Our culture?

Is it our culture that whenever we see pots, containers, ponds or water features, we must toss our coins into them? Isn't it a bad omen as it signifies throwing our money away? Funny lar especially us Chinese.. I used to do that before too but not now because i am broke.. :) Can't afford to throw away money d.. I think other races in Malaysia are also picking up this culture.. Have seen them tossing coins into ponds too.. lol...

Previously they do that in temples or other more 'reasonable' places.. Ok, i understand.. Maybe for charity... But now, they do that too in shopping centres... Why lar??

Eh people, those are not wishing well too...

Next time, if i have my own pharmacy, i will set up a water feature with a pot in it also... Might earn me another few hundred bucks every month..

Fourth one

Had a sudden push to change the header of my blog this afternoon.. :) It took me quite some time to align the picture to the rectangular box.. Stupid blogger.. Anyway this is my fourth one.. It has a different 'feel' compared to the previous three..

I don't want to eat curry rice anymore..

What's so bad with eating curry rice?

Because...

In Malaysian context, it means u're in a jail

In Singaporean context, it means u're in a funeral

So, why eat curry rice since we have so many thing else to eat right? :p

Philippines 19May - 4June 2010

I am shedding my skin like a snake now.. Thanks to the sunburn i got from the Philippines..

I know it's weird to have this kind of intro.. This is because I have decided to go random, to type anything that comes across my mind when i post this entry.. :) I realised that it's hard to get myself started when i have too many things to blog about.. And finally, i end up not blogging..

To begin with, I was back for about five days now from the Philippines.. Honestly, i have never thought that i will visit Philippines in my entire life.. It is so alien to us in Malaysia really.. It all started with the invitation by Dr Ignatio to join the workcamp in Alegria in conjunction with our elective module.. Was a bit reluctant to join in the first place because i had earlier planned to buy a DSLR and play with it as my elective.. But i guess it will be a rare opportunity for us to join a camp like this, especially in the Philippines.. I can be very sure that i won't be travelling to the Philippines for my entire life if not for the workcamp.. It was a difficult decision.. Between temptation and opportunity.. In the end i chose Philippines, hopping that i will get my DSLR later... lol....

On the 19th May, i flew to Singapore alone to meet Kin Man, Kwong Howe and Boon Fong.. As planned, we toured Singapore and put a night there in the terminal.. We slept on the floor of the arrival hall in terminal 2.. It was quite a rare sight as there were only four of us there.. Thank god the security didn't chase us away..

We flew to Cebu the next day for the workcamp.. Not going to talk about every single thing that happened there or else i will be writing a thesis..

So, what's interesting there in the Philippines?

1. Toilet

The public toilets in Philippines are really clean to the extent that u can sleep in it.. Exaggerating only lar... But seriously, the toilets there are very clean.. Ashame to say that Malaysia's public toilets are way dirtier than theirs.. booo.........

2.Food

They have nice food there, especially the barbequed ones.. Have already started to miss their barbequed food.. But the food in the Philippines are either very very very salty or very very very sweet.. Hope i don't come back with diabetes or hypertension..

3.Jeeps

They have some taxis there... But the most interesting thing is the jeeps aka jeepnees, colourful ones.. Jeeps are the main public transport there.. Each trip cost us 7 pesos ( about 50 cents )... The unique part is the way they modified the vans and lorries into what they called 'jeepnees'

4.Beach

I can't think of a suitable adjective to describe the beaches there.. They are just so wonderful.. It is like Redang everywhere in Cebu.. :)

Am glad to have put myself in this workcamp.. It was a tough one but it's definitely worth it.. Once again, it gave me the chance to open my eyes and experience tonnes of new things.. I saw starfish and touched them for the first time... I saw the planet Saturn with the telescope that was used to capture planet images for NASA..

Thanks Dann for guiding us during our stay in Cebu.. :)

Thomas Cup 2010

Thomas Cup had taken up quite some time off my holiday this sem break.. It was so nice of RTM to have broadcasted the matches live in TV1.. For once, i can follow sports live without astro.. :)

It wasn't a happy ending for Malaysia to have ended up in the third place together with the Japanese team.. Wouldn't be so shameful for Malaysia had not talked so loud before the competition.. It has always been our tradition to boast about winning something big before we actually achieve it.. That's us, Malaysia...

The players aren't entirely to be blamed... Though they should have played better, we must understand the tonnes of load on their shoulder.. It would be terrifying when thousands of supporters put their hopes on us.. But remember, they are not always for us.. They will cheer for us if we win but anytime when we do not perform, they will jeer at us.. Selfish isn't it?

