Interlude: The Days of Mud Sand and Sunburns

Simple, short and sweet. That's the way I would describe HLLC Church Camp 2009. Being held on the Raya weekend, I was dreading the journey down, imagning hours of JAM... But lo and behold, God was good, and it was a beautiful weather to travel and there were only minor bottlenecks, but nothing serious.

Well, in a nutshell, SPIRITUAL things learnt about the camp:

• You serve not out of convenience, only when you are free, but you serve out of conviction.
• Set reminders of your covenant with God, be it personal or church
• When you want to leave an impression, do it whole heartedly

Well, thins that I learnt that is not so spiritual include:

• Bananas float in water, they don't sink!
• Banana on skin makes it very very itchy!
• Do not buy cheap and small eggs when you plan to hit people with them - they don't break when it hits you!
• Two fei-cha's makes an unbeatable human juggernaut in the swimming pool
• Manchester will still win despite drawing 3-3 at extra time

Anyway, just a short note... Signing off...

D.U.K.E S1xE05 - The Nightmare Excel Sheet

MONDAY: Went back home, tried to get some sleep at 8.30PM after a good chat. Yes, 8.30PM. Can't sleep well, must be the coffee. Toss and turned till 9.30PM. Think I finally went to slumberland by then... I WISH!!! As soon as I closed my eyes, I was looking at the same excel sheet I was looking at for the last three working days, and still updating line by line.

Woke up at 1AM. Got really stressed. Slumbered off again, and again, the excel sheet came up again!!!! ARRGGGGHHHH!!! The worst part, if only what I did in my dreams really was done in real life!! And so, I "worked" another 6 hours in my dreams when I finally woke up at 3AM, and really slept till 7AM without a single dream... But after one hour, I was back in reality looking at the real excel sheet... 5% done.

TUESDAY: Had a better day. Started with that 5%, ended the day with 9% since a lot more people chipped in to help. Still the pressure to deliver by Friday. Again, it felt like Mount KK all over again... It's like no matter how hard you go, there's still that next step of stairs... Back to home and a 4-hour dose of personal time... *grin*

WEDNESDAY: Sigh... More work, and after a long day... Only managed to hit 14%. The pressure is building up. Some more got management meeting tomorrow... Argghhh... Was thinking of going home for personal time again... Instead, went to Bukit Jalil Aquatics alone. Yes, the swimming pool!!! To all people out there who think I don't excercise anymore... Hahahah.. Managed about 20 laps...And felt really, really fresh... Came back, decided to update my cob-webbed blog... And gonna go off and watch Night At the Museum...

D.U.K.E. S1xE04: The Day of Rapid Currents

I almost died today. Nope, it's not a joke. It really felt like I almost died today...

16 HOURS AGO: Woke up at 5.30 in the morning. Was looking forward to the event of the day - WHITE WATER RAFTING! Having done the exciting one in Sg Padas in KK, and having one of our friends saying that it wasn't as exciting as the one back in Penisular, a bunch of us decided to rise to the occassion to challenge the currents in KKB (Kuala Kubu Baru).

15 HOURS AGO: We had a simple mamak breakfast of nasi lemak (I had extra half boiled eggs as usual). Before heading off to Rawang to wait for the rest of the people. We had about 19 people that day, and 8 of them are my Maxis colleagues.

14 HOURS AGO: We were waiting in the Rawang rest stop and joking away about "paying for the rain" and "Mr Wong vs Teoh See Weng"...

12 HOURS AGO: We reach our destination, we quickly geared up and listened to our briefing. We had to wait a fair bit as they had to change our boat (not sure why). I ended up in a boat with three other guys - Jae Sun, Terry and Ryan. Having the first two in the same boat almost felt like having Aaron and Jozzy on board, only about twice the fun!

10 HOURS AGO: It was fun! Unlike KK's teh tarik river, this one's much more clearer. But since, the water was bit low, we've got stuck quite a lot at the rocks and had to use our body's to change the balance of the boat a lot. It was really tiring, but much different experience. KK's water was about quick rapids. This one's about avoiding rocks and really steep drops. Some more, the river's quite narrow, unlike KK's wider flow. So, technique and team work plays an important row.

7 HOURS AGO: We reach this point where it's another steep drop. Think it's called Chicken Drop. As the the water's not that deep, the before us got stuck and had to slowly get out of the currents. Didn't seem dangerous. I was dead wrong. Well, the owner (I think) said to bring our paddles up and we'll hike down while the boat is carried down. Our guide, knowing that our boat's the pretty adventurous one, said we can do it. So we got onto the boat, and mind you, our boat is the smallest amongst the five, and most versatile and well, more unsteady as well.

The tactic was to paddle forward, kneel into the boat while hanging onto the ropes, and tip forward. We did just that. But we tipped too front. When the front of the boat got stuck on rocks as predicted, and we leaned forward as instructed, I think we leaned to front. The back of the boat came forward and tipped left side. All of us fell from the boat. The next 10 seconds felt like the closest call to death I can recall in my entire life.

