Australia!

No. I'm not flying off to Australia like some people. I'm not planning to study in Australia for Pre-U studies.


Today I left my phone under the pillow, hoping that the cell phone fairy would drop by to pick up my HIV phone and exchange it with a good and healthy, wealthy, happy one. Not.

I was just being absent minded, to go out of house for the rest of the day, without a cell phone. heh.

Yesterday, I had dinner at a tranquil little steamboat restaurant in Molek with Old Pastor Suresh and his family, and the Wong and Boey family. Sounds like good old times. The whole shop was only our gang of people. No other customers were there.

6 years before, we had our farewell dinner. They left our Church for KL. Rhema the eldest girl, had just finished form 5 as a top scorer in Convent. Today she's on JPA scholarship studying medicine in India for the final year before she takes on her internship. Renita, a year younger than Rhema, is doing her final year for Electrical Engineering. Rheshara is taller than me and she's only 11. Roshean, the boy that was not on earth yet when they first set foot in JB, is 6 now.

This month got me thinking of how time flies. I was probably blinded all these years, with all the hectic schedules and the never ending to-do list, to forget all these people for my own agendas. Recently I got back to my old mates, talking and doing some catching up to repay all those years I neglected. So near yet so far.

The piano that I neglected for 2 and a half years, I gave it a bear hug yesterday.

Seeing Naomi that night reminded me that the next day was Tuesday, the day PMR results are out. Ah, how about mine? I met Puan Yeoh in the Library on Sunday afternoon. As usual, she gives all the encouraging talk. But this time her words made me think for my own good. She told me that I should treasure these holidays, because I won't be getting this time anytime soon after my next level of studies start. Make use of this time to do everything I wanted to do during the schooling days, but didn't get to do because exams were always lurking around the corners.

But here I am, feeling bored at home. Like a fat lump forever stuck to a sofa staring into monitor screens at nothing in the day, YouTube at night, and gobbling down spicy garlic twisties and chocolates at 2.15am. I feel sorry for myself.X)

So I signed up for a library card for 15 bucks so I can get 2 books every fortnight. If I read fast, I can get as many as I can swallow. Initially I picked 4 books, remembering something Mercy told me. Was I hallucinating or dreaming that Mercy told me we could borrow up to 8 books during the holidays?=/ I picked an Encyclopedia about house plans. Albeit thick but it was pretty fascinating. Second book was Bill Clinton's Biography; I wanted to read biographies all these while after Einstein's and Sparks' ones. Next time maybe Byron and Gibbon. I wanted to read war diaries. Then I spotted the title, The Soloist. Yes sounds like it, a Musician's life. The last one I read was 'Alicia's Gift'. Same thing. Maybe it became my hobby to read about a talented musicians. Not only reading, I'm addicted to hear them play, although I cannot even pass a Grade 6. Well then, its my hobby, I'm merely a dilettante. It's about a concert pianist again, but the author Nicholas Christopher is not a musician; yet he writes so well and detailed, as if he lives and breathes a musician's life. Talents, remarkable gifts, these people have. Living in the World of Arts can really be struggle. A struggle to be noticed. Arts are not life-saving machines, like doctors and scientists. Therefore my grandparents restricted both my parents to enter the World of Arts. They say, 'No food on the table if you end up an artist.' Just like the scene in Corner of Love. Oh, how I love that show =) English is killing me, because of that book, I realized how bad I am in English. Especially in Vocabulary and Grammar. The next book might comfort me a little; they say Lord of the Rings is a child's fantasy story. You don't need to have high school A grade english to comprehend what the author is trying to deliver.

The title was The Silmarillion. Another Tolkien book about middle-earth. Actually published posthumously, and edited by Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien's son. I felt bad about the wanting to read that series; because I thought, isn't it better if I read about what really happened on earth in the previous centuries, rather than submerging myself into some fictional world of hobbits and elves? I had fallen in love with the world of Middle-earth since the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien created his own world with thousands of years of history and languageS - complete with grammar and phoenics and characters. Wild, wild, imagination; but a genius.

