Doodle #166 : Reunion

Something I'm rather pumped up to write about. (: But before I begin, I'll start off by writing a bit of a repost. An edited one, of course.

A stroke of fate brought them together,
Perhaps lady luck had played a hand,
You just gotta live life,
In the arms of people you've met along the way,
People you've come to know as friends,
Yet close enough to be family.

If I could choose any kind of forever, they would be my forever. (:

Feels like so long ago since we first met. Time really flies, and you just get lost in the flow.

That's right peeps, it's high time we AUSMATians met up for a little gathering. It took awhile, and the presence of a VVIP delegate but it worked. Managed to organize somewhat of a mini reunion for those I spent those short but eventful 10 months with.

Met up with Itianne, Marc, Mun, Jing, SuQi at college. No matter how much time passes, or how things changed, Sunway University will always be Sunway University College to me. That name's kinda grown on me anyway. :) Kok Yee joined us too then.


Back to our floor. Brings back some memories. We wanted to meet some of our lecturers back then but classes were going on. So we spent the bulk of the waiting time we had.. waiting outside in the general vicinity. Browsed the notice boards to see how much things have changed since we all left.


Being nonsene in SW4-3. The classroom for Chemistry. Was reminiscing with the rest, watching the old videos I took back then and reliving the moments. I tried photobombing Jing and TKJ and ended up falling all over the chairs. Yep, awesome moments. :D

When we stepped out, an idea struck me. We saw the wall, and here we go,

A trip down memory lane,


Marcus then.


Marcus now.

Me then.


Me now.


Sexy Mui of '10!


And her at '12.



Some things never change. (:

Felt just like yesterday we walked down these halls. The days we sat in classrooms, laughing and learning. :) If only the entire gang was here. But alas..

It was time to get our movie tickets, took the exact same route from classes down to the cafeteria, pass the NE staircase. I remember that being the slowest lift in the whole campus. And how we'd all opt to take the stairs despite having waited for the lift for over 5 minutes every time. Back to Pyramid!

The girls all took the car, bahh. Puteri-puteri Lilin. Guys all walked.

The main event begun then, for the guest of (the highest) honour has arrived.


Guess who?

Yep, le Wall returns! :D Props to Alvin for driving her and WC all the way from S'ban to Malacca and back to KL just for the meet up.


Le gang, catching up and staring at the Burger King menu.


The Carmens are reunited, after almost 2 years. :)

First things first, off to movie! Kelvin and Kok Pan joined us for the movie (horrrr, skip classes!) After much debate, everyone agreed on The Viral Factor. I was pretty out of touch with the movie scene, but Mun wanted this. So I thought, why not? It wasn't exactly what I expected. All I knew was that it had Jay Chou in it, and was going to be some sort of Chinese movie.

Far from it.

I was rather taken aback when I heard English dialogue. Yes, I am horribly behind the current movie scene and had no idea what this movie was about. 5 minutes later, there was this discussion on Smallpox. Smallpox -> Virus -> The Viral Factor. Ahh it all makes sense now. Even more so to me, since I had done an entire presentation on the disease the previous semester.

Won't go on much about this since this isn't exactly a movie review post. I suck at those. T'was a pretty action packed movie. Shooting, explosions, hand to hand combat, you name it, it has it. Sound wise, maybe the explosions were a tad too loud where Marc and I sat. It was deafening, so to speak.

Story basically revolved around a bid to stop the spread of a new strain of the Smallpox virus. Though it was probably a bit more into the life of the agent tasked with stopping it, played by Jay Chou. The bulk of the movie was shot in Malaysia. That's right folks, Malaysia. :D

However, it was pretty.... far-fetched. So to speak. Most of the scenes,we couldn't decide should we gasp in awe, or just laugh at how much they're stretching reality. The movie had multiple languages too, Canto and Mandarin (dialects of Chinese), English, and even Malay. Yes, we all burst out laughing at all those scenes.

It felt nice to see familiar scenes, the KL skyline and the city centre. Though we all cringed as we watched various parts of Pavillion get wrecked in the chase scenes. :O

Overall, pretty good. :D

Now that that's said and done, time for relaxation and more catching up. As usual, we entered our standard routine of stoning in one place unable to decide where to go and what to do.

