A wonderful celebration of the night that comes once in four years.

While today's been a hectic day, what with work and settling back into the Canberra lifestyle, it's also been a really nice one.

All thanks to Miss Cheok.

First we had dinner at Capital Towers (at Ah Boy and Sheng's place), then because it seemed as if we weren't full, Cheok didn't eat, so we headed to Lee's Inn, and had food there. Blablabla.

Then we went to the lakeside, for a romantic and shivering stroll. And we bumped into Starlight Cinema. And it was sooo nice. Cheok asked if there was another movie after the current one, and the coffee seller dude said no, it was the last one. FOR THE YEAR.

So much for our intentions to join in. So we headed home.

But that short stroll in the cold, looking up at the stars, enjoying the night with some of my few closest friends, it felt REALLY good. And I'll cherish it, for the next four years at least. *wink*

The toothegg and other mysteries.

During the flight I felt a toothache which was unexplainable. It wasn't even the teeth hurting, it was like my gums were hurting. It actually felt like I just pulled my tooth and that space felt empty and when I ate, it was still painfully raw from the tooth extraction.

And it was unexplainable. A mystery. It's now feeling a lot better, by the way.

And then there was the weird mystery as to why my computer refuses to install Adobe Acrobat Reader 8. It says it's all fine, installation complete blablabla, BUT when I run it, it says I did not agree to the License Agreement or something and that the application will now exit.

So I figured, hmm...okay, I'll try an earlier version then. So then I installed 7 and then again installation complete bladida and then when I tried to open it, it hangs my web browser.

Until now, I'm afraid to try, cause the last time I did, I had to restart my computer over 8 times.

Mysteries. WooOOooooOOoooo~~~

The interesting people you meet.

I was on the plane back from KL when I met the most interesting person on board. He never sat on his seat except when he had to (takeoff, landing, turbulence). He stands around, intimidating, annoying and irritating people.

I was in the last possible seat on the plane. And him one seat in front. And being at the end of the plane, there's space to my left and to my right. And man-who-stands choses to stand at those places. I mean, granted he can't be standing on the corridors, but why oh why did he choose to stand next to me lah.

It's like his eyes follows me around - when I go to pee, when I'm listening to the songs, when I'm watching a movie, when I'm sleeping. It gets sort of creepy and stalkerish.

Now that I've got everyone thinking he's really weird, I did overhear the lots of people who asked him why he was standing, that he's got this old knee injury that hurts when he sits for long periods of time, therefore he stands. So can understandable little the bit lah. So got kesian him a bit lah. But still don't like lah.

That's the story of aeroplane standing man.

And then I land, and took the bus home, and attended my first class of the year. And then I met another interesting man. A man who closes his eyes when he talks. And with eyes closed, he still flings his hands around, gesturing stuff.

Introducing you to my COMP3420 lecturer. Ai Tan and I wonder why he does it. And if he really is closing his eyes. Maybe it could be that he just has really tiny eyes. Cause DUH it's weird to close your eyes and talk to a class. Maybe even a bit rude.

I said, maybe he closes his eyes to remember the stuff to explain that he just memorised from the textbook an hour ago.

But well...we meet interesting people around all the time. I was just fortunate to meet two on the same day.

Whoops.

Try saying UEFA Cup fast.



Haha! Get it?

The business world.

The other day, on the way back from Kedah, we stopped by Tapah to have a quick lunch. And we ate at this quite dilapidated kopitiam cause it was the only Chinese kopitiam we found open.

And there's this lady boss. She keeps shouting out the orders. No, this time it's not normal cause she's the one preparing it. In fact, they're already prepared and are waiting to be paid for.

So why does she keep shouting them out? Cause she needs her brother/husband to help her count how much the customers should pay. I wonder how she actually becomes a businesswoman when she can't do simple math. Guess she just has to know how to chop up them Siu Kai and Char Siu and Siu Yuk. Leave the math to the dudes.

On a different note, something occurred to me this morning. When you become a doctor, you have to choose between being a good businessperson or being a good human being.

Why would I say that? When you're a good businessperson, you'd want more customers, so you can get more money. Which is good, except having more customers means you want more sick people in this world. Which is bad. So....comprendo?

So if you did choose the medical profession, how do you deal with the conflict? Or do you just look at it another way and say, because you're there, you're helping to reduce the amount of sick people in the world?

Hmmm....

Censorship in Malaysia.

I've always known watching movies or listening to songs back at home loses some of its joys cause words and scenes are cut. And they don't even try to hide it.

