Doodle #97 : Pork Noodles

Finally, an event to write about.

Met up with the college gang today, well, most of them.

Usual drill, went to get Kelly from her place before picking up Itianne from college. Seems like I'm the chauffeur. Standard larh.

Frankly, it felt a bit odd to drive today. Last time I drove was over a week ago, before heading off to Penang. Actually took a wrong turn and ended up on Federal Highway, and almost missing the exit to LDP, which would have brought me all the way to Mid Valley, a big no no.

Nevertheless, found Su Qi and Prem at SS15 and lead everyone to Chu Yuk Fun! I still don't know the name of the place, sorry. It's the place behind Taylor's CPU building, quite close to SS15's Club9.

Nom nom nom.

Yeap, the place was goooooooood. Caught up with the rest, shared some drama, and some stories. Usual stuff. I really miss our college eating trips.

It's true, we may have had fun, but we didn't really make the most of it.

A statement we all agreed to.

OFF TO SNOWFLAKES! Another one of our favourite pastimes.. BUT..

"Closed"

OH DAMMIT.

"Eh I heard SS15 got Chatime. Where is it ah?" ~ Kelly
*looks around* "Isn't THAT Chatime?" *points to signboard ~ Me

LOL. You all have to be more keen larh, super L-O-L moment.


TKJ in shades! Damn cool right?


The only shade-less one among us. Sniff sniff.


Whee.

Dropped Itianne back at college, then adjourned to Pyramid, for a tradition. You'll see.


It's always the duck that gets it. Why?!


Game ON.

Ran into Nahulan, and Jas. Hahhaa. Small world.

I missed you guys so la. :') Outing again soon okay?

Picturesque Perfection

Written on a whim. (and spanning several days)

Innocence taken,
Naivety stood in its place,
A gentle reminder,
Obstructs further impetuous judgment,
Plucked up and struck down,
Through thick and thin,
A shadow persists.

Stumbling along the dark,
Tripping over again and again,
A hand reaches out,
Warm with grace and benevolence,
The rose of friendship.

Silence now took over,
It was but a brief calm,
Unforeseen actions,
Coupled with barriers,
Shrugged off.

A picture begins to form,
Silhouettes come together,
A snarl pierces the silence,
Eyes opened to reality,
Conviction was the next to fall,
To be replaced by rampant skepticism.

Spurred by the moment,
To play the part of companion,
Solace within escapade,
Unspoken words,
Buried with the passage of time.

Fallen again,
Only to look up and find,
Picturesque perfection,
Within those eyes.

True, this isn't even close to what I would consider my peak. On the bright side, it shows I've discarded my old mindset.

Penang : Day 2

My take on Day 2 of the Penang trip.

The day began rather early as most of us were up by 7.30, with Dave being earliest to get up and ready. There goes my assault plan, rofl. Everyone got ready by 8.30 and we waited. We had planned an excursion to Penang Hill for the day but alas, we could hear the rain pounding against our window. Sure enough, the rain kept getting heavier and heavier. Despite the uncooperative weather, we were treated to breakfast by Chern who came over to join us for Day 2 of the trip. He brought with him fried mee hoon, I think they referred to it as 'economy mee'. Perhaps it was the hunger, or that I have not had much good food but it was heavenly! Never had so delicious noodles in my life!

So we pushed off, in the rain. If we looked silly trying to flag down the bus from our apartment the day before, then we just looked sad under the rain and our umbrellas also trying to flag down the bus.

Nevertheless, we managed to get one and made our way towards KOMTAR, before going to Peranakan Museum. Or so we thought. Turns out the bus we were on took an unfamiliar route and we were rather.. Disorientated in terms of location awareness. Once again we met a Good Samaritan who helped us point out the bus we needed to take. Thank you Malay auntie who helped us! We're indebted to you. Seriously, the locals are so nice. With her help, we somehow managed to find the place were looking for.

I shall let the pictures do the talking for this one.