After much ado, we settled on Chatime. Glugglugglug. Drink the bubble tea.

Time for more pictures. It's been awhile since I played candid photog, or any photog.


Le girls.


Mun and le wall.


Jing and le wall.


TKJ and le wall



Marc, with wall.


Wall and I.


Jing intruded. :D


From left: Hamsap Yee, Wall, WC, Kok Pan.


A familiar scene?

Felt like that time in college again. :)

And now,


Group shot! Taken by Alvin, who took awhile with my phone -.- How hard can it be to press the camera icon? Rofl.

That concludes the main event. Now, le wall would like to visit Monash. So it was off to Monash! Showed her around campus. Yeap, personal grand tour of uni. Loitered for a bit in the beanbags area before we had to leave cause the library was closing. :(

STARBUCKS!

I made one of those impulsive buys again. :D

Dinner at Lunch Box (cause everybody was too tired to go anywhere else). :)

That pretty much sums up the entire day. It was a really good meet up. :') Till next time.

Doodle #165 : Happy Lunar New Year!

Think I put this off long enough. Though I'll keep this short and sweet.

It's the festive season again, Chinese New Year is upon us, or more specifically, the Year of the Dragon (or Water Dragon). A time where hordes of people flock back to their hometowns for family gatherings, reunions, and house hopping. All in the spirit of Chinese New Year.

It's times like these that I really wonder why did I complain so much back then?

True enough, the city centre was relatively empty during the first few days of the new year. I had heard earlier that day that the major highways were clogged up as early as 4am. That's right folks! 4-bloody-am. Maybe everyone had the same thought "If we all leave early, we'd bypass the jam"

Luckily for me, the past 2 new year celebrations have been held in my cosy neighbourhood, KK. My family used to take a 4 hour trip back to Sitiawan (where I was raised up) before my grandparents shifted up. That's when it hit me, I will no longer be able to experience the long hours in the car heading home, the sceneries I used to pass, the vast paddy fields and village areas, the tranquility of the small town.

I wonder what was I thinking back then? I really miss it all now.

As with every Lunar New Year, a reunion dinner is a must to kick things off. This year, we would be heading down to KL. Hence, my earlier statement that the city was rather empty. T'was a pretty small gathering, so to speak. There were only 8 of us in total.

Another thing I love/hate about the new year, THE FOOD. It's like hypnotic, I kid you not. Moment I sink my teeth into 1 of the snacks, I end up wiping out half the container. :/

It's been a pretty uneventful new year.

Doodle #164 : Chicken Rice Balls, and Satay Celup

Title is glaringly Malacca-esque. Then again, that's exactly what this post is about. Yeah, I've been outta commission for a bit now, took a trip down to Malacca earlier this week. I can now say that I've driven out of the state at least once. Well, somehow or rather I ended up playing driver for the trip. And wow it's tiring to have your foot on the accelerator for almost 2 hours on end. Not something I'm looking forward to again anytime in the near future. Next time, I'll just play passenger and sleep the whole way there.

Day 1

The day kicked off on an early note, left my house around 8.20 anticipating to get to Uni by 8.45. Then again, traffic is always unpredictable. Got down to KESAS and saw what awaited me. Despite priding myself on always arriving early, I think I was the last one that day only reaching Uni at 9.20. Pushed off towards Malacca at 9.30, 30 mins later than our initial plan.

The journey itself was rather smooth. Jean, Melody and Jeremy in Jo's car and Joshiee in mine. Touchdown roughly 11.45ish? Waited for Jhii to get us at the toll booth. Actually hung around for 10 minutes before realizing she was already there!


The peeps in Jo's car, the lead car.


Me with Joshiee.

Okay so I maaaaaaaay have overused that pose when I'm not bothered to actually pose for a photo. Think it's been burned into my software. :/ Gotta stop.

There's just something about driving in unfamiliar territory. I almost got hit by a car LOL.

I felt so lost, driving the trailing car. Felt intensely focused on not losing the lead vehicle, which probably lead to the above.

