The stress!! This was by far the most stressful Valentines of my life. Ever. The guys at interact needed to finish the products as soon as possible and as soon as I got back from the Chinese New Year holidays the workload was upon me like a pack of hyenas on fresh meat. I was in charge of a product called the "love scroll". Said product is a combination of burnt paper, an arrow with a heart tip and ribbons. Sounds easy? Hell no it isn't, not when you have 200 orders bombarding you and less than 2 days to finish making them. Add that with school and you get my drift.

  Over the course of the last few days Dicky and Dheepan have been coming over helping me get the bloody arrows and scrolls done. It takes alot of time and effort believe me. I was not the only one suffering in Samsara though, Pei Lyn and Alex had productions of their own as well making their individual products. However this is MY blog so I shall stress MY problems here. Thanks for reading. =)

  Wednesday was photoshoot day and Omega was innovative and smart enough to bring props for use in candid shots. The catch? It costs 10 bucks for renting said items. Very ingenius idea I must say. I was practically running around the whole day managing the photo sessions with the rest of the School Mag crew and getting myself shot in pictures at the same time. Oh the torture of being in so many clubs. For every announcement of the next club/class/society to come down I had to run up to Sam's class in order to request for him to make an announcement. Grand total of 8 times running up the damnable stairs.

  Thats not all, immediately after school there was production. Till 12. Yes burning paper, printing, tying, gluing takes hours to do. On valentines day I had photo shoots in School Mag Editorial Board, Interact, Senior Pages, Squash and Taekwondo. Pn Sherily caught me with my long hair and in a very hostile manner DEMANDED that I got my hair cut on the day itself or face her eternal wrath. On the bright side though I received ALOT of gifts today whoopie. Thank you so much guys (and gals). Im glad you guys actually thought of me! I did get 2 gifts from annonymous and unnnamed people though. Secret admirers perhaps?

Some of my Valentines gifts

Seeing everything go so smoothly really lifted me up. Just the night before Li Za, Yenn Ling, Jon Lai, Dic, Dheep and a number of form 4's were all slaving away in order to get the products done on time.  And on time it was! The relief that filled me was sweet like a taste of heaven itself. The ectasy, oh human words cannot comprehend the emotions that rampaged my mind. To see all this stress DISAPPEAR magically, priceless.

  Later that night I did not forget to send a Valentines greeting to someone and needless to say from that sms a call came through. Lets just say my life got alot more complex and quite possibly alot sweeter. =)

Today I had an interact production at my house and it was truly an extremely super duper hyper busy day for me (talking like Dicky). My day starts with me waking up at 7 in the morning to go to school for some Gemala (school mag) workshop. Wowwie sounds fun doesnt it? I then have taekwondo practice in which we rehearse our routines for a demonstration on sports day. Good grief more stress!

  I arrive home and prepare for music class at 1.30. Guests are to arrive at 1 and I wont be in when they do so I ask Dicky to come over and help manage these people. I hope and freaking pray to see my house in one piece when I return. So I go over to music class expecting to be grilled for not completing my homework but thankfully my life is sparred for this week. On a random note, I just realised the waiter at Nando's every Saturday is a bottom gay. Haha stay cool.

  Arriving home much to my relief I see my house still standing in one piece. I am told we need more products so Dicky, Pei Lyn, Donnie and myself decide to walk down to the shoplots and get ourselves some supplies. On our way back it started drizzling and lightning/thunder was in the air. Bloody hell, will we ever be able to make it back in time before being smote by lightning, rain and hailstorms? Drats we did not get drenched though! We were freaking hoping we would be, something to remember this day by then hohoho.

  I do notice alot of people are incapable of throwing away rubbish into the appropriate places. What the !@%^ is so hard, walking to a bloody trash can to dump your shitty trash. Are some of you people too fucking lazy to WALK? Some incompetent, inconsiderate and over pampered people actually tossed paper, tissues and cans/empty water containers all over my house. Its not your dead grandmothers house even though said person may be six feet under. Bitches. If you are from my gang and responsible though...disregard all of the above. Just know that my house is not your dustbin. Capishe? Or do I have to throw my crap in your house as well?

It was Jon Yoon's last day today. Time stood still as he walked out for the last time. His eyes glimmered with traces of tears as strode out of the school, of his childhood, leaving behind his past forever. We took our last photos with him, everlasting memories and trinkets that we will keep close to heart and mind for as long as we live. But there was a surprise....

  Immediately after tuition, Hua Kit picked me up and together with Donavan and Wai Mun, we were taken by Andrea's mom to the airport where we would see off one of the backbones of this fun and brotherly gang. He was pleasantly surprised to see us. He did not expect it, but being the true friends we were, we came regardless across distance and storms (an exageration). I was eating my burger with gusto when the camwhoring sessions began in earnest.

  The mood was fairly cheery throught but the happiness was tinged with hidden sorrow as this was our last time...in a long time of seeing Jonathan Yoon Chi-Jian. Eventually he had to check in and that was when it happened. The tears, the pain, the sorrow all flowed in at once. Ying Hao broke down as he hugged Jon good bye, as did we all. Jon gave us each an individual final hug.

  What broke my heart was seeing Andrea, in all her pain, as she embraced the man she loved in his tender arms, cradling and sobbing. Jon was crying too and he did it, he kissed her there and then in front of us all, in front of his parents. They didnt care, they were very much in love. And as he went down that escalator that we could not follow we cried out in unison: GOOD BYE JON!

A tender moment

  And then it was over...and we thus lamented our own inevitable imminent seperations. The pain and sorrow, repeating itself. I arrived back rather late as we stopped at a Mamak stall to have our severely delayed dinner. Sigh. I do tell myself that we will see him again one day, and that we must be strong for what Jon needs most now, is our strength. Good bye old friend.

Today I would like to touch on the topic of evangelism and how out of control it is getting in my school. Though I have respect for Christianity, it is disgusting to note the ammount of ignorance in the vast majority of its adherents! Many of those in my school do not bother questioning and rationalising or even comparing truths but are rather spoon fed with Christianity with the idea of a personal God. I would like to stress on the ignorance factor as many have no slight clue of the teachings of other religions and yet already demonize them.

