Integrating Differentials of Life

Final year log #4

2011-07-21T14:29:00.001+01:00

You are fucking kidding me... 68.4%... wtf ...
Always its gonna be a regret of my life.... Have my whole student life scoring way above the distinction line and now my final result is just... slightly below it.... *slams head on the table*

Sent my application today for my flight back to Malaysia, most probably on 12th of Aug.

I am quite disappointed with my four years in UK, achieving nothing in particular. Most of my peers have done amazing projects, started up companies, got phD offers, and job offers. Nevertheless, I bring back a piece of paper that cost more than a nissan GTR. So, on that note, I should use that paper to buy many many nissan GTRs in the near future, and yes, I am certain of that.

There shall not be any boundary.

Final year log #3

2011-04-13T00:14:00.001+01:00

My calculus, algebra, vectors and statistics sucks, and yet every year I somehow ended up choosing them.

Had a super weird dream. I dreamt of myself back home one day, day-dreaming about the time I spend studying in UK, and then woke up to find myself in London. For a moment it felt like dream comes true...

Wow, even my subconscious is missing uk..

Final year log #2

2011-04-09T23:19:00.001+01:00

~~Pessimist~~ Be optimistic.

Counting my days left in London. Anyway I created this post to remind me that I will try my best to be back !
One day, ~~while digging my grave~~ I shall read this post and realise many opportunities I still have !!

Things I love about London:
4 seasons
The best time of my life
Freedom (from shit I had in Malaysia)
Relatively safe....

I miss the time that I could go out of my room and talk shit and be noisy.
I miss the time that I could just jog around the neighbourhood.
I miss making dinner and have people to eat dinner with.
I miss online shopping and not getting con for items.

I still couldn't understand why a part of me hate it so much for going back.

I've always blog around the same period, spring, my birthday and exams. This year spring strikes early, I am not counting my birthday from now onwards, and who cares about exams.?!

The plan for now is to work in Citibank Malaysia (why bank ? because its the only place where pay is reasonable.. haha) and then find a PhD, because I wanna be an engineer, so freaking bad... By engineer, I mean design, innovate, create, not fixing stupid machines !
The probability of finding a job in UK is 0, while so far the rate of finding a job in Malaysia is 100%. Applied for two, got two. Funnily, Celcom Axiata is so result oriented. Offered me RM3700 if only I get 1st class, or RM3500 for 2nd upper.... Goodbye Celcom !

Tadaa ! My birthday present from my friends


And a sweet birthday note. And yes I treasure BOTH of these I got for my birthday this year.

I sincerely thank all my friends who came to party with me for my birthday and for the present.
Birthdays are so overrated. The older you are , the more you agree with it.

I am gonna burn and swallow this stack for exams, so little only huh ?

Sorry, I think my blog used to be fun to read, now its like old and naggy and pissing off....

So the only fun picture here. This is how Miss Teoh eats her squirting custard bun !

Once again, be optimistic, work your ~~fucking~~ ass now !

Snowboarding, Austria

2011-01-31T14:32:00.000Z

I suggest the ultimate thing to do during winter is snowsports. Some prefer traveling and visiting countries, but I think standing in the freezing temperature looking at dead trees and frozen monuments is a little pathetic. I never regret spending my winter holidays in the snow mountains. Although it often ended with a few weeks of bruises and pains, the thrill of adrenaline rush, and the breathtaking view of the alps is worth all the sacrifice. Try it once and if you didnt lose your balls, its a guaranteed lifetime of addiction.

This year's destination is Mayrhofen, Austria. The decision came impulsively after a snowy night in London bringing all the nostalgia, knowing that it might be the last chance of being so close to the snow again. Mayrhofen is a skiing town at a region know as the Zillertaler valley, a mountainous area at the west of Austria. Our flight landed on Innsbruck and the transfer took only 2 hours to our guesthouse.

Early 9am in the morning, the mountain filled with snowsport enthusiasts

Ski towns always provides free shuttle service to the ski lifts where you could take a gondola up to the trails. In the morning it is always crowded and on some days there are a lot of school children. It is interesting to know that those days with a lot of school children with different groups is their co-curiculum day, and of course their sports activity is skiing !!