I ended up with the last two books, The Soloist and The Silmarillion. The other 2 can wait, because I know exactly where to find those 2 the next time I visit the library. So after one month, I got books to read. My reading has been scarce, since I made talkative friendsXD In freshman year I was able to read 2 to 3 books a week. Hardy Boys, and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

When I finally decided to close my eyes it was 2am in the morning; which was bad because I had to wake up earlier the next morning, which is today, because I had promised Hui Yen to meet up in school. I had to follow my mum earlier, or else I can't go anywhere. No license, No car, No MRT to school, No public bus to school either. And I wouldn't want to waste money on Unscrupulous Malaysian Taxi Drivers; they charge more than they should, and many of them have terrible attitude towards the passengers. No wonder MSN had an article about Malaysia having the Worst Taxi Service in the World. Only 2% of them are still on the good side. X( Ah, digressed. Back to topic, I ended up in school pretty early, only to see a couple of juniors in school uniform, including my St Johners, Cheryl looking normal, Kai Voon excited, Qin Wen inexcited, Joanne Gaw waving frantically at a lime green shirt fella(me) and one pathetic form 2 doing her St John holiday training. Softball was having their holiday training (oh how I regretted for not having guts to join softball when I hit form 2!) Chi had weird hair. Zhi Ying her usual self. Yee Chen misses a ball. Daphne and Elsie were there to check out on training. The sickbay cupboard was messy so I helped cleaned out one shelf. I was waiting in the sickbay, my second home in high school, and I played 2 iPod games and won both (for the first time). Talking to my juniors after that, trained some home nursing, bed making and dressing tray =D Ah nostalgic feelings. I don't need to talk about PMR results because they did fairly well. And boy I was well impressed because they could carry me up the bed for Medicine tray after stuffing junk food in for the past one monthXD WOOT

Talked to some teachers; some for business, some for catching up.
I could feel the pressure caving in again.
I felt sorry to see their tired looks, but glad to be out of the scenario. Am I being selfish?

So Hui Yen and me ran off to City Square. Taxi was bad as usual. She said we had to pay more if the meters show more than 5 bucks because I insisted on the meter. Finally it read 4.60. Hui Yen still paid 5 because the driver said so, and we didn't want to waste energy arguing. I would you know, if Hui Yen would join in the funXD Boo. Unanimously, we agreed that this is the first official outing day we enjoyed each other's company. Of course we went out together before, but we couldn't count those times. Those were random meet ups before heading off to tuition or after a official Saturday St John meeting.

Oh. She told me she went to A'Famosa with her cousins to play the tall water slides. JealousX)
Can't remember the last time I went for a water slide. Probably I have been to zero tall water slides. The ones I went for are moderate size. Hmmph. I need a tall water slide! Blackout Slides! Vertical Slides! YEAHEHEHEHXD

Anyway, we headed off to Wong Kok to have lunch, after much contemplation, only to find our form 3 juniors there having their celebration lunch. I could remember 3 years ago. During form 2 holiday training, Shanu's parents treated us for lunch in (place name, can't remember but I know where it is) with her team mates and a few of us juniors who were present for training that day. 2 years ago, um, headed back to the juniors for training right away after we got our results, with no particular feelings. Only remembered Kelly sobbing away on the phone calling her St John seniors because she scored 6/8 =D That night my parents treated my team to a dinner in Yew's Cafe. Fann bought Mickey Mouse watches for all of us=D I took the white one, Yi Th'ng took the big-faced, blue one. Fann had a metal one on her wrist already. I bet Kelly took pink. Hui Yen probably a green one, looking more tomboyished. That night my K700i went bonkers. That's when I decided that I should get a new phone for PMR. heh.

Oh Hui Yen's brother got her a new phone. Nokia E(33), something like that. It was pretty, but both of us didn't really know how to operate that phone. I feel like a total idiot now when it comes to phones. Once I was a fanatic, knowing every new model and could memorize every function of the models. Today I use my HIV phone for messaging and calls, that's it. I have totally lost interest in it. I think I changed pretty much these years, in terms of hobbies and likings; and character perhaps. Yes and food. Because of Yi Th'ng, today I learned to eat egg yolk no matter how it is prepared, and petai! Yes, I can return to Kelantan this Chinese New Year and indulge in every Delicacy! Kelateh!

(I'm the best Vampire hunter! Oh. No. Mosquito-Clapper. I can stare at a blog post and clap lightly with my highly acclaimed instincts for Vampires in 49th. There, caught one. Easy-peasy. Don't laugh, I have Not watched Twillight.)

Wong Kok it was, we walked around randomly. Hui Yen suggested we look at the movie times and the available ones. There was Jim Carrey's Yes Man at 4pm. *Glances at watch* Nay. Not today. Went down the escalator, only to spot 'Australia''s movie poster on the left. I knew it was a Baz Lurhman's Movie. I knew he was a great man who wrote The Sunscreen Song. But Hui Yen got so enthusiastic about it and pulled me to the escalator up again. I bet she didn't have the slightest idea of what the movie was all about.