Went over to Jhii's place first. She has such cute dogs! A whole pack even. :O


I mean, isn't it just so adorable? :D




Touchdown! Pharmacists in white. :D And the doctor in red.

First stop of the day; Jonker's Street!

Omnomnom chicken rice balls. Frankly, not what I had expected. They looked exactly like fish balls. Just that it was rice instead of fish.


Walked from end to end, picking up some Durian Puffs along the way. Needless to say, I passed on this. I never ate fruits in my life, and I'm not about to start with durians. :O Walked further down for some Asam Laksa. Jeremy and Jean both shed 'tears of happiness' eating it. Rofl. Dessert then was Cendol! (smth I also skipped) whaaaat?

As we walked down the street, we saw this big ass statue for a.. Just look at the name below.


Needless to say, the guys just dashed to the statue and began posing.


C-c-c-endol!


Waiting for me to get my stuff.

After making a short detour before heading back to the cars, I spotted a policeman, writing a saman, at a car which looked exactly like mine.

SHIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT! -.-

First time getting a parking ticket, and it was in Malacca. What a way to start the trip.

Meh!

Brushing that off, stopped by some place to pick up tidbits for the night (I decided to stay behind to watch the cars, no bloody way I'm taming any chances) once bitten, twice shy?

Pork Satay was next!

After we parked, I made sure to get the parking stuff from Jo. I just don't wanna risk another ticket, once was enough for a trip. Bahhh. Haha.

The pork satay was goooooooooooood. I just kept eating and eating. Nomnomnom. Even the drinks there were as awesome. Everyone ordered a fruit juice. Me? White coffee. There's just smth about coffee that you can't get enough of. Musings of a coffee addict.


Nadeje, a famous cake place in Malacca. I would assume they specialized in layer cakes..? Personally, not really my thing. I prefer the regular cakes. But that's just me.

Then it was a short detour to Melaka Megamall, or Dataran Pahlawan. Jean wanted to scout out the prices for a haircut (which she would get the next day, and that is a story in itself). Think we were looking for the supermarket but strangely enough, we never found it. Maybe it wasn't there anymore, maybe it got replaced, or maybe we just suck with directions.

Nevertheless..



Pictharrs. :D

After browsing about, it was finally time to check in. Left Dataran Pahlawan at roughly 4pm. It was then I got a glimpse of the Malaccan version of a traffic pile up. It was bumper to bumper all the way out of town. *shrugs* Never thought I'd see that kind of congestion anywhere other than KL.

A slow crawl out of the city brought us back on to the highway, and it was high time to check in. Off to A Famosa! I still don't get why is it so far from town. It was about a 40 minute drive at highway speed before we got there. After treading through a pretty dodgy village area we finally spotted the big "A FAMOSA" sign.

Checked in and found the place. Pretty comfortable, :D


Nice, isn't it?


My roomie. :D

Settled in and unpacked before we used the various facilities. :D


Namely, the swimming pool. :D

Dawdled a bit there. It was pretty funny watching some of us (I shan't name names) swim around. The puppy waddle! :D Tried to do free-style but that just kicked up water all over the place. The pool was pretty small too, I mean we had like 7 people in it. That and the part some of us got tossed in.. T'was a blast.

Dinner was pretty simple, your standard Chinese restaurant food. Ordered a few dishes and when they came, it was literally 10 minutes of silence as we indulged ourselves. Hunger sated, we bought the supplies for the night. 4 bottles of beer.

All I can say is.. T'was like a war, and I was on the losing side. Gahahhaa. Initially that is. :P

Went to bed around 2, wayyy past my standard bedtime.


Day 2

Jolted awake at 10 in the morning. Guess my biological clock hadn't completely shut down. Was ready by 10.30 too. Everybody else was still pretty much knocked out then. Brewed my morning coffee and sat down to watch a round of 9-ball on tv. *in awe*

Got our stuff packed up and left the villas round 12ish. Yeah, we only had to place for a night. Itinerary for day 2, back to the city!

Which meant another 40 minutes+ travelling time.

