way around...
But in the meantime, I hope that all my family, close ones and frens will still stand by me... trust that I did not mean some of the things I have said.... and most importantly, forgive me... you guys are very important to me.....

Incompetence.....

I am damn pissing mad with certain ppl at this point.... It really boils down to incompetence.... All I ask is for you to do your job properly... Dont even need to do more... not asking you to do something out of your scope... just to do what you are being paid to do... but even that seems so difficult... WHY? INCOMPETENCE....
It is like God has wasted giving them a brain.... Might as well have omitted that organ from them... save some cells.... They just dun bother to use them.....
Worst of all is that these people all are supposely very experience ppl.... experience in what? not thinking?!! Procrastination?!! The art of 'Tai Chi'?!!! Pay you so much for you not to do anything is it? Then the much lower paid ppl have to pick up your SHIT.... it really sucks!!!
Even when asked to do something, they take their own sweet time... It is like they have zero sense of urgency... WHY???!!!!!
And then there are others who will not acknowledge their own mistakes... these ppl will try and find all sorts of excuse why they are not in the wrong and try and push the blame back on you.... I really hate this kind of attitude... I feel that there is nothing wrong with admitting you made a mistake... as long as you do not continously repeat that mistake and you learn from it... It is all part and parcel and growing up and experiencing life's lessons... or maybe work's lessons.... It nurtures us to be better at what we do... If we refuse to accept such a fact then we will forever be where we started without improving ourselves... There is no growth whatsoever.... But it seems there are so many who are contented with that? Once again I ask WHY??!! this must be one of life's longest unsolved mystery....
Adding to the pack are those ppl who just pushes the responsibility not because they cant do it but they are not willing to do it.. This is even worse than being incompetent.. at least incompetence has an excuse... they dont know how... brain development was nil... but the ppl who play 'Tai Chi' are the worst to have... it turns everything into a vicious cycle... I dun wanna do so I push to you... then you push to another and it goes on and on.. at the end no one does it.... I do not see what is wrong in just doing it.. .Will it really kill you?
I always believe " Do unto others what you want others to do unto you". For me if I can do it, I will, even if it is not my responsibility to do but if I am capable of helping then why not? Coz there will come a time when you need something from someone else... and at that point, you hope in return that they will help you....
Okay.. I have released some of my steam... .as you can see it is just random rattling... I need to release the tension... a bit stressed today...

My (not so) New Car....

Actually I wanted to post picture of my new car yesterday.. but after the accident I 'bo song' already so posted the complain first... so today mood a bit better already now can post pictures of my car lor... I bought it sometime after CNY..so bout 3 months old... didnt get to taking pictures of it till recently...What car is mine? hehe!! here it is.... Recognize it? hehe!! no? How can that be? sure can recognize la.. Give you a side view as well la...
Nice? Nice? Can recognize already... My cute little Suzuki Swift... hehe!! It is not Red ya.. dun simply simply say... It is COPPER... aint it just so nice... just had it washed before I took the pix... obviously this was before the accident la when it is still as per new condition...
Back view... warning ya..dun simply compare this to a Myvi ya.. I pantang... !!! mine is so much better looking.. it got smaller thighs for one... and a smaller butt... haha!! and it cost a whole lot more... ya.. me a bit broke liao every month after paying for this babe...

Now to complete the 360 view of my car... hehe!! this is a CBU from Japan.. not the CKD one that is currently being produced ya... kenot compare... :P It even comes with full body kit.... No too bad huh? But have to be real careful not to scratch the skirting la...

There is one more thing i wanna show.. the table top in the car.. I find this kinda cute... can 'tapau' food and eat in the car... haha!!

Oops... picture doesnt show off my table quite so clearly.. it is actually quite flat..really like a table top... doesnt the interior look good... and the leather on the steering wheel is nice and soft...

So what else is good? Fuel consumption is not too bad.... it is about RM.012-Rm0.14 per km dependant on the traffic... it is considered quite economical... pick up is good... :) the drive is real smooth too....

All in all... I like my car... hehe!! :D

What do you think?

