what i did instead of studying

Such a beautiful Saturday.. perfect for being stuck at your study table with mountains of books and lecture notes, mugging like your life depended on it.

Me? I was catching rabbits.

Really. Yeah =P. Never said i was a typical med student, did i?

Haha seriously.. actually i was on my way to Carrefour for some groceries shopping when i saw 2 rabbits jumping by the roadside (near the Komanwel Park). "Cute", i thought. "Funny", i thought next. "Irresponsible", came to my mind last. Yeah, there shouldn't be rabbits by the roadside.

Further up the road i saw a box with rabbit food inside. Doesn't take more to recognise it. Someone decided to abandon the rabbits there =/. Sigh.

Thought i might want to rear them. Or find someone who would like to rear them. Instead of them invading the Komanwel Park and start proliferating faster than a squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (lol. sorry can't help it. was studying that last ma). Or stain the road with their blood and guts =S.

There were 3 of them actually.. but i only managed to catch 2 of them and kept them inside a box. Probably will go back there tomorrow for the third one.

Just a few hours after i brought them home, and they've already shat a tonne. Ugh. And when their 'home' is overflowing with shit, they decided to jump out of the box and shat all over my backyard too. I'm this close to treating my friends to rabbit stew for dinner. But i'm a nice person.. =P (no rabbit stew for you)

i call the left one Dirty. i call the right one Shitty.

Meanwhile i was caring for Merv's (aka Mario) turtles too. They were his birthday present couple of months ago. After almost a week of observing them, i can finally map out their everyday routine without error.

Wake up. Eat. Shit. Eat. Shit. Eat. Shit. Eat Shit. Sleep.

tutu and hippo. i dunno which is who tho.

Yawn. I need to study now. Post one last pic which i find so extremely cute. Hehe. I was washing the turtle's home and had to put them into a bowl temporarily. Then i saw this.

"i don't want to be turtle stew! get me out of here!"

Bet you never knew turtles were this smart, doncha?

ps - rabbits shat again. sigh. rabbit foot for luck, anyone? buy two free one?

ok i'm bored

Apparently i looked like Hidetoshi Nakata!

Err.. ok.. i don't see the similarities at all -.-"

Get back to studying ppl! EoS in less than 2 weeks! Gahhhh!!

ps - merry christmas to everyone!

From the Pau Snowman by Yih Seong & Chia Huan

a morbid post

Just got back from our rotations in KKB yesterday. We didn't do much, just clerked patients and learned physical examination. Yet.. i learned so much.

How behind every patient there's a long story to tell.

A lady with fever. She was diagnosed with dengue earlier but she has pretty much recovered fully by the time we clerk her. Halfway thru, i saw her kids peeping into the ward from outside. No doubt why she's so cheerful that day =)

A guy complaining of abdominal pains. He came into the outpatient department and we chatted with him because we did GI this sem. Apparently he's been bearing with the pain for 3 whole years, and it's because the pain has gotten worse recently that he came to see the doctor. He talked bout his work, his living with his parents, his family. He lost his work because of technological advancements and became a rubber tapper. He couldn't work with the pain these days so he's staying with his parents, who keeps nagging him. He has to take care of two children all by himself because his wife passed away 2 years ago from breast cancer. And i can clearly see the pain he's experiencing isn't the pain in the abdomen. The tears in his eyes isn't due to that persistent abdominal pain. It's how life has been treating him so unfairly.

A man who had been coughing for the last half year. Working in the printing industry. He had seen 3 doctors before being admitted. The first auscultated him and said it was just cough and gave him cough medicine and antibiotics. The second asked a few questions and prescribed him cough medicine again straight away, without doing any examination. It's only the third that heard something on auscultation and advised him to have an X-ray scan, which ultimately lead to the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. He was in the isolation ward, and he told us bout how prison-like he's feeling. And then the other patients in the isolation ward he met.

One was an old man with TB as well, who passed away during lunchtime. He was asking the old man to eat after seeing the old man keeping quiet and not touching his food. 20 minutes later, he's just gone. The second was another patient who came into the isolation ward and didn't even survive 12 hours. He didn't get a chance to talk to him.

And all the while he talked bout the 2 patients, he pointed to their beds. Reflexively, i turned to look at where he pointed and saw the empty beds. The beds had been neatly made, with the blanket covering them. And i wonder for how many patients, those beds had been their last lying place.

A young man, just a year older than us. Lying on the autopsy table. He killed himself by drinking some poison. His mom smelled something when he came home and asked whether he's ok. He dismissed his mom and went up to his room. One last cry for mom and he collapsed. He never made it to the hospital.

But most of all.. i learned how fragile life really is, and how so many of us never realised it until it's too late.

Recently i found out two friends of friends passed away. I don't really know them of course, but still.. i can't help but feel the tinge. I looked up their friendster profiles. Their faces i'd never see in real life. Their personality i'd never get to know. Their stories i'd never hear.

I read the stuff they wrote about themselves. The testimonials their friends wrote for them. The things they like, the dreams they had, the path they walked.

If only there's another way i can get to know them more.

I thought bout how many people die each day. How each death affects more than one person. I thought bout how if you looked at each stranger's face that passes you by everyday, you might not see one of them anymore the next morning.

And you will never get to hear their life stories first hand.

You know..

.. that you're in BIG trouble when you have a lil more than 4 weeks to study a whole year of lectures.

So GI paper was over last Friday. Checking back my answers during the 'feedback' (more like answer-giving session), i can't be more sure of it.

I seriously need some divine intervention to score an A in EOS3.

Or i could study much much HARDER. But hey, it's human nature to want the easy way out =P. Too bad the 'easiest' way out now is to study like mad. More like the ONLY way out. What fun life we have.

Guess i better buck up lots.

Anyway.. just had a series of birthday the past few weeks.. so here goes. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to NG WEI LIANG, CHUI HAN, WINNIE, CHEE MEI, PAUL KONG and CHIA HUAN! It's been great fun having you guys as 'family' .. made the 1.5 years in uni so memorable =). Hope all of your wishes come true!

Lastly to everyone, study hard and good luck for EoS.. we WILL survive. =)

ps on a sadder note.. juz heard our friend Rubin Tan (from EC) passed away on Tuesday due to problems during kidney transplant. Not so sure bout the details tho. May not really know him, but still i hope he finds peace in wherever he is now. *sobs*.

to have not a care in the world

I can smile when inside of me, everything's in turmoil and nothing seems right.

Ah.. how i wish it's back to the good ol' days where one has nothing to worry bout. Where did all the days gone?

a boy can only dream

I was looking around online at handphones recently. Because the one i have now is more than 3 years old (it's obsolete already!) and is merajuk-ing with me for some time now. Stupid phone suka-suka go into perma-silent mode and sometimes even reject my SIM card for no good reason. BUT i'm still not abandoning it because 1) i need a handphone, 2) i don't have money to buy one to replace it, and 3) so i'm waiting for some GOOD-HEARTED person to 'donate' a SE W850i to me. Oh where hath all the GOOD-HEARTED people go.. =P

Haha ok in case you still haven't get it, i soooo wanna get my hands on a Sony Ericsson W850i (*cough*my birthday coming*cough* - ok, it's FIVE months away but still.. never too early to drop hints, right? =P). Yes i think i'm getting greedy after getting a Canon Powershot A620 for my birthday last year. Sigh...

Advanced Walkman® 2.0 music player
2MP camera with 4x digital zoom
262.144 color TFT, 240x320 pixel screen
comes with a 1GB mem card

Too bad it doesn't have autofocus.. but seems like that doesn't make the photos quality drop too much (W850i/K750i test). And i have a digi cam for pictures anyway hehe. It's currently priced at RM 1700+ for original set and RM1400+ for AP set tho =S. Ouch. Pray the price drops by the time my birthday comes..

Saw it at a shop in KL Sentral today on the way to pick something up from the post office. Almost drooled all over the glass counter =(. So near yet so far..

A boy can only dream..

ps - i should be freaking studying for my exams instead of fantasising bout a handphone. sigh...

if only..

So many things i didn't do, so many things i never had the time to do.

At the blink of an eye, probably a quarter of my time here is gone.

Sometimes i wish i had another chance to live this life. To do all the things i wish i did.

Still, no use looking back and 'if only'-ing. Still gotta make the best out of this life.

ps - we all grew up, didn't we?

a word of consolation

It sucks when you didn't get what you think you deserved.

It sucks even more when you realised maybe you deserved what you get.

A word of consolation isn't much, but it's more than i ever asked for. Thanks, you might not realise it but i did feel better when you said it =)

Of course, overdosing myself with chocolate for dinner helped too. But i digress.

Gotta study like hell for EoS now. Can't lag behind everyone anymore.

our own M205 batchblog!

Yes guys and girls, i'm TOO blardy free.

So instead of studying for GI ICA which is a month plus away (damn), or the much dreaded EOS 2 months later (damn damn), i created a blog for our batch. Yes, you guys owe me a dinner. Make that TWO dinner. Blek.

Anyway, it's new so expect to see a LOT of changes - anyone willing to help with the HTML coding for template please PLEASE drop me a msg or sth k? ;)

Meanwhile, bloggers of M205, i need your email address (leave it in the comments, thanks =D) so you can post there. *looking at how dead most of M205's blogs are, i should think everyone's needed =P*

ps - click on the title of this post to go to the blog. The URL's m205batch.blogspot.com.

"there is no genius in medicine"

How true. If only i can smack that into my head.

I forgot which lecturer i quoted that phrase from. But i do know i shall keep that in mind till i got out of medical school. Maybe till i stopped working as a doctor. Maybe even longer.

Ever since i was small, most people regarded me like i'm some genius or something. I'm not being boastful by saying that, because there really is nothing to boast about me. I'm not being humble by saying that either, because i'm just trying to be pragmatic.

Smart lah. Genius lah. Sky veggie lah. Haha once at tuition the tutor even got the others to refer to me as Superman. Like, what the heck.

I admit i do let all the praises get to my head sometimes. Everyone likes to be praised, to be looked up to anyway. But i also know what i'm good at and what i'm not. I'm good at logic stuff like Maths and Physics. I'm not good at memorising stuff, especially when i never even tried.

