so much more than a destination...

I spent the weekend in Bali. We arrived on Friday afternoon, and in the cab on the way to our hotel, I was looking out the window and I said, "I think we might have to come back...". I had barely been there for two hours, and already the place had captured me. The big fancy mall (Discovery) with the likes of Marks & Spencer and Topshop was so beautifully juxtaposed with little prayer offerings in containers made out of leaves, placed outside every shop and inside some cars. Walking down the little streets, we constantly had to look out for these, and the way in which the shopkeepers reacted to our swerving to avoid them ("never mind, it's okay!") told me that they were completely used to people walking into and over them, which didn't bother them at all. The contrast between old and new, modern and traditional, reminded me of Thailand, as did the people, who could seriously give the Thais, famous for their hospitality, a run for their money. Taxi drivers wait patiently and never use their horns, except to warn animals who wander into the street. Stuck behind a horse carriage (I think it's called a doka)? They wait until overtaking is possible and not a moment before. Tourists walk around shirtless. They drive motorcycles barefooted (and shirtless). The McDonald's in Kuta has a rack for surf boards outside, and instead of the usual pose on a bench, Ronald is catching a wave.

All of this made it seem like Bali is really more like a lifestyle than anything. I loved it. Details soon.

capsicum - yuk.

One of the things my mother made for dinner today was capsicum with potatoes.

I hate capsicum.

I was having nachos with Kevin the other day before watching Transformers, and he was watching, amused, as I picked the capsicum bits (and onion bits) out. I explained to him how capsicum is just nasty, cuz even when you pick out every single bit, you'll still know it's there. You can tell that capsicum has been hanging around cuz it contaminates everything it comes into contact with.

On a brighter note, I spent most of today in pj's cuz it was all cold and rainy, so after having a shower that's what I reached for. There's absolutely nothing on tv, so I'm dealing with the pictures from our trip to Bali. That'll be up soon-ish.

21

I turned 21 a little over two months ago. I promised details, so here they are.

For the longest time, I've been telling my mother I don't want to do the whole have-the-whole-world-over-and-parade-around thing. That's not really my sorta thing, and partying would have to wait till people were actually around. I said that I don't want to be here, and I wasn't :D

I had my suspicions a few months before, but even when you know something is up, you don't really believe something is going on until you know for sure. It bugs you for a while, then something else comes along and it gets chucked to the back of your mind. Anyway, when I got home on Wednesday, I was told that we would be leaving the next evening. I wasn't told where, which made packing a bit of a bitch. It shouldn't have, really, cuz I knew we weren't leaving the country, but still. I was only told to take "something nice for dinner", so other than that, I just took random things out of my closet and tossed them all over my bed, then tried to figure out what to put into my bag.

The next evening, I chose not to find out where we were going until the last minute possible, which was pretty much at the gate when they called for the flight - we were going to Kota Kinabalu. I still didn't have any details.

A two-hour flight later, we were picked up by my cousin (who lives there), and we went back to his apartment. Dinner was at this cool waterfront place just across the street from where he lives, and I was told that we would be "going to the real place" the next day.

from cousin's apartment. waterfront place is on the right.

After breakfast, we got into a cab and set off. I didn't know where we were going until we got there - Shangri La's Rasa Ria Resort, and holy mother of god let me tell you that they don't call the place the Shangri La for no reason. I still didn't know what we were doing there (no complaints, though...) until my mother told me that two years or so before, I had read about this place and told her I wanted to go there cuz they have a nature reserve with orang utans you can adopt!

the view from the lobby

I swear, the whole hotel knew it was my birthday. We were greeted with a bang on the gong, then as you walk in the musicians start to play music. It's the coolest thing. They just sit around until someone arrives or walks past, then they start playing.

musician fellow

The manager person was there, too. They gave us cold towels and iced peach tea while they were checking us in, then showed us around the place. We went to the Activities Desk to plan what we wanted to do, and after that we went to check the rooms out. Gorgeous. Completely gorgeous.

Then we went exploring. The pool was gorgeous, and the grounds are completely massive.


On one end are the stables (more on this later), the wedding pavilion and a very cool restaurant. Then it's the pool, an outdoorsy food place, the bar (more on this later, too), and further down is the nature reserve. We went to have lunch at the outdoorsy place, and while waiting for the food to arrive, my brother and I went to check the playground out, and we found one of the most amazing things - a trampoline! A few hundred bounces later...


...we went back to have lunch.

my lunch - fish and chips with ketchup in a little jar...so cute!

After lunch, we walked to the stables to get our horses for a ride on the beach. Each person gets a guide, but they let you ride your horse by yourself. You're totally in charge...or it's between you and your horse, rather. I walked mine right by the edge of the ocean, and it was completely beautiful. Oooh and on the way to the stables, we saw a little snake! I named him Steven.