Cameras ready? *double checks*


Reflection shots ftw.


Posers.


Group shot, dinner table.


Bromance shot, without me. ):



Back to KOMTAR!

This time, we wanted our Asam Laksa. Back to Joo Hooi!! Sure enough, we were in luck this time. The place was bustling. The laksa was GOOD! Serious, this is coming from one who doesn't normally eat laksa and I just nom-ed the whole bowl down. The barli was nice too, LOL.

Next stop, Batu Feringgi. Or rather, Hard Rock Hotel.

More pictures :)



Hard Rock HOTEL. With a big ass guitar in the front.




The beach. Pretty nice sights, and watersports. Though we didn't play any of them.



Gurney Driveeeee, nomnomnomnom. We were early, quite early actually, so we found a pretty nice spot in the middle of it all. Fried Oyster, Char Kuey Teow, Asam Laksa, Claypot Chicken Rice, Ikan Bakar, NOMNOMNOMNOM.

I guess it was a good thing that we turned up early, it gave us the time to just kick back, relax and eat to our heart's contents. And also to just chit chat. :D After wolfing down our meals, we took a nice leisurely walk along the path that ran along the coastline.




Down to Gurney Plaza.

Adeline calls it, "The Pavillion of Penang" To me, it looks a lot like Sunway Pyramid. Maybe it's just how all the shops are similar. The guys went about camwhoring while the girls camped at Elianto, browsing about. An hour later or so, we were done and began making our way back. I think I should've bought that oversized coat, just because. Rationally, I know I'll probably never wear it. Ever. But then again I just wanted it. Impulse buy, anyone?


The bus ride back was pretty quiet, i guess. At the start a least. I suppose everyone was just worn out from walking. Once again found ourselves across the road from our apartment. Had 3 lanes of mainroad to cross, didn't want to take any chances. No way I wanted to die there, haha. Walked down the road to the traffic lights where it was much safer to cross. So we crossed. Once again, jumped across the drain to the fire hydrant opposite the 7-11. It's like a landmark to us now. Haha. Bought some Maggi Cup noodles to camp for tonight. Rested, talked a bit more. It was a good day. :))

p.s. Complete photo albums on Facebook. :)) So concludes Day 2.

Penang : Day 1

Written at the end of the day itself, during our keng sam si session. (:


As I look out the window into what was darkness, I think back. It was truly a harrowing experience. We had barely made it, or end up getting stranded at the station. Jean and I managed to locate the KTM literally seconds before it departed without us. Thanks to a guy in red, we barely escaped an otherwise very troubling predicament. We ran towards the station he pointed out, the adrenaline spike helped us along. We found it, a solitary trem just waiting there. We dashed. I could feel the relief wash over me when the guy confirmed that it was indeed heading to Ipoh. The moment we got to our seats, the train begun moving. That's how close we were to missing it.


The library (forgot name) in Ipoh.


On our way to Penang!


The ocean, so vast.

That aside, I was rather impressed with the station at KL Sentral, it really felt KLIA, similar designs and whatnot. The station at Ipoh looked like what I'd expect from a typical train station, nothing like the one in KL yet unique in it's own way Jean and I then waited for Jamie to pick us up from the station. Moment we walked out, we were bombarded with "Teksi?! You mau teksi tak?" Yeap. Went over for breakfast, dim sum style. Sadly, Foh San (the place Jamie wanted to bring us) was closed. So we settled for, Yoke Moon smth restaurant, okay okay la. Made our way to the station later, Sri Maju buses and took off for Penang.



Met the rest at Queensbay Mall, our designated rendezvous point. I could spot yokeyee miles away, haha. Couldn't recognize Joshua in his new look. Seems that Jean and I weren't the only ones who almost missed our rides. Dave had his own story to tell.



Adjourned to KimGary's and caught up on our respective sides of our journeys. Managed to scout around the mall, like every telltale tourist does before making our way to our accommodation.


