My 21st birthday present(s).

After much nagging and complaining, I'm giving in. I mean, I'm sorry lah. Facebook (which many of you contributed to creating for me) just seems more interesting as I don't have to crack my head up to think of catchy phrases and try to make myself sound more interesting than I am.

Excuses? Or maybe I'm just losing my mojo? Or maybe it's the high def in me. Ya whatever.

So right.

It started about a week after my birthday, at a dinner in Dumpling Inn. CP said, okay, this Friday and Saturday, cancel all your plans. Then I was like, huh? How to just cancel la? Cause I have classes on Friday and I have netball practice on Saturday ma.

She's like, cancel only, don't care. So, I was like...ermmmmm....owhkaaaayy...

So a week passed and she still wouldn't let me know, except she said we're doing something lah. So I'm like...okay...

Friday came and I was over at Fenner, waiting to celebrate Swee Loke's birthday and then CP and SW decided to let me in a bit on the thing.

CP: Okay what to bring tomorrow. Bring a set of formal wear, a set of swimwear, a set of casual wear, a set of pajamas, you can bring pillow also if you want. Got anything to ask me? You ask la, then I say need to bring or not.

Xin: Huh? Why do I need so much clothes for one day?

CP: Just bring one suitcase. You can bring one suitcase and put whatever you want to bring inside. Anything you want, so long as it fits in one suitcase. But you need lots of sleep, cause you need a lot of energy tomorrow.

Xin: (getting agitated) Wah lao. You want me to bring so much stuff how come never tell me earlier?? I have to do laundry wan you know! Now you tell me at 11pm, I have to do at least 3 loads of laundry, then you want me to sleep? Impossible lah. Why couldn't you tell me this earlier? Ishh...

CP: Don't care. You just bring all those. Quickly do your laundry then sleep la.

Xin: My laundry cannot quickly do wan lah! Grrr....

So anyway, the outcome was that I slept at 6am, managing to finish up 2 loads of laundry, ironing, digging out luggages of clothes to find those sets of formal wear, swimwear and so on. I even woke Miss Tan up countless of times while trying to pack.

I tell you, boy, was I pissed off that morning. I wouldn't talk to CP, nor to SW (for being an accomplice in not giving me a reason as to why I needed to bring so much). I still mildly acknowledged CY though, cause he wasn't too happy with their leading me on aimlessly either.

When they reached to pick us up from Academie, I was the only one with a suitcase (very expected I must say), and I headed into the Tarago and just sat and kept quiet. And then KH was asking, why she bring suitcase wan? CP answered "Oh cause I ask her to bring a lot of sets of clothes." And he laughed. Very loudly and evilly. And at that point, I wanted to get off the car and slap him across the face. I mean, dah lah I was mad, didn't have enough sleep, and put on such humiliating grounds, he had the nerve to laugh.

But yes, I was pissy and sleepy and tired. Miss Tan tried to ask if I was okay, and started apologising because she didn't know that it would cause me to have to stay up all night to do laundry. She said they figured a surprise would be good. I told her, "It's okay. I just need some sleep and some sugar, and I'll be nice the rest of the day."

So, I slept pretty much two-thirds of the drive to Sydney.

When I woke up, I actually contemplated in my head whether to stop being pissy or that it'll be better to indulge in my emoness and be pissy all day. Then it occurred to me that they all definitely put a lot of effort into planning everything and to keep it mum, so I decided to forgive. (And as you can tell so far, it's not forgotten.)

So I downed some sugar (yes yes I do carry some around wherever I go for times I need a boost) and then I started joining in the conversations and the singing and looked around outside. And by the time we reached Sydney, I'm pretty much my normal sot pot self. (Miss Tan recently mentioned something about me having to keep up my sot pot self as my normal self, and how I feel whether it's an obligation to stay sot, but that's an entirely different topic altogether.)

First on the agenda : Taronga Zoo.

Apparently someone thought I really wanted to go there and therefore planned for everyone to visit there for my birthday. (I am not crazily enthused about zoos, nor have I expressed crazy interest in going, though I did mildly mention that one day I want to go around Sydney's tourist attractions which do include that zoo.)