It was a 2.30pm show, but my watch reads 2.40pm. She said we could make it in time for the show. So we ended up in the queue for tickets. I thought I could use my student card for the movies before I hit college, but I know its not in my bag. I took out my Popular student card, my Library student card, and my IC - all 3 were useless. Of all cards, the Convent student card with a sulky St John face in it, was not in my bag=/ Or else we could have saved 6 bucks for 2 tickets. Anyway, 9 bucks was still okay since I did not hit the theaters for months, initially I thought it was 11.
We rushed in the movie room at the 7th floor right away (panting, lack so much physical exercise since the St John days). And at that spur of the moment, I felt like I was one of the fella in Itazura na Kiss who was on a mission with a partner, to spy on a couple.XD We were Not on any mission to spy couples kissing in dark theatersX) Scenes from that anime were floating in my head, still. So some things I do might be interconnected to whatever wacky shows I watched recently. Like how I thought of Nodame and Kuroki having to eat canned food and instant noodles when Chiaki and Tanya were not around to cook. (Woot! The college apartment/hostel life, next up! - indicates that I need to learn cooking.)

Yes, movies. I have watched movies countable on a single hand with amputated fingers. Perng said I should watch Valkyrie. And that we're going to go DVD shopping with a list of movies in mind when he returns from NS - and that, will be in 3 months time. =_= For all you know, he's enjoying 6 vegetarian meals a day, FOR FUN>.> And suffering with 5 cavities while doing commanding and monkey bars and shooting targets. Speaking of Valkyrie, its a Historical Thriller. So I definitely have to watch it. (About: Germans opposing Hitler, wanting to assasinated him; Stauffenberg or something - initiated the movement)

Australia!

Have not been a big fan of Australia all these while, as in not interested of its happenings and not so keen as others to migrate there for studies and a new life after Malaysia. As I entered the movie room with Hui Yen, the film was already rolling, wonder how much I've missed.

It started out with an English lady in a bar in the Australian outback, bickering some stuff with the bar guy, and then heading out the door only to find her luggage was used in a fight between 2 guys. One of the guys was a Drover, Hugh Jackman as the Drover.

I don't think I will type the whole movie scenes out, because I don't fully understand the show. Please don't think I am stupid, because I still know what is going on as I sit through 3 hours of it. I can score 80%. I can write a good movie report (only with bad english), because I think it was a good show. Since its 3 hours long, I cannot remember every scene, but I always try to.

It was one of the great shows I watched so far, no doubts, because Baz Lurhmann is a splendid storyteller.

I'll type out the themes then.

Imagine: The Drover's Wife, Looking for a Rain God, Ranchers - lots of horses and cattle, Yodellers, Japanese in WWII, Pearl Harbour scenes, Children stranded on an Island, harmonica and songs, discrimination among the aborgines/black skinned, parentless half-caste child, a Pendekar Atan, losing team members along a journey, SOME lovey-dovey... ah and a Hugh Jackman and a Nicole Kidman XD

It was comical, and very exciting, sad, and touching at the same time.

I may not tear, but my heart cries every time I see a war scene.=/

And I did not know that the Japs attacked Australia. They bombed Darwin. I mean, we did not read anything about Australia except that they sent troops to fight in Malaysia, the commonwealth countries. They fought for British, alongside the New Zealanders. That's pretty much for Australia in WWII history in our textbooks.

Dad says that Australia's population is less than Malaysia's. I don't know how true, but the numbers are definitely increasing as many choose a life in Australia. Taylor's college is flooded with Asians, so I heard. But I think it would be a nice place to live, with less stress and speed. We seldom hear shocking news from that part of the globe, only when Steve Irwin the famous crocodile hunter died due to a stringray attack>.> Unlike bigger economic powers like China and The States and Saudi, Australia is on the quieter side. No nuclear, no terrorist, Yet. Only the Great Barrier Reef 8) Wear bikinis by the beach, and surf! I loove Bill's Kitchen.

Then again if you think life should be filled with more competitiveness, I suggest don't try Australia. It's a haven for your annual vacation. Or if you want to start over from scratch, try Alaska, like Homer Simpson didXD



It's 30th December 2008, and I typed out some long stuff. Why not, since the year is ending? =D




Pardon, for Bad english.