Another interesting observation is that you often only find white people in the ski area. So far my friend only spot one black people and I only see one asian. Obviously, the snow are white in colour ...

The view from the highest peak in Mayrhofen's piste.

To snowboard down the highest peak is awesome!

The piste in Mayrhofen are wide and perfect for snowboarders

The ski town, they sell equipment in every corner.

Mayrhofen has a special iglu hotel on top of the snowmountains. Yes, you could book a room here and stay on the mountains for the night. They even have parties at some night in their lounge.

White lounge

I can see the hotel rooms are really limited

Inside the white lounge

And we sat down to have some mulled wine

This is the best piste. It descend from 1935m in altitude down to 600m to the town centre. I think its a few km long and the scenary is beautiful where you go from all snow to the alphine forest down to grassy slopes. From the speed I was descending, I even felt the pressure change in my ears.

Finally, I comment about the food in Austria. They LOVE meat. I had so much meat , pork beef , lamb, venison, fish. And generally, their food is salty.

Final year log #1

2010-12-19T15:59:00.000Z

Is it always so true that you will apprecriate things so badly, only when you are losing it....

Now that I have accustomed to life here, it felt so nostalgic just to walk on the streets. My greatest challenge has yet to be what I'm going to do the next few years. It is pathetic to find out millions were spent to send students overseas and not having a plan for them when they return. It is like spending a lot of money buying a super computer and place it in your house. You'll be like : 'Yea, we have super computers too!', but you never bother to find out how to use it.

I don't know how Malaysian press portray the weather conditions in Europe now, but for my mum, it definitely seems like we are having a 2012 rehearsal here. To me, it is pure excitement. Every Malaysian got to love snow, because it is the thing we never have.


Heavy snowfalls instantly turned the world outside to be white..

Something like this.

Certainly it's white and magical this season, Merry Christmas !!

Final year

2010-09-30T15:08:00.000+01:00

This is my 4th and final year in London! Previously, I've seen my flatmate travelling to and fro with small little luggages. I hate bulky and heavy luggages. Adding to the fact that I have to take a tube, walk back to my flat and thanks to BBC weather giving me a warning of HEAVY rain, I've got to challange myself really light this year. Furthermore, its the last year in London, what is more to carry from Malaysia ??

Things in my luggage before I add in my OWN belongings...

After I packed in everything I need to bring.

Record low! 13kg is all I am going to bring this year!

If you are wondering, this is the size of my luggage! I love it, small and swift, I can get through the silly bars from Heathrow to tube station easily.

The 3-PPrinciples of Life

2010-09-27T19:51:00.000+01:00

In a open-minded society, there are a few things that young people like us would do to have fun. Back then, a few of my friends in Imperial came to derive the 3 ultimate principles for a man's enjoyable life (well applicable to ladies too I guess). It is named the 3P.... (not as dirty as you think it is, but yet dodgy enough).

3P in this case stands for (po, pek pok) in canto, dont ask me, my Hk friend taught me! haha

The first P 'po', means to go chill out, hang out and party. This I presume many youngsters love to go for events, parties and outings after hard work or lecture. It's easy, especially when you are not staying at home, you could just ask your mates : " Yo! tonight where to po? ". Don't you agree? You get to chill, watch movies, chat, play games, hit on opposite sexes and throw all the worries away. We all do that.

Second P stands for 'pek'. In malaysian canto, it means to slash or chop. It is also widely used to mean 'drinking alcohol'. Normally pek doesn't mean gentle drinking, it means drinking crazily. Whether you are challenging each other for alcohol tolerance or simply want to get someone wasted, we say we go 'pek'... Alcohol breaks the ice, boosts confidence (on stupid stuffs), makes you a dancer and reveals one inner self. Always a good tool to bond with your mates! Maybe you won't agree with drinking regularly, but once a while, it's exhilarating and takes away all the stress.. =)

Third P... pok.. It doesn't mean getting a plank and knock someone.. it means 'shag' . Don't get it? Have sex! Enough said.

So, which P are you on ?