So in we went, and I went into crazy poser mode. Anytime I sense a camera aiming at me, I'd pose for it. Wah, we took gila berbanyak pictures lo that day.

Pictures of animals:


Pictures of people:



Pictures of people who have been influenced by the animals (note my 'tail') :

Pictures we made for headhunters who are looking for ad models :

Jeans ad

Laptop ad

Ecstasy pills ad

Kung fu ad


You get the gist of it. Poser pictures, with pure pleasure and leisure and zero content.

When we left the zoo, we took one bye bye pose.

Somehow the people on the left seemed as if they can't wait to leave whilst the 3 of us on the right were sad that it was over.

From the zoo, we headed to Bondi for dinner at Hurricane, but we didn't have a table at that time yet, plus we were waiting for Gary, Jeremy and Wan Theng to get there, so we headed to Bondi Beach, had Fried Mars Bar (they do taste as sinful as they sound) and yep guessed it, TOOK MORE PICTURES!

Me and the Mars bar which gave me another boost of sugar :

An actual normal picture where no one did stupid actions (one of the rare few that day) :

CP's idea of an artistic sequencing photo... :

....which turned out not quite as expected (do zoom in to look at the priceless expression on Ah Boy's face) :

After spending bout more than half an hour by the beach, waiting for them to arrive, we headed on to Hurricane for dinner. I broke my vego for them mouthwatering pork ribs and chicken.

Ready for a feast :

The end result of many hungry souls gorging :

Happy Hurricane-d people :

And if you think our day ended there, not nearly.

We split up - Jeremy and Wan Theng headed home whilst Gary went out with us. We headed on to Mamak (where Gary and I had a history there together with this one particular staff there) for dessert.

We had cendol and ais kacang and some drinks. Haha! I haven't forgotten SW's cendol light. =P

And once we were done there, we decided to head to Darling Harbour for a night breeze. And yes, I posed more there. However, by then I think most of them have consumed 97% of their energy levels except me.

While the rest were busy taking the night scene, I was still charged and ready for the camera!



And while I was busy, there were lost souls and lots of criminal activity going on.

There was the "Oh-no-I-don't-know-where-I-am" :

And there were the mugging in the background, while in the front there were two men dealing in some sort of suspicious activity :

The journey home was actually as eventful as the entire trip itself, with the emergence of wallabies on the road and the fog. But I must admit I was asleep for probably 95% of the drive home. I woke up once when the car swerved to avoid the wallaby, asking "Huh? What happened?" and then another time to notice that it was all foggy and that I could see nothing to see, so I continued to sleep.

And that ends my most interesting birthday present that I've ever received in the 21 years of my life.

I would like to thank Kelly, Hong Yin, Ai Lin, Ying, Ter Lee, Chern, Willy, Wai Yee and even more to those who went along with me for the trip - Cheok, Ah Boy, John Faith, Sheng, Alex, Man Yee and Miss Tan. Love you guys loads and I will remember this for as long as my memory serves me.


And, no while this post is exceptionally long already, I'm not quite done.
I did entitle the post my present(s) so I want to take this chance to express my greatest gratitude to the rest of my birthday-present givers as well.

Thank you Leanne, June, Debbie and Lingee for the Krispy Kreme.
Thank you Elaiza, for the chocolates.
Thank you Alex and Man Yee, for the lovely set of moo-moo stuff.
Thank you Brandall, for the very cute photo frame star thing (as you can see, I'm having trouble describing it).
Thank you to the same people mentioned above plus Shawn, Arjun, Regina, Marcus for the lovely dinner you all prepared for me and the awesome surprise that it came with.

And of course while gifts are great, wishes are just as meaningful.

