Keong Hee Huat Zai!

Just to clarify...

Chinese: Gong Xi Fa Cai
Cantonese: Gung Hei Fatt Choi
Hokkien: Keong Hee Huat Zai

So now, you know.

*****

During this week-long Chinese New Year hols, I (sadly?) won't be involving myself in the money collection business. I also won't get to fine-tune my gambling skills and my mahjongg virtuosity.

That's because I'm quite occupied already.

First off, the inter-class debate is set on the Tuesday after the hols. I interpret this as the school intending us (debaters) to use the holiday for the group discussions. Which most debaters will probably be doing.

Secondly, I am trying my best to enjoy this holiday as much as possible. Quite difficult. I am having a bit of a problem squeezing in tennis matches with my neighbour since the sky has figured that plants needed to be watered in the evenings, and has done so. The court wasn't spared. Sadly.

Talking about tennis, I am desperately following the results of the Australian Open. Since I'm doing this through the newspapers, I only know the results 1 day later. Sad, I know. Anyway, I'd just like to grab this opportunity to express my hope of Federer breaking Sampras' record -- just 2 more Grand Slams to go!

And, of course, I'm away for the bulk of the week. That kinda gets in the way as well.

So, to all readers of this post,

新年快乐

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR.

年年有余
MAY THE YEAR TO COME BE FISHY(???).

It's Terribly Exciting!

All tennis followers should know that...

THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN IS STARTING!

The only problem is...

I don't have Astro.

Meeting The Teachers.

First week of school's finally over. No more yawning and yawning and yawning in the early mornings anymore (hopefully).

And I've met all the subject teachers -- except one.

You see, our Geography teacher has been very conveniently absenting herself from our class. Whenever her period crops up, she'll either abandon our class or send in Pn. Mary Ann, as was the case during her Wednesday class.

And it's all her fault that this following what-I-think-of-my-teachers poll cannot be completed.

Here it goes...

B Malaysia: Pn Azeana. "What?! We get a new teacher? Can she even teach???"
English: Pn Ruth. Hope she lives up to her name.
Chinese: Pn Chen. The best we could've got.
Science: Pn Ong. What else is there to say?
Maths: Pn Tho. Often catch myself trying to stifle a laugh.
Geography: Pn. Chia? Pn Cheah? Who is she?
History: Pn Mary Ann. How lucky am I? Sejarah might even be interesting.
KHB: Pn Heah. Yeah, you all thought she only taught girls. I wish.
Moral: Pn Lee BP. No comment.
Civics: Pn Saik. Nag. Nag. Nag. Other than that, she's alright.
PJK: Encik Siva. "Handball, hockey, sit-ups, hockey, jogging, hockey..."
Art: Pn Latifah. Not Queen Latifah(I wish). Has very slow handwriting.

Well, yeah, that pretty much covers all my subject teachers. Some could be better, but...

Overall: satisfied.

Back to the Status Quo.

Wow.

Just like that, the holidays are nearly over, and school days are back.

Time to unearth the schoolbag and fill it with books; more books this time, since PMR is drawing near. Back to school in new classes with new teachers and a new schedule altogether. Not to mention new classmates.

Sounds fun, doesn't it?

I'm stuck in 3 Balau with a bunch of genii who can probably prattle on in Chinese as well as the Chinese teachers can, with the exception of Puan Lee. Most of my ex-classmates have gone to other classes, many of them my friends. Remember that Sting song?

Wooah~
I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien,
I'm an Englishman in New York.

The words doesn't exactly fit the context, but the idea is there.

I'm free floating in a foreign atmosphere, with only 2 anchors to sanity. Gerald and Daniel.

Another thing the new school days bring which I am less-than-happy about is the early mornings. I've been sleeping at 2 am and waking up at 12 noon. A few days ago I slept at 4 am. With 3 more nights to go, you expect me to adjust my sleeping habits, and wake up at 6.30 in the morning?

Tom Cruise will have a blast with this Mission Impossible.

BURGER MANIA!!!

Here's a cool video I found. It's about burgers. Personally, I prefer Burger King.

Enjoy!

Indonesia Part 2

This is the continuation to my trip in Java. And guess what? This time, it's illustrated.

Okay. Since I didn't upload any pics during the first post, I'll make up for it by posting some now, complete with sarcastic captions.

Just a word: this post can get VERY detached. Hope you can follow. The pictures are arranged according to time taken.

All these are photos of my hotel. Looks good on pixel, eh?

This is at night, when we went out for dinner at Cihampelas Walk.

Pic 1 of Cihampelas Walk.

Pic 2 of Cihampelas Walk (the restaurant's upstairs).

Just in case you don't know, kelinci means rabbit.

Seems as if this big hot steaming lake...

...is causing the mist.

Somehow, I doubt that it's authentic skin.


KELINCI!

Close-up KELINCI!


Aaaaah. Maribaya -- where we lost our wealth. Jokinglah!

Inside Maribaya is... a waterfall!


Leaving Bandung. Going to next town: Pangandaran. Which I'll talk about in later posts.

A small P.S.

Yeah, for those of you who would like to know more about the makeup in Twilight, here's a link.

>>I'm the link, click me!<<

Happy reading.

Excuse this post, please.

I did promise that I would continue about my trip to Indonesia, but I have another thing which I would like to talk about this time.

It's a movie which I watched recently. Can you guess?

It's TWILIGHT!