For half an hour in the evening, you can have whatever you want from the gorgeous outdoorsy bar and not pay anything for it. I had a margarita while we played petanque, and then we hit the pool.


We watched the sunset from there, and later went down to the beach. It was unreal. Saying it was beautiful doesn't even come close to describing it.




After that, we went over to the gym place cuz in the locker rooms, they have a jacuzzi and steam room. It was the perfect finish. Then it was back to our rooms for showers, and then it was time for dinner at the hotel's North Indian restaurant, Naan. The chef came out to talk to us, and the food was excellent. Then, we went for a walk by the pool and just chilled. We went for a walk to check out the other gorgeous restaurant, and the place is crazy cool! It's got all these cool light things.


We went back to the room after that, and I had a gorgeous bubble bath. The water was really, really hot and there was heaps of lavender-scented bubbly foam. I settled in with a book and it was bliss :)

When it was 12, I was in the little garden outside our rooms. My family thought I was quite mad, but it felt so good to be outside and underneath the stars. My brother and I went back to the pool area and lay around on deck chairs. We had the most random conversation while I was looking up at the stars.

The next morning after breakfast, we headed to the Nature Reserve. My brother and I volunteered to do this ranger thing, where you help cut fruits and make milk for the orang utans, and you get to see them before everyone else does. We walked up into the jungle and at this clearing, there they were!

About six of them, and they were so cute! Swinging and playing and rolling down the hill :)

It was quite impossible to tell them apart, which I needed to do to chose who I wanted to adopt for a year, but right at the end of the tour, I chose one of the really cheeky fellows named Alan. A few hundred photographs later, we headed back down, and when we reached the Nature Reserve place, I (and a whole bunch of tourists) was surprised (again) with a cake and the hotel staff singing Happy Birthday, with a guitar player too!

After that, we went for a traditional boat ride on a nearby river that leads to the open sea.

part of a golf course

On the way back, we passed mussel farms and the like, and there was this little boy on a little boat, who was just paddling along and checking his traps for crabs. It was the coolest thing to watch. We had lunch at the outdoorsy place again, then we went to chill on the beach.

lunch - shirley temple and pizza

Chill, actually, might not be the best verb to use - it was intensely hot. The hotel staff came around with pieces of fruit on a skewer and to sell ice-cream. I went to the edge of the water for a bit, and cuz the sand was HOT, I couldn't take my flip flops off. The result? A flip flop tan :) But the water was sooo clear. I was in the evening before, and I saw a little fish and lots of seaweed things.

We left later that afternoon, and on the way to the airport we stopped at a craft market.

So that was my 21st.

guilt

I haven't been doing a thing - and I feel very, very guilty. I should be getting started on my thesis. I really should be.

Monday, my mother wanted cake so I made one. Tuesday, I did absolutely nothing, and we had dinner in Antonio's with some family friends. Today, I was with Vee and Sue Peng. We had breakfast (roti canai for Vee), watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, had sushi (for Vee), went over to Sue Peng's and learnt how to play a beautiful, beautiful song called 9 Crimes by Damien Rice. Then was dinner in Decanter with everyone (and Jun Guan and Ling from England and Australia on the phone). The food was really, really good (Thai Crispy Chicken, Sizzling Tofu and Prawn Fritters), and there were lots of laughs :)

I've taken two polaramines since I got home from Sue Peng's and I just had Swiss Miss, so the only thing I can do now is sleep.

Not good.

everything changes

It's been forever, hasn't it...but I confess, the main reason I'm doing this is cuz I'm on a sort-of-not-really holiday for the next two months or so, and I really, really don't want to lose track of the days.

A quick recap of what's been happening over the last month and a bit. Summer semester is now over. My two subjects were Cross Cultural Psychology (which can be summed up as - there are intercultural and intracultural differences as well as similarities...but seriously, this was a fun class) and Ethics (which can be summed up as - when in doubt, consult ethical guidelines/colleagues/laws, but at the end of the day, none of them will give you an answer. It's all relative...).

Recently, there was the B.Psych Student Council's first social event - Acoustic/Barbecue Night. That was quite a bit of fun. Before it started, Lavan, Harveen and me went to Kiosk for some fizzy vodka thing (Lavan had Vitagen), and even before we had any, we couldn't stop laughing. It was madness. I don't even remember what we were laughing about, but I'm quite sure we sounded absolutely ridiculous, cuz I was talking to Kev (who came later on) and Durvesh on the phone, and they were all, "what's going ON??".

There was also Summer Variety Concert, and even though we had no idea who most of the performers were, a few really stood out. There was a gorgeous acoustic version of Maroon 5's Sunday Morning and Pete Murray's So Beautiful. Even though the guys who performed So Beautiful couldn't really remember the words, they made up for it cuz one of them sounded so much like Brandon Boyd!