I was pushed under current, and I tilted my leg forward. But the thing is, I can't surface! I can see the light, but I can surface. I can feel the super strong currents pushing me forward and down at the same time. I panicked as I was running out of air, and still I'm not surfacing. It felt like I'm dragged under and I scared I'm hooked onto something.

The worst happened, I ran out of air. I took in one gulp of water and I still wasn't surfacing. I wasn't sure I was moving forward or not, but I know this, I'm about to drown. It's amazing that what really ran through my mind at that point. Well, it wasn't a flash of my entire life, but at one moment I was thinking how to get out of this, but when that seemed like not going to happen, my mind flashed to "I shouldn't have done this" mode. I was like thinking how am I going to tell my parents and grandma (well, at that point it didn't registered that if i really died, how the world I'm supposed to do that).

And as suddenly as the drop into the water was, suddenly I can feel the surface coming up. I can feel the boat's rope. I tried to get up to the surface. I manage to. It was dark. It took another second to register's Ryan's face. We were under the capsize boat. I quickly got out. I took a deep breath (or a lot). By the time I was getting to the side shore nearby, I was a bit shaking. Jae Sun was clearly a bit shaken, but with a smile, he said, "Let's do that again". I didn't know how to respond. I just smiled.

I never really know why I was stuck under for so long. Maybe it was a short time, but in my panic it seem a long time. I don't know. I only know that I almost died today, and well, life's suddenly in a different perspective.

p/s I'm still planning to go back in Oct/Nov when the current is stronger... :P

D.U.K.E. S1xE03: The Days of Stunning Depths

I like the way one of the person who went with us describe this trip - GETTING THERE IS AN ADVENTURE. Yeah, I kinda got my open water license last year and haven't been diving since then, as the motivation wasn't there. So, I was kinda conned into this trip with the promise of chicks joining. So, for the entire months building up to this, I wasn't excited at all. Not a teeny weeny bit. Still, I went along, took the AirAsia plane, and landed in this foreign land. Just a bit of background, I was going to Pulau Wey and Bandar Acheh is the place we land before going to this island which was about 2 hours away.

Background - Bandar Acheh. If you can recall back a bit of history, this was one of the worst hit place when the Tsunami came in 2004. Now, what I didn't know was the history before that. In a simple summary, there was a civil war going on before that disaster. It seemed that you can be easily killed at any time while it was going on. But all that changed since the disaster that claimed >230,000 lives. Peace was restored, elections was held, and tourism slowly grew. You can find out more about the history here.


And hence, the special reason why I can step foot on this place. The picture above is just a glimpse of the restoration that came after disaster. We've gotten the privilege to talk to one of the NGOs that was working there. It seems that after 5 years of restoration, they are finally going to pull out and let the Acheh people continue to heal by themselves. I can only hope that things will go well for this place, and I can have another chance to come back.

MAKAN MAKAN: OK, so let's move on to the most important thing - FOOD! The most interesting, and nicest, of the entire trip was AYAM TANGKAP. We've tried it when we arrive, and we've tried it just before we left. In simple terms, it kinda like ayam goreng, but much much more nicer. On the island, most of the time it's nasi goreng, mee goreng and mee sup. When you have that for five days in a row, it become scary...


THE "RESORT": Let me tell you this, Pulau Wey is not your typical getaway tourist spot. Don't expect hotels, or air conds, or even proper taxi. To get there, we have to take a ferry, then a taxi, and then still walk another 20 minutes till we reach our home for five days. And this is how our chalet looks like (and I can tell you it's the best house in the entire Rubiah Tirta "resort"):

THE ISLAND: Well setting that aside, how is the island itself. One word, STUNNING. The water was super duper clear and it's beautiful!!!

THE DIVES: When it came to the dives, I can say one thing - it kinda restarted my interest in diving. I manage to do a night dive (diving in the dark with only a torch is creepy but very, very fun), a drift dive (try diving against a current and your mask almost coming off), a wreck dive and a dive near a volcano site. The total of dives was 7, although we could have done 9 but it seems the locals take their Fridays as very serious day to not work.

And the best thing is since this place is not as commercialized as places like Redang and Perhentian, the fishes are not scared of you. Too bad I don't have an underwater camera, but the things you see underwater is amazing! There's school of barracudas & jacks, a lot of murrays, sea urchins, octopus and I finally saw my first nudi. It's simply breathtaking under the water. I kinda vowed I'll get better so that I can improve my breathing to stay longer underwater.

Well, in summary, I wished I could have done more dives. I will definitely recommend this for divers, and well, I hope I can come back again. Here are more of some interesting shots from Pulau Wey and Acheh:

^This kid is 11 years old and he's done more than 40 dives

^This sign is at the entrance of the resort, a memorium of the 2004 disaster

^Note the HALAL sign on Coke and Sprite caps!