See!!

even my blog refuse to co-operate... I type the previous posting with a dialogue and see what you get... the dialogue in paragraphs.... how irritating is that... let me see whether I can do anything bout it or not.....
I definitely need to get myself home and talk a bath in pamelo leaves and flowers to cleanse myself off the bad luck!!

One of those sucky days......

Today is one of those days for me... You know when everything goes wrong.... nothing is right... everything that can possibly happen to you happens? Well so far it is not that bad but bad enough.....
I started my day early since today was the first day back to school so traffic is expected to be bad.... left the home early and actually got to my office on time... unfortunately as I was turning into the car park this lousy white kancil swerves out of his illegal stopover and bangs into my car.... and the conversation below took place:


Me (AC) : Excuse me, did you see my car coming?
Lousy Guy (LG) :You cut into the lane...
AC : No I did not...
LG : I dun wanna argue.. lets just settle this... I give you RM50...
AC : 50? RM50 definitely not enough.... You bang my car door.. obviously it needs to be knocked back and respray the entire door..
LG : You can just spray that area..
AC : No you cant... There is no paint shop that does such a thing.. it would look patchy..
LG : I pay you RM50 la..
AC : Rm50 wont cover the cost..
LG : Hey, I am trying to settle this okay... if I get knocked I dun even bother to claim...
AC : Yeah.. that is you, not me.. Yours is a old kancil.. mine is a brand new car... (not so new now thanks to him!!)
LG : Ya, my daughter get knock also I just ask her to leave... no point...
AC : That is you...
LG : I can just leave now... what can you do...?
AC : No you cant..
(He tries to get into his car and i walk up to his car and stood in front of it)
AC : I just want to settle this...
LG : You want to report police go report la... I am not going to co-operate...
AC : But you are in the wrong..
LG : I can say you cut in...
AC : The reason I cut in is because there is 2 lanes but you illegally parked on one of the lanes, so how can I drive on that lane? Definitely you are in the wrong.. there is a yellow line and you park..
LG : I did not park.. I was driving out...
AC : You were parked..
LG : No, I was sitting in the car
AC : Yellow line means cannot stop also...
LG : What you want? I just want to settle this quickly... tell me what you want? money? How much?
AC : I dun know how much it would cost.. why cant we just bring it to the shop and ask?
LG : I dun want to waste my time.... How much you want? (Show me his wallet and open it up)
AC : I really dont know how much it would cost.. I do not want to cheat you... Wait you say I simply give a number...
LG : You want all my money? (Takes all the cash oout of his wallet).... nah take lah...
AC : I dun want all of it..
LG : Tell me la how much...
AC : I think RM200 should cover... (Hopefully it does... or else I have to fork out the rest of it)
LG : Nah, take... (handed me RM200)... I got no time to follow you to shop and all..
AC : actually all you need to do is give me your contact.. I can bring it to the shop myself and I just tell you how much..
LG : No lah.. I dun want the hassle... I just want to settle it.. I would not even bother if I got knocked...
(climbs into his car and I climb into mine and drive off separately.... )


Have you even seen a more obnoxious guy.. good this i managed to get him to pay for it... i am still so sad... :( my 3 months old car just had it's first accident... It is just not fair... so innocently kena... just because someone was doing something illegal... :( and to top it all off... I was late for work because of that idiot....
So next thing that happened... I just bought a phone yesterday.... no... not because i suddenly got rich... but my own phone drowned... could not be rescued... then my sister passed me her motorola V3... unfortunately it was a bit cranky already... got about 2 years old.. it kept shutting off by itself... screen turns blank... it cant pick up the calll when I flip it open but when I flip it close it cuts the line etc..... hence.. I needed a new phone... manage to scout one within budget... Sony Ericsson k618i.... :) quite a decent phone with all the functions that is needed including 3G and a 1G memory card...
Unfortunately, there was one thing that was bad... somehow it could not read my sim card info.. all my contacts refused to appear accept for my family and my bf... hmmm.... how did it know that those were the important numbers? haha!!! So I called the customer support center and he said i need to bring it to a service center and luckily there was one in Uptown... when he gave me directions on where it was located there was a miscommunication... I ended up imagining a different entrance than the one the guy mentioned and I walked the entire uptown without finding the place... and after getting the number of the shop and I called.. lo behold it was just a slight distance from my office... I walked for nuthing.. completed my quota of exercise for the day :(
Then when I got there and they checked... nothing could be done... all they could do for me was transfer my contacts into another phone (yeah..other models can read my sim except the one I bought) and they would bluetooth it over to my phone...
So that was my day so far.. it is only 1400 hrs... wonder whether anything else would happen.... but so far, it has been a sucky day.... :(
Oh ya... because of all the hassle with my phone... I missed lunch.... have to go for a meeting now... :( me hungry... sniff sniff.....