I watched a bunch of really good movies, with it being Summer and all. There were two beautiful French movies - Mon Petei Doigt M'a Dit (By the Pricking of My Thumbs), which was completely random and spur of the moment, and Hors de Prix (Priceless), which I really, really liked. There were also the big ones, Spiderman 3 and Fantastic Four 2 (FLAME ON!!!)...I still haven't watched Shrek 3, for some reason. And The Namesake, which was absolutely beautiful :) You wouldn't think that Kal Penn would've been able to pull off a non-Kumar (of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) type role, but he made it work. Oh, and I also watched Borat. I don't get what the big deal was. It was...not good, to say the least.

Vee came back from Melbourne. We went out for dinner to Friday's in The Curve, and she brought me Ozzie koalas, a Shrek keychain from Movie World that says "Princess" (hahah!), my postcard which she bought from the Gold Coast but refused to send cuz she didn't think I would get it...and after seeing it, I have to say I agree with her. There are three extremely foxy surfer type males on it ;) And she also brought my birthday present from her and Ling - a gorgeous, handmade purple beady necklace thing! Oooh and on the day she came back, she brought Krispy Kreme Original Glazed donuts and gummy bears!

My cousins came back, too - Khanitha (from Dunedin) and Vijay (from Perth). We went out just before Khanitha went back, to Friday's in The Curve...again. That was fun, even though it was supposed to be drinks and we ended up with a non-yummy brownie.

Priya came back from Perth, and she was here last week. I met up with her and Kay Li after my last exam on Wednesday, and she bought me a book I've been meaning to read for ages (The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the same movie I mentioned). We walked around Midvalley for a bit, looking for shoes, then we found these huge armchairs in Coffee Bean and didn't move for hours. Until a friend of hers called her and said that if we went and found the Mix FM Mega Shopaholic, who happened to be near Dorothy Perkins, we would win RM500. And we actually walked up to random strangers and asked them!

Yesterday was 07/07/07. Two things happened - the Live Earth concerts on every continent to bring attention to global warming (I watched it live-ish on the Internet...Jack Johnson!!), and the new Seven Wonders were revealed after a worldwide vote - Chichén Itzá, Mexico; the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Brazil; The Great Wall, China; Machu Picchu, Peru; Petra, Jordan; The Roman Colloseum, Italy; and the Taj Mahal, India. I've seen a grand total of one of those wonders, and I don't even remember it cuz I was a year old and running around the grounds of the Taj Mahal. That will change.

Yesterday, we went for dinner to Tarbush in Starhill's Feast floor/area/place thing. The place is really something to see...there are all these cool restaurants, and each one is so different from the others. Completely unique and completely gorgeous. Outside Starhill is the most bizarre thing - it's a Lecka Lecka al fresco place, but they've done it all Moroccan like, with billowy organza curtains and pretty lights. A closer inspection revealed that they don't only have ice-cream, which as much as I love the stuff, would be quite mad...they also have drinks and shisha. I wish it wasn't so far away, it looks like quite a cool hang out place.

The title of this post is 'everything changes', and yet, nothing has been about changes of any sort. What I meant by it, I can't go into detail. But two things happened. I thought I was close to this one person, but I realized just how far apart we were. I was a mess for a while, but I think I'm okay now. With the other...we just got a whole lot closer.

Have you ever heard that the more things change, the more they stay the same? A part of me wishes this was really true so that things between me and person #1 would be better. But that wouldn't work for person #2 as much, cuz then there would be no moving forward. Not completely a bad thing...okay, I think I'm bored of this already. I haven't read a book in ages, and there's one I just started right next to me :D

when the truth is...

Yesterday, Vee got my postcard that from Kota Kinabalu. She left a message for me on MSN -

biatch!!!!!!!! i luv ya luv ya very much
i received your kk postcard today!!!!!!

It made me smile. I think everyone should mail something to someone they care about every now and then, cuz getting stuff in the mail is seriously, so much fun.

Now, I'm working on a case study for Ethics about Sigmund and Ling (who is a boy, unlike my friend of the same name, who is a girl), which is why there are still no details about the surprise trip.

Late, late last night (or really, really early this morning), I remember thinking about my friends. And how much I miss them. And how much I'm looking forward to seeing them soon.


Song for a rainy afternoon - Warning Sign by Coldplay

...when the truth is, I miss you.

4.0

Our results were released on Monday, and I almost don't want to put this here, but because it's a historical moment of sorts...*pauses for effect*...here it is.

I got 4 A's for Biopsychology, Human Personality, Abnormal Psychology and Human Factors and Ergonomics..

Meaning that my GPA for last semester is a solid 4.0 <--- this has never happened before.