Haha. At times i do wonder why am i in medicine when Biology and Chemistry are my weaker subjects. Do i really want to be a doctor? I don't know.. my dream job is one which just requires me to do nothing. Wait, that's everyone's dream job =P.

A, B-, B+, A, A-, A, B.
Sigh. If you see from my results you can see i'm fluctuating. That's because i always ALWAYS lose track of what i should be doing. And lose my motivation to study. Everytime i got an A i get ahead of myself and think i could get pretty good results if i just put in effort for a few days. So i procrastinate and procrastinate, till the week before exams.

Stupid. Where the hell did i get the idea that a med student can just slack and slack, then concentrate for a few days and still get good results.

Yeah i got B for Respi. No, that's not quite good what because it's just a grade away from failing. While everyone else around me are fretting bout not getting an A, me myself felt so relieved just not failing. The weeks during when we had Respi i was at my most unmotivated self. Was sleeping in almost every lecture. Didn't study till the week before exams. And being an OO during M206 orientation and having IMU Cup starting before Respi exams didn't help either.

Ah well. Guess it's not too late to realise this. I better start putting in SOME effort if i wanna survive med school. There is really no genius in medicine, only HARD WORK. This will be the first thing i tell every aspiring medical students out there. Either study your ass off, or don't even dream bout doing medicine.

That said, i have exactly a week to Haemato exams. Geez. Now i'm wishing if only i were a genius in medicine.

Remind me why the heck i joined cheerleading ..

10 guys, 10 girls.

2 dedicated captains.

12 days of practice.

Uncountable hours of lost 'life'. (what life??)

Even more hours of sleep debt.

Numerous frustrated, abandoned boyfriends, girlfriends and spouses.

2 weeks of slept-in/stoned-in lectures.

6 hours of practice everyday the past 3 days.

Several sprained ankles and pulled muscles.

20 pairs of sore legs and arms.

1 bad fall.

All this for..

1 night.

A 7+ minutes routine.

2 hours away.

1 hope.

1 dream.

1 cheer.

We've all been waiting to hear.

GO M205! GO SEM 3 RAPTORS!

ps - i can't feel my legs and arms O.o . Remind me again why i joined cheerleading..

since when 24 hours a day is enough?

Seems that i'm losing the 'urge' to blog anymore. Blog has been dead for more than 2 months already. Haven't been in the mood to blog lately. Not sure why, might be my overpacked schedule. Sigh. Sad thing is most of my time isn't taken up by studies-related stuff. Damn. Maybe i should get my priorities right. Especially after i screwed the Respi paper =(.

Summary from last post:
One month holiday. Jim Brickman's concert in Genting. JB tour. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. New semester started. Orientation. Rag. Rag. Rag. Get ragged. WTF. Rag some more. IMU Cup. Third in carroms (took one whole bloody weekend day before Respi exams - quote Deva: "carroms should be banned next IMU Cup!). Respi exams. I hate Respi. Cheerleading. Cheerleading. Cheerleading. No sleep. Oh shit (if i hear Fergie's London Bridge one more time i gonna lose my mind and start dancing our cheerleading routine O.o).

One week into Haemato already. One week to the cheerleading finals. Routine still not done yet. Damn we need all the luck we can get =/. And all the time we have too.

I HATE RESPI.

Period.

.. blog yang anda sedang baca tiada dalam perkhidmatan .. sila cuba lagi .. the blog that you're reading is not in service .. please try again

All right. I've been busy (like, duh =P). With stuff. Like, lots of stuff. So to all my loyal readers (funny there's still visitors after 2 months of non-update haha), i'll be counting down the days to my freedom once again.. and a new long, long, loooong post summing up everything. Or not.

Just wait and see. =P

5 days and counting down..

some rambling : if only we could slow down and enjoy life for a moment..

>this< close to screwing myself upside down

God. I still can't believe it. I don't know if i'm damn bloody lucky or there was some kind of divine intervention that saved my life. Damn.. i can't believe what has happened to me.

Friday, 7th July. Our cardiovascular (CVS) end-of-course assessment (in other words, exams la). I did try to start studying since the last post.. but as always, everything was left till last minute. Day after day.. i came up with so many reasons to study tomorrow and not today. And before i knew it, i'm wishing there's more than 24 hours in a day. Typical, eh? Haha. Anyway..

Saturday. Went playing badminton in the morning. Slacked the rest of the day watching Desperate Housewives and chatting online.

Sunday. Started all over again because i realised i wasn't studying when i was studying all the while for the past weeks. Whatever that means.

Tuesday. More than half done. Started feeling better. Actually believed i could scrape past this one.

Wednesday. Decided to study from the start again instead of finishing up the last third of the lecture notes. Thought it's better if i revise at least half of them for the second time than only one time through everything.

Thursday. Lecture notes piled up on the table. 2 thirds left, with a third untouched at all. Started reading like mad from 5pm till 3am. With lots of 'breaks' in between of course.

Friday early morning, 3am. Decided to leave the last 3 untouched lecture notes for tomorrow. Thought that the lectures were given the day before anyway, wouldn't need to go thru them twice. Set two alarms at 7am.

3am. Laid on my bed, tried to sleep. Then all of a sudden felt like looking for the crack for a game i downloaded earlier the day before. Little did i know what a big mistake this was gonna be.

3.15am. Found the crack and started 'trying out' the game. Told myself i'd stop at 4am and sleep.

4am. Somehow my subconsciousness convinced myself it wouldn't hurt if i played one more level, it'll just take a few minutes at most.

4.45am. Couldn't believe the time when i looked at the clock. Jumped into bed straight away. 5 minutes and i drifted off to sleep.

7am. Woke up to my handphone's alarm. Decided to lie down for a few more minutes and wait for my second alarm, which is supposed to go off a few minutes later.

9am. Opened my eyes.. wondering what day it is. My handphone was on my bed, vibrating. It was a reminder i set at 9am. Realised exams gonna start in 15 minutes. Panicked. 3 lecture notes still left untouched. Washed up, dressed up and look at the 3 lecture notes on the table. Start flipping through them. Realised it's already too late, i'm dead.

9.10am. Cursing the bloody lift which is stuck at 15th floor. Praying bloody hard the stuff in the last 3 lectures won't come out. Thought to myself this ain't gonna help, i've already killed myself.

9.15am. Reached MPH, and the exams start a few minutes after that.

I reached just in time before the paper started, and sat through the whole paper rather uneventfully haha. After they collected the papers. I sat there and stare blankly into space. The events that has just transpired had me bewildered how lucky i was. Or rather, how stupid i was.

I. ALMOST. MISS. MY. CVS PAPER.

And lost a CHUNK of marks off my final exams at the end of this year.

Imagine 5 weeks of lectures, hours of revision and lost 'life', dozens of printed notes, only to MISS the exams. Because i OVERSLEPT. I would've gone mad. Out of my mind. Like, fucking mad at myself i'll kill myself. Lol. Kidding bout the last part la, i'm not suicidal. That's more stupid than overslept on the day of exams =P

The 2 alarms i set at 7am didn't wake me up (ok.. they did, i just went back to sleep =P). And it was that reminder on my handphone that saved my life.

A reminder.

Bout a BIRTHDAY.

Of a friend.

That just saved my ass.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHOW CHOW THE BEST! Never in my life i've ever been more grateful for something you didn't do. Wait, that doesn't sound right. Blek. Hope you have a fucking great birthday at Genting. And enjoyed our plate of worms. =P

Thanks for saving my life.

Give me a break. Leave me alone.

Someone said my latest post is so depressing it sounded like a suicide note. And he suggested an idea to make it less depressing. Spot the difference. Lol.

You know.. sometimes you get so tired you just wished you can let everything go and run away to somewhere where nobody knows you and you have nothing to care about ^^

I'm feeling that way now. I don't know if it's the stress getting to me with less than 2 weeks to exams, maybe coz i've YET to study =P. Not that i didn't try.. i just.. can't =)

All i wanna do now is run ^^. Away from studies, away from friends, away from life. To where, it doesn't really matter, does it? Sigh. Yeah, it's getting to me =D. I'm breaking down with all this stress. Or maybe another reason altogether, i really can't say. Maybe there's a reason that's stressing me out, not studies.

I'm just... tired. Mentally, physically, emotionally, everything. I'm tired of everything ;)

Which is why i wanna ask you all a favor. Leave me alone =D. For the days up to our In-Course Assessment on 7th July, don't talk to me. If you see me on MSN, don't chat with me. Don't ask me out on movies, sports, mamak, anything ^^. I need a break. From everything. Thanks =)

Please don't talk to me bout this, i'm tired, that's all. Would be great if you guys just let me be with myself. I'll really appreciate it.

On a lighter note, it was Yeap's birthday yesterday, and a third of our batch was at the party at Chandeller. Nice atmosphere, nice food, nice company, and of course, the uber-nice birthday boy Chii Yeat. Happy 21st birthday!

Edit (29.6.06) - Uh, guys.. don't take this so seriously la lol. I'm not in depression, or suicidal, or on the verge of acquiring a gun and open fire in front of IMU or sth. Haha.. yes, i'm still sane -.-"

Still, thanks for all the concern though.. i'm perfectly all right, don't worry. It's just what i'm feeling really really deep down inside i guess.. and i wouldn't have posted this on my public blog if i knew it's gonna cause such big effect =/

ps - Jackie, uh thanks for the hug lol.

is it just me?

And so i woke up. Again.

I know this isn't the first time since i came into IMU. Though i don't remember experiencing this before coming here.

It's 4.30am, barely 3 hours since i slept. And i woke up with palpitations. Lol. Which means sudden awareness of my heart beat la. And when i tried to sleep, i just can't. Because my heart is beating too hard or too fast, i'm not sure. At least, it seems to beat too hard or too fast to me. Hmm.. juz took my pulse rate. 74 bpm. Normal.

I can't recall the last time this happened.. i think it's few months ago already. Wonder if i should be concerned bout this =/. I mean, healthy people don't wake up in the middle of the night because they're aware of their heartbeats.. am i having some unnoticed heart disease?

