A post of nonsense

It has been a moderately tough week dealing with the outcomes of our efforts. 

The morning after Contracts result was released, Joel and I gave Pauline hell during discussion as we tried to cope with our achievements.

Us: Yalah, distinction thinking watt….

Pauline: You guys are such bitches la.

And that’s how we cope. Lol! 

I further extended that effort to Kah Yung and Alexie when I went to meet them.

Me: *ranting about inferiority*

Alexie: *stares at Kah Yung* Omg. What is she saying?

Eric: She’s in a very dark place right now. Leave it. Everything she’s saying now is just like “eeeeeee..” in my ears. 

Alexie: I think I see a piece of cloud above her head.

Me: *blablablablabluuhhh…*

Eric: Eeeeeeeeee.. what? Can’t hear you. What is this humming?

And after a final session of really loud ranting today, I finally decided to start crawling out of my pit. 

I guess a good start to all this is by recollecting the happier moments of the day, like today, when we played Articulate again. My team won! :D I realise I have never lost in a game of Articulate before!

Pauline: We talked about this the other day!! It’s like a gecko!

Us: LIZARD! INSECT! 

Them: TIME!

Joel: *looks at card* It’s a NEWT! A newt is NOT a gecko! IT’S AN AMPHIBIAN!!!!

*****

Joel: The biggest animal in the world!

Pauline: A whale!

Joel: Okay, a what whale?

Pauline: A WHITE WHALE!

Joel: WHAT!? *loses interests in card* I WILL SLAP YOU! A WHITE WHALE!?!?

TIME!

Pauline: Sorry, I confused myself between a white shark and a blue whale.

******

Me: Erm… a penis is also called a…?

Them: DICK!

Me: Noo! More!!!

Ramya: COCK! COCK!

Me: Okay okay! Erm.. the bottom of a… hole!

Them: *shouting some nonsense*

Me: THE PLACE A PILOT SIT!

Ramya: COCKPIT!

Me: YES! *flips card* Blaine always wears a what? Around his neck!

Ramya and Pauline: WHAT PLAIN!? FIELD! MORE! WHAT!?

TIME

Joel: I CAN’T HEAR ANYTHING BECAUSE YOU ALL WERE SHOUTING NONSENSE!

*****

We were all very, very excited and competitive when we played Articulate. Haha! Ramya spilled like two cups of water and pretended nothing happened until our turn was over. And we get free food so life was definitely good today.

I guess when things just seem a little bit blurry, or when you get a sudden life crisis, or when you are two marks away from the grade you desire, you just have to take a step back and start again. 

Yoke told me if I don’t have the thing that I desire, it is only because I haven’t tried hard enough. Apart from his tendency to analogise situations with a basketball match, I totally agree with his point. So tomorrow, I will climb out of my pit of self-pity. 

Tonight, I will drown myself in an episode of Glee and Grey’s Anatomy while enjoying free chocolate mudcake for comfort. =)

Dull-ness

Siew Chee asks me to write about my life in ANU so I suppose I would. Even though there isn't anything much to write about.

I’ve joined the Novice Mooting Competition so here goes another round of my mooting experience. I am now fighting an appeal case for Bruce Wayne (how cool is that!?). So if you are kind, please pray for my team. :)

When one goes off to study abroad, one worries about many things. After the expensive tuition fees and living expenses, one also worries about fitting in and making friends.

And things like take time. 

The truth is, nothing interesting ever really happen in ANU. The most interesting thing was probably when I had to climb two fences in the night with Eric and Yoke Yeong in order to play Frisbee. Lol. We didn’t know where the entrance is okay!

The rest of the time I spend looking for free foods. :D

And free sticky notes. And free pens. And free cups.

And filling surveys to get vouchers for free juice and coffee.

And convincing others to fill in the same survey.

And convincing those who have filled the survey to trade me their vouchers for a personal deed.

Me: How bout… I do your dishes for a night?

Eric: Noh.

Me: How bout… I give you econ tute answer for a week?

Eric: Noh.

(it went on for at least 10 more times with different offers. I tried okay. He wouldn’t budge. Sobs!)

And study. Lol. And learning to cook!

