Ho hoHo...it's not a pun.

After spending at least 10 minutes pondering on how to start this post about Christmas, i have finally given up. to hell with back-spacing..i'm just gonna write what i think about Christmas 2005.

Christmas 2005

A subdued affair. no longer is it the christmas i knew when i was kid. back then, the tree would be covered with so many presents that you can't even see the trunk of it...presents overflowing..and the tree seemed really big and grand and glitzy...and the angel looked..well..hmm.. angelic. everywhere was tinsel and sparkles and when it came to night-time there were always people's houses to go to...to eat, to talk and be merry.

this year...xmas was..well..quiet.

no more glitz, no more glamour...even the amount of presents under the tree seemed to have shrunk...i think that comes with age. damn. i wish i was young again. and xmas didn't seem as festive anymore...i can't seem to place my finger on it.

all the same..the tree is still up..i'm staring at it right this moment. my banisters are wreathed with with green plastic wreaths bought at Ikea...there's christmas balls hanging down my lights..there's even still some presents left under the tree; unopened; for unexpected visitors. so come, if you want a box of gift-wrapped chocolate.

there's just something wrong. i can't place my finger. what happened to xmas?


oh yes...

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO!!

I've got the OB Spirit all over me

Before I start, I’d like to tell you that the first thing I did yesterday upon reaching home was to jump in front of my laptop, flip on the internet and check my blog, my friendster and email account. Oh the shame of it. What happened to 14 days of being virtually confined away from technology?

Outward Bound Malaysia, Lumut 2005.

The place remains the same but the experiences differ everytime. To say that you’ve been to OB for so many times that you know what to expect is just plain bull-shitting. For all the times that I’ve been there, I’ve always been surprised by new turn of events.

This year, drama was turned right up full. Drama drama drama.

11 Dec 2005

OB loses CAs to bees.
Whilst coming down from our rock climbing site, Karen and Sookie were Mysteriously Stung by things that were assumed to be Baby Hornets. In the ensuing uproar punctured by “OUCH OW!!” and “Run Karen RUN!!” and “KEEP MOVING!!” and me looking around wildly at the invisible attackers…we all managed to run down out of the jungle and to safety.

OB loses CAs to snake and monitor lizard.
During Adam’s Bluff orientation, our motley crew of CAs stumbled upon a black snake upon entering into the jungle. After much ooh-aah-ing at the snake and more sliding down muddy slopes, we were startled by (according to reliable sources) a huge big-ass monitor lizard which promptly fled. Please be informed that although we were lost at at least 2 checkpoints we managed to make it out safely and in front of the 2nd team. GO EXPERIENCED CAs!!

OB loses CAs to wild boar.
This happened to the 2nd team of CAs that entered Adam’s Bluff. Apparently they heard a grunting and rustling sound that came from god-knows-where and ran away. No one got hurt.

13-22 Dec 2005

OB loses Participants, Instructors and CAs to Conjunctivitis.
Everyday brought new surprises and the top question playing in everyone’s head was “Did he/she get Eyes?” Yes. Sore eyes, red eyes, eyes filled with sticky gunky eye shit was all the rage in Outward Bound. There were enough participants getting sore eyes to fill up the treatment room and also two new blocks of dorms. Yes. They were the Red-Eyed Peas and they had to be quarantined. The only CAs left standing, obviously with the best hygiene *sniggers* were Sookie, TPL, Tim and I.


16-17 Dec 2005

OB loses Participants to Tsunami.
From the start till the end, the expedition to Pangkor was a mini-disaster. Bad weather and strong winds claimed most of the participants’ tents and helped cause a mass-capsize of kayaks in the sea. Highly interesting.

More on bad weather…the other groups of CAs had to trek in rain and rescue participants who were unfortunately also having their solo-camp, at 1 a.m..

18-19 Dec 2005

OB loses participants to Things-That-Goes-Bump-In-The-Night.
Solo camping commenced and there were reports about participants hearing foot-steps in the middle of the night when we didn’t do any night checks. There were also claims of glowing spinning orbs amongst the trees, according to reliable sources.

Supernatural-ity aside, an 80+kg participant slipped and fell and pulled his muscle real bad and had to be carried all the way down from his camp-site which was ironically the last and right on top of the camp-site. He had Eyes too.

21 Dec 2005

OB loses monkey to unknown causes.
Upon returning from their land expedition, participants living in Korbu dorm found a dead monkey inside the first toilet stall apparently dead from a big gash in the middle of its back. The whole dorm was in an uproar and it was concluded that there was some big-ass monkey battle in the dorm before the unfortunate one was killed.

Lucky me. I had to clean up the monkey.

This concludes the mishaps that went on during OB. There were still many other sightings of snakes, which was truly weird because all the other times that I’ve been in OB, the animals have been rather placid and shy but this year they seemed to have come out in full force.

All in all, this year was A-to-the-W-E-some. Cranky animals aside…great fun was to be had. Pictures will be up asap cos me being old-fashioned *ahem* I used an analog camera instead of digicams. Thanks to OJ…I stole your photos. I can’t wait to steal photos from Karen *sniggers again*…and Sookie’s too.