In shows, kissing scenes get deleted and it jumps to the next non-kissing scene. In songs, rough words get censored.

I mean, I get it. It's not good to be airing the F-word for the whole country to be listening. And I can also tolerate other words like bad*ss and sh*t.

But some words just should NOT be censored.

Like the word "sex". I do not think that singing the word sex would aggravate a pervert to start running about raping any walking creature. (Actually it might, for a very rare few with such a psychological issue.) But it is a truly acceptable and normal English word. Heck, millions of people do it every night. And there are countries which encourage it to increase their population.

And then a few days ago, I heard the most outrageous word being censored. The word "God". What, Malaysia has resorted to such a low level that songs praising Allah is broadcasted in Masjids everywhere and people within the vicinity of at least 20 kms can hear, and songs which did not even have any ounce of Christianity but made use of the word "God" are censored in such a way. I must proclaim - I am no racist, nor am I in any way against the Islam religion, nor am I even Christian. It's just that I found the action abhorrent.

Heck the song had the word "God" censored but not the word "damn"! The word was "Goddamn" and the song goes "---damn....".

And then songs totally implying the negative thoughts:

Baby if you strip, you can get a tip
‘Cause I like you just the way you are
I’m about to strip and I’m well equipped
Can you handle me the way I are?
I don’t need the G’s or the car keys
Boy I like you just the way you are
Let me see ya strip, you can get a tip
‘Cause I like, I like, I like….

are left to dominate the radio channels on air. (I do personally like the tune of this song, though. =P )

Are there people out there who actually care about these censorships? The rights and the wrongs?

For you my dear.

You make me so hot,
You make me wanna drop,
It's so ridiculous,
I can barely stop,
I can hardly breathe,
You make me wanna scream,
You're so fabulous,*
You're so "good" to me, baby, baby
You're so "good" to me, baby, baby

A dedication to the very important thing that helped my travel all the way from KL to Kedah.

Confused yet?

You see, it's about a car, not the love of my life. And this car belongs to my uncle. The air conditioning of the car konked. And apparently the KL people somehow aren't able to fix it. Either that, or they're charging exorbitant prices. So my aunt (his sister, not his wife) had to drive the car all the way back to Kedah to get it fixed.

It was a big group travelling - Grampa, Gramma, Papa, Mama, Aunt, Aunt, Cousin, Cousin, Me. So we took two cars. Of course, the older people should get the nicer car. It IS at least a 5-hour drive. And we left home at 1pm. So the people in the HOT car was the last 5 in the list.

We had the windows winded down the entire journey, prayed for no rain (for if it was raining, we'd have to shut our windows and suffocate to our deaths) and took it a kilometre at a time. The starting was pretty good. The air was good, the smell of nature was good.

Then, an even nicer smell of nature came about. The type we excrete from our bodies. And then there were bad man-made smells - the ones excreted by trailers on diesel fuel. For those times, we held our breaths, and decided to fool ourselves that it was free sauna with an extra promotion package of free tanning.

The people in the back seat were pretty much sleeping most of the journey. It helped, you see, to dwell in the Land of Dreams. But my Aunt sure couldn't or we'd be in the Land forever without a chance of escape. And I, well, for once, I wasn't pigging. My mom usually prefers me not to sleep when she drives back to hometown cause she said it makes her feel sleepy too.

And in the heat, I thought my Aunt needed moral support, since it was all I could give, as I sure had no courage to be driving an old Mercedes trying to be quick. Yes, I do happen to be a slow driver. So I stayed awake. We stopped once, for fuel, for toilet, for food, for ice cream. And then we proceeded.

We all reached, safe and sound. DUH. I wouldn't be able to type this, or any of the previous five posts if we didn't.

Glad to report, I DID NOT turn any shade darker, cause apparently my skin follows my dad's and it just has that ability to turn back fair. (Now, no one start knocking on my door to ask me to be your lab rat.) Though my poor driver Aunt did, though her wet towel helped a little throughout the journey.

*Lyrics have been changed to protect me, so no one can sue me for copyrighting.

Happy Valentine's.

Happy Valentine's Day!

To those with a special someone, may you cherish them for all time.
To those without, may you find one soon and cherish them for all time.
To those without and not intending to have, may you cherish yourself for all time.

Have a great day!

And I do not foresee myself with any more news till I get back to Aussieland, so till then, toodles!

Thank my lucky stars.

It's a good, no GREAT thing that I came online today.

Cause I managed to check all my 31 Gmail mails and 36 Hotmail mails and I didn't bother checking my Yahoo mails.