And I love it. Yep, absolutely do.

Of course, there are special reasons why it is so endearing to me.

The main one may sound a little weird, but don't think me a freak or anything.

Since I was really young, I had ALWAYS thought how darn cool it would be to be a vampire.

Ironic, actually, since vampires are supposed to be scary, and young kids don't like scary guys.

But it was a dream, and is, I confess, still a dream sometimes.

So, watching Twilight was like getting a glimpse of my dream. I saw how vampires might have lived in a world of humans (if only they existed), and witnessed the awesomeness of vampires' powers(then again, only if they existed).

I don't exactly like the ending, though. But after reading about my childhood dream, you should understand why.

I mean, why, Edward, why?

I pity Bella. Poor girl.

Another thing I don't like about the movie is the makeup.

Edward and Carlisle (his father) had to powder their faces a horrid white and paint their lips a bloody red (ironic, right?). I even found their makeup brands: SK-II Air Touch for foundation, M.A.C. blot powder for the paleness and Benefit Silky Finish for the lips. Oh, you know, just in case some guy wishes to look like a movie star vampire (unlikely).

The odd thing is that the other vampires don't have to wear the makeup. Emmett didn't, neither did the girls or the other group of vampires.

Anyway, now that I've caught this Twilight fever, I guess I might give the series a read, even if it's just to read about Bella's turning (which should have happened much earlier, in my opinion).

Brava, Steph, brava -- you managed to get me hooked.

Indonesia Part 1

Hello people!

Yeah, I know, I've not been blogging for quite a long stretch of time. That's because I've been overseas (over the Straits of Malacca, actually) to Java, which is (in case you don't know) part of Indonesia. It's also partly because I've been procrastinating (fancy word for putting off, for those who don't speak England so well) since I arrived back.

And so, what better theme for this post than my trip to Java.

This trip for me wasn't all fun though.

I had a runny nose and a headache during the first half of the trip, which is extremely uncomfortable especially when suffering from motion sickness.

However, despite the discomfort, I still managed to enjoy myself.

Since my trip is just too long to cram into a single post, I shall attempt to illustrate the interesting details in my following posts, together with some pictures.

I shall talk about the first city which I visited in this post, but since the pictures have not yet been transfered to the computer, I'll have to make do without them.

1

I touched down in Bandung in the afternoon. A driver (or chauffeur) sent us to our pre-booked accomodation -- a charming but expensive hotel in the suburbs.

Oh, did I mention that it was expensive? A room for 2 is over RM100, which is a lot in Indonesia. (I had later asked one of the staff from another hotel about his salary, and he said it was only RM320!)

We stayed in Bandung for only 2 nights. I found out 1 thing though.

It is a shopping haven.

Things are CHEAP. Seriously CHEAP.

I bought a some shirts and T-shirts there. A T-shirt costed about RM12, but in Malaysia, it could have gone for RM24 or more. And for the shirts, it costed about RM40, but looked like it was worth RM70!

My uncle had followed us, and had declared that it was not safe for her daughter to visit Bandung: "After she starts earning her own money, then she can come!"

Besides shopping, there isn't much to see, so I also don't have much to say.

But if you're like my brother, who is an avid spender, Bandung is dangerous!

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Religion Woes

This is a serious post and I write the following with great solemnity.


A few weeks ago, I went to my relative's house to visit. She is an aging Christian whom I respected and trusted. At one point during the visit, she pulled me aside. She had something she wanted to say to me. In private. And so I followed her to a couch.

She sat down facing me and said,

Do you believe in God?

And so I answered:

Yes.

Do you know the story of Jesus?

Yes. (Being not a strict Buddist, I had explored the other religions out of interest.)

Do you know why Jesus was sent down to Earth? You see, Jesus is God's son, but yet God loved us so much he was willing to sacrifice his son to save us from hell.
When all humans are born, they carry sin. This sin comes from their ancestors, who sinned a long time ago. But the sin doesn't wash off with time.
This sin prevents us from going to heaven. And you see, God loves us so much, he doesn't want us to go to hell. After all, he created us. And so, he sent down his son Jesus to cleanse us of our sin.

(I could only sit there and nod.)

God planned for Jesus to die, because he knew only then could Jesus' blood, which is untainted by sin, wash off our sin. 3 days later, Jesus rose from the dead to join his Father in heaven.
There is proof that he is the son of God. You can check his tomb, it's empty. But if you check Buddha's tomb or Muhammad's tomb, you will find bones. Why? Because Jesus rose from the dead but they didn't.

(I was stunned; I had not expected this from her.)

Have you ever heard of this book... The Big Word For Kids?

Yes, I've read it before. It's the children's version of the Bible, isn't it?

(She seemed taken aback.) Oh, your parents let you read it?

Yeah. I think you gave us about 10 copies a long time ago. We passed some around.

Well, remember what I said, okay?

Ya, thanks.


That conversation was ultra-freaky. Should it have come from one of my friends, I would have stopped the person halfway. But coming from a respected relative like that...

This has really changed my views on religion. I had no idea just how desparate poeple were nowadays. In her mind, she might be doing a good thing, but to me, she was just scary. And the worst part was how she didn't want my parents to find out about this. It showed in her behaviour.

I also think she got the 'Buddha' part wrong. Buddha never claimed to be God or anything like it. He just led a saintly life and encouraged other people to do the same.


And now, I have a headache.