In the boathouse

The mighty boathouse

The kayaks sleep tonight

In the boathouse

The mighty boathouse

The kayaks sleep tonight

Single kayak Double kayak

Single kayak Double kayak

Single kayak Double kayak

Single kayak Double kayak

We have cruder songs...which will not be published here. ask me when you see me and i'll sing for you. Gladly.

Sayonara till Xmas Eve's Eve.

For the next 2 weeks, the illustrious, multi-talented, prolific, highly-intelligent, remarkable, poet-laureate author of this incredibly entertaining, witty, wonderful, insightful and enthralling blog will be away at Outward Bound School Lumut…there to pour her heart, soul and blood to serve her country and all the young Malaysians who are fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to attend this highly renowned establishment.

Yes, readers. For 14 days and nights, she shall be braving blood-sucking leeches, impossibly mountainous jungle paths, wild ferocious monkeys, abysmal deep waters, the stagnant waters of the mining pool and the thousands upon millions of armies of mosquitoes.

Yes. She will do it all coupled with a smile upon her face because she believes in her heart of hearts that

Who will join us now at Outward Bound?
Who will join us now to serve our land?
Work to be more worthy, sons of her,
Come now let us all unite,
Serve and Strive in this noble fight.

Spirit of Love, Toil and Sacrifice,
Spirit of Love, Toil and Sacrifice,
Spirit of Love…Spiriiit of Lurrrve,
Come to us now and bless us.

Yes. She will do all this gladly from the bottom of her heart because somewhere along the lines, her soul was touched by the angels that resided within that magnificent school. Either that, or there’s some serious brain-washing shit going on in.

But no matter. Her time has come. The bus leaves at 10.45am on a Saturday morning and there she shall stay till she returns all brown-skinned, blue-blacked, mosquitoe-bite-pocked, frizzy-haired and most importantly, Skinny.

Yes, dear readers. It is time for us to say our good-byes. May we meet again two weeks down the road.

..To the land beyond the dusky skies..

11.34 pm musings.

Jumping out behind wooden doors and scaring the daylights out of them.

Hearing them yell...for a second, it was like angelic music to my ears.

Eating otak-otak and apam from the pasar malam.

Recounting our heroic 'drinking' tales and how shots are still the best things in the world.

Talking about boys and protection in front of a parent.

Watching as the parent tries her hardest not to laugh.

Seeing her laugh in the end.

Discussing about the perils of hiring Indonesian maids...especially those that mix with Indian men from the temples.

Skimming through pictures taken in Malacca.

Explaining each and every photo and laughing to ourselves.

Persuading her that sleeping at 12 and waking at 6.30 ain't so bad after all.

Sending them out of the door.

Last minute confirmation of whether the GOTCHA plan was gonna be carried out...someone has to call Hitz.

All this: Priceless.

6th Place, Baby!!

okok...i guess that's good...but it could've been better. considering we are...BUT let's not dwell on the past and be content with what we have at present.

wait...you don't know what i'm talking about, do you? it's the treasure hunt organized by Saint Francis Xavier's church for the Triple Jubilee of the Jesuit Order...(or something like that)... so the hunt was basically a church thing...and we got 6th place in the end...not too bad...not too bad at all..the hunt started from the church in PJ and ended up in Malacca...

Malacca..i haven't been there for ages...and i must say i loved every second of it. it's oh-so-beautiful...just the culture and tradition AND the smell of joss-sticks and incence is enough to knock your socks over...

and celebrating mass at the old church ruins on St Paul's Hill...you know, the old old building right on top that has a statue of St Francis Xavier outside?? yes, there. we celebrated mass there..singing hymns....looking up at the bright clear blue sky..(as there was no roof)...it somehow felt really surreal...like...SURREAL. i'd love to do it again sometime...

anywho...here are some pics...i don't have any taken in the church...cos it would've seemed improper and somehow sacrilegious to do so...but it was beautiful...so beautiful that a picture didn't seem necessary...



In the midst of the hunt...everyone's busy looking for answers and lo and behold... ELAINE!!


Inside the church of St Paul's Hill...this tombstone belongs to a certain Pieter Pietersen who died on May 27 1644...




Mom, Elaine, me and dad..we DO look like a family, don't we?


Double Take: Jazz duo...i'm completely in love with the guitarist...to quote Father Aloysius.."if the guitar was a human body, it'd have fainted with pleasure"...









oh...and i've just gotta tell you...there's this huge lizard living in my house...ARGH!! make that, an IGUANA. it's seriously that huge...

Breakers

Pretty much sucked.. There was just something wrong with the whole atmosphere...too much smoke; everything seemed enveloped in its own toxic mist...too many old uncles; seriously, about 80% of the patrons were wearing formal work clothes and all of them looked like lewd 30+ year-olds...too expensive; two glasses of what i presume is Carlsberg came to RM31.00, freakin daylight-robbery!

other than that...the night went off just purrfect...except maybe for the time when we were lost somewhere in Sri Bukit Damansara (or something like that) looking for Elaine's Friend's house.. but all's good. we managed to find it after what was like, 30+ minutes...highly interesting.

in a nutshell, the night consisted of:

1. Arriving in style to wherever in Elaine's Nissan X-Trail...taken from her garage minus parental knowledge/permission.

2. Arguing over what to have for dinner...A&W overruled Ipoh Chicken Rice..to the driver's dismay.

3. Screaming CAR everytime one approached...just so that Elaine would become gelabah...It's a near brand-new X-Trail taken without her dad knowing, after all...