Gua Tempurung.....2 June 2007

If you are looking for adventure this is one place you should not bother about.... It is all hype over nothing....

A group of us decided to go on a trip to Gua Tempurung.... I was all excited... I have had 2 experiences; albeit at the same location but on different routes previously and it was a blast... there were really challenging obstacles and a sense of adventure and mystery because you never know for sure where it leads to.. according to the guide, you could go there 10 times and still not repeat a route... it just depends on the weather (if it rains certain path might be flooded) and your luck..... the name of the place? Gua Maloi... it is located somewhere is Tampin... it was a real exciting experience right from the entrance of the cave itself....

So... back to the Gua Tempurung trip... well obviously my expectations was high since I had a great caving experience in the past and Gua Tempurung is after all a much larger cave and so well advertised as a must go for all who wants to see what Malaysia has to offer...

The day started at 5am when I woke up.... such an unGodly hour to be waking up on a Saturday no less.... "Why do I do this to myself? I have no idea".... Gathering point, Center Point, BU at 6am.... Got myself there... had McDonalds pancake for breakfast... Not so great tasting... and off we went... We drove up all the way and exited Simpang Pulai.... (though the website said Gopeng, our organizers were told to exit Simpang Pulai by some Ipoh counterparts)... it took approximately a 2 and a half hour drive from KL.... or maybe slightly less... we dropped by a coffee shop (nothing famous) and had wantan mee and yam cake... ya, ate a lot... was thinking it is going to take quite a bit of energy to go through the whole thing... Then off we went an additional 20 minutes or so and there we were.... the place was so different from Gua Maloi where there wasnt anyone around...instead this place was so commercialized and there were hoards of ppl there... Then we got our tickets... Rm22.00 per head... we took the "Grand Tour"... description of it was "Paling Mencabar".... fuiyoo.. dun play play... english description was "Challenging & Strenuous". Duration: 3 1/2 hours.... this was suppose to be the mother tour of all their tours... the tour that was one less than this was described as "Exciting & Challenging".. so we were all jokingly thinking..... great.. they took out the exciting and put in the strenuous... haha!! so it shall not be exciting just strenuous.... haha!! So we waited for out slot..

the entrance....

10.30 am and our slot was up... went in... then the guide started explaining bout all the rock formations and how certain things came about and how certain stalactites and stalagmites were formed and that they were still growing but at a very slow pace of 1 inch every 200 million years or so... (hmm...wonder whether i remembered correctly or not?)... anyhow... he said that there were 10 platforms which were connected by 1200 steps of stairways which we needed to climb before we entered below the cave for the supposed wet part of the tour... he stopped at every platform.. pointed at some stuff.. explanation was not great.. the group was big and the place was stuffy... I was yawning the entire time.. everything was well paved and so commercilized that it was no more interesting...plain BORING!!!

The only thing that i thougth was quite cool was the wind tunnel which was this narrow passage way inside the cave which was always breezy... continous flow of air rushes through this particular tunnel... the reason? Scientifically it is due to the pressure drop between the outside of the tunnel and the inside causing the air from the higher pressure zone (outside the tunnel) to flow to the lower pressure zone (in the tunnel). After that it was staircase, staircase aand more staircase...