^The best shot of all - an STONE AGE COMPUTER!

D.U.K.E. S1xE02: The Day of Difficult Heights

The day started before 2AM. Someone's alarm (well, it was found out to be an SMS) had to ring on 11.30PM the previous which woke ONLY me up, while rest my cabin mates slept away (there were four of us)!!! And it had to be 3-minute song!!! And if that's not enough, someone had a BASS symphony going on, and well, that's about the sleep I was to get...
2AM: We got off our bed, put on our winter clothing... (it can get as chilly as 4-degrees)... and started our walk to the peak. It was only 2.5KM, so how difficult could it be? The word impossible came only after 5 minutes of walking. It was UP, UP and UP all the way!

It was dark, and there was a lot of people. We had this headlight thingie up our forehead, and that's they only source of light we had. Well, far over the horizon, you can see other people's light, indicating how FAR more you have to go.

It was getting tougher and tougher. We reach this part where had to use the ropes, cuz on the other side, it was a LOOOONG WAY down. And can you believe it? The mountains was just strolling past our side like nothing, all while we're holding to the ropes for our dear lives. Below is the photo taken when the light came up...


4AM+: At some point in time, I was alone, separated from the rest. I was like walking ten steps and sitting down one minute. It was getting too difficult, why did I get myself into this? Well, there was one time, I sat, and just lied on my back. I was going to give up. I just lied there, looking up to the stars. I can tell you, in the midst of this suffering, God gave me one of the most breath-taking commercial break. It was about His great creation. The sky was so clear, and it was so dark all around, you can see so many stars up there!

5AM+: I am almost cursing myself at this point. Imagine you take 10 steps, and take a 1-minute break. Every 10 steps!!! That's what you get for not training at all! Almost really gave up if not for Phang arriving and motivating me on. It really makes a difference when you have a buddy to walk with...

6AM+: The sun has started to rise... Argghhh... I missed the peak sunrise. Sigh, guess my promise to "deliver" a sunrise has failed miserably. But well, at this time, looking around, these are the beautiful scene. Just another 500m more!!

7AM+: Finally! The top!!! The very top! The end of the suffering! The highest top in the Malaysia and I'm there! Wohoooo!!! Well, Wai Yee & gang was starting their descent as I reached, so, I'm pretty late actually. Anyway, the rest of the group is there! And it was half an hour of resting, photo-taking and celebration. The was that sparkling juice we brought up (which weight like a tonne in the midst of the execise).

^ The very last scramble to the pinnacle!

^ Yeap! This is the shot! The top shot!

^ Terry''s dad, who's fitter than me!

^ Reaching the top! Celebration in place!

^ Champagne time (well, it was actually sparkling juice)

^ Note the background - this is your RM1 background picture

^ More breath-taking scenaries from 4000m+ above ground

8AM+: The rest of the journey was much simpler than going up. We finally reach the bottom of the mountain (the very bottom) at about 3.30pm. All in all, we've walked 19KM+, for about 18hours!

So what have I learned from this? 1-Old scout motto: BE PREPARED, train before going for this kind of stuff. 2-Enjoy the journey, even though it might be tough.

D.U.K.E. S1xE01: The Day of Long Walks

Recently I took on a trip which totally not my kind of activity - hiking. And guess what, it's not any typical kind of hiking... I had to go and jump into the deep end of the ocean, well, in this case, I went to highest possible peak in South-East Asia. Yes, as some of you know already (since I've been ranting about it for the last three months), I went to climb Mount Kinabalu. Can you imagine that? Me? Climbing Mount KK??? It's almost equivalent to Chee Wai taking siu-yok!

Ya... Ya... I had my extra "motivation" to go in the first place, but when that motivation kinda vanished, well, I kinda went for the sake of going. Li'l did I know what was ahead of me...

To give you a brief intro, you need two days to climb this hunk of rock. The target is to reach Laban Rata about afternoon of DayOne, and then move on to climb to the peak early (really early) on DayTwo, and come back to the bottom by afternoon of DayTwo itself. Sounds easy? Well, it's just a 19km walk up and down. How hard can it be?

I meant look here, within one hour, I'm already seeing this scene here. I've almost puked by KM1.0! [Note: To Laban Rata from Mersilau is 8.0km+]

That's what you get for NOT TRAINING at least! (My excuse is that I've only done 1 x swimming,2 x jogging, 3 x football... in the span of three months!!!). It was an uphill (literally!!!) climb, and I was thanking God all the way that He gave me really long legs.

By the time we reached about 1.5km+, it was a much, much more easier downhill trend. Well, it was then I thought, "Hey, I should be able to do this!", after the pschological shock I had earlier. The whole group of us that went up comprise of 15 people. Our smaller group here, is termed as the "B" team. Why? Cuz we were the middle team. There is a super-fit "A" team of five who went waaaayyy ahead of us, and well, there's a slightly less-fit team who's trailing us... You the see uncle there? He's 55 and he's more fit than me!!! Talk about looking for a hole to hide...