During the semifinal match between Malaysia and China, i can see that Malaysia is heading towards a very big problem.. I only see old faces in our team... We won't have back up shuttlers in the future.. We are too dependent on our Datuk Lee and KKK/TBH... Who are the rest who can give a fight to the Chinese? None..

Come on Malaysia.. You got to forget the old players and focus on younger ones who can fight.. Xia Xuanze who once played against Wong Choong Hann in the world championship is already a coach to the chinese singles player.. And yea.. Wong Choong Hann is still in the court fighting against Chen Jin coached by Xia Xuanze... Pity him old man..

I wonder when will our Datuk stop playing for Malaysia.. 35?? 40??

Interesting thing in Kuching..

Kuching, Kuching... What is so special about you? Apart from having its people staying on trees and Orang Utan being the best companion.. :) Nah.... I was bored of having to explain to people about people here living on trees and depending on orang utans and crocodiles as the only mean of transport..

I have found out another interesting thing in Kuching.. Yes, this... Satellite receiver or more commonly known as parabolic disc (English), tua tia (Hokkien) or tai bok ma (Hakka) locally..

They mushroomed in Kuching and maybe places like Sibu and Miri, east malaysia more commonly, for the past few years.. For all this while, we have been complaining for not receiving enough attention from the federal government... Yes indeed.. When people in west Malaysia enjoyed better development, we struggled here.. People in west malaysia have extra channels like 9tv and 8tv while we were stuck with RTM1, RTM2, TV3 and NTV7... Although, most of us here in Malaysia don't really watch any of these with the presence of Astro..

Lucky us, we have this... Though illegal, the number of 'parabolic disc' in kuching is ever growing.. Of ten houses, easily up to seven or eight will have them...

It's kind of interesting phenomenon here in east malaysia but honestly, i don't think it's a good thing for Malaysia.. We watch more chinese and taiwan channels instead of locals.. Kids here are exposed more to things happening overseas, china and taiwan mostly..

I wonder why we don't have 8TV and 9TV here since we are all part of Malaysia...

What happened to me from 3rd April 2010 to 5th May 2010

Once again, i have gone missing for almost an entire month from blogger. It has always been the same reason, busy. Last month was quite a hectic one, especially with EOS occupying almost three quarter of it. Somemore, we had IMU ball earlier that month.

IMU ball 2010, Audacieux, was a great one when almost the whole batch of B107 attended. It was really a special night, being the first for many of us. It would have been even better if IMU ball is held after our EOS. I am sure all of us would have enjoyed more. Nahhh, we still enjoyed ourselves. :)

We had our two study weeks straight after the IMU ball. In fact, it had already started on the day of IMU ball itself. As usual, study weeks had always been the most dreadful time of the semester, not the exam day itself. This was the sixth time we suffered in IMU, waking up at 7.30am and sleeping at 12.00am the next day. In between that, what we did was study, of course minus the time for lunch and dinner plus about an hour to chill. We drown ourselves with notes and sometimes memorised the whole lecture, unable to understand a single thing... We studied about twelve hours a day, for 12 days. Straight away after that, we had five days marathon of EOS. Who on earth could have done that?? We did, because we are crazy. Call us machines, not human.

- six semesters of lecture notes-

-our C-15-2 base-

EOS this year wasn't that smooth for me. Did some silly mistakes here and there. Was glad that it was finally over and it's time for HOLIDAY, a freaking two months of holiday plus i am flying to Cebu, Phillipines. Muahahahaha...

- our second base, library -

- dinner time -

Went to Genting with my gf after the EOS. It was a great trip, when things went smoothly and weather was great. This time we went outdoor theme park again. Proud to say that i went onto spaceshot for the fifth time, and it wasn't that scary anymore.. haha.... Entered the casino and donated RM60 to uncle lim. Well, i didn't just donate RM60 blindly because i will be getting a free room soon.. Wait till i figure out how to collect my first point from the genting worldcard. :)

Oh ya... i met Misbun there and took a photo with him.. I didn't know why he was there only to find out today that they were attending tan fook's wedding reception the other day.. So unlucky we didn't get to meet the rest of the team. Guess what, Misbun's son was confirmed with H1N1 yesterday. Gosh, i had direct contact with Misbun... I don't want to get H1N1... Hell no....

Now, i am back in Kuching... Gonna spend my two weeks of holiday here wisely before i leave for Cebu.. But champion me... I have forgotten to bring back my passport, meaning i will not be able to leave malaysia... Thank god my friends were still in KL and they brought it back to Kuching for me.. I believe i will be deadmeat if i were to fly to KL just to get my passport...

Some photos of Cebu... salivating?? lol...... i hope the place is as nice as in the photos..

Anyway, here i am in Kuching enjoying my holiday.. Two more of this kind left before i step into another phase of my life.. Can't wait to graduate... :)