Contrary to popular belief, I have never had results like this. I think the one that threw me the most was Ab. Psych., especially since the other day we heard that no one got Annie's diagnosis correct except one person (she was in our case study).

But everything I bitched about was very, very real.


Biatches - details of my birthday are coming soon, I promise.

tribal surprises

Today we had our first Cross-Cultural Psychology lecture. I loved it.

Our really cool lecturer randomly divided us into four tribes. Hannah ended up with Nick and Viv, Ming Yan and Lavan ended up in the same group. I ended up with a bunch of people I've said approximately three words to (with the exception of one of them) in the two years I've been here.

But anyway.

Each tribe was assigned an identity they have to adopt for the duration of the semester. Ours was Extreme Individualism, which I didn't find a problem seeing as how I don't know the practically anyone in my group. We had to also come up with a tribe name (we chose The I-Me's, for obvious reasons...) and a tribe flag (one of them saw a lil sun thing I had drawn in my planner and liked it and that ended up being our flag). Then, adopting our identity, we were asked questions like what determined our self-esteem, and how we would react to a researcher wanting to study us. Some of my classmates really got into their roles, and it was quite scary! The Extreme Collectivism group answered one question in a chorus, and for another each person said one line. We did quite well ourselves :) So anyway, that was one of the most interesting classes I've ever attended.

It was a long, long day with a Student Council (dammit I forgot about the minutes!) meeting and a briefing for our undergrad thesis. But when I got home, I received a surprise which unless you already know by now, you'll just have to wait to hear about ;)

answer the phone

What do you do when missing people becomes almost a default emotional state? It's always there, just at varying degrees. You become used to it, but that doesn't make it easier.

Everything else feels transient. Fleeting. Temporary distractions.

It's like you're on hold, which isn't always a bad thing. It gives you time to space out for a bit, or gather your thoughts. Sometimes, you get to listen to music, although let's face it - it's high time we got rid of the irritating elevator jingles and played some real music. But sooner or later, the waiting just gets on your nerves. You think, Hurry UP already! You contemplate hanging up, but you know you won't. You just keep waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

Because the alternative, is nothingness.


*Answer the Phone is a song by Sugar Ray. Whatever happened to them? I think the reason behind this title was me randomly picking up the phone and dialing four hundred digits to talk to my cousin in New Zealand. She wasn't there.

it ends tonight

It's been a long, long day. I woke up and went to the gym while my brother was at his taekwondo class. Lunch was at Lake Club too, then I came home, had a quick shower (cuz i hate the changing rooms/showers in the club), then Mum and I went to Ikea and Ikano to pick some stuff up (another notice board for me and those really, really good biscuits from Sweden with jam in the center). When we got back, I made the chicken for dinner (tortilla wraps) and then it was time to leave again. My brother went for his tabla class so Mum and I went to the Buddhist temple in Brickfields while waiting for him, and ran some errands. I've been trying to go since Wesak Day, but it was weird - I felt nothing. An absence. But whatever.

When I got home, all I had time for was a quick shower before I made my dinner, then it was time for a really, really good episode of Grey's Anatomy. And somewhere along the line, I realized it was the last day of my so-called semester break. Maybe one that should have been spent doing nothing but lounging around the house...

thanking the music gods

It's a hot, hot afternoon and I'm in my room with the a/c on. I finished a book, and logged on cuz I was bored. And I've got music on shuffle now, and the most perfect songs are playing. It's everything I want to listen to. It's completely perfect for the sleepy mood I'm in.

All I Need by Mat Kearney.

Honey and the Moon by Joseph Arthur.

Miracle by the Foo Fighters.

How to Be Dead by Snow Patrol.

Home by Michael Bublé.

Perfection.

someone stop the clocks.

I slept in today, deciding to relish the tiny iota that's left of my so-called semester break. Then, I did nothing but watch tv and zap more humans. I've been having a major craving for Chinese food - Thai Fried Chicken in particular, so we went to Lake Club for dinner. We also had Butter Prawns which were amazing, and a broccoli, asparagus and tofu. On the way back home, we picked up The Devil Wears Prada, which I somehow managed to miss in the cinemas. The movie was okay...but the book was waaaay funnier.

I'm still tired. All the mornings I've slept in have evidently not been enough to recover. I am so not ready to go back to uni on Monday.

One good thing is that Mum bought these gorgeous, gorgeous mangoes in India. They taste like...okay, they're pretty amazing.

watercolors

An sms-convo late, late last night resulted in me waking up today morning with a very graphic image of sunset on a beach with a hammock. I lay in bed for a while, looking at the image in my mind. But then, I just had to get up and grab something for me to draw it. I found a sketchbook in my watercolor set, got back into bed and tried to put down on paper what I had seen. Later on, I turned the sketch into a little watercolor painting. I'm happy with everything but the hammock. Who knew they were such a bitch to paint?