  Evangelists target secondary schools as that is the time when a child is most vulnerable to the subtle agenda of Jesuits. They resort to fun and games, emotional tug strings and peer pressure to get the desired results. I do respect Roman Catholicsm as it is strict and serious during Mass. They do not actively seek out converts in schools like most Protestant churches wherein it seems like the main objective of the religion is to harvest huge numbers of followers.

  I will not go into a debate on the existence of God for that is not my place. What I do plan to stress on is how dangerous ignorance is. In Buddhism, ignorance is one of the main causes of suffering in this world and this is very true as I am about to show you. Ignorance causes fear and mistrust amongst people of different religions and cultures. The very fact that Christians accuse religions such as Buddhism as idol worshippers contributes to that fact. In Buddhism, we are taught not to have the Lord's teachings shoved down our throats by teachers but rather to question and rationalize said teachings to discover its validity.

  In other words, the removal of ignorance! If we Buddhists were to accept any truth thrown into our face blindly without studying other truths we would become delusional and mayhaps turn to hate other cultures and religions due to misunderstandings and lack thereof. Idol worship, Buddhism is not, but do evangelists ever take time to even bother understanding our rituals? They do not, rather they demonize us all and make every attempt to destroy statues of a man that taught nothing but peace, love and compassion all his lives.

I will end this post with a quotation I found on the internet by an atheist. I do not in anyway endorse this message however I shall put it up regardless:

God temporarily sacrificed Himself to Himself to appease Himself of His anger at His own creations and to save His creations from eternal torture, ordered by Him, to pay for their ancestor's grave sin of being convinced by a talking serpent, also created by Him, into eating a piece of fruit from a magic fruit tree, planted by Him within easy reach.

I rest my case. Have a nice day.

The day: Saturday

The place: Jon Yoon's house

The reason: Farewell party

I have just recently returned from a lively party at Jonathan Yoon's house which was organised by Andrea to celebrate his farewell to Australia. We will not see him again for two years and being my friend since I was 13, he will be missed. This Saturday was a rather busy one as had an interact production as well earlier.

  His royal majesty, ie. me arrived rather early and was greeted by Si On and Darren Seow whom were nicely arranging the snacks/meals in an orderly manner. Andrea came to help me unload the huge ammounts of snacks I brought for the party and let me just repeat the HUGE part. I was dressed in a black Hush Puppy shirt with jeans complete with chains and gothic accesories. HAHA Shahnon has some fashion sense after all no?

  Regardless the guests arrive rapidly soon after. Hua Kit and some other rather sad people had brought their laptops and were playing a multiplayer counter-strike game. Now ain't that sad? Counter strike during a bloody party? EFFING MARVELOUS! Nevermind that, I decided to socialise around and soon it was party time, wooo hoo! So they lay out some tables and the food in a buffet fashion and we proceed to dig in.

  It started raining soon after, spoiling our tender barbeque session. Curse you rain! We decided to move in doors and not too long after Sung, Dic and Wei Shen arrived but Dic slipped and fell much to our sadistic delight and laughter. Yes I know we're cruel. A number of lame games are then played and such games are best not written here for fear of my blog imploding due to excessive ammounts of lame. Speaking of lame, my writing style at this moment in time is lame and dull but I could not give a rats ass at this moment.

  We then decided to "kai kai" and take a night stroll in the park. 35 people. In the park. At night. So we make a bloody huge din on our way there waking up the entire neighbourhood with our fun and laughter. Goodness knows whether someone alerted the police but the thought did cross our minds. When we arrived at the park we unleashed 3 fire crackers into the night sky causing much noise and lighting up the night sky in a display of colours. Okay maybe not colours but I did not exaggerate on the noise part.

  Later Jon gave some testimonies about some of his friends and we discussed in a huge group about all the good times we all had, namely the Jon Tan must Die video. Gee whiskers I miss those times so bad!! Some sad people were still playing Counter strike in the bad room. Hello learn to fucking socialise! Grr can't stand those types. Regardless Alexandra made a dramatic late entrance and we all gave her the silent treatment. Sad. Of course it was a bloody game but you get the point.

  Slowly people began going home one by one so we had a few camwhoring sessions! Lizzie was abit quiet today for whatever reason, haihz. Later all the guys jumped onto the sofa and there I lay in Dic Vinn's arms, head on his chest. It was so warm, his muscles were so defined and it was so comfortable just laying there with me on him, on that sofa...

  Cassandra and Ailena made dramatic late appearances as well and we bid them a hearty hello. Surprisingly Li Za stayed till 12 today. A new record for her! Si On recommended a game wherein the loser had to pluck out his/her nose hair with a calliper/tweezer. What the hell. Eventually after a number of camwhoring sessions, it was time for me to take my leave. I was actually to go for Hui Wen's farewell dinner today as well but alas...I could not make it due to this party. Sorry yea! I know you're disappointed! Pictures will be uploaded soon...

On this eventful Sunday, Dicky and I decided to attend the much publicised Star Education Fair which was held at the KL Convention Centre (KLCC). The objectives of such a fair was to show aspiring future leaders like myself, the options available for tertiary education in one of the many colleges with its many courses. The following takes place on Sunday, 12th January.

  I decide to skip Dharma classes today for this rare and momentous event with Dicky. Needless to say I was excited to view my options with my boyfriend! So anyway, my parents drop him off at his house at 9.30 in the morning and behold, the whole family is still getting ready! We were to head over to Li Za's house where she would be joining us for a wonderful wonderful trip to KLCC! How exciting! So finally, Dicky, his parents and twin brothers hop into the car and we drive over to the Neoh residence.

  After dismounting, we hop into Aunty Ron's (Lizzie's mom) car and Im squished to the back with Liza and one of the twins, not sure which. I have this inablity to tell a twin from another, bleh. Anyway I have a perky chat session with Li Za and we all decide to have a camwhoring session later at the Convention Centre. Arriving there, we marvelled at just how advanced and spankingly sparkly the whole place looked. We of course decide to camwhore in earnest.