When we reached the end of the route for the staircases and were told to get off the path on to the rocks, I was excited... !! Finally... something interesting.... then we started treading carefully on the unstable rocks down a slope and right into a stream of water... it was part of the river that flows beneath the cave... oooh!!! water.... They did promise we would get wet in the tour summary (In Gua Maloi, we were drenched from head to toe like drown puppies).

So we started walking...water was about knee high... then we walked and walked and walked.. occasionally had to duck our heads and squeeze under some bolders.... but other than that it was just walking and walking and walking... then there was a spot we had to crouch.... then we continued walking... this lasted for about an hour or so.... God it was so BORING!!!! I started imagining things to keep myself from dozing off.. I was literally yawning every 5 minutes or so... Was there with my bf so we were just holding hands and walking... as if we were at a mall... I told him... "Lets walk over there and look at some shoes....!" Oh the clothes there are nice... What do you think?" Hahah!! This was what people called 'mou liu'.... So we got to the end of the cave to an opening... there was light at the end of the tunnel!!! haha!! then guess what we were told? " Lepas ini, kita jalan balik jalan yang sama... tapi keluar tempat lain" I was like WHAT?? walk back? and yeap we did... it sucks.... We just had to walk the boring route all over again... and then finally we got back to the end of the stairway.... So what is next?

this was the supposedly exciting part...

the light at the end of the tunnel... Which we had to go back into!!!

Now here comes the one and only fun thing on the entire journey..... We actually had to slide down rock to get to the next cave entrance.. It wasnt an extremely high slope but it wasnt too low either... I would say approximately 8-10 metres or so... we were taught how to slide, in which direction and how to stop ourselves.. I though Yipppeee!!! hehe!! So it got to my turn... I sat down and started sliding... then I realized... it was not a smooth rocck surface so there was much of a possibility that you would accidently slide off cue.... and since I was in shorts.. my poor thighs were slightly burning when I got down due to the scrapping... :( Then we were told to get down through a manhole thingy... looking down at the hole we were not too sure how deep it was but after the demo it turned out not so deep after all.."Cheah!! :P Again when it came to my turn, I was pretty confident I could get myself down without help but the idiot guide immediately tugged at my leg from below the hole and left me real unstable.. I told him to let go and that I could do it myself but he just kept tugging... IDIOT!!! Made my landing so ungraceful... :P

So it was back to walking and walking and walking... and just as i thought, okay I shall only get wet up to the height of my knees.. Good Good.. no need to shower, just change my clothes and I can go home for a shower.... :) (The toilet/bathroom was stinky!!) we came across this part of the river which was waist high in water.. just for 2 seconds of water i was forced to take a bath in the stinky bathroom.. ewww.... :( I was not heppi at all...

So as we followed the trail and got led out to a stream of river right outside the cave... I realize the supposed adventure had come to an end.... Finally.... nothing to shout about... Even my other friends who have been to Gua Maloi with me said that after Gua Maloi, this was just a bore.... :(

Oh well, my trip did end off on a good note!! On our drive back, we stopped at Bidor to have our lunch at 4pm... we had the famous Duck Thigh noodles and the "Wu Kok".... it was quite good.. especially the "Wu Kok"... it was piping hot right out of the wok!! :D

Then it was back home... slept all the way like a pig... Poor WJ... :( hehe!! always chauffering a sleeping pig around... hehe!! Paiseh...

Memories..... moments frozen in time....

Yesterday late at night, I decided to look through some of my photo albums..... Picked up a few and started flipping through them. A flood of memories came gushing through my mind and it was like I was brought back to that moment in time.... I realized that I have many fond memories of growing up....

My journey yesterday began in my final year of high school.... St. Mary.... my alma mater... We have just been instructed to shift to a new location due to the buyover of our school's land for development... So off we went from the famous Golden Triangle of KL to a previously unknown place called Taman Intan Baiduri, Selayang. We had a choice, to transfer to a nearby school or to follow the school all the way to Selayang.... For me it was not a choice at all.... I have been studying in St Mary for the past 11 years and with one more year left, I couldnt even consider the thought of not completing it in St Mary. Many of the teachers left but many came along as well... Fortunately for me, many of my teachers were still with us.. So were quite a handful of my classmates... So we started the year 1998 with 23 student in the only science class in school...

