VERY MERRY MERDEKA DAY!

It’s National Day..!! …Tomorrow, that is.

But unlike millions of Malaysians back home who will undoubtedly be on holidays from work, school, college etc and celebrating this occasion in their own little way, I’ll be attending uni…

DAMN IT!

Sigh, I have a story to tell. It’s called the Tale of the Prodigal Citizen.

Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in a country where the amount of public holidays was as abundant as leaves on a tree. She grew up loving these holidays, because it always meant that there’ll be something good on tv…cartoons, showcases, movies that she’d missed, WONG FEI HONG…from morning through to afternoon to the night and most importantly…NO SCHOOL!! Free from education, even for a day, was god-sent.

There were SO many of aforementioned public holidays that she lost count (or, in some cases, forgot what holiday it was) … but there were several notable ones. Like Chinese New Year or Hari Raya, for example…because it always involved money, fireworks and new clothes…and any holidays that has influences of cash and explosion were considered a good holiday to her.

Another holiday that she remembered most was Hari Merdeka aka National Day. When she was small, she’d wake up extra early on those days, run downstairs and out into the garden and watch the fighter planes fly in formation overhead with colourful Jalur-Gemilang-coordinated plumes streaming behind. She’ll then stare and gape and gape and stare until her father HERDED her into the house… where she will immediately plonk herself in front of the tv and watch the Merdeka Day Parade…whilst eating coco pops or froot loops or something…

This routine happened every year… up until she hit 12 years of age…

Every National Day from then on would go something along the lines of this…

Dad: GIRL! Wake up!! You don’t want to go outside and see the planes ar??
Girl: *grunts* (goes back to sleep)

…5 minutes later…

Dad: GIRL! Wake up!! Can hear anot?? The planes are flying above our house lar…!
Girl: Aiyah…duwan la…I want to sleep la… plane oni ma…

…1 hour later, girl emerges from room…

Mom: Eh girl! You didn’t see the planes today hor? Wah…their formation very nice!
Girl: Aiyah…every year oso the same la…

Switches on the tv…

Girl: EH! Why nothing good on tv wan???
Mom: HAR? Nothing good?? Watch the parade la!!
Girl: Aiyah…every year oso watch the same thing…sien edi la…


Yes…this routine went on and on every year…until one day, she found herself in some foreign land…it was National Day, she knew it was…31 August… what else could it have been? But there was one problem..

NO HOLIDAY!!!

ARGH!!! At that precise moment, when she came to terms that for this year, and the next 2 years, she will NOT have any holidays on 31 August, she will NOT hear the jetplanes flying overhead, she will NOT see the police, the army, the nurses etc march in sync in front of crowds of thousands and salute to their Sultan, she will NOT be able to watch Wong Fei Hong on tv anymore…

She also realized that she’d been an ingrate. UNGRATEFUL!! NOW YOU WILL SUFFER THE PANGS OF SEEING OTHER PEOPLE ON HOLIDAY!! BURN IN HELL!!!

Sigh…harshness of reality.

Therefore she is determined that if she ever gets to be back home during Merdeka Day, she will buy a mini flag, stand outside Dataran Merdeka and start waving and shouting once the parade starts. She knew that she took her public holidays for granted…well, NEVER AGAIN!

………

Sigh, now wasn’t that a nice story??

Hmm…just wondering…should I have a self-declared public holiday as well for tomorrow? I mean…all I have is 3 lectures and a maths tutorial…it’s not THAT bad…

Hmmm…should I? Should I not?

Good side of mel: NONO!!
Bad side of mel: aiyah…no point attending la…just go and sleep la…
Good: NONO!
Bad: Go la…
Good: NONO!
Bad: EH! Can you shardap anot???
Good: YOU SHARDAP LA!

Scuffle breaks out

AAAAaaahhh...

And a Very Merry Merdeka to you too!

I Came, I Saw, iPod.

A start to a beautiful day...


My room still has the best view, i reckon...

This is what i wake up to every morning..the 5.40 am sunrise.

it turned ugly at around 10.30 am though...i got a 2/5 score for my bio quiz. WTF??? how did that happen? damn...need to work harder.

anyways, i came back home, opened the newspaper and guess what i found??

Ta-daa!!


Wah Lau!! MEGA SALE!! *hyperventilating*

WAH LAU EH!! can you imagine??..the first bit of news i see published in the Sydney Morning Herald is an advertisement telling good Sydney-siders about the Megasale in Malaysia. talk about shopping being mass appeal. sigh...i miss the megasale.

oh yes...and i bought myself yet another Jack Johnson album at AUD10..isn't that amazing?? i can't imagine how the cd shops like HMV and Virgin can survive with such 10 dollar cd shops operating in the city. and no, it's not pirated..cos it can be played on my uncle's DVD player, which is ultra-sensitive and can detect and pirated cd miles away. i'm so happy..!!and i finally managed to actually read the lyrics to the song Taylor. all this while i thought it was a happy song..but after reading the lyrics, i realised that it's actually quite sad. the best part of Jack Johnson is his lyrics...they are just too beautiful and HAS meaning..unlike some other songs that i know of...