Anyway, back to the story... Things got really tough after KM4. Yes, we kinda looked smilling here, but little did we know what was ahead.... The REAL uphill was just beginning. It didn't help that it starting raining... To summarise it, I've never felt so tortured and helpless (there's not turning back, no giving at this point) in my life before. At this point, I gave up taking photos of every 0.5KM... It was reaching Laban Rata the only ONE thing on my mind...

Ok.. By now you would have enough of the whining that I have... Well, you see this kid here? To him, it's like a walk in the park, just about the same as Chee Wai taking a Bukit Jalil jog.. And you know what? He's carrying like 10-15kg worth of our stuff!!! On the plus side, there are some nice scenes when I remember to BREATHE and look. It's no joking, these are the kind of rocks we have to climb up, which became a river when it rained heavily.

Oh, did u see that 5KM again? Nope, it's not a mistake, it's because we took another trail up. Effectively, this is 7KM. Only 1 more KM!!!! At this point, I've abandoned all thought of picking which rock not to step to avoid drenching my legs. I'm already WET!!! Just a bit more, I can really sit down already... Just a bit more, I can have a HOT cup of tea, and some DRY clothes... Just around the corner... FINALLY!!!

I'll never take a warm room for granted again. You know the feeling of drinking Coke when you were so THRISTY??? The satisfaction feeling 100x of that!!! TIME STAMP: 8KM in 7Hour45MINS.... We took a really long, long rest, before makan-ing dinner and hitting the sack at 8PM... [Side story: We BBQ-ed our shoes over the stove before we slept, cuz the dryer was broken and there's no way other ways to dry our shoes...]

You see this? That is a sneak of the next day's climb... To give you a feel - today's walk was a stroll in the park compared to what was to come...

[TO BE CONTINUED - EPISODE2: The Day of Difficult Heights]

D.U.K.E. Season 1 - Pilot

Time didn't just fly for me - it went through a blackhole and now it's MARCH 2009!!! Well, it's 2009, and instead spending time playing games, I thought, well, time to revamp my DEAD blog a bit. Searching, searching for ideas... Ha!! Since I love series soooo much, well, will try a new approach.

And hence the new title... D.U.K.E. - Do U Know Everything? (sounds corny, well, gotta think of something, and not to be confused with the local highway named after my nick). Not that I'm gonna blog that often, but gonna be doing so whenever something kinda "momentous" happens...

Come to think of it, life is sometimes like a long-running series... It has its build-ups across a season, and climax at the season finale, before coming down again in the next season. And so the cycle continues... Sometimes the season are short, they are sometime long... Well, how will my season be?

№17. My Christmas Gift

Lord,

Thank you for your awesome gift on Christmas day. As I scratch my head to think of what I can give back, I see that there nothing I have that's not already yours. And so, I offer my life again. As the new year approaches, I have not any resolutions, but just a prayer. A prayer to restart my life, to rebuild it to become a pleasing offering. Lord, I pray that:

• Character is changed in Christ's values
• Health is built and given more thoughts
• Relationships are mended, restored and renewed
  
• Strength is given for victories in my struggles
• The white dog will be fed more, and the black dog will starved to death
  

Let this be our project God, our project to change my life into that which you have originally intended. This is not just my new year resolution, for I know I cannot do it by myself. But with you as the project manager, Lord, I will learn to listen and obey.

In Jesus' Name, Amen

№16. Winning Feels Good & Some Self Reflection

Sometimes I wonder, what is my favourite past time? Most of people would say... PLAYING COMPUTER GAMES... And my answer is WRONG!!! That's the impression I give people anyway. It's just a misunderstanding because I must be busy as my brains cannot be idle from the moment it wakes up till it shuts down in exhaustion at nite... My actual past time is actually reading fiction books, especially those on fantasy (like Forgotten Realms, Harry Potter) and science fiction (like Stars Wars) and military/spy fiction (like Tom Clancy). I can stay more focused on a book than a PC game. Well, this kinda led me to another hobby which I indulge in time to time (but again, giving the impression that I always do it) - TREASURE HUNT!!

Started joining it about four years ago, with my first one being the Maxis Hunt 2004, where we went to Pangkor!!! Surprise, surprise, our team got Number3!! That was a good feeling. Well, the rest is kind of HISTORY, with two times a year in the Maxis Hunts, and the yearly TheSun Hunt. Well, this year was a special surprise as we joined theSun MotoHunt 2008. We manage to secure the first position due to a lucky guess on one of the questions (well, in my opinion, hunts are a combination of "luck", "brains" & "brawns"(you kinda run from time to time, or drive 120kph on LDP). It was an exhilarating feeling, beating over 200 other cars, and special thanks to my team mates - CP, Prasath and Raj. Oh, by the way, the prize was GOOD. The photo below shows it, and each of us got one.. :)

Yeap... It was that CROWDED!! 275 CARs!!!