  There was apparently a talk being delivered and all of us entered the hall and as we were early, managed to snug a decent spot upfront. The 10 year old twins did cause abit of a din causing some annoyed looks to turn in our direction but I could not give a rat's ass about their bloody oppinion. The first speaker listed out our possible interests and told us to choose in what we excelled in. The second speaker then showed us the different courses and their requirements and the major branches of the different careers. During this time Dicky and I proceed to camwhore in a number of ways:

For lack of better things to do

Regardless the third speaker was a government servant so you could imagine the speech to be boring as hell. Although the hall was crowded to the point of overflowing, people began pouring out in droves when Mr Dull took up centrestage. Imagine a pair of scissors jammed into your urinary tract. Yes it is more pleasant than said person's speech. Our cue to leave of course.

  We make our way to the exhibition rooms where we inquire on the various colleges. Lizzy and Dicky saw some of their OBS friends there and many familiar faces greeted our eyes in that exhibition area. There was Yenn Ling, and Joel, Xue Li and Chee Hui to name but the tinest iota of those we saw there. Unfortunately, Dic Vinn began losing interest in biotech and began thinking more along the lines of engineering. NOOO~ so much for attending the same courses then. Liz considered hotel management to be her cup of tea though that point remains rather uncertain at this moment in time.

  The Neoh and Liew family then take me for lunch and despite my protests for them not to pay for me they stubbornly insist! Oh well, THANK YOU! In the car, Lizzie and I have a camwhoring session and the pictures are shown below.

We arrive in this chinese coffee shop and we make our way upstairs where there are more seats. The place was crowded as hell and the floors were slippery to the point where I litterally and figuratively flew down the stairs but due to my lightning quick reflexes I caught hold of the railings in time, thus preventing a bloody, smudgy mess that would have resulted from my demise.

  Nevermind that, the food was delicious as hell. This porridge was definitely not man made for its angelic touch was exquisite indeed. These people ordered alot and I do mean ALOT of food and they had the ability to make it all disappear. As in really disappear utterly. I catch up abit with Aunty Ron but suddenly my phone rings and my mom reminds me that I have BM tuition to attend at 3. I look upon my watch and notice its only 1.45. Perfectly no rush at all right? WRONG!

  Boom! Out of the blazing maw of hell a vicious typhoon struck us and the downpour was so damned heavy we were trapped. The wind slammed into us like a sledgehammer and the nearby construction site was actually damaged by this tempest. For lack of anything better to do, we did what we do best: CAMWHORE! I realise time is rapidly running out due to this thunderstorm and I would not make it to tuition in time as there was no bloody way we were reaching the car in this chaos of nature. So my mom told me that she would take Hua Kit to the tuition ahead first. Lovely.

Behold a cup

Aye aye captain!

  Finally the storm cooled down enough for Dicky's dad to use his umbrella, ella, eh, eh, eh- whoopsie, to run towards the car. The rest of us were to walk down the aisle of shoplots towards an open lot where the car could be parked. It came to one point where we literally ran out of roofs over our heads and were mildy drenched in the rain as we ran to shelter. Oh the fun that ensued, hoho. What an awesome adventure it had been. I arrive home at 3.30 and without further ado my mother hurls me into the car and we proceed to break the sound barrier by speeding towards the tuition centre all the way in Wangsa Baiduri.

The month of January is a seriously busy one as we have to get accustomed to the homework load as well as having extra curriculum activities crashing down upon us in huge waves all of a sudden. But thats not the point. The point is January is the month of multiple birthdays. Allow me to list a comprehensive list here and now:

9th- Jonathan Yoon Chi-Jian

10th- Candy Lim Ya Ker

11th- Ng Min Shen

15th- Adam Andrew Nazareth

Oh and Adam as well but I am not too sure when exactly his birthday is. Now to the January babies, happy birthday! In but a blink of an eye you are already 17! Whether you feel happy or sad is your own choice though.

Candy's birthday fell on a public holiday on Thursday and I was expecting a birthday party as she usually holds one every year. So here I am sitting and waiting for a call, an sms or even an email and yet, NO INVITATION. So I start to get worried and begin to have hysterical thoughts that I have been left out yet again. Calling Dicky I found out there was apparently NO PARTY this year. Whoopie, so I was not being left out after all! Jolly good and all, but Dicky decided to organise an impromptu last minute dinner for her.

  Well the plan was to arrive there by 6 however Dic Vinn being Dic Vinn got home from basketball at 5.45 and told me he would be coming immediately. Good for me, I thought and thus I waited outside of my home for a fantastic 20 MINUTES. Then I get a call that he will be late as he is waiting for a call from Wei Shen as he too is following us. I then proceed to play with my cat in a most affectionate manner. After 30 minutes he finally arrives and the rain is pouring down in buckets.

  As we are en route to Wei Shen's house we actually pass by Hua Kit's. I then ask Dic Vinn if he invited him. "OH YEA HOR!" said Dicky. I profusedly smacked my forehead and as we made the phone call Mr Hua Kit replied that dinner was already prepared and we were inviting him NOW?! At this time? Too bad dipshits! Well not exactly but you get the point. We also proceeded to pick Jonny and Andrea up. As a picture paints a thousand words and I'm far too lazy to type out details at this moment I shall let PICTURES do the fapping, walking and talking.

Pictures courtesy of Candy of course:

And on another topic, all of a sudden a large number of my friends are leaving for greener pastures namely Australia in droves. First Tuck Seng leaves, then Kelly leaves and now very soon Jon Yoon is leaving as well. Oh Malaysia, what has become of thou? All we ever wanted was to be accepted by thee and we loved thee but now we are leaving...never to return.

  There is a saying, "My life for Malaysia", but sadly though I am loyal to King and country, there is no future for me here, or any of "us" for that matter. Soon more will leave like Wei Shen did as well. I ponder then, will you finally lament the loss of the other races Malaysia? Will you mourn our passing, or celebrate in triumph? Only time will tell. I love you Malaysia, Negaraku...

For lack of better topic I shall now raise eyebrows by discussing an issue thats very dear to my heart: HAIR! Yes this is a tad bit of sweatness but bare with me folks, I'm very passionate about my hair and it is for that reason I now discuss such a tender topic here on my very own blog.