I truly thank God for every dinner I cook that is not burnt, tasteless or inedible. 

I had to help to prepare for a food tasting just a couple of nights ago and my team leader asked me to make an omelette. Right. Easy peasy.

Hunter: Make it round. Don’t break it okay.

Don’t… whaaa…?

I thought I was going to fail miserably and then my water face could shatter like the eggs, and I could fry it for dinner. -__-“

Thank God, it was a small pan. And a thick omelette. And there was a huge-ass spatula.

I didn’t even burn it! :D

Going back to the free food (lol), I also went for Coffee Night yesterday. It’s where we get free chocolate milk. I’d forgotten to bring my cup down so I used my measuring cup instead.

Measuring cup for rice. Not finished. A slightly melted measuring cup for rice, because I placed too near the fire once, it melted and re-moulded itself. 

Yoke used his bowl. Well, at least my method had the word “cup” in it! Haha! 

Desperate creatures for free milk, we were. :)

And that’s it for the updates so far. Haha.

Winning even in a loss

Quite frankly, I don’t think I can ever imagine myself standing in the middle of an Olympics challenge. 

I cannot imagine having to carry within myself such a humungous amount of hope to win at that final challenge and yet all the while having to also live with the knowledge that everything I have trained and worked so hard for can possibly be disintegrated in just a few moments’ notice. 

And above all that, I have the hopes from millions of supporters and an entire country on my back, all sitting religiously in their plastic chairs in mamak stalls half an hour before my every match so they can watch my every action. All of whom are praying for me to win. 

And my only way of repaying this loyal gesture is to win.

Winning - such a simple solution that requires a tremendous amount of effort plus a dash of luck, which at times is elusive.

No, I can’t imagine myself in Lee Chong Wei’s very expensive sports shoes.

His loss definitely resonated deeply within the hearts of every Malaysian. That final set was so close it was utterly heartbreaking to watch him lose. My level of sadness was at CAN-CRY-LEVEL.

And yet even in his loss, he did what many leaders of Malaysia have not quite succeeded in doing for decades – unite Malaysians on one platform. 

He is possibly the one stranger that Malaysians have ever prayed so hard for. Obviously our population cannot beat that of China’s so that may or may not have been a disadvantage (ha-ha). But the very fact that he played so well despite sustaining a previous injury was enough to move the hearts of the people. 

When I prayed for this win, I prayed because I thought Malaysia needs a win and that Chong Wei deserves it this time.

I thought that we needed this win because it really would have been nice to hear “Negaraku” playing in the Olympics for once. I thought that we needed it because it would be awesome to go out beaming in the streets tomorrow, declaring that we have made history and be totally united in that glorious moment of joy.

I thought we deserve it because Chong Wei has trained so hard and has come so far. I thought we deserve it because we would certainly parade the streets and appreciate this win more than China (Dude, seriously. Our gold medal count is zero!)

As it turned out, it wasn’t quite time yet. And I realise I am not one to say who deserves a win more than the other.

But what is really touching and essentially, it is also what really matters, is that all Malaysians can still gather round to console this one Malaysian who has tried so hard to perform in the Olympics platform but failed at the very end; one that has carried the hopes of all Malaysians but fell short of expectations.

We are a unique community, us Malaysians.

No society is as forgiving of a loss as Malaysians are tonight. 

And for me, it is highly encouraging that I belong to a community that still holds on to the view that if you have tried your best, no one can blame you.

Chong Wei has lost a match. And at the end of the day, that is all he has lost. At the same time, he has gained the respect of so many and lost not a single drop of his honour. :’)

#still proud of how Lee Chong Wei performed tonight :)

Leaving on a jetplane

Come tomorrow, I will have been living in Canberra for exactly two weeks.

I guess I never got round to describing what it was like to leave Kuching or how my holidays went because I was lazy.

Since college has started, I have to start shaving off that laziness so I’ll start with a blog post. :)

I never got to mention how grateful I am that on that last night before I left my hometown, I got to have a small dinner.

I mean, we only get to leave home to study abroad for the first time once in our life.