The Dinner

Winning No.1 for the first time in the Open Category
Team Mates (from left): CP Tan, me, Prasath & Raj

Our SWEET booty

№15. Entertainment Overload

Ok, by now, all the series have started, that means a lot of hours of entertainment per week:

Heroes, Season 3: Sylar gains a human heart, while Peter becomes evil? Hiro killed Ando!!!
Gundam 00, Season 2: Setsuna is back and gonna change the world again...
CSI, Season 9: Warrick is dead, Sarah is back...
Smallville, Season 8: Lex Luthor is missing, and Clark now works in Daily Planet!
House, Season 5: House loses his close friend Wilson...
Chuck, Season 2: Chuck is still the Intersect...
Prison Break, Season 4: Scofield & gang now tries to take down The Company..
The Big Bang Theory, Season 2: Still as funny...
One Piece, Naruto, Bleach: Still on-going...

Would you look at that? That's more than 340 minutes (or 5 1/2 hours) of series per week!!! Almost 3.0 GB of HDD space/week!!! On top of that... Red Alert 3 and Fallout 3 is coming soon!!! Wohoo...!!!

№14. Wah loa yeh....

[5.59PM] Can't wait for 6PM. It's another one of those "cold" Mondays. Sigh, sometimes I just wonder why I even bother. Lookey, lookey... It's raining... Arghh... Another day of gloom.
[6.05PM] Got to my car finally. A bit soaking, sighing all the way. I'm quite sure I'm gonna end up dead one day sighing myself till I'm short of breath. Well, little did I know that a grand show was on it's making.

It was a sunny late evening, with light rain. Yes, the perfect combination for a RAINBOW fiesta. I manage to catch about 6 rainbows (well, some of them might the same one, but at different places). And as I enjoyed the show (I somehow took some shortcuts that happen to make my journey longer, but gave me more time), I can't help but recall what Josiah commented about my blog being dead until I see a rainbow. Well, I DID post three days earlier.

I was just overwhelmed as I drove back. One after another. These are the things that remind me how BIG He is. How MAJESTIC. How GLORIOUS. It reminded me that my problems now, even though how GIGANTIC is it to me now, how DAUNTING it is, how IMPOSSIBLE it is now to overcome, well, it's just so small compared to HIM. And I can't believe He took the trouble to display so many rainbows to prove His point...

p/s I know... It's very dangerous driving and taking photos at the same time, so don't try it!!

№13. Six Months Later...

Have you ever seen the way the water in the pool? How still it is when there's no one swimming? Not a ripple. I guess that's how I would picture my life these days. Quiet. Still. Not moving. Well, occasionally someone does jump in, makes a few splashes, but that's about it. How I wish it's more like the ocean. The waves, that brings the ups and downs.

Six months since the rainbows. Wow, I know it's such a cliche, but time does fly. Have I found the light at the end of the tunnel? The crossroad to this never-ending road? The end of the merry-g0-round? I guess not. Not that I'm depressed, well, far from it. I'm still smiling, well, most of time in irony or cynically, but guess there's still a lot thoughts behind every smile.

What's the solution? What's the meaning in all these? Where does it all lead to? Oh how I wish I know, how much have I thought over the last four years, or in the larger picture, the last 13 years? What's the road that God has set for me? Am I walking it? Or have I wandered far from it?

№12. Another Rainbow

7AM. Groggy. Woke up to Pastor Lui's place to take the van for today's event. Looked up. Wow... Another one... Hm....

№11. Two Weeks of Loneliness & Rainbows

Ah... taking a break after training, here am I writing again... Was in Penang the whole week last week, and ended up in KK this week to conduct training... Well, sad to say, it kinda felt a bit lonely at times, especially end of the day when you're tired and back to the hotel room.

Talking about hotel rooms, my rooms are pretty special... In Penang, my room's entrance light will randomly switch on at night. Meanwhile, in KK, my room's power supply wouldn't cut off even if I took the card out. Talk about spooky...

Anyway, over the last one month I had a fair share of rainbows, the first group being a "double rainbow" in Blue Mountain, Australia, and the second one is two rainbows in a row while driving up to Penang. Hm... In the Bible, after the great flood, the rainbow signifies God's convenant to His people. I've seen so many rainbows in my life, sometimes in the football field, sometimes when driving home (saw about 5 in a row while on the way to Sunway to work on a rainy morning), in the office in Sentral... Sigh, looks like I've really got some "seeking" to do know what is God trying to remind me...

[small rainbow on the way to Penang]

[double rainbow in Blue Mountain]

[rainbow seen on 12th floor in Plaza Sentral]

Sydney - Part 2: The Rocks

Oh dear... It's been such a long time since the last post... My bad... Haha... Been travelling here and there for work purposes... Penang, and now in Kota Kinabalu... Well, gonna hope to post more, but with the slow upload speed (sad as I am as a telco engineer), doubt will be posting so fast...