  Okay, I would like to start with the fact that I miss my old hair like hell, but sadly these damnable government schools do not allow you to keep your fringe longer than your eyebrows, sideburns that are longer than the length of half your nose, or hair that covers your ears or for that matter touch your collar. Now this is to me a load of crap and with much regret I have now cut my hair.

  Gasp in awe and shock folks but that be the truth. Tears streamed down my face as the barber or rather, the STYLIST brandished out her scissors of doom and cut deep into my beautiful mane with gusto. I felt each lock dying beneath the blade and mourned in silent anguish. Oh the drama. Heres a sample of my once glorious mane which is now but a shadow of its former self. Observe:

Im looking at you.

During Pei Lyn's birthday surprise..

And in an instant all that hair is gone to waste in some random hairstylist's salloon. Oh the tragedy! On other less depressing news, the Annual General Meeting was held yesterday and I decided to wow some fresh blood into Taekwondo club's meeting. The results were amazing.

  The room was packed to near overflow and all I did was stand outside the classroom shouting, "Taekwondo learn to defend yourself!" Magic words it would seem. Alex's sister has joined as well and apparently Lex is worried about her safety as she does not trust me very much. FINE!

  Dic was also having abit of problems taming the restless kiddies of the afternoon session during Interact's AGM but I intervened by telling them of the wonders and glories of International Understanding. Suddenly all ears were on this individual that is none other than myself. WOW! Now thats called an ego. Sweat lar, this is what happens when you have nothing to blog about. Random nonsense spews forth.

Okay everyone as you likely know by now I have just returned from 10 days of gruelling "torture" at Outward Bound Lumut! Throughout these 10 days I have made many new friends and challenged myself as I never ever dared to even imagine before. Just before the Outward bound I was truly dreading its arrival but now that it's over I somewhat wish it were longer. Let me go into a detailed day by day explanation. You may leave if you want, I honestly couldnt care less....actually I do.

Let us begin:

Day 1

The day begins with me dragging all my stuff over to Jon's house where he, myself, Hua Kit and Andrea will sit a taxi all by ourselves all the way to Lumut. Read that. All by ourselves. To Lumut. TO LUMUT! Okay enough of that. In the cab Jonny and Hua Kit decide to play rather "roughly" almost causing the whole cab to overturn. Arriving rather early we decide to have lunch together with mr Taxi man.

  The nearby restaurant offers an exciting variety of exquisite dishes but as we are bone broke and penniless we order but the most simple dishes to sate our insatiable appetite. After driving into the Outwardbound school we meet the place with much...disappointment? The heat was unbearable, the sea apparently dirty, and the place in general? Not much to shout about. We began dreading the thought of spending 1/3 of a month here.

  We bumped into Liza, Dicky, Ying Hao, Jason, Ling and a new guy Hueyson a short while later. Not surprisingly we are all split into different watches (teams) and I am left alone. Proceeding to the dining hall, my friends and I create quite a din with our roaring laughter much to the annoyance of everyone else. We did not have to wait long before everyone began arriving and we started seating in our assigned places.

  I was assigned to watch Kinabalu under instructor Izan, a humorous malay man that was always smiling. Good for us. We were to turn in every snack, every drink, our ICs, every last currency in our possesion as well as any other valuables and electronic devices. I quickly made friends with my watch members. I met this fellow today, Chong was his name, and in only a short while I came to dislike him.

  This fellow had a penchant for laughing for no good reason and asking stupid questions as well as talking in the most unusual form of Grammar. Enough about him. We introduced ourselves and then we were to bring our things to our assigned dormitories. Oh. my. god. 175 flights of stairs stood between us and the boys dorm. I struggled with the damnable luggage up the equally damnable stairs and was sweating and aching profusely. Good grief imagine if I were to walk up these every single day, I thought to myself.

  We later headed down to learn the intricate arts of knot tying and let me tell you this, it was no simple task at all. I came to befriend this lively dude called Sean and another Chee Huai whom happens to look hell alot like another friend of mine. They are hokkien speaking people so it allowed me to polish my hokkien a tad bit. We were also taught how to properly set up a tent (not that I was listening) and once we were all set and done dinner awaited us in the dining hall.

The gym hall

Our dorms

Day 2

Okay so today our watch was to head down to the beach and prepare the kayaks. After an early morning workout together with some rather odd games we got ourselves prepared and we were taught the basics. I became friends with this fellow, Wai Hon was his name, and he became my kayakking partner.

  We had to all wear life jackets obviously and by right I was not allowed to wear slippers into the ocean. Ah to hell with that, I wore it in anyway and nearly had it lost into the deep blue sea. We were all to capsize at least once and then the emergency rescue procedures were taught to us all. Being the pros that we were, Kinabalu accomplished this feat easily without too much problems. I was wearing my sunglasses by the way (yes real smart of me). Kayakking can be real tiring though during prolonged periods.

  Of course after all was said and done came the worst part, cleaning up the damned kayaks and let me tell you this is no easy task. Those damnable ships weigh a ton and it takes alot of effort to clean up. Did I mention we actually have to tuck in our shirts during dinner time at the dining hall? Kinda sad but thats the rule.

Day 3

Alrite so today we were to kayak all the way from the mainland to Pangkor Island, and guess who the sea captain was? YING HAO! Fascinating is it not? Setting off early in the morning we paddled hard towards our destination which was seperated from us by 4 kilometers of deep unrelenting water. We did not yield.

  Li Za was the right flanker much to my surprise and we all paddled hard across the forbiding sea into forgotten lands. Okay enough with the dramatization. While kayakking I had the tendency to crash into other kayaks. One fellow even capsized his boat but we pulled of a rescue in 30 seconds flat. The two other watches, Gading and Mulu were with us so this was bound to be one fun adventure.