Lol. It doesn't really help when we're studying CVS right now. All those lectures and PBLs on congenital heart defects, those rheumatic heart disease, hypertension, arrhythmias... damn. At this rate i'm gonna become a hyperchondriac.

Then again, me being me, i'll probably forget bout this and fall asleep soon after i posted this entry. Life is too short, indeed, to be spent worrying. I just hope mine isn't too short to be spent living.

- disconnected -

Finally got back my internet connection yesterday. It's been more than a week.. since last Wednesday to be precise. Being disconnected taught me a few things tho..

1. my blog is dead. No it's not me who's lazy to update.. it's the lack of internet connection =P
2. i spent too much time online. As in hazardously too much time online. No, i'm not addicted. Nuh-uh. Definitely not. No addiction whatsoever =P
3. internet is the main culprit that caused me to sleep late everyday. The past week i've been waking up early.. so early i need to check two clocks twice every morning to make sure i'm not still stuck in my dreams..
4. i can actually survive for a week without internet! Ok, not really.. i've been having withdrawal symptoms since last Wednesday morning >.<
5. internet has become an essential part of life. I can't even sleep knowing i'm disconnected. Oh wait.. i slept even more without internet =/
6. i spent too much time online. Oh i said that.

Haha.. seriously, i think i'm so used to being connected 24/7 now that it felt so strange when i lost my internet connection. It's like being unplugged from the world and become stuck in this small small corner of the world. I can't chat with my faraway friends. I can't read my friends' blogs. I can't update myself on the latest news (ok, i'm juz too lazy to read the newspapers in the library =P). I can't get instant World Cup results (k, too lazy to watch the matches too.. but hey, i got clinic visit and CSU this week.. i have the right to be lazy this week =P). I have to actually WALK to the next room to talk to Keat How. Lol.

But everything's fine now. I have my connection to the outside world back. And i can chat with Keat How without having to walk a step now. I'm getting too lazy, ain't i? =P

Btw our Summatives 2 results were out today.. didn't really get what i thought i'd get easily. Not that i'm very confident i can get it.. now that i think of it, i didn't study hard at all. Sigh. Have been losing focus these days.. 3 more weeks to CVS paper.. need to buck up now. And i still haven't even look at the past 2 weeks' lectures >.<. Somehow, i know i'm soo gonna die 3 weeks later. Better dig my grave early, huh? ^^"

ungrateful me ..

My parents and brother went back to Senai yesterday. They came up on Friday morning and brought me to the bank to open an account. Then while i'm at uni, my mom cleaned my whole apartment and my dad repaired the leaking toilet. On Saturday i went to Low Yat with my dad and bro to buy the power adapter for my router which burned out a few days ago, a stack of DVD-Rs, and a new 200GB hard drive coz the 40GB in this com is almost full. On Sunday, they left for home.

And this is where i don't get myself. I know i should be happy my family came up, even just for a few days. Instead, i have this gloomy feeling over me the whole weekend. Because i couldn't get my 200GB hard drive to work. And because my internet connection still wasn't fixed, even though the router is working now. Which totally spoiled my mood for the weekend. Coz i was hoping that once my parents came, everything will work out perfectly. And everything didn't turn out perfectly the way i hoped.

And it's only the day after they went back that i realised it. I let such small things blind me from seeing what i should've seen. My parents took a day off, travelled more than 300km to fix everything that needed to be fixed in my apartment. Yeah.. all my life, the only thing i hate bout myself is this. Taking things for granted.

But then, don't we all..

purpose ..

Juz sat for the Summatives 2 of Foundation 2 yesterday. More than a month of lectures, weeks of revision, for a slightly more than one hour paper. And everything, all the days i have to confine myself to my room, all the hours i had to spend staring at my lecture notes, ended with the paper. At least, weren't they supposed to?

24 hours on after the exams, and i finally felt the pressure of being a medical student. Not that i'm stressed, just that .. the end seems so far. Almost 10 months, and all we've covered are the foundation. Basics. Noobs knowledge. Foundation 2 ended as of yesterday, and right on after that we'll begin our system courses. No rest, no break. And they say we are having it easier than our seniors. Sigh.

Sometimes i do wonder if i can ever stand all this. All this endless lectures.. all this continuous studying .. all this non-stop learning. Sometimes i needed a break so much i felt like skipping the lectures.. the PBLs.. whatever i can skip. Everytime i look for an end to all this, i see nothing. The finishing line is so far beyond the horizon, i just felt like collapsing on the spot and let everything pass me by. Wasn't this the path i chose? Didn't i say i want to become a doctor?

.. become a doctor. I wonder if i really did want to become a doctor. Guess this doubts in me will never cease. Life as a doctor seems so .. noble. So highly regarded by society. So envied by those who didn't have the chance to be one. Yet, being noble is nowhere near my goals in life. I don't want fame, i don't want a reputation either. I don't like having attention on me. If i were to treat a patient anonymously, i'd gladly do so. With a smile.

There comes a time when we look for our purpose in life, right? Some found it in their work, some in their religion, some in their loved ones. For me, 20 years walking on this earth still got me wondering why am I here. I don't meant that in a religious manner.. just that, we need a reason to live, don't we? Something we live for, something we wake up everyday knowing we're still here for. Guess that's why all of a sudden i got this interest in everything. Yeah, everything.

Like, teaching. Patrick made an announcement bout some volunteer teaching at some orphanage. Again, i had that feeling. That feeling of really really wanting to sign up for it. I don't know why. Maybe i just want to try out something new. Maybe i wanted to volunteer, to contribute to society. Maybe i'm looking for it. My purpose.

Anyway, from today onwards, life will be really busy for me now. Weekdays, gonna have clinic visits and CSU sessions in the morning, lectures in the afternoon, and ECA activities in the evening. And still i signed up to have my Saturdays spent teaching. Haha.. i whine bout how busy i am and yet i keep getting myself busier. Sometimes it's so hard to understand myself. *shrug*

i'm not yet a doctor medical student

I seem to be missing a lot of time in my life. Here i sit, in front of my computer, wondering where the hell my life has gone the past few weeks. The past few months. Years.

It's already nearing the end of May. Halfway through our Semester 2. A couple more months and we can "proudly" introduce ourselves as second year medical students. At times i think i've learned so damn much since i came into IMU. Yet sometimes, i just felt i had most likely wasted my first year as a medical student not really trying to be a medical student.

Heard the story from our lecturer PKL bout a medical student on a flight who saved the life of a lady with pneumothorax with a pair of scissors. Then during PBL yesterday Prof Robinson was talking to us bout how if we're ever unfortunate enough to be in a disaster zone when it happened, we would have been expected by the other survivors to be the leader in organising things, if we so happen to be the most 'educated' person there, even if we're only medical students.

Wonder if i could have done that if i were that medical student. Heh. Then again, i'm still in my first year, what could i have possibly know now that can save someone's life? How T-cells and B-cells provide immunity? Which parasites is transmitted thru ingestion of eggs? What is the age range for adolescents? Man, i can't even remember all the lectures that were taught in the past few months, let alone use them to save someone's life.. (not that what we learned can save someone's life anyway >.<)

Last week we had our Nursing week.. where we're required to visit the Seremban Hospital to learn bout the roles of nurses. Nothing much bout the nurses or the hospital, it's the patients that taught me more. We got to know a patient with colon cancer, who used to be a drug addict until he was diagnosed with the cancer. We saw a motor vehicle accident victim who can't even move his limbs by himself, and the nurses there had to move his limbs for him even though he's moaning all the time. An 18-year-old boy getting a chest intubation done on him, while he's conscious. A woman with an amputated leg, with the flesh still visible and skin unattached. A boy with abdominal pains. A woman with a rod fixed through her ankle. A man with swollen legs.

Every patient with a story to tell. If only we had the time to listen to them.

It disturbed me to see them suffering. To see their pain thru their eyes. The doctors, the nurses.. all of them seem so.. professional. Like they've been doing all this work since the beginning of time. Nothing seems to perturb them. Or had they become so used to this, they become desensitised? Sigh.. i'll find out soon enough i guess..

Edit - read bout the earthquake in Yogyakarta.. and bout the 3rd-, 4th-year Malaysian medical students who stayed behind there to help out. They didn't have enough doctors there, so medical students were roped in to help treat the victims. Man.. wish i can be just like them.. to be able to help out when needed.. why do i always have these worries i can't be good enough.. =/

i don't want a life, let me be a nerd

Hm. Somehow over the past few weeks, i've managed to get involved in so much activities, days felt like hours, hours like seconds. It's like me watching my life on fast forward, a blur of everything, leaving me worn out, yet not knowing why. Sigh. I've never seen any of us this busy in the past few months, much less me even during IMU Cup last year. Over the past few weeks, we turned into a big group of pandas, big group of stressed out pandas, wishing we could juz let go of all our responsibilities and get back to our lecture notes we conveniently abandon ever since Summatives 1. Wishing that when we wake up in the morning, we don't need to do anything but study, like what we're supposed to do. For once, studying feels like the only thing i want to do right now.

Summatives 1 was on 24th April, and the weeks before that were spent studying seriously only at the last minute, like what i'd always done. And for the first time i came into IMU, i seriously felt i flunked it big time. Even though i did read through all the lecture notes, and even referred to books for more understanding. Found some conflicting notes between the books and the lectures, but in the end i understood the stuff i was supposed to understand more.

And that was why i thought i was gonna fail the exams. Too much time spent trying to read through the books on immunology and microbiology because the lecture notes weren't clear. Too little time spent memorising every word on the lecture notes, which would have guaranteed me a good result instead.

And that was why you could have seen a gloomy aura around me when Patrick said they're giving out the results after our lectures on Thursday. I did say i wanted to get the results asap, so it'll get me studying again. But still, that wasn't enough to dispel the dread of knowing i failed my exams.

Yet when i saw my result slip, i really couldn't believe my eyes. I even thought i took someone else's result slip. I knew i had half the paper wrong, they gave us the answers after the paper. But as i've heard so far, most of our batch got As, so it might be the lecturers were lenient. Yeah, that's the only explanation.