The saddest part about my leaving that Monday afternoon was not so in the fact that I’m leaving a familiar surrounding behind (although, no doubt, I miss it badly now). Rather, it was in the fact that I had to leave without bidding a proper goodbye to my father.

What was supposed to be a family dinner and a proper send-off turned into a week-long hospital visits. So for the first time I stepped away from my home to study abroad, I had to leave while seeing my father still in hospital. It was nothing less than luck that my mother could leave her work for a mere hour to come home and bid me goodbye. Again, it was supposed to be a proper goodbye but she used up her leaves to take care of my dad the previous week.

It may sound sad – and indeed it was – but it was not that bad. In that one week, I had my eyes opened to see the small miracles that God had put in place.

I think it was more than a coincidence that a senior I had not seen for two years suddenly appeared by my father’s bedside as his nurse. It was more than anything I could hope for when I had a dinner to go to. And it was a good dinner too.

I didn’t think that leaving was such a big deal. I guess that is because my friends and I have been bidding goodbye to each other and waiting for each other to return so often that we are all fairly used to it. December is always a month to look forward to. Every year, we grow up just a little bit to try new things, go to new places and push that curfew just a little farther. So when Maryann, Elaine and Kelly rushed to the airport after Kelly’s driving lessons, I was well, a little touched.

Leaving wasn’t a big deal at all, really. That was, until I reached KLIA. Lo, and behold, I saw before me so many entourages accompanying my fellow comrades. All of a sudden, three friends at the airport seem like such a miserable send-off. Of course, I couldn’t have hoped for a better turnout because everybody seems to be elsewhere studying, working, or in the case of Marilyn, travelling. Three was, in a way, three figures above my initial expectation.

So things don’t often go as planned. My parents didn’t make it to any airport that day. But I had three friends. And it felt like home. Well, it felt right because instead of exchanging soppy speeches like people so often do, we sat and talked crap, reminiscing about our ridiculous past.

Kelly: I always got scolded! I yawned and I got scolded. I YAWNED, okay. *points at Maryann* She SLEPT. And she didn’t get scolded!

The send-off that lasted for 15 minutes was the only one I got that day.

When the time came for us to enter the departure gates, I caught glimpses of how others say their goodbyes. For a second I was almost envious. But then I realized that this is going to be no different than when I was in Sunway. When I bade my goodbyes using my cavewoman gadget, perhaps the best well-wishes I received came from my teachers who still believe in me.

I have known for a long time that I draw my confidence from the people around me. When that falls apart, I fall apart. The lesson I learnt then (and will have to keep learning over and over again) is that I have to start drawing confidence from myself and from God.

And things will be okay.

And they did go okay because I got my overweight luggage across without any extra charge. Teehee!

The New Year! :D

I realise I haven’t written a single post to welcome the New Year. Well, first off, a very belated Happy New Year and an advance Happy Chinese New Year to all you who celebrate it!

Well we all know what Chinese New Year means – pineapple tarts! :D

So may you all have a very merry, very prosperous, very exciting celebration of the year of dragon filled with plenty of red packets, pineapple tarts and keropoks! And acar; for what is keropok without acar! :P

Now that my very long holiday is ending, I suddenly realise that I haven’t done anything I had planned to do. I thought I was going to learn some mandarin, finish reading You’re The Apple of My Eye and polish up my guitar skills.

Instead I finished only four chapters of the book and felt so proud of myself I stopped reading to celebrate. I also tried to play some guitar but decided after two weeks or so that what little skills I have had have gone out the window, consequently blown off by the wind to some faraway place.

So I spent my time learning how to make patterns on the Rubik’s cube and manipulating a piece of string to make string figures. That too, I failed miserably.

But it is the new year and new years (at least for the first month) are supposed to be filled with hope!

My resolutions for the year:

1. Lose weight because according to my brother, my BMI is overweight. =.="

2. Learn to cook.

3. Travelling! :D

4. Climb aboard a motorcycle.

5. Touch a live cow.

6. Learn to cut my own fringe.

7. Watch The Hunger Games in the cinema.

8. Finish and win The World of Goo.

9. Keep in touch with everybo-deh!

10. Enjoy the year. :)

May all our resolutions be achieved! :D