Once we got of George St., we decided to go for a tour! Ya, a tour! It was a walk tour, costed us AU$25... Well, it was quite OK for me, since we manage to get a bit of Sydney's history...

The Rocks
This is supposedly where it all started. In summary, the Brits wanted to put their prisoners some where (apparently they were having a shortage of prisons), and the American was getting their independence, so, they were looking for a new place to "relocate" their felons... And to cut the story short, they found Sydney, and hence it became a place for the prisoners to be "shipped" to. The Rocks is basically the place where to prisoners community (yes, they had their own community) was, while the officials, wardens & colonists stayed on the other side of town. Kinda hard to imagine, a prison town....

[a wall drawing showing the history of Sydney]


[Right pix: The prisoners stay on the right side of the street, hence the older buildings while modern ones are on the left]


[Top left: A wharf converted to business building; Other pix: Sculpture depicting the three main group of Sydney's early residents - the colonists, the warden and the prisoner]

We also stopped by this old military church.. Which kinda nice looking stained glass and pews...

[Right pix: Each pew has a number engraved to it]


[Right pix: "I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD" - JESUS]

[to be continued...]

Sydney - Part I: YHA Central & Walking George St

Wow... It's been a loooong time since I've last written a blog. Guess nothing much been happening till I finally booked a ticket a went to Down Under with my friend, Lucas! After one whole year of deliberating... Hahah....

Well, over the next few days, hope I'm able to share my experience down there. Basically, I went to Sydney for about 6 days and hopped on to Melbourne for 4 days...

The MAS flight was ok, except that it was a night flight! Which usually means they give you your meals at 12am and then wake you up at 4am for breakfast. Can't really complain because that's actually the best way to go as you can go out exploring upon arrival in the morning. Manage to catch Enchanted on the flight movie before dozing off. Upon arrival, it's the boring CHECK OUT-GET LUGGAGE-GO THRU CUSTOMS-YES, I'M ASIAN routine, before finally - I'm breathing Aussie air! Then it was straight a cab to....

YHA Central
Located near to George Street (seems to be the MAIN street across Sydney town) and fairly near to Chinatown, I would say this is a good place for AU$40+ as a backpacker's accomodation. Best is the bathroom! Has to be one of the best baths I have ever seen in this kind of lodging.



After finally getting to check in, we headed out towards the Rocks by walk along...

George St
Quite a few sights to see even along this road, namely the Queen Victoria Building (otherwise known as QVB) and a string of shopping complexes. There's quite a fair mix of old & new architecture. Also, I'm quite surprised there are a lot of Asians in Sydney (well, my perception was that only Melbourne was like that). Well, we could have simply blended except the fact I was acting so "touristy" taking my camera and snapping photo every where (I don't own an SLR, probably never will and hence the so-so photos)



[to be continued...]

№10. Melaka Food Marathon

Melaka Trip

°Chicken Ball Rice °Chendol °Stadhuys
°Dataran Pahlawan °Mahkota Parade °CJ7
°A Famosa °St Paul Church °Satay Celup
°Fish Ball Noodle °Jonker St °Aussie Shiraz
°Hassan Mee Goreng

№9. A Me, Myself & I Chatroom

[from left: meRational, meEmo, meMeany]

Lately, while browsing through the WeirdWorrysomeWeb called my brain, I stumbled upon this private chatroom happening in a very remote part of my cranium...

meRational: Ok, let's look at the situation now...
meEmo: Aizz... No point... Can't decide.....
meMeany: Oh... Like what you think really count
meRational: You can't say like that!!! He's really confused!!
meEmo: Yeah... I'm just a small... insignificant...
meMeany: 10 points!!! Ding! Ding! Ding! You're right on th-...
meRational: Oi!!!! Cut him some slack!!! One more and you're spending time in the veins. You know this guy's cholesterol level... It's getting pretty cramp in those vessels....
meMeany: Whatever, "boss"...
meEmo: So cramped... aiz... cholesterol level... aiz.. no more half boiled eggs... crabs... quill eggs...
meRational: Ok, you too! Pull yourself together! We need your emotional input here since the other guy here seems to lack of a heart!
meMeany: Oh... you talking about me? I'm taking that as a compliment. Want mine? I think you're an idiot who thinks too much... Hahahaha....
meRational: What?!? Think too much??? Why you're just a sarcastic "smart" mouth, who doesn't seem to "think" before you speak, who-
meMeany: See? Only someone who thinks too much can come up with so much pointers... Hehehe...So, you really wanna continue to banter and lose pathetically, or look at matter at hand?