4. Searching for Annie's house and debating in the X-Trail whether there could be two houses with the number 30 in the same area.

5. Asking the multitudes of security guards in Sri Bukit Damansara about a million times where #30 Jalan SD 7/1D was.

6. Getting Elaine pissed off whilst she stressed over the Case of The Missing House.

7. Singing Crazy by Simple Plan with Abby complete with harmonics at TOP VOLUME whilst waiting for Annie to arrive.

8. Stealing tokens which were left on the pool table by some previous/future occupant.

9. Trying to simulate the Dry Ice effect with our very own Cherry-Vanilla bonng...

10. Camwhoring in the backseat.

11. Getting Dom pissed off at the end of the night...eh dom, you're not really angry right?? play play oni right?? sorry la, dun angry la...*grins*...i belanja mamak.

all in all..it was a good night indeed...mwehehehe...but next time, we'll go somewhere else...Breakers, to us, is as good as dead.


At the beginning..when sanity still prevailed..


A very mesmerising bonng indeed...we were discriminated against...the other people had really ornate bonngs whilst ours was utterly simple...we later concluded that it was cos we weren't malay...damn.




Abby loves me....i always knew it...




You've gotta love the red cap.


Sorry for shopping off half your face, Dom!


Below are some pics taken on Tuesday night...Nikki! i want those pics!!



All excited in the car..MelNikkiHongYinLily!


Rajes, Daniel and Uncle Weng!

There's no pictures of Albert, Waiking and John...sorry guys!! i didn't really feel like snapping pics that night...photo-flu.

when you fail yourself..it's time to restrategize.

I've always been sure of myself. Ever since i was a kid. Ever since i could remember. I knew what i wanted...and no one could make me change my mind once it's been set.

But somehow, i can't seem to make up my mind about you. I tell myself that nothing can come out of it...and i push you far away...but somehow you seem to have this amazing ability to come creeping back into my mind again.

in short...i can't seem to get over you...no matter how hard i try.

and it's getting to a point where it's really beginning to frustrate me. really..i'm becoming increasingly irritated with myself...and with you too. i just want to resolve this and have it done with.

one day, i'll be able to muster enough of courage to tell you how i feel, then maybe you'll shoot me down and then everything will be cleared. yes..i think that's how it has got to be. i'll confess, you shoot me down. everyone's happy in the end.

courage...that's what i need.

...i'm so tired.

p.s. you smell nice, did you know?

p.p.s. don't make assumptions. please just don't. and don't ask me whether you know the person. chances are you do but an even higher chance is that the person you're thinking about is the wrong one. so just read, nod and move on to another blog. THANK YOU!

Lala-Luna-Land

Sometimes fate deals you a hand of bad cards...but still you manage.

yep...last night, of all nights, the heavens decided to let all and just POURED right when we were about to reach Luna Bar. being obstinate teenagers, the 10 of us: Melanie, Albert, Hong Yin, Nikki, Lily, Rajes, Dan, Uncle Weng, Wai King and Jonathan, decided to forge ahead with our plans and went into Luna Bar.

Let's just say Luna Bar has potential. Really good potential. but due to the rain, and lack of space, we had to shift to Bangkok Jazz...although we may be obstinate, but we DO know when we're licked and by good were we licked by fate that night. No Luna, never mind. we're moving on.

Bangkok Jazz was good...although the drinks pretty much sucked. i paid RM50 for 2 glasses of extremely sweet vodka-lime and a glass of fruit juice that was trying to pass of as a sex-on-the-beach...Boo...i saw right through you, sex-on-the-beach..you had no alcoholic content whatsoever. and i didn't even get tipsy..not even a slight light-headedness in the upper regions of my being. drinking in KL kills...your wallet and your mood.

i think from now on i'll drink with my parents or at home.

after Bangkok Jazz, the remainding 5: Melanie, Nikki, Lily, Hong Yin and Albert, rendevzous-ed to some dim-sum place along Jalan Ipoh which was supposed to be equivalent to God. i think at 1 am everything seems extra nice. and we saw a rat scurrying into some shop. kinda explains the whole she-bang.

then the girls spent the night in Kajang...wonderful! we did a lot of catching up, didn't we?

hahahaha...

Breakers tomorrow night with Elaine, Abby and DOM!! oh man...i can't wait.

oh..before i forget. Albert, i was actually quite terrified when i was sitting in the front seat of your Toyota..(it's a Toyota, right?)...anyway, the point is...that was some lucky scrapes that we got out of...praise you, thank the Lord.

and lastly...IT WAS SO GOOD CATCHING UP ALL YOU GUYS!! we gotta do it again.