The week we had Summatives 1 was also the WAVES, Week of Awareness of Vision, Hearing and Speech, organised by Helen Keller's Society and presided by Chia Huan. Mustaqim designed the T-shirts, and a quick 'survey' was done to pick the color - light, bright green ^^". The T-shirts didn't sell like hot cakes like we hoped they would, but we still managed to clear the stocks in the end. Chia Huan was so worried we can't sell all of them, i swear i saw a few strands of her hair turned white =P. And then there were the pens.

err.. i didn't arrange those pens =P

The pens. More than 200 orders. 30 minutes per pen. A week of manual labor. Uncountable hours of lost sleep. But we did it. =D

So right after the WAVES, we got on to the next event on our agenda. 15th to 19th May, Chinese Singing Competition 2006, organised by Chinese Cultural Society, presided by Jackie. Me was the Treasurer of this event. Not really a tough job, i guess i had the easiest job of all.

Last Monday was the mic testing, yesterday was the audition and tomorrow's the finals. Invited Chan Kwok Fai, Astro Talent Quest 2005 winner to be one of the finals' judge. The audition yesterday went rather well, only slight problems with the PA system nearing the end. Ended around 11.30pm, then me, Jackie, Yew Wen, Mok, Kian Hwa and his gf went to Jackie's place to count the scores of the contestants till 2.30am >.< . Let's juz say those that got to the finals deserve their places. Will be a close fight for the winner surely.

On my activities list, right after this Chinese Singing Competition will be the Week of Awareness of Violence against Women, jointly organised by Wushu Club and Ninjutsu Club. But since we couldn't find a time to have that week, and half of IMU won't be here after this week till the next semester, we decided to postpone it. And you can imagine how relieved i felt when we made that decision =P.

So weeks after weeks i don't even have a single day when i have nothing planned, no responsibility to fulfil, no task to be done. I'm getting tired. I missed my lecture notes, which were still as new as the day i got them.

Come Summatives 2, which is like a little more than 2 weeks away, i'll realise why so many med students prefer to be a nerd than have a life. I know doing all these things make life more interesting than locking myself up in my room with my notes, but i also know that i've gotten myself involved in too much activities. So much that i'm exhausted physically and mentally. So much that i'm starting to miss studying.

And after tomorrow, i'm gonna lock myself up in my room with my notes. I don't want a life anymore. I just want to study. Let me be a nerd =P

ps - the movie i've waited for years =P. New trailer!

pps - ah forgot to post it here... to Keat How, happy half-year-of-being-housemates!! =P ok, seriously, happy 22nd birthday, housemate!

* yawn *

I'll get a proper post up tomorrow, but meanwhile, check THIS out..

TITANIC 2!! OMGWTFBBQ!! I almost thought this was juz a joke.. turned out to be real.. O.o Even Jack Dawson (by the same old Leonardo DiCaprio) is back.. literally.

Titanic Two the Surface
Jack's Back

ok.. i'm too lazy to update =P

This is what you can do in Wushu.

Man.. if only i could do all that now =(. I can't even do the cartwheels properly lol..

ps - join Wushu! =P

pps - Summatives 1 sucks. =(

9th April

Last Sunday was my birthday. I've hit the next decade of my life. The big 2-0.

I wonder.. what are birthdays for? We don't like, change overnight when our birthday passed. We don't turn one year older when our birthday passed. We just turned one day older.

Maybe birthdays are there to remind us we ARE getting older? Sigh.

This birthday, i looked back on my life like i've never done before. Funny how much i'd changed before i even realise it. How much i had grown up.

With each passing birthday, memories of my childhood seem more like another life altogether. Distant, yet comfortingly familiar. I'm not someone who lives in the past, but as i get older, the past becomes the only constant thing in my life. And yet even that is all but a blur of fleeting impressions of a once-upon-a-time..

And with each passing birthday, i wonder if this is what i wanted in my life. If i'm living the life i want, doing the things i like. I never used to care bout the future, not even my education. Going into Taylor's to do A-Levels is purely decided upon coz most of my friends were going there, and my bro did A-Levels there too. Getting into IMU studying medicine is solely based on the fact that i didn't have many choices to begin with. And i made the decision to study medicine in a single day.

I admit i was someone who only knows how to live in the present. I didn't care what happened in the past. I didn't know how to plan my future.

Maybe that's how i protected myself, being in denial that i need to have some control of my life. Ignorance is bliss, they say. I say ignorance is just a stupid excuse.

Maybe this will be the turning point in my life. The time i decided to take hold of myself and determine how my future gonna be.

Birthdays are there to tell you had lived another year.
Birthdays are there as an excuse for celebrating.
Birthdays are there to remind your friends of you.
Birthdays are there to remind you of yourself.

My 20th birthday. Happy Birthday to me.

I just got bigger =D

shamelessly copied from Yih Seong's blog
have to credit Pwassy for that cute birthday phrase haha =P

Happy Birthday to ME! =D

This must be the best birthday of my life =D

Yesterday i went to the PC Fair in City Square with my family. Dad wanted to buy a pen drive. Took us a long time just to get into City Square.. the jam was so bad we moved only like 2km in an hour >.<. So.. since we wasted so much time trying to get to the PC Fair, my dad decided to buy more stuff to make it worthwhile =P. A total of three 1GB Kingston USB Drives for each of us brothers, one headphone with mic so that i could call my bro in Aus, one ink catridge for my printer in Bukit Jalil, and my birthday cake. He even wanted to buy a new printer and a webcam for me O.o (by which Mom was giving him disapproving looks haha). I guess it's just that my dad was an impulsive buyer.. just like me hehe. It runs in the genes, no?

Celebrated my birthday on the night of my birthday eve like any other birthday celebrated at home ^^. Put the cake on the table, bring out the plates and forks, sing the birthday song, then gobble up the cake. Well, not really gobble up the cake.. nowadays it seems like we can hardly finish the cakes. Only ate half of it, the other half was stuffed into the fridge. Btw it was a Mocha cake from Season's =D.

My Season's Mocha cake =D

My birthday started with lunch with my parents at our fav 'Kuay Teow Kia' stall, then a 35 minutes wait for the bus that came late -.- . I swear i could've pounced on the driver and pummel his head on sight.. but then it's my birthday, so i decided to let him go this time =P

Reached Bukit Jalil at round 5.30pm, went out for dinner then came back and camp in front of my com. After a while Wy Keat came up to my place.. with beers! =D Hehe.. we spent a while talking and drinking beer in my room before Chia Huan called me for a 'Helen Keller meeting' at Ben's place. I believed there was a meeting.. really! =P haha..

What i didn't expect is the number of people there. Last year there was only Paul, Yong Chen and Ashok with me (bad timing actually.. not anyone's fault). This year there was like.. 21 of them? O.o .. i guess where there's food, there's us eh? haha =P. Thanks to all of you who celebrated my birthday.. was really happy you all so willing to waste time for my birthday.. instead of studying for CPR the next day ^^

So.. i guess i have a lot more thanks to give out hehe. Thanks to all those who went Carre4 to buy stuff (i have my sources =P). Thanks to all those who put in the effort to plan for my birthday. Thanks to Ben, Chee Mei, and Jane June for borrowing their place =P. Thanks to each and everyone of you who were there.. Yih Seong, Jeremy, Prasad, Paul, Chia Huan, Chui Han, Winnie, Ivy, Yew Wen, Denise, Shin Yin, Keat How, Hui Lin, Fabian, Timothy, Jackie, Wei Loong, Wei Cheong, Ben, Chee Mei, and Jane June! Love y'all =P

ps - thanks to all those who wished me happy birthday too.. was surprised to hear from Afree after so long hehe. Chow Chow was the first to wish me tho haha.. so i guess i can forgive him for not coming to celebrate my birthday =P

My birthday presents =P
(a headphone, a pen drive and my Canon Powershot A620! Woots!!)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I'm typing this post out of the need to keep my blog alive instead of the need to blog.

Do you think so?

Then you don't know me at all =P.

Sometimes i wonder.. why do i even bother to blog? If i can't reveal my true feelings, if i need to take into consideration every single person that might stumble upon this blog, if i can't even bitch about someone without suffering from the consequences of free speech, why do i even bother eh? There are things i want to write down here so much, but i will inevitably offend somebody, even if that's not my intention. So most of my posts here are typed while being 'on the safe side'. I even have to read thru the whole post a few times before clicking on the 'Publish Post' button. Makes a blog so unlike the online diary that i first thought it was. Makes the internet a so much less private space than it already is. Sigh.

Anyway, so many things happened since the last post, good things, bad things, ugly things. I'll start with the good then hehe. Last Tuesday and Wednesday was the Recruitment Drive, and this time i only signed up for 4 new clubs (this is an achievement already! =P). I know some people do wonder what's my intention joining so many clubs, whether i'm able to be an active member in all those clubs i joined. Well, i try. I don't join a club because my friends joined it. I don't join a club because i can get a post in it. I join clubs because i sincerely felt compelled to join, out of interests. Just interests.

That said .. my number of clubs and societies is still 10 though. Helen Keller's, Dance Club, Choir, Movie and Music, Basketball, Volleyball, Photography Club, Buddhist Society, Chinese Cultural Society and Wushu. Tennis is too expensive a sport for me to start learning >.< . Chess Club.. i didn't really want to join it in the first place =P. Heard the Adventure Club is gonna be revived by the Sem 1s.. i'll have to see if i have the time to join any activity tho.. =/

I find myself much more busy this sem than the last, and i think i should stop adding more to my activity list .. if i want to pass my exams. Latin dance classes, sign language classes, Wushu training, dragon dance training, Helen Keller's WAVE week, going to join the Charity Run, weekly badminton games ^^ .. sigh. I seriously need to study.