It was a very different environment... it took quite a lot of getting used to.. First there was the 2 hours of public bus to endure before even reaching the school... then there was the change of status from a controlled school to an open school where all and sunshine may enroll... All our St. Marians history, traditions, cultures and rules were scorned by the newcomers... We were after all a school with 86 years of history at that time... We all cherished our traditions and rules... We had plenty of them... some were thought of as too strict and some were just laughed at.. but I really thought that, that was what made us St Marians.... Simple rules like only speaking either the english and malay language was ignored.... for the first time, the corridors were filled with chatters in mandarin, cantonese, tamil and every other language... Nobody was even bothered about the rules... But this was the one simple rule which made us St Marians who we are... A very well integrated inter-racial group of people.. because in the school it didnt matter what your race was... everyone understood everyone..... and that was the purpose of having such a rule.. Of course with that came additional benefits like an improved command of the english and malay language... we all definitely aced our oral examinations..... :)

As my journey through my album continued I came across a picture of my classmates in our performance gear ready for a teacher's day celebration.... We were doing the twist.... being an all girl school we were the boys and the girls too... there were lifts and throws.... it was one heck of a performance... Our beloved headmistress Ms Richards made a comment that made us beam with pride... "Girls, you have kept the spirit and tradition of St Mary with you". Nobody thought much of a teacher's day celebration at that time.. it was just a day that they didnt have to study.... But for us, every teacher's day was a very fun filled day with loads of memories... from the teacher's day song we always compose, to the performances which we took months to perfect up to the teachers' performance which were usually extremely hilarious..... All the newcomers were shocked that the teachers would perform and occasionally make a fool out of themselves just for the sake of entertainment.... but St Mary school teachers did... because we were a family... the barrier of a student and teacher relationship is not always clear.... :)

Then came the sports day.... once again there was a huge disagreements on the marchers to wear the skirts which have been the uniform for all marcher for as long as I can remember... there were complains that it was indecent, too short and etc.... but we have always had it that way.. as far as I can remember.... no complains were lodged, at least not to the extent where a compromise could not be made.. there was after all a few categories of events which took place.. We had the athletics (the supposedly gifted ones), the non-athletics (not so gifted ones), the cheerleaders (the pretty ones who can dance real well), the marchers (the ones who liked being drilled for hours over hours to perfect their march, or just those who couldn't make it to the any other teams) and the arts division (in charge of our badges and all other decorative items). So you see, if marching was not your cup of tea, then you could have gone for another team... But in the end we had to for the first time in history see our marchers with skirts on the outside and track bottoms on the inside... ewww.....

There are actually many more stories about my life in St. Mary but I shall leave that for the next posting.... ST. MARY; I SERVE

Next page of my album? University...... Where did I go? UTM, Skudai, Johor.... spent 4 years there.... the most eventful year was of course the first... It was my first experience living away from home... I was living in the hostel called KTDI.... during the first week of orientation, we had to wear these really ugly long black skirt and white shirt... and because orientation was for a whole week and we only had 2 pairs of each... it was a wash and re-wear cycle the entire week... nobody bothered to even iron their shirts coz we were too tired by the end of the day and washing took enough of an effort.... The boys and girls were separated by a cloth in the hall... the the boys always had to walk in front first then only follow by the girls... (such an un-gentlemanly practice) it was all quite a lot to take in... then I was selected (God knows why... I cant remember) for a public speaking session on the pros and cons of the internet... I created such a big commotion when I mentioned that the internet is misleading at times and certain sites are not what you think they would be... Like if you were to type in NASA as part of a web address... you will not be connected to NASA as thought but a porn site.. I am not sure about now but at that time it was... after I menti0ned that, everyone remember this girl in the yellow kebaya who gave out the address of a porn site... what a way to start university huh? It really wasnt my intentions.. oops....