But man, does artistic expression feel good or what.

today, i was an alien...

I spent about an hour today zapping KGB agents with my lazer gun thingy, and snatching the bodies of hippies.

Yes - me and our PS2 (named Beans) got reacquainted.

I wanted to continue playing Bully, which I started the last time I was on holiday, but something was wrong with it. It's completely ridiculous that I only play when I'm on holiday. That is going to change (something I always tell myself but it has yet to happen...). So I started playing Destroy All Humans 2 instead, after deciding that I wasn't in the mood to restart Prince of Persia 2.

ZzzzzzAP! Zap! Zap! I so missed it.

Later, I took the boys for dinner and a movie (The Number 23). It was a bit of a strange movie...I have two words to describe it but they're a bit rude so I won't put it up here, but you can ask me. If you've already watched it, check this out, which I figured out while driving home:

1 + 2 + 5 + 1 + 9 + 8 + 6 (my date of birth) = 32, which is 23 backwards.

You'd have to watch the movie to get that, but dum dum dum...lol :)

cookies

My mother has gone to India for a couple of days, which means I have to be all responsible and do things. More than the usual, anyway. It's tiring. I keep checking the list that's stuck on the fridge to see if I haven't done something. Which reminds me, Charlie needs his medicine.

But today my brother and I made chocolate chip cookies. Seeing them stacked up in a container felt satisfying, but I'm still really tired.

of wars and being lost in translation

This post is extremely overdue, but here's the second and third parts of our most recent trip to Thailand. Read Part One here.

We had breakfast at the hotel on the morning of Day 2 after I took some random pictures of the grounds.

Then, we took our taxi thing to the Bridge on the River Kwai which was about 10 minutes away from the hotel. My mum flipped when she saw it. There was this movie made about the events surrounding the construction of this bridge that she watched growing up, so she got all excited.

Being on the bridge itself was quite cool, cuz it's part of an actual, fully-operating railroad track. Two people can't really stand next to each other - someone has to move, and through the gaps in the bridge, you can see the River Kwai below you. There are these platforms at certain intervals , which is where people have to stand when the train crosses the bridge. We had planned to take the train to the Death Curve, so while we were waiting we walked across the bridge, which actually is a lot longer than it looks. We also checked out a little market. The train was all wooden and things, but man, it moved so fast! Hurtling through the countryside was an experience - we passed fields and farms and rivers. Every now and then, it would stop at what seemed like the middle of nowhere, with just a little bus-stop looking thing, and people would get off and begin their trek to wherever it was they were going. We passed a school, and a group of little girls waved at us. Also, people would walk through the carriages selling souvenirs but more interestingly, ice-cold drinks and food. We bought a packet of these miniature things that looked like curry puffs, with a sort of peanut stuffing. It was really, really good.

The Death Curve was about an hour away, and we had arranged for our taxi guy to pick us up from the station there. This gave me plenty of time to think about the poor people who were forced to build this railway. Back in the day, it was nothing but a jungle. They had to make their way through the wilderness, in the intense heat and build it from scratch. It's no wonder that so many of them died. They don't call it the Death Railway for nothing. The Death Curve is a part of the railway in which on the right side of the train is nothing but the face of the cliff, and the right side is a drop to the river below. At this point, everyone on the train rushes to the left side, and when you stick your head out the window, you see a line of heads and elbows.


We got off at the station just as the train was pulling away, cuz we weren't exactly sure if it was where our driver would be. Arranging the whole thing did take a while.Unlike the last few stations, this one was bigger and had little shops selling things like wooden, hand-carved objects and pictures made using buffalo skins. We met up with our taxi driver and after a quick drink, we set off for a waterfall. The journey took quite a while and we were famished when we reached our destination. I can't for the life of me, remember the name of the place. It's either Sai Yok Yai or Sai Yok Noi. We wanted to go to this huge, gorgeous (from the pictures, anyway) one, but for that you had to take a boat and all and we didn't have time. So we had lunch, and then made our way up to the waterfall.


It was all pretty and very shady, and my brother, my mum and I went all the way up. After wandering around for a bit, we got back into the taxi thing for the trip back to the hotel. After checking out, we stopped by the very well maintained War Cemetery. Everything was so neat and orderly. So many of the soldiers who died were really, really young.