Hmm.. on Friday nite i had the longest mamak outing with my friends =P. Came back from Wushu at 11pm, then Chui Han asked me for supper with the rest at 11.30pm. So we went mamak until.. 2am? O.o Hehe .. lots of rumors and gossips. Thank god i'm not implicated in it lol. Only went home at 3am, because a few of us decided to stand outside Vista B to donate blood to the mosquitoes -.-" (oh btw.. i got rejected during blood donation last week because i was sick 2 weeks ago.. =( )

The last piece of good news.. my cousin Mei Fong got married yesterday! Hehe.. i had to go alone tho.. Dad decided that coming up here all the way and back gonna cost up to 200 bucks so my family didn't come. Sigh. Oh well.. at least i still get to enjoy the 9-course dinner =P. Wanted to drink the white and red wine.. but i have CSU this morning.. was afraid i couldn't wake up in time. Doesn't matter actually.. i still didn't wake up in time without drinking >.<

The bad things? Hmm.. i haven't study a single lecture note from last week. Lol. Got myself so busy with PBL, Elective Report, Wushu, badminton, Recruitment drive, sleeping, everything other than studying that i totally wasted one whole week. Gotta step up the pace from today onwards.. and btw not as many people as i expected join Wushu tho. Even less for dragon dance >.< . I so wanted to see IMU having its own dragon dance troupe..

The ugly things.. hmm i can't talk bout it here. As i said earlier, the internet is not a private place at all. I can't say what i want without risking myself to unnecessary risks =P. So.. i'll just keep this part in my private diary. Nobody gets offended, everyone's happy. Then why do i even bother keeping a blog? Sigh.

To amuse others with my desperate attempt to be a medical student with a life i guess. Lol >.<

ps - dad bought the Canon A620 last week.. with a 1GB memory card =). In Eric's words (word to be exact), WOOTS! Lol =P

The week that was ..

The first week of Sem 2 has just come and gone.. can't say i was looking forward to the rest of the year, but on another hand, i can't wait until this year ends. Sigh.

Started with a PBL on Monday. A whole new group, but i already knew most of those in my group anyway.. only two batchmates i've never seen before >.< . I was rather comfortable with this new group, but i'm still having that problem of thinking-faster-than-i-could-speak when i was doing my presentation, which ended up with me tripping over myself in my sentences. There's so much i wanted to share, but in the end, most of it got lost in the midst of me trying to finish reading my notes as fast as i could. Maybe i should memorise what i'm going to present, instead of reading it out next time. Too lazy tho =P

Oh btw.. Kee Fong brought a big stack of papers to PBL 2 and took up half our PBL time >.< . Lol.. we're all trying to pass the message 'Cut it!' with our eyes, but he kept his eyes on the papers in his hands all the time -.-" . He like, explained everything bout the HIV virus to such an extent i forgot what his topic was supposed to be.. and you know what, the notes he photostated for us has less than 20 words on it. -__-"

On Wednesday.. we were shown a video on how to deal with a difficult (silent in this scenario) patient. When Reiko told us there's nothing wrong with the second video before she played it, we thought what's wrong with the video. Well, the doctor and patient were not moving at all half of the time haha. It's like the com hanged or sth. And the patient.. my god, if i had that patient i'd fall asleep in front of her =P. She said less than 10 words during the whole interview!

Anyway, Esther called me to the Senate Room after the lecture on difficult patients. The moment i stepped into that room, i thought i had walked into a tribal council or sth haha. Reps from every club/society in IMU were seated around the room, with EV, Nadia, Hendrick and Charmaine sitting at the front. It was some meeting about the recruitment drive, budget, plans, etc. Felt kinda weird tho.. with all the Prez and VP of so many clubs/societies together in one room. Felt like i was some kinda important person or sth =P. Then Esther told me bout a new 'tradition' they're going to put in place.. every year there has to be an AGM for every club. And the VP will take over the Prez position. Damn.. that means i'll be in charge of Wushu Club next year >.<

Thursday we had Clinical Skills Unit (CSU). Only history taking.. nth much. Paired up with Chui Han, she asked the questions while i sat at the side this time. At the end of the interview, the simulated patient (SP) said she didn't show concern to her. And my mind wandered and wondered..

Showing concern to someone i'm not close to felt somewhat awkward to me, let alone a total stranger. And to do it for so many hours a day, so many days a week.. it's just mentally and emotionally draining. Showing concern isn't the problem.. but when you show concern all the time to everyone you meet.. it becomes a routine, and you 'show concern' because you're expected to, not because you want to. And then everything suddenly felt so mechanical to me. Meet patient, force yourself to at least make it look like you're concerned about him, diagnose patient, prescribe treatment, patient satisfied, next patient, and repeat the whole routine all over again.

I'm worried i might become void of emotions, like a robot, 'showing concern' because i'm programmed to do so. And i wasn't sure i can stand it emotionally, showing concern to every patient i meet, and listen to their every complaint the whole day. Then i realised, this is some deep shit i got myself into for the rest of my life. I hope i can keep my sanity intact when i start my clinical phase =/. Am i just worrying too early, too much?

Sick

Just in case some of you didn't check the imucampus forums, the timetables for our next semester is already out. Download it here. We have PBL 1 on our first day! -.-"

Btw i'm sick =(. Started with a mild headache after dinner 2 days ago. I thought i just needed a rest so i went to sleep earlier.

Woke up yesterday with the headache getting worse, so i ate one paracetamol and went to sleep, and when it didn't work (woke up later at night with even worse headache), i took two. Couldn't sleep until 5am coz i'm feeling hot inside, yet cold outside >.<

The headache's still lingering around my head as i type this. Was on my bed the whole day coz i'm feeling so tired, and went to sleep for god-knows-how-long. Sigh. Grandma called me a couple of times to ask how i was doing, and i juz reassured her i'm alright. Wouldn't want her to worry bout me. Just hope i get well soon.. i'm really not feeling good at all.

1 week, 7 days, 168 hours, 10080 minutes, 604800 seconds ..

While everyone went back home after our KK trip, me got stuck here in Bukit Jalil (well, Paul's stuck here too so i guess i wasn't the only sad fellar haha). Exactly one week to the first day of Semester 2.. one week to the beginning of hell, all over again >.<

On the other hand, i wasn't hoping that this holidays will drag on some more.. maybe coz it's already as good as it can get, can't wish for anything better ^^. Let's see what i've done since we're freed from our cages after our EoS1..

1. Joined lion and dragon dance for the whole 15 days of CNY. Right, i must be mad then.

2. Went back and waste myself for the whole 2 weeks after that. Yes, i do enjoy that whole 2 weeks =P

3. Came back to Bukit Jalil, got down and dirty with the M106 juniors on their orientation ^^

4. Flew to KK, explored the shopping complex (singular noun =P), rafted down the river, climbed the mountain, snorkelled the sea, went into the guano-filled Bat Cave, relaxed in the hot springs, slept in a 'budget' inn, slept in a 5 star hotel, ate nothing but energy bars for lunch, ate 75 bucks seafood dinner (i still owe Jem =/), ate chocolate (lots of it.. ^^"), took lots and lots of pictures (thousands at the last count.. really!), flew back to KLIA, brought back 'nothing but memories' =) (and 3 shirts.. which cost me 75 bucks >.<)

5. Came back to Bukit Jalil to a dust filled home, with 7 days of dirty laundry, more dirty laundry that i left behind before i go KK, lots of bills to sort (dates back to November 2005 -.-"), books to buy/photostate for my bro in Aus, running low on cash, sigh.. life's returning to normal i guess..

6. One more week of wasting, sleeping all i can while i get the chance to, buy dumbbells from Carre4, go jogging and swimming at least once, watch some de rigueur talk or play or sth in IMU, study a little bit.. and that'll end my 2 months holidays.

Sometimes.. time pass by real fast, init?

On a side not.. i've finally decided on which digital camera my Dad will give me on my 20th birthday. Haha, yeah i have all the say in what i get for my birthday present, cool huh? =P Nola.. you think i that pampered meh haha. Actually i wanted a camera to bring to KK, but then i couldn't decide on which one to buy before i left JB. So Daddy said he'll buy one for me using my birthday as an 'excuse' ^^. Well, this will be the.. second birthday present i ever asked for? (after my guitar.. which is lying in my room collecting dust now >.<)

On another side note that has nothing to do with anything at all.. found this really cool photoblog of a friend of Lishun (i think?). Just salute his photography skills la.. another hobby i gonna take up soon. Photography! =P (do check out his photos.. swear he's a pro, man.. ^^)

Self note
The camera he's using : Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5
The camera i'm gonna get : Canon Powershot A620
Comparison : on dpreview.com

Ooh.. i can't wait to get my new camera ^^

PS - ah before i forget.. to all M205 bloggers reading this, me and Pwassy wanna start an M205 blog. Watcha all say?

Holidays Electives at Kota Kinabalu =P

The best week of my life. That explains how i felt bout our electives in Kota Kinabalu. =)

So.. for our electives, i've decided to go mountain climbing, together with 18 other batchmates. Climb Mt Kinabalu to be exact. Had never climbed any mountain before, so i thought it might be fun to try it out. I couldn't be more right.

Thursday, 2nd March 2006 - Arrival at Kota Kinabalu
Left Vista at around 8.45am for our flight from KLIA to KK which departs at 11.10am. Flight was delayed for half an hour, only reached KK at 2pm something. Was on the same flight as Shao Yang, Paul, Yun, Chia Huan, Sidney, Fish, Alvin and Teck Seng. Vincent, Tai Jih and Yeap were on an earlier flight at 9am, while Chee Mei, Jem, Ivy, Chui Han, Chee Liang, Hooi Theng and Kong Fui were on an evening flight.

Reached KK, took taxi to Ruby Hotel which gonna be our home until we go to Kinabalu Park. The inn wasn't as bad as i thought it'd be.. what with Yeap saying keeping expenses to minimum and all. Me, Paul, Vincent and Jem took one room for ourselves. Nothing planned for the rest of the day, because the evening flight only reached at night. Went for a walk around the closest shopping complex, Centre Point with Chia Huan and Paul. Centre Point is like.. big. As Chia Huan put it, a part of it is like Sungei Wang, a part KLCC and another part MidValley haha. There's Nike, Adidas, Sox World, Levi's, you name it.. it got all kinds of shops JB doesn't even have. Gotta admit it's better than any of JB's shopping complexes ^^. After the rest checked in we had dinner at a seafood restaurant called.. erm, Kam Boh Seafood Restaurant or something like that, opposite Ruby Hotel.