  We arrived at Pangkor 1 and a half hours later, exhausted but demanding more action yet. The time was now almost 1 o clock and we had yet to eat our lunch. Forming a human chain we quickly passed on our supplies with robotic efficiency. Kinabalu was shown to their campsite and we decided to quickly set up shelter before it got dark. Girls were to have seperate camps from guys for whatever sexist reason. The guy tent in the end looked rather unique, like this:

The guys tent

We then decided to have our lunch which consisted of tuna, bread and water. Sounds sad doesnt it? Not entirely as it was delicious to us hungry expeditionaires.

Jungle Lunch

We are later told to dress in rope attire (long sleeves, long pants, shoes) as we were to participate in an activity called "repelling" wherein we entrust our lives to a rope and a belayer and scale down a freaking cliff. Sounds exciting does it not!? It was today that I met my future camp besties Leonard and Brian from Catholic High School. Apparently somehow we just clicked and I found myself a new group of friends!

  Repelling was a tad bit scary let me tell you this. Scaling down smooth rocks from 30 feet in the air is bound to leave one slightly disturbed. I even crashed into the side of the mountain once. Not an enjoyable sensation let me tell you. Soon after everyone had done so we proceeded back to camp wherein we began starting a fire. Chee Huai proved to be an excellent fire starter and he soon breathed life into our camp fire.

  Now came the fun part: COOKING! The second Bryan (not Brian) was from Penang and was a self proclaimed master chef that sent orders left and right once in the while adding random hokkien phrases that made no sense to some. He devised a new kind of rice that was cooked with onions and garlic. Fascinating. The only indian in our group, Kogu, lent his hand in cooking and cook he did in a most professional manner. By the time the meal was done, night had fallen and darkness had crept on us all. To hell with the darkness, the food tasted great! Our very own cooked food, from our sweat and blood!

  We did share some of our leftovers with Gading but very soon Mulu marched over to our camp like an angry mob and suddenly started begging us for food. We complied by giving them whatever remained of our curry. Whilst drinking we toasted with a loud YAM SENGGGGG!!! Yes we made sure everyone heard us. When it was time to sleep, Brian, Bryan, Leonard and I discussed about religion and politics late into the night and soon fell asleep. So ends the third day.

Day 4

Dawn broke and as we left our tent we discover Hong Liang had actually slept outside of the tents on the jungle floor all night. Poor guy. We began packing up our things and had sugar biscuits for breakfast! Before long the sun shone over the horizon and lo' the Rotarian ferry was coming towards us to transport our goods back to the mainland.

  A human chain was formed once more and we proceeded to shift everything and begone from Pangkor as quickly as humanly possible before the tides lowered again. A new captain was elected and we set off into the sea. Initially Wai Hon and I kayakked hard in an attempt to keep ahead of the others but began to grow weary at a rate so quick it was almost frightening to behold. Brian and Leonard told me the night before about their "tactics" which were to pull other peoples kayaks back in an attempt to gain ground.

  Those buggers actually tried on mine! Aha but I did not let them have it their way and grabbed their kayak in turn nearly causing us all to capsize. With no other option they had to let go. Hah! I laugh in thy face. The instructors seating on a motorboat laughed at us from a distance (evil sadists). When we finally arrived on the mainland exhausted, we were to immediately clean the damned kayaks again and set them neatly back at their stands. We were then given a long break and that is all I remember.

  Back at the dorm that night, Group 1 had just returned from a EIGHT (count them) hour jungle trekking session and told us strange tales of leeches and the winding forest. Damn thats gotta be exhausting. That night everyone suddenly went into a hokkien tirade and how to speak all sorts of bad words in the hokkien language. Right. The topic abruptly shifted towards masturbation and it left me in a state of, "what the hell?" The next day was our solo camping and I was anxious to get some sleep before the day came tommorow.

Day 5

By now everyone is a tad bit homesick and is asking to go back home. We start lamenting about how much we miss the outside world and conviniences such as the internet, McD, parents, vehicles, porno- WHOOPS! Regardless, we prepared all our tent sheets and mess tins and headed down to prepare for our trek towards our campsites. Everyone was given an assignment to write a journal of the last few days on a piece of paper to which would be mailed back to us 6 months later.

  We set out early on foot with a gallon bottle in one hand filled with fresh, clean water that would be used for drinking, washing, cleaning, cooking and everything else. We were also given a ration bag, wherein all the food needed to survive the night was packed. We had sugar biscuits, some Milo and coffee powder, instant noodles, a can of sardines and curry chicken as well as a bag of raw rice. Fascinating!

  We were all shown our INDIVIDUAL camp spots where we had to cook our meals INDIVIDUALLY, set up our tents INDIVIDUALLY, as well as sleep INDIVI- well you get the picture. No interaction was allowed at all, and if caught our tents ran the risk of being burnt down. I got one of the worst spots imaginable, a slope that was so inclined I could slide off the edge of the cliff just by lying down. Using the power of inovation I created a sort of tent supported by a stick wherein I could rest my feet on thus preventing my gradual slide into oblivion. And now for the fire.

  We were given 10 bloody matches and a candle to start a fire. Not an easy task and after many attempts, I had used up every single match and candle and it was already 1 o clock. No fire equals to no meals. I decided to break the law by visiting my top neighbour, Hong, Ying Hao's cousin(12 meters away) and borrowed a lighter from him. Chee Huai, my bottom neighbour soon visited and borrowed the lighter from me. Seeing no fire anytime soon I decided to get Hong to cook my noodles for me.

  Eventually Huai also got Hong to cook for him. What a bunch of cheaters eh? It was 4 o clock when suddenly I got visitors in the form of Jia Qi, Sean and Kogu. Apparently they were'nt content sitting all alone and decided to visit each and every camp. Wai Hon and Hong helped me set up a fire a short while later and by 5 I had a hearty fire, blazing to life. I decided to have dinner with Hong and Wai Hon and we all cooked our meals together. Not much later, Jeremy decided to join us as well. I was fast becoming worried that the instructor Izan would come to check on us at any moment now.

  As if reacting to that thought, Izan sprang out of nowhere and burnt the rafia string holding Hong's tent up with his lighter, with that same SMILE on his face. He then moved with lightning speed burning tent after tent and disappeared without a word while we were all still in shock enjoying our cooked meal. I ran.