Thank you Mommy.
Thank you Xiang Mei Yi.
Thank you er ge.
Thank you Daddy.
Thank you ta ge.
Thank you Suba.
Thank you Sammy.
Thank you Shin.
Thank you Liangwei.
Thank you Kah Meng.
Thank you Inaz.
Thank you Hana.
Thank you Cindy.
Thank you Mr Miller.
Thank you Corina.
Thank you Wayne.
Thank you Debbie.
Thank you June.
Thank you Leanne.
Thank you Lingee.
Thank you Winnie.
Thank you Edmond.

Thank you to everyone else who wished me, but I have forgotten. I profusely apologise as I lost my piece of paper of which I recorded when what and how I got wished (obviously prepared for blogging).

And these thank yous are in no particular order. I wrote them as I remembered.

THANK YOU ALL FOR MAKING MY TWENTY FIRST ONE I WILL CHERISH FOR ALL TIME.

Zipppeddeeedoooo!

My papa is keeping his promise!

He's giving me my birthday present!

True, it won't be instant, nor will it be soon, but he's trying to get home as soon as possible.

He actually sent me an email to apologise for all the worrying he caused, and to explain the situation there, and to let me know that it isn't as dire as it seemed to be. He also sent me an email explaining how his resignation was going and that if they approved it sooner, that he'd go back sooner.

So...yaaayy!!!

My papa is going back...latest March 2009! I can't wait for him to be safe at home. =)

Oh. And perfect news for me to be receiving on Father's Day.

Happy Papa's Day! I love you soo much, and even more for trying your best to keep your promise to me.

May you be safe in the heavens.

I would like to dedicate this post to Rachel and her family:

Dear Rachel's dad,

May you be safe in the heavens. Stay there and watch over your family. Watch over your wife and your three daughters, all of whom are doing splendidly in each of their lives. I know you have been a great father to all of them, and I know it from your eldest daughter who speaks of you ever so fondly.

I thought it was very admirable of you to push her to do her Masters, as you did yours and passed with flying colours. And while I didn't know much about you, I know you must have been proud for you've done great with your life.

I'm glad that it was painless. While you might not have had the chance to say your last words, at least there was no suffering. And no suffering is always a good thing.

I salute all that you've done and the wonderful daughter of yours that I've come to known must've been through a great upbringing, which I must accredit to you.

Past happenings. Part Two.

So, that was 14th of May. Two days later, something else happened. Diong Chi Yao's birthday!

But hor, he already wrote all about it, so go read his blog to find out lah. (Hmmm...I always generate readers on his blog.)

16 May 2008

Click here.

There you go.

And it's a wrap, boys!

Past happenings. Part One.

True to my word, the blog sort of died along with my internet.

But now that the internet is up, it should be revived too!

And I shall keep to my word, where I will entertain all, with the past, present and future happenings.

Now. Let's start from more than 3 weeks ago, on the very blessed day of 14th of May.

14 May 2008

The day started with Shuey screaming from the toilet. I ran in, and asked her what happened?!? She scolded me for leaving the floor wet again, and said she slipped on it. I felt so bad so I started cleaning up by wiping the toilet floor.

And then I heard music, I ran out of my room, screaming "I hear song! I hear song!" and then TA-DAH! Got Kah Meng (holding the cake), Shuey (on the camera), Sheng Wei, Kar How, Hana Jon, Inaz, Willy, Cheok and Diong. I don't think I missed anyone out, but then old liao, my memory can fail me. Sorry la ya. Sing song. Cut cake. Pass cake around. Make speech. Make a fool of myself. Played mafia. Go to sleep. (Oh in between I received calls and messages wishing me Happy Birthday of course. =P)

Morning. Go to work. Cindy asked me, "Today is your birthday, right?". I nodded, and wondered how she knew, but let that biting curiosity die out. Apparently half the bakery knew - Corina did, Wayne did and Debbie too did. Had to work downstairs, cause Diong had to work on his essay, so he didn't go to work. Work work halfway, I received a call on my phone. Picked it up, it was a lady named Leanne, and she told me that the feedback form that I filled up for the Graduate Information Session the day before won the draw! And I won a $50 Co-op voucher!