First things first, went to pick up the keys for our accommodation for the second night, a house near Jhii's place, as well as chuck our stuff there. Brunch was nearby, we ate some... No idea what it's called but it's like.. Pork. And pork's good. Nuff' said.

The bulk of the second day was spent at Malacca Parade.


Spotted this there. So you going down, or down?

Main event, KALAH OK.

Shall not go into the details, but it was a lot of eating, snacking, screaming, shouting, dancing (for some of us) and more screaming. Yeah......................

The next few hours were spent waiting (or rather watching. Funny story) for Jean / Jo / Jeremy to get their haircuts. Honestly, there was more dancing than hairstyling. I can't even begin to find the words to describe the epicness it was.

A story for some other day perhaps?


Time for dinner! :D



Satay Celop! Lucky for us, we managed to get a place relatively fast. I've never tried it before so yeah. :D We were counted by the amount of sticks we had on the table, the final price that is. I mean whoa. Everything there was RM0.80 a stick. Some of us spammed the big ass prawns, others spammed the cheese sausages. Myself included. Thing is, I never really get the full benefits of eating at places like this, or anything of similar nature (ie. Steamboat) for that matter. Way too choosy in my choice of food.

Meh.

At the end of it all, our table was swamped with satay sticks and plates. Mel was going on bout how she could find more stuff left at the bottom of the pot. She found quite a bit too, which prompted Jeremy to bet he could as well. Now, at this time, Jo had a cheese sausage cooking the pot. And Jeremy tried to scrap that off the stick. Hilarious.


Headed off to the pier after dinner.

Nothing much here, just some photo taking and stuff.



Credits to Jean!

Then it was off to.. another pier. This time overlooking the ocean. We were prolly several hundred meters out? I don't really know what place it was but there was a cafe at the entrance.. and a pretty loud pub. Spent the rest of the night there, gazing off into the distance. The placed played the kind of tunes you'd expect from Light.FM, those kinda stuff. Really fit the mood.

That and Joshiee decided to whip out some of his songs too. Got me addicted to In The Arms Of An Angel by Sarah Maclaughlin. As I stared out into the ocean, my head filled with a lot of things. Smth about the whole scenery + background music really had a thought provoking effect. Needless to say, I entered that state again, or rather.. I tiptoed ever so closer to it before bringing my trance to a halt.

*sniff*

Someday.. Just someday.

Hhaahaha.

That concludes the post.

The 3rd day was basically revisiting everywhere and eating a lot more. And a crazy tiring drive home. It's good to be back. :')

Doodle #163 : Psycho Dim Sum

I just woke up from an afternoon nap.

Yes, despite the fact that I usually abhor naps seeing how they completely distort my sense of time and space, sending my biological clock into a spiral of doom, frying all their circuitry. In short, sending my sense of time into Oblivion. I guess it's the fatigue is finally settling in. I have been waking up at 7 or earlier this past week, having already adjusted to the holiday season.

As a matter in fact, I did get up early again today. To pick up 2 Psychos for breakfast. I was so caught up watching a programme on Discovery Channel I would have been late. I always knew cats were evil (refer to a tweet I made earlier)! My phone buzzed, saw the number, saw the time, bolted out of the house. Went over the the adjacent neighbourhood and picked up Amanda. Off to DJ! Psycho 1 down.

Unsurprisingly enough, the roads were clogged, so to speak, bumper to bumper traffic along the usual hotspots. Even more so today, but I'm not one for politics. Roughly 30-ish minutes later, we found ourselves in front of SMKDJ, Amanda and Itianne's former high school. Record time too, somewhat. Found Itianne strolling the halls with her former teachers. And that makes two. :D

Initially, the plan was to swing by SS15 again to eat at this awesome place for breakfast. Discovered it a few days back thanks to Jamie. :D But time was not on our side, and neither would be my petrol consumption. and Itianne came up with this brilliant breakfast idea.

DIM SUM.

I swear, that woman is a genius! Dim sum cravings skyrocketed. :D So we went to this nearby place. No idea what it was called, shall ask one of the DJ people someday.

On a side note, I seem to be forcefeeding my friends cupcakes lately. Nomnomnom.