  My tent was lying on the ground all ruined. SHIT! Apparently Sean, Kogu, Jia Qi, Huai and many more also had their tents burnt down as they were having a party of their own at the base of the mountain. Wow now this was something for us all to laugh about! Darkness fell rapidly and soon I could not even see my hands. The fire gave SOME illumination but not much. The jungle at night, alone was creepy with all sorts of sounds resonating from it. I kept my flashlight with me at all times and used it so much that the batteries began burning out. I would survive this night, I told myself.

  Sleeping in my now unstable, hastily rebuilt tent, I woke up 2 hours later near the edge of the cliff. Apparently I had slid down, and pulled my tent along all the way. With no other option I used my bag pack as my pillow and slept on the cold hard jungle floor above which was not quite so sloppy.

Day 6

I woke up around 8 in the morning, after waking up many many times in the middle of the night. Chong came running towards my camp telling me that we were to gather at the foot of the mountain at 9 sharp. Good grief, one hour to prepare! And prepare I did, quickly tearing down my tent and packing up my things. My gallon bottle was nearly completely depleted by now.

  After chatting with my other watch members I realised none of them had slept very soundly in the jungle. No surprise there. We arrived at the bottom of the hill, and lo' the instructor Izan was already there waitng with a grin on his face. We made our way back on foot all the way back to OBS with the bagpacks on our back.

  When we arrived at the school we did what we always did after an expedition. Cleaning the tools, or no lunch. Damn these sadists. The girls settled the messtins and eating utensils while the guys cleaned up the tent sheets and what not. We are then given lunch and being utterly spent and hungry we devour the food with much gusto. We get news that the eight hour jungle trek is on the next day.

  Later we are given a short geography leason by our instructors on how to read a compass, find bearings, count coordinates, yadda yadda. I honestly couldnt give a flying cock about this but then I realised that we were to use these skills to reach our destinations in the jungle tommorow. Good lord...now Im listening. 2 navigators were assigned and they were Chong (my god) and Hong Liang.

  Stories of leeches and what not have begun taking its toll on the sanity of some of our watch members. They decide to buy mosquitto aerosol sprays to spray unto their clothing in order to stem the merciless tide of blood suckers in the untamed jungle. I begin to worry for my own health and sanity by now. Brian and Leonard then talk to me about their love lives and I talk abit about mine and we all have a good time that night.

Day 7

What a beautiful day it is if not for the fact that we were to prepare for the long ardious journey ahead of us. Starting the morning fresh the 3 watches, Mulu, Gading and Kinabalu were to take 3 different routes that lead to the same damned location in the middle of nowhere. We were given the toughest road, which spanned only 7 kilometers of thick foliage, high mountains, blood suckers, and rivers as well as quaries. Damn sounds like fun doesnt it? No it is not!

  Setting out we come across a seemingly abandoned village but only nearby is the entrance into the jungle. Izan and our CA Chen Yi follow us closely behind but we get lost a number of times. Far too often to be happy about. As the day wears on and the jungle gets thicker with no forseeable end, tempers begin to flare. We decide to ease the tension by singing songs and it does so quite well. I even got praised for my singing!

  After many hours we come across a stream filled with sharp rocks, then we bypass some grass that is 5 feet high, then we come across a tin quarry where they begin sounding the alarm to unleash their dynamite! We run into the forest for cover and make a fair ammount of ground when suddenly sounds louder than thunder I heard. The dynamites have been detonated. Wow this is such fun!

  We actually get lost quite deep into the mountain and Izan has no choice but to guide us back on track. We decide to slide down the slopes of the mountain all the while carrying these freaking heavy bagpacks and gallon bottles. After what seems an eternity we finally come across a road and by following that road we come across a pond and there, beyond the distant waters....OUR CAMPSITE!!!!

Kinabalu: exhausted

Thank you Jia Qi for having the forsight to take a picture. We arrived at our campsite in 4 hours which is half the time of the previous expeditions!! To add to our victory, we are the first watch to arrive there! Damn we rock. Not much later, Gading arrives and a fair bit later so does Mulu. We decide to have our packed lunch now.

  We proceeded to set up camp and the united watches prepare campfires. Brian bugs me to tell the Warcraft story and I finally comply much to his delight. Hong Liang begins to assign tasks to us all. Kinabalu finally gets the largest fire going and begin to cook in earnest, the same meals we had in Pangkor.

  Whether it was due to exhaustion or hunger, tempers and arguements began breaking out in the different watches and ours was not spared. Hong Liang got rather pissed, Bryan was pissed, we were pissed. So the food in the end tasted rather...bad. Thats what happens when food is cooked with anger and hatred. Not quite as nice as when we are jolly.

  Later that night we tell ghost stories by the campfire. Gading and Mulu decide to have a truth or dare session and I join them. For whatever reason the rest of Kinabalu has gone to bed. The dares were very...obscene? I was dared to go over to the girls tents and shout "Im horny and I need a bitch!" although they were already asleep. Other dares involved Andrea touching Jason's boobs, Ying Hao and Liza dancing as well as some stripping and lap dancing. Fiona of Ganding was very excited in giving dares but did not dare complete those thrown at her.

  Much later I decided to go to bed but as the tents were full I slept outside with some others like Sam, Hong Liang, Brian and what not. It was damn effing cold! I woke up in the middle of the night in Antartica I swear, even the Swiss Alps is not this bad.

Day 8

Okay so today we make our voyage back to civilization! Packing up our things we proceed to get arranged in line. Hong Liang no longer wants to be navigator after emoing the previous night so our lives are now in Chong's hands. By all thats holy.

  We got our asses ready and assembled by 7 and violently tearing down our tents, we proceeded to march down a different route from the day before. Fortunately for us there was still root bear from the night before. Yummy. This route was supposedly easier than the horror ride we had yesterday, and after that hell ride this should be "kacang putih" right? RIGHT? IT BETTER DAMN WELL BE!

  So we march on and come across a road blocked by rotting garbage and dig this, we were to cross over the rubbish to the jungle BEHIND it. Wowie, as if we were not already dirty enough! It came to my knowledge that we were to climb for effing hills, bypass hostile terrain, confront evil wasps and feast on only bread and fruits for lunch. What the hell. At least we had root bear. HAD, but Jeremy finished it for us. Thanks alot.