Then there was the lurking black Van... can you imagine, I got a 4 points de-merit for talking with a guy outside my hostel past midnight... we were standing at least 2 feet away from each other.... you know who you are if you are the guy who was talking to me... haha!!!
There was the weekly visits to KTHO for our laundry.. you would think only Elaine & I are the only 2 who do not bother to wash our own laundry... actually there are a lot of ppl but unfortunately amongst my coursemates there was only me and elaine... hate washing clothes by hand... they become extra wrinkled.... Oh and not forgetting that everytime we walk to KTHO, we would pass the ATMA (army students) quarters and they always came out of their hostels only in their towel to hang their clothes or to get their haircut by a fellow ATMA. One fine day, this guy just finished his haircut as we were walking past and he didnt notice us so he stood up, unfolded his towel and gave it 2 shakes... hahah!!! Unfortunately I didnt see anything coz I wasn't really paying attention until the it happened and he noticed us and quickly ran in.... but it was funny.....

Oh and who can forget those illegal trip up a certain little hill to catch the view of our mini Disneyland in UTM... haha!! those were rare but fun... :)

It was also in UTM that I did the most unlady like thing I could ever have thought of... Our hostels were right next to our faculty which unfortunately was on top of a hill... and whoever the civil engineer was, he decided to place the staircase on the far end of the hill so that we actually has to walk all across the hill to climb up the stairs to our faculty... and me being me... and add elaine to that equation... actually it is usually my fault la.. we were quite often late... so what do we do? Of course use the short cut... what was the short cut? It was the drain(actually longkang is a better word) which went all the way up to the faculty as well and was very similar to a staircase.... so up we went everytime we were late... I dun think it was even considered climbing but more like trudging up the drain.. even if we were in our baju kurung as well... hahah!! I remember those days well... by the time we were up, we were panting like mad.... those drain staircases were steep!!! haha!! Most unlady like...tsk tsk tsk...

Of course when you join Uni you also end up having seniors and in UTM, it was even more evident as all newcomers were assigned a "kai kor" or 2... I had 2... they were to take care of you, pass their notes down, their text books down so that we need not buy so many.... mine were very caring ones.... My fondest memory of them would be during one of the nights when I had to walk to my Chinese class late at night and I accidently fell into a drain and busted my shin quite badly... Elaine made a call to my kai kor Jeffrey(also in my chinese class) and Shen Khong and immediately Jeffrey came running all the way (which was really quite a fair bit of distance) with this worried look on his face as if something really bad might have happened to me... It was so sweet... to know that someone whom a year ago didnt even know you could be so concerned for you... Then Shen Khong came in his bike and took me to the clinic... My wound actually needed a couple of stitches but it was the whole experience that was very memorable...

Many things happened to me during my life in University... I had my first blind date... had my first boyfriend.... met my best friend (still is til now)... experience my first culture shock.... experience my first mess night...went to mamak at 4am for countless days in a row... (hey, we were studying and got hungry!!).... was ragged for the first time.... walked an average of 5-7 km daily (campus was huge).... won my first gold medal in taekwondo( eventhough it was for taerobic... but it was the nationals).... met wonderful friends..... had 2 great kai kors and one great kai sailou... drove for more than an hour just for nasi lemak... (it was real good.. well worth the travel...) not forgetting my first house rental, my first car (WAG 262... I miss you!!).... my first time seeing a guy who was 1.96m tall.. he was as tall sitting as I was standing next to him while he was sitting down.... my first time having RM1.50 mixed rice (unbelievable? believe it!!).... hmmm... wonder whether it is still there.... oh and how could I forget... my first handphone... it was a Erricsson T26 i think... it was one of those really colour range of flip phone by Erricsson.. at that time Sony was not in the picture yet... Gosh... I am quite old aint I?

This posting could probably go on and on and on... reminiscence of those good old days... It is amazing what an album full of photos can invoke in you.... Take you down memory lane... and put a smile on your face.... Everyone should take this journey once in awhile... It is good for the soul...