Taylor

Taylor was a good girl
never one to be late
complain express ideas in her brain
Workin on the night shift
passin out the tickets
you're gonna have to pay her
if you want to park here.
Well mommy's little dancer's
quite a little secret
workin on the streets now
never gonna keep it.
It's quite an imposition
And now she's only wishin'
That she would have listened
To the words they said.
Poor Taylor.
Well she just wonders around
uneffected by
the winter winds, yeah
and she'll pretend that
well she's somewhere else
so far and clear
about 2,000 miles from here.
Peter Patrick pitter patters on the window
And Sunny's silhouette won't let him in
and poor old Pete's got nothin 'cause he's been fallin'
but somehow Sunny knows just where he's been
He thinks that singin' on a Sunday's gunna save his soul
but now that Saturday's gone
Well somehow he thinks that he's on his way
but I can see, that his break lights are on.
And he just wonders around
uneffected by
the winter winds, yeah
and he'll pretend that
well he's somewhere else
so far and clear
about 2,000 miles from here.
She's such a tough enchilada
filled up with nada
givin' what she got to give to get dollar bills
she used to be a limber chick
time's a been tickin'
now she's finger lickin to the man
with the money in his pockets
flyin in his rocket
only stoppin by on his way to a better world
if Taylor finds a better world
Taylor's gunna run away.
it's actually really sad..now that i read it again..about this girl who has to work the streets to earn a living...

ah well...have you noticed how everyone these days seem to own an iPod? be it an iPod, or an iPod mini, or an iShuffle... i don't know about Malaysia, but almost everyone in Sydney owns an iPod..maybe even 2. i've seen school kids who look barely 15 carrying one..i've seen almost everyone in uni have one plugged into their pockets.. i've even seen OLD PEOPLE using iPods.. is it just a coincidence or am i really that outdated??

is it the new chic thing to be seen with? before this, it was the teeny tiny dogs that you can fit into handbags..is the iPod the new best thing now? i say...it's becoming ridiculous..

"oh yea..like..i can fit in ALL my 100 cds into my iPod...and, like, i can even fit in all my digital pictures too...like, how KEWL is that?? .. like, i soooo need 10000 songs right now.."

this is the second time i'm actually blogging about a bloody iPod...it must mean something..

A birthday party!

I am exhausted.

There..i've said it, so forgive me if at some points in this post i become incoherent...my brain just isn't functioning as it should be tonight.

Okie-dokie...let's see... today was Joshua's official birthday party..lucky devil, he has had 3 cakes so far for his brithday and i'm pretty definitely sure that now he thinks birthdays last for a week...

and as always, a party at the Chiew family house means over-eating, over-indulgence and sheer gluttony...and my day began really well in accordance with this theme...for breakfast i had pancakes with ice-cream and maple syrup...and then snacked on some prawn crackers made by my aunt... Yummie...then it was the barbeque...a whole smorgasbord of food was prepared...there was noodles, fried rice, frankfurters, squids, prawns, mushrooms, more noodles, salads, satay (!!), chicken etc... it was amazing...!! and as usual, there's still heaps of left-overs.

the day went pretty well, i must say...yours truly was Chief Decorator-in-Operation and at the rick of sounding smug and self-praising...i did a GREAT job with the decor..hahahaha..nothing too fanciful...just streamers and balloons...hahahaha..but coming from me, that's an amazing feat in itself.



anyways, the day wore on and joshua became hyper..and he's still hyper. i'm now in my room, half-dead from exhaustion and he's still downstairs playing with his toys. and during the party, he was going mad with Milton and Melvin and in short, everyone. the irony of it is that he got heaps of presents and toys...there was this Roboraptor toy, which is a dinosaur that responds to sound and touch which costs over AUD100, and i'm pretty sure all his other presents were quite expensive. but after playing with them for a few minutes he would forget about it. and he's contented with punching pillows with melvin...*sigh*...

Roboraptor: $150
Micellanous toys: $200
Helium Balloons: $40
Kung-fu pillow stunts: Priceless.


ah well..that's life for a 5-year-old.


The birthday cake, the excited boy...


And he huffs and he puffs and he blows the candles out...


See his sword? courtesy of Melvin..complete with a king-ly suit.

ooh! there's some really classic pictures i desperately NEED to post up!! June (my cousin) was carrying Benjamin and holding a beer bottle in one hand...and ben actually started reaching out for it and began sucking on the bottle!! how amazing is that???


Target spotted: Eh, what's that ar??


Zooming in on the kill...target locked down.


Aaaahhh....sheer ecstasy...


Hahn Premium Light: The Big Beer for Small Babies...
Whatcha lookin' at?

anyways..like i said..i'm dead-tired..i'm going to sleep now...