Face The Music

After all the frenzy celebration of CNY, it's now time to move back to everyone's home - reality. Well, it means that I will be busy packing at home, and that implies a lot of works...

I will still be around, and the flight to Melbourne is slated to take off at 9.30pm, 23rd of February at KL International Airport. Counting, counting, counting.. I should not be blogging. Time to work.

Music of the moment: Leaving on A Jet Plane.

p/s: And before I forget, Happy Valentine's Day! I have a date too. With my dentist for scaling.

Fourth Day CNY Report

At last I found out a brighter side of getting sick for the fifth consecutive day on the CNY - there's not so much food intake that would normally bloat me during CNY! That is what I found when I only went for 2 rounds of food during the buffet...

Well, let me get things in chronological order. Early in the morning, I virtually dragged myself out of the bed when the annoying alarm started to buzz. And also my mum's more annoying nagging me to get out from the bed. My friends appointed to visit me at 10 am, but at 10 am what was I doing? Still sleeping.. haha.. That's no other than me.

Those who visited me were Yee Pin, Winson, Zaai Yee and Sze Wen. I remember those days in Form 3 when we used to have senseless debates and daily bantering, and today it is such a wonderful memory for me. Now separated for years, although I only keep in close contact with Yee Pin and Winson, but when all of us met again, the camaraderie was still heartfelt. However, for today I was a bit bad to be a little bit hostile. I didn't talk much and give much attention to them. Blame it on "morning blue" and my sorethroat. I just can't bear to torture my voice cord inhumanely.

After getting angpow, these friends pretended to stay a little bit longer so that people won't feel that they don't come for angpow.. haha, admit it, we all stay for a very short while after angpow, if not people would think that we have come just for the sake of money. :-D Well, after leaving my house, we went for lunch while Sze Wen and Zaai Yee parted with us.

For the afternoon, we visited 2 teachers namely Ms Khoo Suat Fei who taught us English in form 3 and Ms Ooi Theng Theng who was our chemistry tuition teacher in form 4 and 5. Truth to be told, it's such an enriching experience to pay a visit to the teachers, for they would greet us so hospitably and treat us on equal terms as an ex-student. Talking to them about our juniors, education system, school administration, our future goals, and even street gossips is simply superb. Teachers are all good chatting partners I would say. Sad that my battery ran flat for the afternoon session, so I missed the chance to take pictures with them.

At night it was another big event - my form 5 class reunion dinner. Out of 45 classmates, around 30 attended to the event held at the Riverland Restaurant in Star Parade. So what's the observation? For me, two years didn't produce magic on most of the friends while some metamorphosed into different persons. We had a buffet dinner which was fairly inexpensive but you would expect, the food quantity was also meagre. Throughout the three hours there, all of us had had the chance to exchange the newest news and updates about each other's "status". Well, one of the girls who was rumoured to have an affair with another friend in my school got teased incessantly throughout. I guess she must have regretted coming for the dinner. But it was fun! Haha.. Just hope that she doesn't get upset with our little trick at the expense of her.

I and 5 of the St. John friends who happened to become my classmates in 5A2

A good memory for everyone who attended the night. Thanks a thousand to Jason who organized it painstakingly! Your efforts have been really worthwhile and I appreciate it.

Third Day In The Rooster Year

Still having a severe sorethroat and I cough every so often that I almost scared away my friends.

The third day of Chinese New Year celebration, today is the unofficial "Friends Visit Day". Well, when I say unofficial, it's really not something stipulated by the culture of the tradition of the Chinese New Year itself. But somehow years after years, we have developed a kind of arrangement that the first day of CNY is reserved for the closest family, the second day is for the married women to return to their parents' house, and from the third day onwards is for unmarried lads and girls to get angpow (red packets) from others! The best time of the year for gathering as we seldom have the chance to meet.

The best time of the year,
when everyone comes home.
With all the New Year cheers,
it's hard to be alone.
I guess that Choy San's busy,
cause he's never come around.
I think of you,
when New Year comes to town... "

Till now. Briefly put, today = 2 friends' house, 2 teacher's house, 1 karaoke singing session, 2 teatime. What a day!

Looking forward for more tomorrow. Sick, but still excited.

The Second Day Of The Rooster Year

Today is my "annual visit" to my eldest maternal uncle's house in Sungai Limau. Tucked tamely among the vast expanse of paddy fields, it was my grandparents' abode before they passed away.

Outside the house in the kampong.

Hmm. Till now. Tired for further report. Just had an argument with my friend, not in a good mood to write an account for the occasion. I sign off with this little note.

First Day in Rooster Year

This morning I woke up quite late... In fact, VERY LATE. 10.30 am to be exact. The very first moment I regained my full consciousness, the phlegm inside my throat icked me with such obnoxity. Darn, such a bad start for my new year! Have I mentioned that I got a good scold from my mum? haha...