meRational: Grr... Anyway, back to the main topic. What do you think about the current situation? Go? Or no go?
meEmo: Aiz... dunno la... one is still easy way la... the other... I'm scared la...
meMeany: Aww, come on! We can't afford to have time to be scared! I mean, it's an opportunity of a lifetime! You think this will drop from the sky again??
meEmo: I know la.... But do you feel we can do it? I feel we've been pretty good at the technical side so far...
meRational: I think I concur on that point. We've been going on a smooth highway so far on this road. The other road, well, I think it's a bit BIG...
meMeany: Wei, life is no freebies. Of course it's BIG! Comes with a BIG OPPORTUNITY spelled with a CAPITAL "O"!!!
meRational: Er.. Yeah... But you think you can handle those BIG GUNS up there with just your smart mouth?
meMeany: Why not?? We've got "Mister Feel" here whose instinct's is usually much better than your well-thought actions, and being "Mister Think" yourself, well, you do help when the emotions clouds the judgements. As for me, I don't think you need me to state my obvious importance...

meEmo: Well, it does feel right... I mean, we decided to go already last year, didn't we?
meRational: Yeah, yeah... Just that, I was thinking we have lost that chance and gonna stay on this road...
meMeany: Well, guess they opened the highway again. So are we gonna take it? Or continue to follow that steady small road we're already on?
meEmo: I dunno la... The highway looks.... daunting...
meMeany: Sigh... We're getting nowhere... Should have chosen accounting or finance...
meRational: Ok, ok... Think we've gotta go for yamcha di... We'll continue this later...
meMeany: Oh! Oh! That bunch of guys? This is gonna be fun... Make sure we get coffee... Muahaha....
meEmo: Let's go.... By the way, you feeling ok? I thought you just gave me a compliment earlier...
meMeany: Treasure it. That's the only one you're getting tonight.

TO BE CONTINUED...

№8. Simple Pleasures

What's the best thing in life? Maybe getting a really cool handphone or perhaps that 42-inch HD-TV? Or maybe it's about having great meals in some of the finest restaurants in town? Perhaps its getting to travel around the world? How about getting millions of cash to spend on all the above? Here's my version of a two-minute of simple pleasure, which came totally free...

"Another day gone. As I was dropped off, thoughts of tomorrow come to mind as it is going to be another important day. The night was cool. I got onto my 3-year old Waja, and started the engine. Well, it was a short drive as I've only parked a few metres away from my home.

Sigh, what am I going to do?

I thought as I opened my front gate and moved my car into the porch.

Where am I heading? What do I really want?

The thoughts continued to run around my head. A light breeze blew through. I did something I did not do in a long time. I looked up.

Wow. The stars are out tonight to play.

My troubles seems to have faded away. As I gaze upon the skies, and looking at those celestial twinkles, I realized how much have I missed some of these things:

To marvel on the how the stars paint the night;
To stare upon the different pastels of orange and red the sunset brings;
To admire the colourful rainbow making a masterpiece on the cloudy canvas;
To close my eyes and enjoy the symphony of the ocean waves.

Those are my simple pleasures."

№7. Nostalgia

After four days of holiday-ing, staying home and getting my hand numb from playing games (I need to get a life, I know....), a sudden nostalgic feeling comes over... Recollection of close friends who came and went throughout the years...

Lucas Lai
My very 1st buddy (goes way back to Standard1).
Craziest Moment: As kids, we broke the glass pane while we were playing hockey inside my house and really panicked like mad....

[pix: Aussie, Twelve Apostles 2003]

HLLC Heng Dais - The Ori Version
All the way back when I started joining the HLLC
Craziest Moment: Getting dropped off while the driver sped off when my granny came out to the main gate cuz I came back past 12; Sabo times...

[pix: PD, Golden Sands 2001]

Summer Street Gang
The house we hang out at during Sheffield days
Craziest Moment: Beer, beer and beer!!! Finally getting to sleep at sun rise after killing Diablo...

[pix: UK, Sheffield 2001]

Singapore Cell Group
Really took care of me a lot while I was in S'pore
Craziest Moment: Going to some old community flats to do a door-to-door personal invitation to FCBC's evangelistic rally. Well, there was that watermelon birthday "cake" too...

[pix: Singapore, Chinatown 2003]

Heng Dais Version 2.0
Leftovers from the Ori Hengdais
Craziest Moment: Driving up to Penang @ 2am in the morning and going up to Bukit Bendera to see sunrise upon arrival...

[pix: Penang, Fort Cornwalis 2005]

The Youth
Yamcha + tai ti, no need explaination
Craziest Moment: Having a no-sleep marathon in Genting after getting soaked in rain. I konk-ed out at 5am. I'm getting old...