  Once again Chong walked far far far ahead of us like the pompous self righteous tard that he is and we are far far behind. Amazing, we could all fall in a hole and die and he would not even notice. Regardless, we perservere conquering one hill at a time, growing more determined with each conquest. The end was near!

  And lo' behold in the horizon....CIVILIZATION. I remember going into a warcraft tirade in the jungle much to the annoyance of everyone. Chean Yi our CA was rather amused but I think I was rambling on and on and on. We arrived on the road and faced a new problem. HEAT. Sweltering, annoying, burning, incinerating, Malaysian heat!

  By the time we had finally arrived back we rushed to the grass and laid down upon it, breathing in the fresh scent. A FULL STOP hurray! We ate our bread with gusto as we were dead tired and dead hungry. Izan had a surprise for us....ICE MILO! The catch? Clean everything up first, including our messtins and that included scrapping off the soot from them with these iron woolie...things.

  Once again Kinabalu was the first group to arrive. The ice tasted like ectasy pills, not that Ive ever tried, good heavens no! We were given a loooong break for the whole day hurrah! Tommorow would be a busy day as it would be barbeque night! We also had to practise our sketch for the morrow. Damn the pressure. It was time to sleep. We were warned to arrive downstairs on time or we would feel the wrath of OBS.

Day 9

Guess what? We woke up late! Sure enough we woke up late! Rushing like a bunch of monkeys we got down and we had to run 15 rounds around the field. The girls were NOT pleased at all. Luckily Izan had mercy on us and shortened it to about 6 rounds. Later we had some donkey New Zealandish dance in the gym hall, some weird "cultural exchange" it would seem. Interesting.

  Next we had a rafting session. By now Mulu and Gading were really close and Kinabalu was sort of left out but what the heck. After getting our raft of pvc pipes and inflated barrels prepared we set for the sea with Gading on our backs and Mulu dead ahead. Gading was throwing salt water at us, the sneaks! Eventually our raft even broke apart and it became one tragic comedy. We did not even touch our goal!

  In the end Instructor Ramesh had to rescue us with his row boat and we paddled together back to the mainland. My slippers nearly got lost in the ocean but thankfully the were light enough to float to the surface. We began practising our sketch in earnest soon after.

  Later on Kinabalu and Brinchang were given the task of cooking the food for tonight's event. Wowie sounds like fun. We basically grilled these raw chicken legs and Brian and Chee Huai had the tendency to "accidentally" peel of bits of skin and sample their own cooking. Cheats! Regardless we smelled of smoke by the time we were through. It was party time!

  Upstairs we changed into our most formal attire. I finally had the chance to use my Gatsby Moving Rubber, woot! Bryan even asked us to give him hairstyling tips, the hell? Anyways we arrived downstairs only to realise we left the store keys back in the dorms. My god, Leonard, Brian and myself made the tedious climb up the hill once more to our dorms for a key. How incredibly "smart" of me.

  I bumped into Hua Kit's mom who told me much to my disbelief that my parents were arriving. Wow what a sudden change of plans. When I saw them I ran up to them and we had a huggy huggy moment! We had to then sing the Obs songs and then dinner was served! We had a loud "yam seng" session but Mulu-Gading instead decided to shout PAK CHEW CHENG (masturbation in hokkien) as their main shout. My goodness gracious all the parents were staring at us.

  That night we saw a number of hastily constructed sketches but Gading's sketch wasn't too shabby, fairly humorous if I might add. The moment of truth had arrived, for Kinabalu's sketch. Our sketch was on solo camping and I together with Rachel was the overexcited narrator that breathed life into it. I got a tad bit too friendly with the mic that night. We had our group cheer afterwords which was "Kinabalu rocks!" whilst shaking our butts in an obscene manner to the tune of SHALALALA~!

  After all was said and done, I had a camwhoring and emo singing session with the Catholic Highschool Boys. We had to first dispose of the burning coals and sitting at the back of a moving truck after 2 weeks of vehicleless journeys was pure bliss. Sleep time was 1 o clock for today and we used it throughly.

"The sketch & group cheer"

Catholic Highschool hawties and myself

Bestie camwhoring session

Day 9

The end had arrived sooner than we had expected. We mournfully packed up our things and prepared to leave our dorm for the last time. I looked back one last time as I decended the stairs and wondered to myself where all the time had gone. Oh well, it was time for the closing ceremony.

  Our parents were already there early and we sat in the gymhall listening to the Chairman's closing speech. As he handed out our certs we cheered for each and everyone and clapped for the last time. Our group, Kinabalu took a number of group photos together before we left, for here was possibly the last time we would ever see one another ever again.

Kinabalu...

Goodbye...

Owh the pain, of seperation. Why art thou so agonising? Seems only yesterday we had met for the first time and now, we depart our seperate ways. Come what may. Izan began giving our possesions back to us soon after and it was sorta sad as only a short while back we were giving them to him. We shared a number of hugs, and I cherished each and every one of them.

  It was Sung Lin's birthday today and my Subang Utama gang decided to wish him a happy birthday....only to find he was not picking up his phone at all. Our parents were socialising pretty well fortunately. We even had a picture session...

The subang gang and parents

Truly outward bound was an excellent experience, and though we are parted, these memories will ever remain in our minds and in our hearts....always...for strangers are merely friends you have yet to meet, these strangers and I now have a bond. Perhaps we will all see each other once again. Perhaps. We can only hope.

I do appologize for the long wait for a new entry but here goes:

Only two weeks ago I just got back from the Interact Conference in Penang and damn was it a blast. Basically we had to get up at 5 o clock in the morning and catch the bus at Maybank in SS 15. Now my dad picked Jonathan, Dicky and Dheepan up and together we made our way there.

  Okay so after a number of delays we board this rickety school bus together with students from SS 17, Seafield and some college students. I proceed to sit next to Dic Vinn and looking at the rowdy crowd in the bus there was no denying that this was going to be one hell of a ride. After a delay of 30, count them, 30 minutes we finally get this shack of a vehicle moving all the way to Neverland...I mean Penang.