After that, we were dropped off at in town, where the buses to Bangkok depart from. We picked up reinforcements (Lay's, which is ridiculously cheap in Thailand and comes in the most outrageous flavors like Seaweed, Extreme Seafood...or maybe Extreme Barbecue, cant' remember...and Bacon & Cheese. And yes, I had Original...), and settled in for what was supposed to be a two-hour journey. Just after the bus pulled away, a Thai karaoke video started to play. Loudly. It was hilarious. My mum said by the end of the two hours, we'd be able to speak fluent Thai. I think that was when I started to read The Devil Wears Prada (and loved every page). The whole journey took over two hours, and the sun was setting when we reached Bangkok. Restlessness was in the air - from my side of the bus, you couldn't see the road signs, so I had no idea where we were or how long more it would take. The early sunset made it seem later than it really was, which was quite frustrating.

The next task was to get a taxi and get to the hotel, which was the most harrowing experience I've ever had while traveling. The first taxi guy had no idea what we were saying, but the second guy said okay. He turned out to be a little...odd. He kept talking to himself, and we begun to wonder if he had any idea where he was going. He didn't, and we made him stop at the first major hotel we saw. The concierge proceeded to give him the wrong directions, and at this stage, I was ready to scream. I wanted out of that taxi so. bad. He was getting quite creepy, so when we saw another famous hotel, we made him stop, and this time, we got out. The people at this hotel were able to call ours and let them know we were on our way (which was really nice of them), and after a whole bunch of taxis turned us down cuz the area we were staying in would have been a little hectic, we finally got into a taxi, and we finally, finally got to our hotel.

We were exhausted, and after showers, we left for the Suan Lum Night Bazaar that we had visited on our last trip. It hadn't changed, and we wandered around deciding where to have dinner. We settled on this outdoorsy place, and as we were leaving, Home by Michael Bublé started to play. I had an 'awwwww' moment, until the guy started singing with a Thai accent. Then, it got funny :) We hit the shops, and I bought a whole bunch of things, including my now-favorite t-shirts (one says 'Hate', but 'Love' when you look at it in the mirror, and the other says "I'm not spoiled, just well taken care of...). The guy I bought them from was really nice, spoke perfect English and had the coolest t-shirts. We took a tuk-tuk back to our hotel, and crashed.

The next morning, we walked to the nearest BTS (their version of the LRT, which is a really, really good idea. You avoid the crazy traffic and the crazy heat) station, and left for Siam Square, which is where we stayed the last time. It was really nice to see all the familiar places, like the restaurant where we had amazing food twice and Hard Rock Café with it's tuk-tuk embedded into the front of the building. We had breakfast at the same waffle place and Orange Julius, then we walked to MBK, which is this shopping mall that everyone goes to. I bought my now-favorite pair of jeans there, and they altered it for me in half an hour. I also ran out of Bahts, and had to borrow money from everyone else. Lunch was McDonald's, which was so strange cuz they had all these pork burgers (Samurai Pork and a burger where instead of buns, you get glutinous rice). After spending more money than I had and a quick trip to the supermarket to pick up some green curry paste and a glass Coke bottle for my cousin (he collects them), we left for the hotel. My brother, my dad and I walked to 7-11 for more reinforcements (Lays for my friends and sandwiches for us), and after showers, we checked out and left for the airport.

Near KL, I started throwing up, which at the time, I thought was the strangest thing. I've been flying since I was 1, and I don't remember ever being sick on a plane. I didn't think it was strange when I didn't stop throwing up for nine or so hours - it definitely wasn't travel sickness. A trip to the doctor rounded up a difficult night.

Overall, this wasn't the easiest holiday we've been on, and there were definitely moments where we were all stressed out. But there were also moments that made it all worth it :)

"Not all who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

the more things change, the more they stay the same

I was adding a link list, and I found this. It was interesting to see how I've changed in the last two years, and also how I've stayed the same...

11. I love music
12. I love animals
13. I want to travel all around the world and see everything

--That hasn't changed one bit :)

15. I am told that I am extremely picky when it comes to food

--My friends will attest to this ;)

21. I don’t drink coffee

--I wish. I was converted during the semester of Advanced Quantitative Methods (Summer 2006).

22. I’ve been contemplating getting my nose pierced since last December

--I did get it pierced, on my 19th birthday.

26. I don’t like healthy food – I don’t go anywhere near muesli, oats, and the like. Horse food should be eaten by horses, not humans

--Hahah! :) I still refuse muesli bars.

37. I remember really random things, so why can’t I remember what the five elements of the OCEAN personality test are?

--I still remember really random things, but Openness to Experience - Concientiousness - Extraversion - Agreeableness - Neuroticism. Wooo!

48. I want the Nokia 7260

--I don't even know what the Nokia 7260 is now. What I want is right now is Island by Michael Kors.

49. I never thought I’d have a blog

--I still call this a non-blog blog. I don't like the connotations associated with the word.


I am a firm believer that your experiences influence who you are as a person, so I suppose this shouldn't come as a surprise. But this is exactly why I do this. More for myself than anything else.

the last four months...