Celebrated Chee Liang's birthday at night ^^.

Friday, 3rd March 2006 - White Water Rafting!
Woke up early in the morning, took a bus to Beaufort, then a train to Padas River. Around 2 and a half hours just to reach the place we gonna raft ^^. Me got onto the same boat as Jem, Ivy, Chee Mei, Paul, Vincent and a Japanese couple. We started out on calm water.. and then things start to get rough ^^. Our guide, Janggut Man (lol.. they called him that) told us there'll be calm water alternating between the rapids. Well, thank god for that.. we wouldn't want to be stuck in rapids all the way to the ending point =/

The first few rapids was ok, we managed to keep our boat from capsizing. Then the biggest, baddest, roughest rapids came (forgot what it's called.. it's the 4th out of 6 according to Ivy's blog). Swear i could see the wave more than a metre right above us, just a second before all of us got thrown overboard. Lol.. it was quite an experience.. i was trying so hard to breathe but everytime i do, a wave will come gushing down on me. As Chee Mei puts it, we only have exactly 1 sec to breathe, no more, then we've to hold our breathe till the wave passes by. That few seconds we're in the rapids.. i swear i thought i could've drown coz i hardly get to breathe. And erm.. the river water is tasteless ^^.

All of us survived thankfully.. only 2 managed to get back onto our own boat. The rest of us were 'rescued' by Chia Huan's boat. At the last rapids, Jem was asked to sit at the front of the boat, legs dangling in the river water while the rest of us crowd at the back. Haha.. and he dutifully did just that even though he had motion sickness halfway thru. Too bad he didn't fall into the river again =P

Man.. 110 bucks for that, but it was well worth the experience =)

Sat train back to Beaufort, then bus back to KK city. Stopped by Tanjung Aru beach for a while, and drank a big coconut that had so much water inside, i was full before i even had dinner. Went to Centre Point to buy some energy bars and chocolates, then dinner at Burger King. BK was actually halfway closing, but the staff was so nice, they reopened the counters just for us to have our dinner (it was just 10pm and every shop there was already closed O.o). After dinner went to watch Final Destination 3 .. erm, it was ok la, i didn't watch the previous 2 movies. Just that it's too unreal lor.. how can so many coincidences happen at the same time -.-"

Saturday, 4th March 2006 - Arrival at Kinabalu Park
Went shopping for gloves in the morning. Couldn't find any suitable one besides the 'pro' gloves. Ended up 45 bucks poorer, in exchange for a pair of 'pro' gloves i doubt i gonna use anytime soon after this. Sigh, well at least it's still perfectly intact after the climb.

Anyway, we took a bus to Kinabalu Park (1.8km asl) which takes more than 2 hours. Checked into our hostel, Grace Hostel. This time i was expecting a military-style bunkbeds as Yeap put it, but it turned out to be a really nice place. We stayed in rooms in groups of 4 and 6, and there's a clean common bathroom for girls and guys separately. There's even a common 'living room' and kitchen =). Spent the day playing '99 and a half' before going for our briefing and dinner.

Sunday, 5th March 2006 - The 6 hours climb to Laban Rata
Woke up early in the morning, 7.30am (yeah that's very early =P), had our buffet breakfast and celebrated Teck Seng's birthday! Then started our climb up to Laban Rata around 8.30am. The path up is basically just planks and rocks arranged into steps.. steps that are mostly more than 20cm high O.o . And climb the steps we did. For 6 hours. For 6 kilometres. The only way we managed to do that is by using the next pondok (resting station.. there's 7 in total) as our goal ^^.

Reached Laban Rata (3km asl) around 3pm, then we checked into our hostel, Waras Hut, a few metres below the Laban Rata base. Slept right away because we're supposed to continue our climb to the peak at 2am the next day. Woke up around 9pm and couldn't get back to sleep because it was too bloody cold (the temperature dropped a lot). Can even hear the strong winds blowing outside.. and the two layers of thick blanket wasn't helping much.

Monday, 6th March 2006 - We conquered Mt Kinabalu!
Woke up at 1am after drifting in and out of sleep. Wore everything there is to wear, me wearing one track pants and a cargo pants, one long sleeve shirt, one jacket and another jacket over it, and 2 layers of socks. Damn even with all that it didn't keep the cold out.. but at least it made it bearable ^^"

Went back to sleep with all the clothes till 2am plus, then climbed up to meet the others at higher living quarters. It was around 2.30am when we start our climb, and it was pitch dark. Couldn't see nothing without a torchlight. That's why a torchlight is a must, as they reminded us.

From Laban Rata onwards, we'll be climbing with the help of a white rope. There was a part that our footholds were only centimetres wide, and when i looked down, it was just .. blackness. Damn that was so scary, even more so when we had to stop so many times on the steep slope because the front was too slow =/.

There's only one pondok on the way to the top, the Sayat-sayat Hut. It's more like a checkpoint to check we're climbing with permission. After the Sayat-sayat Hut upwards it's just a steep slope all the way to the peak. Had to picked up my pace from here onwards to catch up with Chia Huan who was holding the motion sickness pills coz Paul was feeling lightheaded. Haha.. swear the others must have thought i was mad climbing on all fours without the help of the rope ^^".

Waited for Paul to catch up, then began the 30 seconds climb, 1 minute break to the top coz i was almost out of breath.. and it's getting harder to breathe up there with the low atmospheric pressure and all. Me and Paul caught up with Kong Fui, then i left them and pecut to the top coz it was getting close to sunrise. Managed to reach the peak at around 5.50am, 5 minutes later than planned. Thankfully it's still not sunrise yet, and we took lots of pictures up there hehe. Chia Huan even took some videos ^^.

Additional note : My lips felt numb the day after we climbed down.. i thought they were frozen already when i was at the peak coz the wind was so bloody cold and i wasn't wearing a mask..
Special note : Paul climbed to the peak in shorts -.-"

To describe the view up there, 4095.2m above sea level, man.. nothing can describe it.. it's just so breathtaking. It's like we're on top of the whole world, and everything else is below us. The guide said we could even see Indonesia from there, but with no compass and stuff, we don't know which direction to look. We stayed there till sunrise.. and in minutes the whole mountain light up, giving us a view of what we've gone thru to reach the peak. Still couldn't believe we did it.. we got to the highest point in Southeast Asia.. ^^

After a while, the chilling wind got more unbearable, and we had to climb back down. It was around 8 Celcius at the peak, even colder with the wind blowing against us. Climbing down sounds easier than climbing up, but we were wrong. It's harder to go down a steep slope than up, really. 2km down and we reached Laban Rata at around 9am, then continue our climb down to Kinabalu Park at 11.30am. A total of 2km of steep slope to Laban Rata, and 6km of high steps to Kinabalu Park. Halfway down, our whole legs are already hurting like hell. It's because we had to reach Kinabalu Park by 4pm that we continued torturing our legs to go down. Turned out the guides were lying when they say they close the gates at 4pm -.-" . Hehe but then if they didn't say that we'd have take our own sweet time and reached the bottom by sunset =P

Stayed the night at the lodges, which was very very comfortable =). They even had Astro!

Tuesday, 7th March 2006 - Poring Hot Springs
Left in a bus to Poring Hot Springs, around half an hour from Kinabalu Park. Had lunch at Ranau halfway. The hot springs.. hmm nothing much there. First we went jungle trekking to a waterfall, then a small group of us continued on to the Bat Cave. The cave was rather small.. and full of guano ^^". After trekking we relaxed at the hot springs ^^. Felt really nice after all the climbing we did hehe..

In the evening we went back to Kota Kinabalu, and had the most expensive dinner i've ever paid out of my own pocket ^^". Seafood dinner! Hehe.. think it's my first time i tasted lobster.. my family had never ordered lobster before. We took this chance to repay Yeap too, for all the trouble he went thru, planning where to stay, what to do, book the hotels, the air tickets, everything. I think this seafood dinner barely make up all the effort he gone thru to make everything as smooth as possible. Thanks lot Yeap! You're the best group leader we can ever have! Hehe ^^

Wednesday, 8th March 2006 - Manukan Island, here we come
A little change in plans, and we ended up on Manukan Island today. Heard Jaslyn wanted to go there with us, so we just went there lor.. coz there was nothing originally planned for today. We went snorkelling for a while, then most of the others went paragliding. After they came back we played football for a while, before i joined the others snorkelling in the sea again. Hehe first time i snorkelled too.. really nice view underwater.. with all the fish and corals and stuff.. heard the others saw a 'Nemo' (clownfish), but i didn't dare to go to deep water.. still have the fear of drowning ^^"..

After getting back to KK city, we went handicraft market to hunt for souvenirs. Got myself a really nice glow-in-the-dark T-sthirt.. 25 bucks, ouch. They all pakat edi, can't get lower than that. Sigh. But at least i really liked that T-shirt =).

Nite we checked into the 5 star Sutera Harbour. Ivy and Jem flew back to JB in the evening, some of the others went to meet their friends in UMS, and me, Paul and Chee Mei walked around the resort to pass time. Waited for the others to come back, and Jaslyn to bring her birthday cake to celebrate her birthday with us ^^".

Thursday, 9th March 2006 - Goodbye, Kota Kinabalu =(
Went to the handicraft market again in the afternoon with Chia Huan, Chui Han, Chee Mei and Paul for last minute shopping. Got another 2 shirts for my 2 brothers.. another 50 bucks gone, ouch ouch >.< . Did nothing the rest of the day, all of us crammed into the only room allowed for us to stay in because we requested to check out late. My flight left at 8.05pm, and we reached KLIA at 10.30pm.

The end
7 days, 7 nights in Kota Kinabalu. 3 birthdays. 22 hours of mountain climbing. The one whole week i've really enjoyed myself. Also managed to get to know some of my batchmates whom i've never spoke to before this too. This is one week i don't mind living all over again ^^ .. many thanks to our group leader Yeap, our 'tour guide' Jaslyn, and the rest for the best company i can ever wish for. See you all in uni!