Krystal Suites. Located at Jalan Ampa... Smth. Relatively close to Queensbay Mall. Checked in and divided rooms. Managed to secure one of the single beds. Woot! Didn't have to squeeze :) Getting to our place however.. We took a bus and ended up stopping a way away from our intended destination. They didn't really have a stop in front of the suite. Hence, we had to walk under the blazing, scorching sun to get there. Crossing the ROUNDABOUT OF DEATH! No I am not exaggerating. It was super big and massively crowded with cars, I still don't know how we made it.

Once things were settled, we decided to take off to Cafe Joo Hooi, best known for its Asam Laksa someplace downtown, in Penang Street. Flagging the bus from or place made us look rather comical. 6 tourists jumping around swaying our respective colorful umbrellas (nope, not me).


Where's the bus? ):

So it was off to KOMTAR, a place I would dub to be the central hub of public transportation in Penang. Speaking of public transportation, I was rather impressed with the one at Penang. It was about, a bus every 3-5minutes depending on traffic and location. Super fast. Bus drivers are super helpful too! If the bus wasn't the one we wanted, the driver would point out exactly which bus to take and our route. Yea, awesome. After some walking, and road crossing, and several near misses, we finally found the place! Sadly we weren't able to get any laksa as they were already out of them, and closing too. It was only 5pm. Well.. :/ So we got a plate of Char Kuey Teow for us and a cendol each. Nomnomnom. I can't really remember the mall we were walking around after our CKT/ cendol snack. But it was attached to 1st Avenue. Nothing much cept loads of walking. When it was 7pm, we went for some Nasi Kandar! Back in the direction of Joo Hooi, only further down.


Passed by this place, COOb Familiar? (:


Got some help from the locals to find the place, LC Nasi Kandar! LC stands for Line Clear btw, not the other LC haha.

I must say that at times, crossing the road almost killed us all. Okay maybe I am exaggerating this time. Lucky we had Adeline and her car stopping prowess. All it took was raising her hand, and we were all cleared a path to the other side. More nomnomnomnom.

Made our way back to the apartment, and so concludes Day 1.

Doodle #96 : Subject Delta

Once again, I've been rather preoccupied lately. So much so that I didn't really try writing down, even a short post on this site of mine. Well, I would like to say that my distraction was well justified.

Why?

By this of course!


The holidays also mark the beginning of a (short lived) gaming spree. Got myself Bioshock 2, and played through it start to finish.

Yes, yes, yes. I know I'm rather slow with games, I admit I've been outta touch with the gaming world since my highschool days, only getting a game years after it's released and almost forgotten. Meh.

It still has the same old Bioshock feel to it as I play. You pretty much get your old weapons again this time round, the customary melee weapon, a primary weapon that feels rather like a side arm, a machine gun, a piercing weapon, an explosive launcher.


Only that this time round, your crossbow has been replaced with a speargun, and your thompson with a minigun. Sounds cool right? And your revolver's gone. In it's place, a rivet gun. If you've played the first game you'd know that rivet guns are traditionally brandished by those annoying Rosies, a.k.a. The Big Daddy.

Why are you wielding one then?


Cause this time round, you ARE a big daddy. Although you're a more advanced version compared to those you fought against in the first game, one of the Alpha Series.

Won't reveal much of the story, but basically you're trying to locate your lost Little Sister.


Yeah, can't get enough of those eyes right?

Combat system has a few changes, but still the same old 'shock and smack', more or less. Just that your drill has limited spinning, it runs on fuel. You could still swing it around and smack people with it. Few new plasmids this time round too! But I stuck to my old combinations.

You face a couple of new enemies. An oversized splicer known as a 'brute' but those are rather easily dispatched later in the game. The real scary ones are these.


Known as The Big Sister. You'll understand why if you play it.

That's that. Already done with the game. Time to move on to Splinter Cell : Conviction. Loving the new installment. Though it's lost its trademark "Stealth First" feel. You get to run and gun now if you like. Which is fine by me.