And among my 31 Gmail mails, I found one that says something along the lines of:

Please pay your rent by February 15 2008 or we will have to terminate your contract.

It's from my apartment.

So, if I checked tomorrow, I'd have no place to stay when I get back. Who knows what happens to my stuff that are currently there.

Gosh.

I can now heave a sigh of relief, cause my online banking just told me that my BPAY made it through.

The comforts of a fully-furnished home:

• No contractors walk in and out of your house to fix this and fix that.
• No electricians walk in and out of your house to fix this and fix that.
• No curtain people walk in and out of your house to fix up hooks for your curtain laces.
• No need to pack things up from your old house to move to your new house to unpack, then repack cause you have nowhere to store those things.
• Well, it's FULLY-FURNISHED, which means all your furniture is around, which takes up floor space so you don't have as much floor to clean after said contractors and electricians have walked in and out.
• And I repeat, less floor space to clean after said contractors and electricians walked in and out the day after you cleaned because they walked in and out.
• Oh, and less floor space to clean after said contractors and electricians walked in and out the day after the day you cleaned after the day you cleaned because they walked in and out.
• You don't feel like you're living in a stranger's place, cause you're used to having your furniture around you.

Actually, know what's better? A fully-furnished leased apartment. Where maintenance can be performed by the lessor and where there will be no need for drilling, and climbing of walls and ladders. Of course, together with the absurd amount of cleaning after all that.

I am finally appreciating the goodness of my 116.

Oh, and I am so NOT used to the moving-into-a-new-house thing.

Homemade Slide.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to teach you how to make a homemade slide. Do pay close attention. It's a very easy process, but hard to achieve results.

What you'll need is a flight of stairs, freshly mopped; a mop; and a bucket of water. Good to have some bandages ready for garnishing.

Now, ensure your feet are wet-ish, from the mopping and walking on other freshly-mopped areas. This is a very important part of the process.

Carry a mop on your left hand, with the intention of mopping downstairs. With your right hand, carry the bucket of water.

Walk down that flight of stairs, and see if your slide works! Simple as that.

There is no 100% success, but if luck is on your side, I'm sure it'll work for you!

Thank you for tuning in. Stay tuned for more interesting things you can do from the comfort of your home.

Dear Lady Owner of WQJ 8778:

Have you not been taught as a kid that "Honesty is the best policy." or maybe you've heard of "Thou shalt not steal." or maybe even "We should not lie.".

Seriously.

And to think that you're at such a financial status that you have the ability to be employing THREE maids to take care of your THREE precious children. I guess maybe you're THAT nice a person that you think you'd overwork ONE maid with your THREE children thus you're helping reduce their burden when they only have to pay attention to one at a time.

More so, it is just a really not-that-chunted phone. It's a Sony Ericsson yes. With VGA camera abilities, with Bluetooth and Infrared abilities...ladida. So, it's a pretty canggih phone. But as compared to the one you allowed your maybe-seven year old kid to play with, a Nokia something (the one Diong has), I can guarantee you my phone isn't worth your conscience. If you even have one that is.

I must assure you. Whilst I do wear glasses, and have my right eye's power as high as 500, I WAS wearing my glasses at that time. And judging by the fact that you were barely a metre away from me, and that you bent down and picked up the phone that has accidentally dropped from my brother's pocket, I can tell in court with the hand on the Bible and "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" that I DID see you pick it up. (It might be a minor glitch that I am not Christian.)

I can tell in court that you picked it up, passed it to a man, and the man stared at the phone with an obviously puzzled look on his face, but proceeded to keep the phone. Whilst I can honestly say, I cannot recognise the man who you passed it to, I can say I saw you pick it up. Well, who in the world can miss a flary BRIGHT green top when it flaps down in front of your eyes.

I called so many times, with so many different numbers, and you had no gut to pick up. I even sent you an SMS pretending to be a girl worrying why her boy won't pick up her call. I guess that was lame. But I wasn't really thinking straight.

Mommy and Big Bro says, in all Cina way, "They'll lose more than you did, that's their karma."

I say, too bad for you, but it doesn't really help me.

I can only bask in the hope that your conscience will eat you up from inside, and you'll do some good to earn back the karma that you lost.

May you lead a life that's worth your actions.

Apologies.

No, don't worry. I do not intend to be killing my blog or abandon it at its 200th stop.

I've just been cruelly removed from the world where Internet exists.

So I guess, the previous post would be left at "Stay tuned...". Cause there really isn't much to be continuing with.

Oh well.