Other accounts on our KK trip:
Ivy Ang
Chui Han

M106 Orientation!

Monday, 27th Feb - Wednesday, 1st March 2006 - M106 Orientation
Before we leave for Kota Kinabalu, i joined our M106 juniors' orientation as a 'floating OO'. All the fun of being an OO, none of the responsibility. Haha =P. Actually i didn't sign up as OO because i was going to KK anyway.. figure out that no point being OO for half the orientation only.

Reached Bukit Jalil on Sunday coz Yeap said got meeting on Monday, in the end the meeting was postponed to Tuesday -.-" . Did nothing much on Monday, i went down to check out the juniors' 'Ice-breakers', and went back with all of us covered with flour and butter, except Winnie who somehow managed to avoid getting dirty ^^". Haha.. i guess we had more fun than the juniors did, OOs and SMs 'ragging' each other =P. The juniors looked a bit subdued though.. like they don't enjoy ice-breakers at all. Haha =P.

And their cheers are really soft.. can hardly hear them, let alone make out the words. Oh and the smell.. damn, made us have lycheephobia for days. It smells so much we had to take a few steps back from the juniors to avoid vomiting. Yeah, it stinks that much =/

Tuesday.. nothing on the orientation activity list except IMCC photo shoot. I only checked them out on the way back from our KK meeting at Yew Wen's place. Seeing all 14 'girls' in bikinis at the poolside.. man, that can take the appetite out of anyone ^^". Some of them still looked like guys in bikinis O.o . I'm getting sick just recalling it .. haha

Wednesday was Treasure Hunt! The only day i'm waiting for.. coz i can't go for Variety Night on Friday =(. Tagged along with Group 6's OOs, Chia Huan, Chui Han, Jackie and Jane June as their waterboy. Had to carry like five 1.5 litres bottles running beside them ^^". Hmm nothing much different from our Treasure Hunt, the juniors getting wasabi, butter, flour, eggs, etc all over them. One memorable station tho.. the fridge station. God.. that fridge stank to the high heavens.. with all the rotten stuff inside.. and the juniors were supposed to dig for those green toy soldiers. Jane June joined in, vomited halfway, then continued digging O.o . Haha gotta respect her for the determination .. we other OOs juz stood at the side and.. erm, give moral support. Yeah, we did that =P

XP³ .. you guys are a great group, though i can't remember all your names except William (coz he's the IMCC mah =P). Have fun in IMU!

X to the P!
P to the 3!
Who are we?
XP3!
Who are we??
XP3!!
Yahmatei, Yahmatei, OooZa, OooZa,
Pundek, Pundek,
Puki, Puki,
PussssAy!

(can't really remember the cheer.. it goes something like this rite? ^^)

More random thoughts ..

Still nothing to blog about, when i'm not sleeping i'm stoning at home.. -.-"

Bought a pair of hiking shoes for the KK trip today, took me almost an hour to decide which one to buy. Sigh. An hour just for one pair of shoes. I'm THAT indecisive. Can't change that habit of mine.. have to look at every pair of shoes (or shirt, jeans, etc) within a kilometre radius before i can make my decision ^^". To the extent that my parents gave up accompanying me to buy my new year clothes since years ago. Haha.. not a bad thing.. i get to take my time =P

Btw saw the adidas Hellbender W Water Shoes at al-Ikhsan.. swear i'd be drooling all over it if i had my hands on it a second longer haha. Man, if only i own a pair sigh..

I'd be satisfied with this pair of adidas Tangent XCR Hiking Shoes too.. =P

Man.. if only i had money to burn haha. If you haven't realise by now.. both of these are outdoors shoes ;). Yup, i'm an outdoors person (yes, although i love to sleep but that doesn't make me an indoors person k..).

Enough daydreaming.. hmm did you know today is International Mother Language Day? (just read that in NST). Didn't know such a day even exist .. but then we have a day for everything, don't we? -.-" . Mother tounge means the language that a child first learns.. for me it's Mandarin then. Damn.. my plans to learn to read Mandarin had failed miserably.. spent too much time sleeping -.-" . Better start reading again tomorrow.. next semester gonna start in a month sigh..

You guys surely know that a Chinese who can't speak Chinese is called a banana. So what do you call a Malay who can't speak Malay then? A coconut -.-" . How bout an Indian who can't speak Tamil? An Oreo -__-". Haha that's what i learned from reading the newspaper..
*The term banana, coconut, and Oreo are not intended to be racially discriminate or be offensive.

PS - just read Prasad's latest post (more info over on Lainie's blog) about a poll on whether we agree with the ethical segregation of people living with HIV/AIDS or not. Putting that poll up in the first place already make me sick.. but the fact that's there's more votes who agree with it than not.. makes me wonder how selfish some people can be. If only they think bout what's it like to have HIV/AIDS and be 'segregated'.. geez i've nothing more to say.

Go over here and do what you're supposed to do.

Random thoughts .. and my dream electives

Nothing much to blog about actually, just wanted to put down some random thoughts i had in mind ^^.

Wanna buy a digital camera, but Dad says to wait first. Needed the camera when i go to KK next week. He said he's gonna borrow my cousin's one first. -.-". I have my sights on the new Sony DSC-W30 or W50.. so if anyone wanna buy me an early birthday present.. you know what to do. Haha =P

Forgotten to take my third jab of Hep B immunisation which was due last November ^^". Must have forgotten bout it due to exams. Sigh. Wonder if i had to take all 3 doses again.

After seeing all the lion and dragon dancers during Chingay who were way younger than me.. i felt like i wasted a really good opportunity. If only i joined a troupe when i was small.. i'd be so good right now =P. Sometimes i felt like i wasted my childhood not doing things i really wanna do. Sigh. Life is full of regrets, no?

Went to the Kite Festival at Bukit Layang-layang yesterday evening. Had been to the festival, like 3 times already, at least. Almost the same every year, just kites -.-". Just followed my parents because it's Sunday, family day! Hehe.. my younger brother was the one who wanted to go at first. It's been a yearly thing now.. well, almost. Wonder if i'll be home this time next year.. =/

Saw the latest price for a Proton Gen2.. around RM55k O.o. Even if i get 5k a month after i get out of uni it'll still take me more than a year to buy one. Decided that i'll just buy a Proton instead of all those Mercedes or BMW. Not gonna be so wasteful with money.

Might have to go back a day earlier than planned. Apparently there's a meeting on the KK trip next monday. Sigh. Still, i can't wait to get there ^^

A few days ago i read an article bout what might just be my dream electives ^^. I didn't know what to do for this electives actually, which is why i just followed the others to Mount KK (which is nice, and i wanted to go there too). Very few people knows that i wanted to be a veterinarian initially, not a doctor. Well, not a doctor that treats human anyway - humans are too troublesome =P

But now i'm on this long perilous path towards becoming a doctor, i'll have to put that dream of dreams of mine where it's supposed to be. In my dreams. Not that i regretted choosing to come to IMU, wouldn't have met all this great people and get the chance to do all this stuff otherwise. Not that i regretted choosing to be a doctor too, just that.. i had a dream ^^.

Well, maybe that's what electives are for i guess? To live our dreams before we dedicate the rest of our lives to listening to patients' complaints and getting our sleep interrupted by on-call duties. And i just found out my way of living my dreams ^^.

I wanna be a SEATRU volunteer! Which stands for Sea Turtle Research Unit, which is under the Faculty of Science and Technology of Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia. But i might not get to make it my next electives though.. due to the mistiming =/. Still, i think i'll sign up for it one day, even if it's not for my electives. Anyone interested? (not that i mind signing up for it alone ^^)

Me gonna go save turtles! Well.. some day, but not today..

Chingay in JB .. (warning : long post ahead)

So i decided to go watch this year's Chingay after all =). Partly because i haven't been there for the past few years, partly because i was rotting at home and needed some 'fresh' air, partly because my cousin was apparently going to be one of the deities (they all looked the same, i couldn't figure out which one was her ^^") and partly because i wanted to check out the lion and dragon dances. But most of all it's because i found company to go with me to check it out ^^

At first, Chia Huan and her friends wanted to go, so i decided to 'follow' them. Then i heard Eric and Irwin wanna go too, which sort of made up my mind. Wasn't until the last minute that Chia Huan ffk me.. i was already in JB by then ^^". Thankfully Eric and Irwin aren't bad friends like Chia Huan =P. Haha kidding..

Anyway, me, Irwin, Eric, and Eric's 'friend' met up at CS at 5.30pm. Had dinner at our usual haunt, Pikachu restaurant haha (we didn't know where else to eat.. -.-"). Then walked all the way to Yahya Awal to intercept the procession, and finally 'met' them at around 7.30pm.

The usual stuff.. floats, guys on stilts, oversized puppets, lions, dragons, getting choked by the smoke from all the incense, raining confetti, exploding balloons, taiwanese sausages, you know. Still can remember the times my parents brought me to watch Chingay long long ago.. nothing much has changed, though i felt this year's procession is getting shorter =/

So we stood there while half the procession went past, then Eric and his 'friend' disappeared. *shrugs* haha that's not unexpected anyway =P. So me and Irwin stood there for a while more before deciding to walk with the procession. Walked till Wisma, then waited there for Eric and his 'friend' to catch up. Stood for a while more, walked till the post office, then i parted ways with the rest coz i'm waiting for my parents there. Only got home around 12.30am due to the traffic jam and stuff ^^"

Hmm.. bout what did i see.. there's the northern and southern lion dances. The dancers are way younger than me.. some of the 'heads' were just primary school students O.o. But then the lions didn't do much also.. most just walked along with the procession only -.-". Some did some jumping, but that's all. Sigh, but what else should i expect, right? There's more dragon troupes i think.. and at least the dragons showed off some moves.. really got me impressed. Had been a long time since i last saw dragon dance ^^. Could learn something from watching them.. and haha, they got me itching to go train dragon dance again ^^".

There's some floats too.. but they looked like recycled CNY floats to me -.-". And a few groups of aunties dancing to music ^^", a large group of 'deities' walking together, some cymbals and gongs performances by youngsters younger than me (haha i felt so old). There's the customary big big flags too.. they make it looked like it's so light haha. A dragon made up of helium-filled balloons (-.-"), some oversized puppets rotating like mad (wonder what is that for?), guys on stilts.. that's all i guess.