That's bout it for now.

I should finish packing for Penang. (:

Doodle #95

"If I were to equate you to something, you would be the moon. Yes, the moon. The moon only shines when there is a sun to reflect. The moon does not glow with its own light...But remember this! The moon's light is a guidepost to those that search in the darkness of the night. A time will come when you will carry out such a role...Sometime in the near future."

Glenn ~ Chrono Cross.

Doodle #94 : Painball

Well..

I played my first ever game of paintball today. In total there were about 11 of us, me, Sam, HY, KY, Ash, and 6 of Sam's college friends.

Had breakfast at Hasra, that's the mamak near college. Hadn't been there for over 6 months. Then we pushed off, to some place I still am not sure of. Mudtrekkers, smth like that. Took us awhile to get there, got rather lost along the way.

So we had 2 teams, 6v5.

Well, we were still rather balanced since 1 side had both KY and HY, the 2 most experienced players there. We were geared up, and directed to the playing field. It was about the size of.. Maybe 2/3 of a football field? Not that big.

Round 1 :Defend the flag.

I think most of us didn't really get the objective of the match so we ended up huddling behind cover. I lasted for quite abit until HY rushed up my flank and shot me. My feeble attempt to defend myself only resulted in several pellets barely missing him. What? I was panicked.

Round 2 : Defend the flag.

Same objective but we swapped sides. I personally think that the far side of the field has much better cover options. Immediately rushed behind this tree which I used as cover. Could spot several guys taking cover and somewhat exposed but my shots never really made their mark. Paintballs are horribly inaccurate. All I could do was provide covering fire.

Round 3 : Capture and rush with the flag?

Randomly thought of smth that would fit the task. Grab the flag and rush with it to the opponent's base. Once again, my team was on the near side. I took cover behind this barrel and was rather safe, till Ash popped up and shot me in the neck. D: In my daze, I got up and made my way to the respawn point. By the time I turned around, 5 guys were on me and I got shot, again. -.- Didn't end well for my teammates either.

Round 4 : Same game, swapped sides.

Same tactic, rush the tree and camp there. I think this time I managed to pop off a few good shots. I think I managed to take out a guy rushing for the flag from behind the tree. All I could do was cover the left flank, had no bearings whatsoever on my right. All the time I tried to look over the branches, I hear pellets exploding around me, which all but prompted me to duck and seek more shelter.

Couldn't remember how many rounds we played but those are the 4 I remember. Overall, I think I came out relatively unscathed as opposed to some of the other players, like KY with his majorly bruised arm.

Lunch at Chili Pan Mee, Taipan, then dropped by SS15 as Hy had to get smth from Taylor's.

Headed home and HoNed with Ash, and his friend.

I feel so tired. ):

JL & JL

It's finally here, the HOLIDAYS!

I'd say it's about time I begin planning what to do for the coming month. I do NOT want to sit at home and do nothing at all. That's just... Crap. So far I only have two major outings in mind. A third is on its way, soon as I sort out everyone's holiday schedule. (:

Before that, a quick recap on the final day of examinations. Kicked off the day with PHS in my mind. Had to make sure that the cold had disappeared before heading off. Shook my head a few times (Do not question my self-based health assessment methods) and my headache didn't show up. So I was good to go!

I would say that the paper was managable. After having being slaughtered by PAC1211, PAC1311 took it a notch down. I won't say anything for now but I'm definitely hoping for the best, at least for 3/4 of my units. 1211 was a paper of pure malevolence, even by my usually very "slackful" standards.

But enough about exams, for that is a time behind us. Later that day, we gathered here:


Frames Cafe, Sunway Pyramid. For a little pre-planned surprise. (:

Funny how I've never realized that place was there, tucked away beside Starbucks. Usually if I took the front entrance I'd completely ignore it. And to think I had took a group shot with my friends literally in front of the place last year.