After work, go to class. Tax law. La di da. Boring. After that, one hour break. Rush home. Shower. Go to Micro tute. Yay! My quiz didn't do too badly. Considering no one got full marks, and I got 8 out of 10. Yay. Went to Micro lecture after that. Blablabla. Normal lah.

Then after that, I had dinner plans. Cheok told me that she will bring me out to a fancy restaurant. It would only be her, Sheng and I because Diong and Kar How had to work on their assignments and Miss Tan had another friend's birthday party to attend. I was pretty unhappy that they couldn't celebrate my birthday with me, but oh well, all is good.

I was told to dress up, so I dressed myself in something I considered nice and I thought I looked good in it. Sheng said he would be wearing a shirt, and Cheok said she spent a long time making up. I started to panic. Sure, I looked good, but I didn't spend A LOT of time. I just spent my usual lot of time. But I was hungry. Very hungry, so I didn't really care loh.

Cheok came, saw what I was wearing, said "No, no, no". I started rummaging through all my clothes, turned my room into a tornado disaster site, and she finally settled on a tube, that I would never have worn, if I never had dug it out. And she made me wear it.

So, for her sake, and for my hunger's sake, I did. And then before I left the room, she said "Jeng jeng" and then said "It's payback time." and proceeded to blindfold me, from outside my room. I was like, "But I know how this place looks like, I know how your car looks like. We're going to a restaurant only whaat, sitting in a car also need to blindfold?". But I went along, again, for her sake, and for my hunger's.

So she drive la drive. Drive la drive. She keeps asking me "Do you know where we are now?" and at certain times I guessed it right, but she kept telling me I was wrong. And she turned and drove and drove until I had no idea where I was.

And then later she said "Okay we're here." And then she led me out of the car.

And then I could take off my blindfold, and SURPRISE! WAH! I was in Capital Towers! With so berbanyak people there! Got Shuey, Cheok, Diong, Sheng, Ah Boy, Ai Tan, Kelly, Hong Yin, Ying, Chern, Willy, Wai Yee, Regina, Marcus, Ter Lee, Arjun and Shawn! All standing at the front porch, waiting for me in the cold!

And then I was brought up to their place, and there was all these lovely food! Vegetarian, because they knew I was on a vego diet. But, sadly, I broke it that morning when I was working because I was told I'd be eating in a fancy restaurant, and I figured if I was going to a restaurant, I wouldn't be eating a salad. But it was soo soo sweet of everyone to have worked so hard to prepare a meal that I could eat.

The night was an eventful one, filled with laughter, cake, and even a kiss.

Thank you EVERYONE, for putting so much effort into it and for all the lies that you all told to keep it a surprise!

P.S. I forgot to mention that the entire time while I was in the car, Shuey was at the back seat, holding her breath, filming me. So there's actually a film of me, in the car, blindfolded. I just couldn't get it to upload. =P

Hmmm...

This is a very random thought, but imagine if you saw this graffiti in the toilets:

I wonder why people bother to write on these walls/panels while they're doing their business. Wait, I just did it. But why?

Misteri.

Internet is still on its way to making a comeback. Patience and all shall be great.

And misteri birthday outing. Start : MISERABLE. End : Waay better than Les Miserables.

Hmm...

I think hor, when Internet come back hor, I also no mood to blog liao loh.

Cause like you know how you hungry until very hungry until a point where you're no longer hungry? Yeah, something like that.

How?

*drumroll*

The Internet makes a comeback!

By the 30th of May!

And with the comeback you will get to also experience the surprise party on the 14th of May, and on the 16th of May and maybe a little on the 17th of May!

Are you on the edge of your seats???

Jeng jeng....

Obsolescence.

Oh my goodness surprise party for me.
Lies lies lies.

Oh my goodness "surprise party" for Diong.
Hee hee hee.

Oh my goodness surprise party for another person.
Heh heh heh.





P.S. I will start to write posts that contain at least a 100 words. I just either need my internet to come through or some time to be able to sit in front of a computer in the lab.

Sheeshkebab.

HARD WORK. ALL GONE.

SHEESHKEBAB.