Doodle #210 : Falling, Literally

This was actually something that happened quite awhile back, but I only got around to write it ever so melodramatically when I shared it with someone. So I thought, might as well post it up! Yes guys, this is a true story.

It was a fateful day. The rain was pouring down, the sky an ominous grey. I looked up as I felt droplets of rain land on my cheeks. I blinked, and sook shelter under the roof overlooking Building 2. It was then when I heard the low rumble, the sound of imminent lightning. I pondered upon my choices, knowing I was unable to reach my vehicle amidst the curtain of rain. I took a step back, and surveyed my surroundings. A glance at my watched showed that the time was only 5pm. I still had 2 hours to go before church began. I looked over to my friend who taunted, "I bet you can't reach your car in this rain" Without a moment's hesitation, I yelled back. "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED" Immediately, I swung around to face my greatest foe, the rain. But alas, I would have never made it that far. With one great leap, I placed my leading foot into a puddle of water, splashed from the rain. I felt the sensation before I knew what was coming. The eerie feeling, that heartstopping moment when you lose traction in your feet. I saw my life flash in front of my eyes as I begun to tip over. I had no time to react, only time to fall. I braced myself for the impact, knowing all too well of my impending doom. As though the heavens shined one me, I managed to curl myself into a half-sphere, shielding my front edge with my arm. Thud. Thud. Thud. The world slowed down as I hit the ground. A numbing pain shot up my arm and spreaded across my body, paralyzing nerves and stunning my conscience. When I regained conscious control of my limbs, I found myself eagle-spread on the floor, my friends aghast, yet amused. With one great heave, I lifted myself off the gravel floor, to find 15 pair of eyes staring at me, through the glass facade of the library. With my head down in shame, I regained myself and ran off towards shelter, and dryness. Only to be greeted by my friend at the library, who so excitedly exclaimed, "KIN HOE! I saw you fall!!" I knew then that all was lost. I yelled out in my head "NOOOOOOOOOOOO" but carried myself on, for life awaited me, and this wasn't the end.

THE END.

Doodle #209 : A Tribute

So on the way home my mom asked me a question today, "Boy, do you miss yeh yeh (Cantonese for paternal grandfather) or not?" Guess all I could do was look on ahead and reply "Yeah, of course" meekly. Then she asked me whether or not I could remember my childhood days.

Of course I could. Those were by far, the most tranquil 5 years of my life. Not everyone gets sent to live with their grandparents during their childhood days, cause their parents are too busy trying to make a living. But for me, that's what happened. I can say for sure I really miss those days. The old house we (my paternal grandparents and I) lived in. We had this open area, you know like you see in the Western style houses, a giant lawn as I would call it. It wasn't like any ordinary lawn. There was a dirt road leading up to the house, and we had this giant tree right beside what people would call our porch. The whole land area of that field (dirt) was probably the size of what we would say is the equivalent of a standard double story house. Kinda makes you think how much cost of living has risen since then. I remember walking down that dirt road, to collect the mail from the mailbox. Yes, I actually had to walk down to get it. I remember climbing the tree at one point only to scare my grandparents quite badly. I remember running around catching critters around the house to play with. I remember sleeping in one of those old style beds with the mosquito netting and hiding all my toys under the pillow to bring out at night.

But what struck me the most was watching one of the "Malaysia My Hometown" videos on Astro, where a man described his childhood with his dad. And I can't help but notice how similar it was to mine, only with my grandad instead. I wanted to learn how to cycle, and the bicycle that yeh yeh had was so big I couldn't even get up onto it. He actually went down the road (and by road I mean both sides were literally crawling with lalang (tall grass) to find the Indian neighbour that lived down the road, about 500m down? Yeah that's how far our closest neighbour's house was. To borrow his kid's tricycle to let me play with. :') Then he would slowly walk me through the steps of how to cycle. Eventually, I was able to cycle not only without training wheels, but also on his bicycle. It's slightly larger than the average mountain bike, in terms of height, but so much thinner. Y'know, like those old style ones. It was easily 15+ years ago now.

Then of course I would need the occasional haircut every now and then. Yeh yeh would then bring me into town to the barber he visited. I can't remember much from the experience but I did remember this. You know how they always use some spray thing to spray a thin layer of water over your hair before they cut it? Yeah, I played with that. I would bug the shopkeeper until he would let me have it then I'd run around and spray people in the shop, my grandfather included. He would just laugh at me, and I'd continue running around.

One of the funniest stories though when was people came to install a street lamp down the road next to the mailbox. I have no recollection of this so I'll just tell it from my parent's view and what they said I did. Workers would come and drill a hole in the ground to place the street lamp, and they would leave at the end of the day. After they left, I would run around the field collecting stones and rocks for hours on end, then dump them all into the hole to fill it right back up! After a few days I told my grandad "Yu guo yao yan nei wan ngo, tong hui dei kong ngo mm hei oak kei ah" ("If anybody comes to look for me, tell them I'm not at home" in very broken Canto).

Once, there was a funfare a lil ways down the road into town. I was begging nonstop to go, and coincidentally my parents had come down to visit as well. We all went there and I remember getting into the bumper cars and driving around and started crying the moment someone hit me. I wouldn't budge from my seat so my dad had to come and get me from where I sat, in the middle of the bumper car zone. Think my grandad was there somewhere as well.

Then, everything else is but a blur. Shifting house twice, going back and forth from Sitiawan, Perak to Shah Alam, Selangor before finally settling here and being enrolled in school. Time just passed and I guess I had quite forgotten about my life before. Every time we had to go back, I just got so angry to be separated from my new life. I would bring my PS2 along and literally hog the tv the whole day but you didn't care, so long as I enjoyed myself.