This is a review of last semester, which was the last of Year 2. It now seems like it started such a long time ago, until you realize that it's practically May, and four whole months have flown by. Classes were fun (courtesy of a very amusing lecturer), extremely difficult (quizzes on Monday based on pre-reading, plus case studies due), and difficult to sit through (reading slides verbatim is not lecturing, sorry...). There were some good times, but at the end of it, all I felt was completely drained. There were so many assignments and projects and quizzes and case studies, and the workload was consistent - no breaks. As someone put it, a test of human endurance. It felt like torture at the time, so I'm just really glad it's over. That said, we really did learn a lot, and some of the assignments were fun. I tried looking through my older posts to link stuff to this one, but there's waaay too many. Seriously. It shouldn't be that difficult to find, though. I did bitch about the semester a bit ;) I don't remember if I put a lot of the good stuff in here (like getting 100 on an essay...).

For Abnormal Psychology, we had to perform 15 hours of community service. These were taken on a visit to a shelter for women with backgrounds involving prison, drugs or AIDS. We were assigned to the kitchen cabinets. The boys were assigned to the men's home, where they washed cars and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with the person in charge.

The cabinets weren't in the best of conditions. That glass was swarming with those...creatures, and there were a whole bunch of glasses. Viv really got into the whole thing, and went all Buffy on a cockroach. Hilarious :)

The nosy cat belongs to the lady in the picture, who lives at the center and helped us with the cabinets. Lavan got "friendly" with it (check out what she's doing in the second picture on the top), and Hannah (who also doesn't like cats, we found out...) taught undomestic-me the coolest way to squeeze a mop that doesn't involve you having to actually touch it. My latent obsessive-compulsive (using that term loosely, now that I know DSM criteria for the actual thing...) tendencies surfaced - I kept washing the grime and dead bugs off my feet every couple of minutes.

We made many trips to Petaling Street. The first time was for lunch on a Friday in between classes, and the place we headed to was a shop that specializes in beef noodles. The beef comes in three variants - balls, meat and insides. The first time we went there, I happened to be sitting right by where they assemble the noodles, so I just watched as the lady would cut these chunks of red, raw meat, toss them them in the soup along with some stomach bits. The stomach bits were...peculiar. They looked so strange, I can't imagine what they must taste like. We went there again, after our second community service session, and to another shop selling the same thing after the first session. While my friends had their noodles, I had McDonald's twice, and a strawberry filled donut once.

Top L - R: Hannah took this picture while we were waiting for Lavan at the Pasar Seni LRT station before one of our sessions. We always ended up walking through Petaling Street, so my friends could satisfy cravings for air mata kucing, soya bean, watches and the latest season of Grey's Anatomy.

Bottom L - R: The lady at the shop. Check out the insides! Lavan with my lunch.

Some of the random pictures that were taken e we were walking to/from the centers. The Bottom R picture was taken outside the Street Fellowship center.

This is the place where the Urban Feeding is conducted. It's basically a long tent that's erected and dismantled every weekend, in an area notorious for its drug-related activities. The food is contributed by a church (rice, chicken curry, and stir-fried cabbage) or sometimes, by The Chicken Rice Shop. Volunteers fill up rows and rows of plates before distributing the food to avoid any arguments or fights, and there's also Chinese tea and teh tarik available. The people who come here are homeless, and we recognized a few of them from the Street Fellowship. The first time we were there, it was extremely hot, and the tent didn't help. The second time we were there, it was pouring. Both times, there were many, many people who had come there for a hot meal. We learnt that this has been going on for nine years. It made me wonder how many people actually knew that things like this were going on all this time.

We helped by serving and distributing the food, and later by collecting used cutlery. We were quite drained at the end of the first session, probably cuz of the intense heat. Viv actually asked for Mentos. She usually doesn't go anywhere near anything that isn't sugar free.

This semester we had elections for the very first Student Council of the B.Psych program. Hannah was nominated as President, and we set out to make sure that she won :) But by the time we actually got down to posters and stickers, a lot of other people had already started campaigning. We made posters that described her accomplishments, and handed out stickers that said 'Vote Hannah Lim for President!'. Somewhere along the line, we were talking and a light bulb went off, and we came up with the idea for the pink poster. We laid out the paper on the floor of DSA in Wisma HELP, and she lay down on them, and I traced her outline. The place was pretty deserted, but it would have been interesting if there were heaps of people there. All our hard work paid off, cuz she won! Later, I was elected as the Secretary.

I think it was right before the Chinese New Year break when apparently it was decided that everyone was going to wear red. I don't wear a lot of red. I think I have like...one, red t-shirt. And I was pretty damn sure Lavan wouldn't wear red, but she surprised us all. They made me hold Lavan's Sponge Bob (it was a present) for not comforming. The picture on the right is of our prize-winning (!!!) poster for Human Personality, and was taken just after we finished pasting everything. It was a content analysis of personal ads from a website, and Viv had this really cool idea of printing out the ads (or the bits where they described themselves anyway) and cutting hearts out. It looked very, very cool.