Coming back to this, made a little errand to SS21 to pick up the night's dessert and brought Joshie along for the ride. Once that was done, we whisked (or rather I drove) ourselves back to Pyramid and met up with Mr. Dave, who had been there since the afternoon for an outing. Adeline joined us shortly afterwords, as we made our way to Frames. Blondie came soon after us, having gotten lost prior to that, LOL.


The 2 idiots. :D

So we waited, and waited. Then we saw them approaching. So I guess it was "Duck & Cover!"? All of a sudden, Melody and Jhii Lien hushed over from the side door and rushed in, just in time. We turned around, and Blondie, Jean, Caryn and Jamie came in. Alan came soon after.

SURPRISEEEE! Ngeh heh heh :D

So it went rather well, despite the small slip up the night before.

Then we revealed to Jhii Lien that the dinner was also for her. (:

So we sat down, and did what friends do.


Our soup thingy. Quite nice.


My Beef Bolognaise. Portion's rather big, yum.

Then, time..


Cupcakes! (: From Wondermilk.


The girls.


JL & JL (: Note small photo below!


Blurrrr.

And so we concluded the night. (:

Hope you two enjoyed yourselves! :D

Doodle #93 : Analogous

A post, which will have almost no definite meaning. For what is it, but a compilation of written words? Words spoken, intelligibly or otherwise, to come to terms with a purpose.

To each his own.


It feels like a swirling mist of ideas. Cloudy and uncharted, incomplete yet existent. To look into my mind, is to find various unrelated thoughts, jumbled up into a vortex of information. Some seem decipherable, others not so. Sentiments accumulating, yet far from absolute. To follow my train of thought innocuously, yet deliberately.

Is there really such a thing as luck? An event denoted by chance alone. To have no correlation whatsoever with the physical world and its daily conundrums. Perchance. Is it truly possible to have landed yourself into a situation dictated only by one's decision, without interference from Lady Luck?

Would those choices in themselves, then create alternate worlds whereby you would have walked a different path? Existing in parallel yet seperate timelines. A world completely different to the one you're walking? Paths you have chosen to walk, inadvertently shut off chances of walking the other.

Life in itself, is a complex mystery.

Each of us has a place in this world, seek out yours. Even if it takes you to distant horizons. Sometimes, the journey itself far outweighs the triumph of reaching your destination.

A life full of laughter, love and bliss.



Written beliefs of an undying gratitude,
Penned down years back,
Times a companion stood,
Alongside stricken times,
The seraph has left,
For in his place,
Stood a fiend.





Coming back to reality, definitely one of my odder posts. Just needed to get all the studying stress out, I guess. (:

Kinoc, out.

Again

Believe, that for you I'd do it all over again.

So begins the examination period. I wouldn't say that it has been the smooth ride I had initially wanted. Utter naivety, examinations were never smooth sailing.

I've hit the halfway mark. Only 2 more exams stand between me, and what I hope to be the most eventful holiday period I'll have.

Today in itself, was plain horrid, in terms of health. Been down with a runny nose, aka the common cold since midday. I have the Examination Hall to thank. I swear, I'll freeze to death in that place. Exaggeration? Perhaps. Nevertheless, it brings back thoughts of freezing myself at the MPH back at Sunway. Those were the days.

Oh, well. I've tried to restrain myself, but the room was way too cold to bear. I'm living up my AUSMATian reputation again. Please don't hate me. You'll get used to it, trust me.


6 hours, till freedom. (L)

'cause I'm halfway gone.

Thoughts Unspoken

Been awhile since I last listened to Alesana. (:

Matrix

I'll take a break, from my nonexistent studying.


Made by Friend Matrix, a Facebook application.

Normally, I'm not much for Facebook applications but this one almost got it spot on, almost. :)

I miss them more now. :( Can't wait for the holidays, then I'd get to meet up with them again. Hopefully they've time for someone like me. Hahaha. Fingers crossed. :)

When In Doubt,

I'll be on a blogging break till the end of my exams. A hiatus, in short.