There must be like thousands of people there at the sides, most of them families with small children. Hehe.. me used to be like them too, standing at the side, waiting for the guys and gals in the procession to pass sweets to us. Years had gone by, amazing there's still people who came to check Chingay out. I mean, why would anyone had bothered, right? It's the same every single year, isn't it? Even my family had stopped going to watch Chingay already years ago..

And yet i found myself among the sea of people this year. I dunno what really drives me to watch Chingay.. i just like the atmosphere i guess. It's our tradition after all, and you don't get to see Chingay in KL, do you? (which is why so many KLites asked me what Chingay is.. -.-"). The past few months.. i think i finally became a 'Chinese' haha. I guess i'll be the only one among my brothers who'll still hold our chinese tradition in years ahead. Might be one of the few among my friends too. Sad, yeah.. as generations passed we gradually lose touch with our roots. Damn i sound like an old man lol..

PS - hey thanks ya Irwin and Eric.. if not for you guys, i would've been watching Chingay alone this year ^^

Note on Chingay:
-i will update this after i dig out the newspaper article on Chingay-

back home.. for 2 weeks

Back in Senai since Monday.. really can't remember the last time i was back home. It seems so long ago.. yet not long enough for me to miss coming back home. Don't really feel like going home actually.. but since i got nothing to do in Bukit Jalil already i can't find a reason to stay there either. And besides, i didn't even come home for the 15 days of chinese new year. Grandma didn't seem angry at me for that.. i just hope she really isn't.

Sigh.. life seems so empty when you have absolutely nothing to do. Only us IMU students are still having holidays.. the rest are mostly back to studying already. Yih Seong wanted to play futsal this Friday. I haven't decided whether i'll be going or not, but right now i don't have the motivation to go. Maybe it's because only a few friends i know are going.. or maybe i'm just too lazy to go. Most probably i won't be going.. coz if i were there but no heart to play, what's the point? Sigh. Sorry la Yih Seong.. i know you really want to play. But i have to ffk this time la.. futsal is at the bottom of my to-do list currently..

This Saturday would be Chingay again. Hehe.. miss those times we used to 'duty' during Chingay as St John members. Had to spent so many hours following those people flooding the streets.. from evening till midnight ^^. Fortunately i never encountered any 'big' injuries hehe. My first aid knowledge was almost non-existent.. and still is haha. Come to think of it, that was the only time of the year i'd see lion and dragon dances.. which is why i was thinking whether to go check it out this year. I've never really paid much attention to the lion and dragon dances.. coz i'll be busy yawning and taking a nap standing while on duty =P. Hmm.. should i waste my time there or rot at home.. tough choice ^^"

Btw.. Valentine's day just passed. Wasn't any special day for me, but still i wanna wish all the couples out there happy Valentine's day.. and good luck to those still 'available' ^^.

PS - wanted to spend my 2 weeks here learning how to read Mandarin.. if i didn't spent it all on sleeping =P

the end of the dance ..

Today's the last day of CNY, chu shi wu (er.. day 15 of the first month of lunar calendar? haha), also called Chap Goh Meh. Had only 3 performances from 9am till around 4pm, and for the first time we weren't rushing from one place to another ^^. Sort of got a bit lazy edi actually.. maybe that's because all of us slept late the day before and were dead tired from all the travelling to and from Bahau. So tired that ALL of us were late for the gathering which was supposed to be at 8.30am this morning haha. Me only woke up at 8.11am ^^". But then the others woke up late oso haha ..

So.. this is it. Around a month of my life is gone, dedicated to 'learning' dragon and lion dance. It's been more than 3 weeks since our holidays started, and i'm still in Bukit Jalil ^^". Because i chose to ride at the back of a lorry under the scorching sun instead of lying on my bed back home enjoying blissful sleep. Spent hours and hours training dragon and lion dance when i could have used up all those time playing thru all the PC and PS2 games left untouched for months now. Went to countless shops and houses and even warehouses around Cheras, Petaling Jaya, Kepong, Sungai Buloh, Bangsar, and some other towns.. and not back to my home in Senai. Sigh. Still, i never regretted the decision i made so long ago.. not even for a moment ^^. Learned something new, acquired memorable experiences, and got to know some really great people ^^. Won't see them for a long time.. those not from IMU are already working. Sigh ..

A year ago i whined that CNY wasn't memorable at all. Maybe that's why i chose to stay back here the whole 15 days of CNY, because i know that if i went back home i'll just be wasting my life away. Literally. Man.. i'm gonna miss all this lion and dragon dance.. gonna take a bus back home tomorrow. Wonder what i should do with all these free time i have now.. sigh. One month to bum around.. need to rest my body before the KK trip in 3 weeks time ^^.

Oh btw, anyone interested in joining the newly formed Wushu Club in IMU just leave me a message k? The committee posts haven't been filled up yet.. so, grab a post while they last! =P

Oh and i wanna wish.. a happy Chap Goh Meh to all my friends! =)

Dragon dance in Bahau ^^

So our BIG BIG performance (as coach always put it.. ^^") was finally over. It's like reaching the climax or something.. the one performance we look forward to and dread at the same time. We trained for 2 hours everyday since Tuesday just for that. Mapped out all the moves in the routines and memorise it until we're even doing the dragon dance in our dreams. Practised each and every move to perfection. Nothing was left out, no mistake will be made.

If only everything always go according to plans, eh? Haha. As it turned out, we trained for 2 hours on Tuesday all right.. only that we barely had enough members to practice properly. It rained on Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday night, cancelling all the training we planned. Yeah, how lucky we were. So we had to train on the day of performance itself, just before we leave for Bahau at 4pm (it's not really in Seremban, but Bahau as it turns out). And as if everything just had to make us screw up the dragon dance, there was an appointment for lion dance at 2.30pm (confirmed at the last minute). By the time we finished the lion dance it's already 3.30pm. O.o

And all the training we planned, all the dragon dance routine we're supposed to memorise, all the practising every move to perfection, all that were crammed into an hour of training, just hours before the actual performance ^^". Haha. We're almost used to this already.. everytime there's dragon dance we always plan and practise everything at the last minute. *sweats*

So after the intensive crash course in dragon dance, we're off to Bahau in a 14-seater Mercedes. I've never seen a van with that many seats before haha. Took us 2.5 hours to reach there from Cheras, even had to go through a mountain road (which was just like the road to Cameron.. endless bends ^^"). It was already 7.30pm by the time we reached.

The dragon dance was for some 'Pesta Tionghua' organised by MCA Daerah Jempol, and there were Wushu performance and lion dance too. Our dragon dance were split into two performances, the first and last. First was the tian guang (daylight) performance, which were done under bright lights. Scrapped a few moves due to the probability we might screw up (one was the mei2 hua1, where the dragon was made to look like a 'blooming flower', the other was where half of the dancers jump onto the other half - dunno why we scrapped this.. we tried it a lot of times during the intensive crash course. This time i was the bottom fellar who's jumped on ^^". Thankfully Chua was lighter than he looked hehe). No major mistakes, the audience even gave an applause haha. But it was just ok la.. not really impressive or anything..

After that was some Wushu performance by the Selangor team (if i heard Coach right). Then it's the yue guang (night light) lion dance performance, done under UV lights. And that's when it became obvious to us how noobish our lion dance was haha ^^". They had 3 lions jumping onto stilts at the same time.. it was just damn impressive la. Wonder how long it'll take for us to reach that level hehe..

After lion dance it was our dragon's turn again, this time was yue guang dragon dance. As it was dark, funny things tend to happen. Even just as we were coming in haha ^^". The 'head' was short-sighted (which he admitted later) and nearly knocked down a UV light pole on the way in because he's mesmerised by the glowing dragon head lol. As each of us were following the head's every step, you can imagine each of us getting surprised to see the pole there, nearly knocking it down, pulling away just inches from it, one by one (though some didn't even realise the pole was there ^^"). The tail even knocked the pole a little bit, but thank god it didn't fall haha (the UV light pole was the lion dance team's.. we borrowed it coz we don't have enough UV lights).

And just before we end the performance, the head made a mistake coz he couldn't see clearly ^^". He was supposed to go under between me and Chua (who's behind me), but went under behind Chua instead (he even had time to say 'die..' just before he passed Chua haha. That totally caught us by surprise.. coz it was different from the move we practised. Some twists and turns later, we got the dragon back straight.. thankfully it was dark and the mistake ain't that obvious hehe. Heard our performance was ok.. Coach and the MCA reps were happy with it. Heck, it was good considering we only had an hour of training.. lol.

And thus end our BIG BIG performance, watched by hundreds of ppl ^^. It was really damn fun.. though my hands were damn tired after that. And even better coz i was doing it with a great team.. had lots of laughter with them around ^^. Supper in Sri Petaling after we finished, and then i'm back here. With less than 7 hours to our lion dance performance next morning. *sweats*. Some more last-minute appointments, according to Coach.

PS - Didn't get to take pictures coz i was doing the dragon dance, and they don't want us to take pictures of the lion dance (as it might affect their concentration.. and falling down from the stilts ain't gonna be pretty). So nope, no pictures.. =(

P.PS - i was wrong bout no more lion dance .. there's always last-minute appointments, as usual ^^"

Self note (for remembrance purpose)
Members present: Steven (Coach), Steven's brother, Steven's brother's friend, Wan Chieh, Sor Eng, Esther, Janice, Chua, Darren, Tong-ge, Rajah, Zhi Yong (MCA), Wen Chien (MCA), Rahman (lorry driver) and the Mercedes driver.
Dragon dancers (from head to tail): Steven's brother, Esther, Tong-ge, me, Chua, Wan Chieh, Janice, Sor Eng, Steven's brother's friend.
Mercedes seating (left to right, from front): Zhi Yong, driver, Steven, Wen Chien, Wan Chieh, Sor Eng, Janice, Esther, Steven's brother's friend, Steven's brother, Tong-ge, Chua, Darren, me.