That was also when the hecticness picked up, and soon it was Research Colloquium, where we had to present for Abnormal Psychology. The first picture on the top row was taken during the Keynote Speech we attended. Some time in March (it was after the outdoorsy wedding), I had brought Viv's nail polish back, and Hannah and Lavan decided to paint their nails during class.

The rest of the pictures were taken during our lunch in Chili's with Winnee, our former Research Methods lecturer who is leaving HELP. It was the last day of lectures, right before our finals, so it was good to blow off some steam.

So I guess that's pretty much it. I know I still haven't finished parts two and three of the Thailand trip, I'll get to it soon (Vee - I'm trying to entertain you!).


Song for today - Yesterday and today, I've been listening to Beg by Evans Blue and Shattered by Level. Random stuff from a friend, but good stuff.

tristan and dinglehoppers

Today I watched Legends of the Fall, which I haven't watched in years. It was my favorite movie for the longest time, and watching it again made me remember why. It's a beautiful, beautiful movie...and I'm not just talking about Brad Pitt and his gorgeous hair. The way the story was told is beautiful...all that tragedy...the score is beautiful, the scenery...everything.

Later on, I watched The Little Mermaid. It was released in 1989, the year I turned 3. I have a vague memory of watching with my dad with all the lights off, and Ursula scared me. Then my mum came home, and she had with her a chocolate ball. I love how it still makes me laugh. Like when Scuttle the seagull tried to explain the function of a fork (which he called a 'dinglehopper') to Ariel, he said "Just a little twirl here, and a yank there, and voilà! You've got an aesthetically-pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over!" :)

Good times.

girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money.

Today was the Good Charlotte show. We took a train to Bukit Jalil and when we got there at about 5ish, there were all these people just sitting down and hanging out in front of the gates (it was held in a car park area), and from where we were, we could see the stage. There weren't any lines, so we managed to get right up to the entrance, where we had to wait for maybe an hour before they let us in. What sucked was the took our really nice tickets and ripped them, and that was it. They were proper tickets and all, nice and shiny, and all we got in return was a wrist band. Pfft.

So then, we made our way to the very front of the section we were in. We had a pretty decent view. At the entrance, we were given these inflatable thingies that make a really loud clanging sorta noise when you whack them together. My brother and my cousins decided to inflate theirs and that kept them occupied for a while...that is, when they weren't bitching about the RM5 they had to pay for a paper cup-full of Pepsi (yuk) or Sprite.

What seemed like aaaages later, Colby and...I think it was Fazura or something, from MTV came out (later on it was Utt and Denise. Or maybe it was Colby and Denise...yeah, that makes more sense...) and it was time for the opening acts. Which were really, really good - One Buck Short, Estranged and Lo. I'd definitely say these are the better bands in the country. I can't even remember the names of the bands who opened for INXS or Simple Plan, and Too Phat got boo-ed when they opened for Linkin Park. One Buck Short had oodles of energy, and even though I had absolutely no idea what they were saying, they were fun. One of the guys in the band is the brother of one of the lecturers at HELP, so that was fun too. Estranged is new, I think, and they're famous for this one song, Itu Kamu. The funny thing is, none of their other songs sound anything like this one, they're so much more heavier! But they were good too. Then was Lo, who did that really strange 'Old Newspaper' song, and the nice Operator one. During his last song though, we decided to leave the area we were in cuz we noticed that suddenly, a lot of people were entering the so-called VIP area. It took a while, but we managed to make it out, and we breezed into the VIP area, getting quite close to the stage.

At about 10ish, finally, Good Charlotte came on stage. They opened with some random song (there were a few of these), and they played The Anthem, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Girls and Boys, I Just Wanna Live, Predictable, We Believe, Keep Your Hands Off My Girl, The River and a bunch of other songs I didn't know. Like Dance Floor Anthem, which is really cute it goes "put up your hands, say I don't wanna be in love". They're quite good live, and they're very, very nice people. Joel kept talking about how he wants to move here. The other two, the bassist and Billy, they don't talk at all. It was just Benji and Joel, but somehow they made it work.

After the show, we were supposed to take the train back to Masjid Jamek, and we had made plans to go to the McDonald's there and all, but when we got to the train station, there was a huge crowd of people standing outside, and we found out that they had closed. It was 12, and the tickets said the trains were running till 12.30. The stuffy security people said something like the organizers hadn't informed them, so we had to wait to be picked up. Now, my back is killing me, so I think this is it.


*The title is a line from Girls and Boys ;)