  So after some time Mr bus driver decides to play a movie for us all to see and by the gods that was the most offensive movie I have ever seen. There was literally zero plot and profanity and colorful words were flying around like it was the norm, that and a scene with a naked black man that left me disturbed. Soon after the movie our bus decided to break down. Yes break down just as we stopped at a rest area. Touche.

  The time is now 12 o clock and we are still 2 hours away from Penang and our moods are not getting any better. After going to a nearby Kiosk to purchase some snacks the whole gang decides to go back to the bus where we expect it to be up and running already. A rude surprise. 2 hours later we are STILL at the same rest stop and tempers are beginning to flare as we get hungrier and hungrier. Then like some star crossed miracle our "vehicle" hums to life and boom we are back on the road on our merry way.

  The driver decided to be funny by putting on a movie called Final Destination for us to watch on the bus. The movie showed gruesome deaths by bizzare accidents. Not at all encouraging as we are on a freaking bus on a freaking highway. Everybody ignores the movie after awhile and decides to tell all sorts of jokes ranging from racist to adult. Evan and Dheepan were excelling in this department but that didnt stop the rest of us from contributing. Lisa and Candy were laughing their brains out. Im still haunted by the sound...

  And finally after what seemed an eternity we arrived in Penang at the University Malaya. It was then that we were in for yet another rude surprise. We would all be split up into different groups. How nice. By now we are moody as no food is served and we realise we wont be together at all. Furthermore none of us are sharing rooms with people we know. To add to that, we have to sit in some overstuffed assembly hall listening to more boring speeches.

  The group was terribly silent though so I took charge of it by giving ideas on the sketch and on our group name which ended up being Miracle Allstars. Now isnt that cute (and sad)? Nevermind that, I looked for Dicky and together we decided to find our rooms. Apparently they were not that far off from one another afterall! And even more comforting Yuhan was my neighbour next door. My roommate was a small sized kid from Damansara Utama, John was his name. Not exactly a chatty fellow but decent enough.

  Paying a visit to Dicky's room I found out that his roomate was none other than Jun whom turns out to be a rather sick and funny guy. What are the chances? Jon and Yuhan arrive shortly thereafter and we all have abit of male bonding time. Fast forward to night time and we are enjoying ourselves to abit of fun and games organised by the Rotractors. We were heavily warned however of not going into the other genders blocks at night. Or else.

  The following day we were supposed to have aerobics but surprise surprise it got cancled. We were to dress formally and proceed to the nearest bus area to hear a few talks. The whole gang from SU rushed to catch the first bus and we got it. Arriving there we quickly took our breakfast before the other rampaging teens could arrive and create a huge line for us to fight with. Soon after we enter this luxurious auditorium where we begin to hear a long series of talks.

  As we woke up early and were forced to participate in activity after activity my eyes, as well as those of many others, began to sag and we fought to keep ourselves from entering dreamland. We were threatened by the Rotarians with impending doom should we do so, and thus I struggled to keep myself awake. Jonathan proceeded to entertain himself (as well as others) by creating cartoon motions for us all to see. Very amusing.

  Just as I thought I couldnt take it anymore an interesting speaker, Michael Reyes, is invited on stage and delivers an interesting talk on inflation, debts and portrays for us a number of startling statistics on how a large number of people will become broke by the time they hit 58. This got me as well as everyone else awake and his speech ended with thuderous applause.

  Two foreign exchange students were also called up to give a short speech and they were from Japan and Switzerland. The japanese had an odd and funny accent but otherwise he was cool and even ended his speech with a Malaysia boleh! The Swiss guy was just as cool and he even lamented on how hot the Malaysian girls were and how warm everyone was.

Later my Lisa suggested that we took a group photo and so we did.

  For some reason I recommended taking this picture under that tree.

Thats a cool pose Dheepan.

We were all given scenarios and as a group we had to solve them and present them the following day. My group 11 was given the task of how we would attract more members during Membership Drive.

  We also discussed on our sketch and as our sketch was to be on how Malaysian festivals promote family unity, I hastily constructed a plot wherein we would show two families, one that neglected their children and another wherein the whole family celebrated festivals together. The story concludes with the first family joining in with the second. Kinda lame but we had little time.

  Also considering it was already late into the afternoon and we were all dead tired and thirsty, tempers began to flare and we were all getting annoyed. Meeting up later with my group I rallied them together and explained the plot one last time. It was very hard organising 28 people and getting them all to listen but with perserverance I pushed on and succeeded.

  That night the sketch was to be judged American Idol style by 3 critics. We performed our roles not fantastically but to the best of our ability. The stupid thing was the university actually divided the taking of food into boys line and girls line. Now thats just plain PAS.

  Later that night as I had nothing better to do I proceeded to camwhore in my room. I had originally planned to visit Dicky with Jon and Yuhan but we had a curfew and some spot checks were announced so...our plans were distrupted, damn it.

Myself posing in my room

The next day we were all to attend a final round of talks before going back. Candy and Alex were presenters and frankly they were not bad at it. When all 600 interactors were questioned on what they thought of the whole event Lexy decided to give her two cents worth by telling announcing by microphone of how the whole camp was somewhat messy in its schedule. Hoho gotta admire her courage there.

  We boarded the bus at around 2 and bid our last farewells to groupmates and the university. Evan, Darren and Ed Vinn had missed the entire days events yesterday as they overslept and missed the bus. Good grief. The rotractors on the bus suggested that we had lunch in Penang and we all agreed to that.

  By the time we finally arrived back in Subang it was already 8 and we had all yet to have dinner. Jon, Dic, Dheepan, Lu Quan, Ed Vinn, Michelle and myself all decided to have dinner at the nearby Asia Cafe where we had our food and shared some laughs. Dickys mom picked us up to send us home an hour later.

  And finally after 3 days Im home sweet home, hurray. How I have missed this pc of mine, the sweet sights and wonders of the internet. In 3 days Ill be off to the outward bound camp where Ill be spending ten days in the jungle. Wish me luck.