During day time there wasn't any particular activity. For once, I didn't go to any relative's house. Since I was born, my family will only go on visting from the second day on. So for the whole day we just sat in the living room and "enjoyed" the television special programmes together. Well, enjoy was such a overstatement for our TV stations. I am a bit disappointed that our televisions are such misers in paying for the latest movies or programs, most of them only dished out movies which dated back to 1992.. (for those who know about it, 家有喜事?!) Hmm. Well. Speechless. Probably we are still a young and developing country. Forget about Petronas Twin Tower. We are not THAT rich yet.

Anyway, amongst all those boring programmes, there was a surprise - Eric called me from the United States, for almost half an hour! I was so touched by his dear call, and at the same time embarrassed because he is the one who's spending time overseas with exams on Chinese New Year, NOT ME. Hmm.. We really had a good chat, and if not because of another call we could have continued for hours... Yup, it's really something I cherish, and now I understand the meaning of Chinese New Year. Without reunion and reinforced ties, the most glorious celebration of all would have been rendered meaningless. Thanks a lot, Eric! Your call worthed more than the call rate you would have enumerated.

Moving on to the night, it's the REAL fun - fireworks! Well, for me, it's time for some great shots... well, passion dies hard. =)

Fireworks in front of my house.

After some awesome fireworks, another more entertaining programs is in stock - seeing my 10-month-old niece with her routine crawling and stair-climbing! Oh gosh, she is so cute when she moves on this her cushy steps... Some weird thoughts started running across me, I started thinking of Jack Jack in Mr. Incredible. Remember the climax? haha...

Baby, you are on Candid Camera!

That's my brief account of first day in Rooster Year. See you then!

新年快乐! Happy Chinese New Year

Song : Chinese New Year medley from home.pacbell.net

Here I drop by to wish everyone the happiest Chinese New Year! A few friends of mine are pathetically stuck in their exams today, while some others are stuck on the flight to study overseas. I wish them luck and enjoy their special Chinese New Year! I guess this is a phase that everyone has to go through, the painful experience of having to endure solitude in festivals.

I am having a running nose now, not a good harbinger for a prosperous rooster year huh... Don't care, I am still going to enjoy to my best the last two weeks here in Malaysia. In exactly 2 more weeks, I will be flying to Melbourne to pursue my tertiary studies. Time flies. It really does. Well, the fact is, I haven't packed and bought the winter clothing. Haha.. Well, Chinese New Years first, everything comes second!

A lion dance picture taken in 2003 at my home.

I am eagerly waiting for the same lion dance troop to visit me tomorrow. (it has always been the same lion anyway.. :-D)

p/s: Can anyone kindly give me some feedback on the revamped look of the blog? Just some slight modification, the most noticeable one being the added background for the title of each message. Thanks!

Sorry Everyone!

I am sorry that I have not been able to keep up with this blog recently. I just realized that how good a procrastinator I can be...

In fact I have been able to access to the Internet for the past few days, and I have returned from my KL trip on 28th January. I was just immersed in some other things in my daily life, from writing Chinese New Year cards to buying new clothes, from burning CDs to reorganizing my harddisk contents, and most importantly, keeping up contact with old time friends!

So basically here is a brief report of what I have been doing since I last blogged:

1. I went to Kuala Lumpur on the 21st, had a 2-day tour with Winson, Yee Pin and Jason Lau. We visited KL city centre, the tower bridge of KLCC, sang karaoke in Red Box, and tried out the advanced toilet in Mandarin Oriental hotel. (forgive me if it sounds stupid... after all, we are all 20!) For more info visit my photo gallery on flickr.

2. There were 2 briefings held in Kuala Lumpur. The first one was organized by the University of Melbourne, the venue of which was in Pan Pacific Glenmarie, Shah Alam. It was on January 23. The second one was on January 27th, a briefing by my sponsor, Public Service Department of Malaysia.

3. I paid a fantastic visit to Jitra, the place I grew up in. It was truly a marvelous experience, the feeling of having chitchat with my old friend (Jenny) was simply soul-rewarding. It helped soothe my bad mood recently.

4. I got very addicted to ReCom forum. I posted my message mainly on the "God, Bible and ..." thread.

5. I will be packing my luggage. Trying my best to fit 30kg of my personal stuff into the baggage. Sigh, the limit of 30 kg set by the airlines is simply not enough, considering the medical books I need to bring there.

6. I received a few complaints about my passing interest in blogging. One even said, "Now I know you lose interest very easily." Haha, she kind of gave me the impetus to write this.

Till now. I hope that I can update with the Chinese New Year festival really really soon. It's going to be a big reunion in my family, and I look forward to my 6 sibling's homecoming!

Kong Hey Fat Choy!