I'm writing this now, to let you know I have never forgotten. Despite how much I care, I never knew how to show it. It's been almost 2 months now. My only regret is that I wasn't there when you left. I really do miss you, and all those years as a kid.

I love you gramps, though I never showed it. But I guess you knew, right?
This is me, your grandson. Writing to you, wherever you may be. I hope you get this. I know you will. Guess one other thing I regret is that I don't have a proper picture with you, but I guess that's too late now isn't it.

Doodle #208

Well peeps I'm back again. Rofl.

It's been a.. can I say long? Nah not really. But time has indeed slowed down of late.

Been pretty much swamped in work and assignments lately. Two new Learning Exercises, and EBP critical appraisal, and a lab report that's inducing mild schizophrenic symptoms. But that's just me.

For pretty much of the week, it's been the same old procrastination studying routine. But on Thursday, we all took a little break.

Sorry for the blur pic, pretty much stole this off the page itself and it was TINY. That's right folks, it's been on the minds of Monashians for pretty much the past few weeks, me included. So on Thursday, I stayed back with the rest of the Hip Hop peeps for the Rainbow Foam Party.

Food was provided, but we had no intent of fighting the horde of people for it so we decided to order our own. Of course, we couldn't get through any of the Domino's line that evening and we found out why later. After the food, they let people into the allocated area. The place was moved to the foyer of Building 2 although it was initially planned to be staged at the Open Field Area. Why? Beats me.

First event, Comedy Corner. I can't seem to find the itinerary so I've no idea who went up but I did remember the second guy who went up. He was hilarious. I laughed till my insides ached.

"When people say you're photogenic, what they really mean is that you look good.. in 2D" HAHA. It gets funnier later on.

After we all had our laughs, it was the event I was waiting for. The Dance Off. Sadly Josh was still caught up in his MPAC rehearsals. Ah well. So 10 random people got hauled up onto the stage, and were to go up against each other in 1v1 battles till the end. They each take turns to dance, about 30s? Anyways, when the first guy started dancing.. My jaw just dropped. I mean, seriously? Then in came the smoke effects! And voila! The whole stage pretty much disappeared from anyone standing in the centre of the crowd and back, much more so when you're sitting right at the back of the area as you don't want to cram in with everyone.

So we just gave up on watching and had our own dance circle at the back every time they played music. Heh, so much more fun.

Then, the dance floor opened and the soap water foam started shooting around. I just gave up and left. It was like.. bubbles. =.= Loud music and crammed spaces were never my thing anyway.

Highlight of the night? A b-boy came up to Josh and started breaking, pretty darned good. Now my jaw dropped in a good way. :D

Now for Friday night.

It was a ridiculously long day, having toiled in the lab for 2 hours before being subjected to a 3 hour onslaught of PAC2342. Dah lah the subject dam dry, 3 hours some more! (Malaysianism showing) Lecturer was okay though, but I couldn't stand the dryness. Lost my focus within an hour and a half, and pretty much vanished later on. @@

BUT!

After class was over, we gathered and left for Paradigm Mall for U Jean and Devi's birthday celebrations.

The drive there was rather interesting, having only Dave and Joshua in the car. It's not often we get some guy time to talk nonsense and crap. Hahaha.

It was my first time there and I think I'm beginning to understand why they say the parking layout is so confusing and the shops layout so haphazard. Why on earth do you put a boutique right next to a restaurant? Won't the smell of the food kind of, oh I don't know, seep into the clothes and stuff?

The funniest part was getting to Plan B, which was the place we had to go. Dave instantly went "We need to get to Level C" the moment we got outta the car park. I stared at the directory as he said "Level C, Level C" and went "Dude, we are on Level C". Then he was like "Okay, we need to find F9. The shop lot is in F9" "DEYYHH, don't F9 F9 me. What's the shop name la?" "It's called Plan B" *I look up* Plan B. "DUDE IT'S JUST THERE" *points in front of me* Rofl.

It was kinda like a mini pharmacy gathering. :p Food was good, place was nice, night was fun. Mini serenading sessions going on at the Year 2 side of the table. xD

Happy birthday again! :D

And so we go.

Doodle #207

Wow, it's been 10 days already?! Feels like just yesterday that it was the start of the week! Week 3 was a pretty short week as Monday was a public holiday. We seem to have A LOT of public holidays in Malaysia, which are frankly the only days I ever get off from university as regular school terms don't apply to me (except for the much welcomed mid semester break).

I suppose the week's been rather uneventful.

Tuesday passed by, without much ado.

Wednesday, same old same old. Had practice again, and felt stiff as a brick in class. If I was a box before, I am a plank now. Completely lost my track. :/ Injuries still yet to heal and I'm already exerting myself.

Thursday! First eventful day of the week!

That's right folks, went to watch Step Up Revolution with the rest of the crew. Frankly, story-wise it's the same old small group of people against a giant company using nothing but dance to make themselves heard. Kinda meh, but the dancing scenes were a bomb to watch.

Especially the second and third mobs. The one where they danced in suits is probably the best scene in the movie to me. The contempt piece was bloody awesome too. :) If you dance, then you have to watch this!

Friday, another uneventful day.

But hey! The hallway is empty now! Yes my stuff are all over the place but hey! Finally have space. HIK HIK.

On a completely unrelated note, now all 4 of my limbs are injured, one way or another. :D