[pix: KL, Jogoya 2007]

№6. Flowers of the Sky

[photos are courtesy of Amy & Andrea's camera]

[The Curve, Damansara, Dec '07, 22:20] Arrival at The Curve after a hearty Korean BBQ meal at Kota Damansara.
[Dec '07, 22:45] We're still wandering around aimlessly. Every nook and cranny is filled with people!
[Dec '07, 23:10] Finally settled down in an underground cafe in Cineleisure which we suspect that is usually empty. Gosh, the people must be making tonnes of money during these celebrations.
[Dec '07 23:30] Made a move to the outside throng. Amidst the huge mass of people, we manage to finanlly find a safe and quite cooling spot (far from the white sprays).
[Dec '07 23:50] Loud cheers were heard as the fireworks began earlier in 1Utama. We continue to steadily wait.
[Jan '08 00:00] Let the pictures speak for themselves...

[Jan '08, 02:00] At this point in time, we were still stuck in the car park. I'm planning to stay home this year... ^.^

[our 2008 Countdown Gang]

№5. My 9-to-9 Today

BlackOut[equals no work]

Bizarre power trip happened on our level,

resulting in self-declared engineer's day off from 10am-3pm

and 2-hour lunch @ Damansara Perdana & taiti session in the breakout area...

HairCut[kinda short]
Cut & Trim, RM35
Clay, RM42

GoodByes[all the best to those leaving RNE]
James Chong, we'll miss your great brains + cynical mind + kind heart
Haan Chiang, we'll miss your good nature + sly smile + "open" shirt
Sally Yap, we'll miss your craziness + laughter + "lobster" look

№4. A Day of Badminton, ½ Boiled Eggs & Potatoes

@ Yut Kee
Act I
CW: I want your potatoes [pointing at Hammies' hollandshú]
Yosiah: [looks incredulously at CW]
CW: Wat?? I want the potatoes, not tofu la...
AhSun: [immediately gives CW the ear of pain]
Yerish: He's so innocent la....

Act II
Hammie: Where's my eggs??
Yosiah, AC & Yerish: [laughs]
Ah Sun: [give Yosiah the stare of death]
CW: [looks blankly as he didn't get it]

Act III
Hammie: [½ boiled eggs arrives and starts breaking them]
Yosiah: [start poking at the egg yolks]
Hammie: You burst my eggs!
Yerish: [laughs]

Prologue:
After service...
AhSun: What time you guys going badminton today?
CW: About 2pm. Why?
AhSun: I might join u all...
CW & Yerish: Huh?? [with looks of disbelief]

Epilogue:
I did end up playing badminton today... Still as lousy... ^.^

№3. Another Sunrise

How much can person change the history of the world? What to comes to mind are famous people like Abraham Lincoln, Billy Graham, Adolf Hitler (well, infamous) and etc... For better or worse, these people has made their mark in history of mankind.

What about me? How famous will I be? Of course, being a shy person, I'm very sure I'm known by little amount of people (well, the amount of people I have on my Facebook or Friendster testifies this well).

But what will my legacy be? How will my own history book be written as? Ha, being at 27, I guess it's kinda funny to think of this, but seriously, if I were to not live past 30, how will my short life has counted as? Or if I were to live past 100, how would the span of hundreds years be written?

I guess what gets me thinking is not how will my book will read by others. It's not what people would say at my funeral. It's not what's written on my tombstone.

What really scares me, is when I stand before God Almighty and when He reads my own life's story back to me, will I be confident enough that at the end of the tale, He will say "Good and faithful servant"? Is what I'm doing, day in day out, be it at work, at church, at home, at the youth, amongst friends the right thing? What worries me more, is not what wrong things I'm doing, but rather what right things I'm not doing.

I often question myself, is my decision right? Did I say the correct thing? Did I forget to do something? How many moments of opportunity have I missed? How many times have I given in to my own selfishness instead of selflessness?

At the beginning of each day, I count myself blessed as there's another sunrise for me. It's God's given opportunity for me add another page to my life's story. I will pray that I'll live each day right so that at the every sunset I see, I am confident that I've added another meaningful chapter to that book of mine.

№2. Broken Phone

Sighz... Really done it this time... Broke my Nokia6500c!!!
But looky... Artsy background...
*back to reality*
Arghhh..!!! Guess it will be "back to the factory" and using my humongous Dopod...

№1. What To Drink

As I reflect upon 2007, one thing comes to mind - choices I made. Somehow, I feel the similarity of making major life choices somewhat akin to ordering a drink @ a bar:

♠ Whether you've made right or wrong choice, you would only know when you taste it...
♠ Another person's favourite choice of drink might not be yours - you have discover out your own...
♠ Well, you can stick to the "usual" ones, but you will never know what the "specials" are...
♠ Sometimes, the drink that you really want might not be available...
♠ If you've chose the wrong drink, you can always get another one - but you still will have to pay the price for the wrong one
♠ Not only you would have pay the price for the wrong one, sometimes, you really have take it all it before moving on...
♠ You will know when you've got the right drink for yourself...

Well, looking at the above, guess my 2007 in a nutshell would be - the drink that I really wanted never made it to my hand, and since then, never really knew what drink do I want. Guess will keep on looking that "special" drink... Cheers to 2008!!!