Here comes the best part, wanting to get Amanda back to her place in time, I opted to take a different highway from the one I normally took. If I'm not mistaken, I think it was the Sprint Highway. Took a glance at my Maps app, and programmed the route mentally into my mind. Things were going well until I came up to the turn off. I must stress how misleading Malaysian road signs are! The correct way was in my.. visual memory? I think that's implicit memory. But I saw the "Shah Alam" direction pointing towards a different exit. So I took the second (and very wrong) route.

I ended up taking several extra tolls trying to find the right way home. :/ ROAD TRIP! After twisting and turning, I found myself staring at i-City. *breathes sigh of relief* Home is so close now.

And so we go. :D

Eventful morning, will be meeting the gang in the evening. :DD Kinoc, out.

Doodle #162

That concludes the first week of the new year. :)

It's been a good 7 days I might add. The new year didn't exactly kick off on a high note, I've had nothing to do for half of the past week. Spent the first day of the week / year staying home cleaning up. Finally gave the floor a good scrub, which may have been way overdue.

Then there were the occasional lunches with Tina. Went over to Mid Valley the other day, played a couple rounds of pool (like finally!) which ended in a draw. A game a piece when we were cut short during the 3rd round. So yeah, gotta brush up more.

Now for the better half of the week. Sometime last month, I signed up for yet another Student Helper job with Monash University. This time round, it was a stint for JCAE, which stands for the Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, a symposium. The funny thing is that despite it being a business school event, every student who volunteered to help out (or rather, work) were from Pharmacy. Yes, indeed. There were 8 of us in total. That's the wonders of working as a student helper, you get to work with friends / colleagues (uni's way of saying classmate).

The job itself was simple enough, all we had to do was usher the delegates for the symposium onto the buses charted by Monash. We had to set up our "bantings", and wait for people to start showing up.

There were 4 locations in total:
- 3K Inn (1)
- Sunway Pyramid (2)
- Sunway Hotel (2)
- Empire (3)
The numbers signify how many student helpers are placed at each location.

I was stationed at Empire, alongside Blondiee and Wun Yuen. :)

The first day started on a slow note, we had everything set up 30 minutes before the first bus, that means we were there by 6.30AM. When the clock finally struck 7, we waited. No one. Then a lady came to us asking about the symposium. Directed her to the bus and 10 minutes later, the bus was off. Yes, there was only ONE delegate for the 7AM bus. Well.. It is pretty early, I mean who wakes up that early for an event that starts at 9? Even the 8AM bus only had 2 people. Which gave us a grand total of THREE delegates for day 1. (I was expecting 30-ish people though).

Here comes the best part of the job. We were no longer needed till the evening bus came in, which would be roughly 4pm. So basically, we had free time on our hands between 9am to 3pm. Had breakfast with the Year 1s (we're all Year 2 now!), and all headed home to relax till we were needed again. Met up at Monash at 3 before heading off to Empire again. The evening bus? Only another 2 people got on.

The booming number of delegates was later made clear to me. It was the 5th, the actual event will be on the 6th and 7th. The first day was only some doctorine thing which delegates can choose to attend should they wish to. I guess. :/

Day 2 and 3 were even better. We got off at 9AM itself, seeing how there weren't any buses in the evening. Hence, we weren't needed. On another note, we finally had more people though it still wasn't exactly my initial estimate of 30. Day 2 saw roughly 10-15 delegates in total. It was also the only time we had to help them charter transport to Monash after 8am since they missed the final bus.

The only downside to this was that we all had to get up around 5.30AM in order to reach our designated stations on time for the 7AM bus.

Overlooking that, probably the best work to pay ratio job. Ever. Nuff' said.

On a side note, found this really awesome place to eat at. :) Definitely a good start to the weekend. :D

Was driving home today when a song started to play on the radio, then in my head.



Dedicated to you guys. :)

On another side note, picked up another new hobby, towards the last few weeks of last year, and finally got myself a book for it. :) I have yet to poison anyone, so that's a good sign. :)

Doodle #161 : Oops

Completely forgot to blog lately.

Started work at Monash (again) two days back. Tomorrow's my last day.

So far, the new year's been okay. :)