Summer 2010

2010-09-21T21:13:00.000+01:00

People tend to leave blog and turn to facebook, but sometimes I still prefer blogging as I can write more stories and thoughts and leave the ~~stupid~~ comments and likes behind. (you like this?)

Summer, the most wonderful season among the four. I begin to love it so much but soon I wouldn't have anymore left.

Four seasons view out my window. Autumn 2009

Spring

Summer

My 3rd summer holidays has come to an end. Often, I feel lost in time and space, I always mess up with things that happened last summer or last last summer. Every summer I expected I would achieve a little more, but each summer, I did less and less.

This summer, I promised myself to get an internship and gain work experience, but 3 months passed and I regretfully couldn't recall what I really did. I turned down a 3 months internship offer with IBM and that was all the I got. Similarly, from landing in KL to --> spicy --> to gathering with Kepong gang... movies, football ended my July. Then, from Yiew Wen's birthday to Kim Hung and then Tsi Ngar's birthday, from more Old Town and Spicy to Murni, occasionally a night out at Sky Bar... Finally Zk's leaving to Moscow, and thats August. September, I didnt even spend much time back home. Last year I went to London for 2 weeks and this year I was in far far away land to visit princesses. In blink of eye, that's dai gar je's birthday and farewell for everybody! (always couldn't celebrate dai lou's birthday)

Lovely ladies @ Sky Bar !

Wil Liam's house BBQ night. Night where all the theories and effects were founded. See miss Yee, haven't finish biting her chicken wing, now hold a plate of prawns pula.

I am excited for London. I used to hate flying back; by the time I learned to appreciate, its already my final year. How I wish I could re-live my rotation of UK for 9 months and 3 months holiday in Malaysia for a few more years... Argh people, dont be emo when you fly back to UK... after all, you will be home one day, but you wont get to stay in UK as a student that often; or should I say, that opportunity is only for this one time.

I miss my dear coursemates, being classmates for 2 years is really short!


Project Presentation Day.

One of the memorable K-night out!

Happy autumn term people! Time to start work!

For those who are looking for a job, good luck and may the next ~~fucking~~ employer appreciates what we studied as a BioEngineer!

2010-05-07T18:31:00.000+01:00

Its spring!

I don't feel like going home...

Its been a nostalgic exam month, after that, I will not see most of my mates here anymore.
Sad thing is nobody got a job offer yet...
Oh, exam is the best diet plan to me... so far 2 weeks 1kg gone!
I think I'm too whinny..

Time should slow down

Examinations are pointless at this stage of life. It doesn't give any incentives or measure of achievement, its just a procedure. So give up!

To chill out during revision, my housemate likes to drink coke..

Apart from all this shit, there was a little weird incident that happened few days ago..

We ordered a delivery of groceries from Iceland (not the place with volcano). Then the driver came, one lady was standing in our front yard and she claimed those groceries. The driver thought she was one of the tenants as she was standing on our dooryard playing with our neighbour's dog. Later on we called because our groceries haven't arrived and the driver told us this story.

Groceries thief ? We suspected our neighbour because the driver said she was playing with the dog laying on the fence. His description of the lady appears like our neighbour. We knocked the door, and she only talked to us through a slit... Of course she denied it. Well we got our groceries back and we didnt care, the driver was angry.

Oh I went to vote for UK general elections yesterday! I feel more like a resident here. It was really fast, it took one minute to go in, cross out and put in the box.

Term ends again

2010-04-05T01:16:00.001+01:00

As we grow older, our perception of time becomes faster... Its true!

I didn't feel like I had live through my 3rd year here. I had only vague memory of what I did. Fortunately I could still reminisce from my previous post with a photo a day. I didn't even manage to continue in that project in my 2nd term.

I couldn't recall how I'd waste my time during this 11 weeks of term 2. I had only 3 days of lectures a week. My project was a failure, and chinese new year's celebration was a bit of a disaster. I hate not completing my goals and giving up endeavours halfway. Yet, that was the case.

I tried to make use of my free time this year. Firstly, we had this rule - no dotA in the house. (Yes, we are bunch of geeks who banned multiplayer game in the house). So, for the first term, we had a creative plan. The plan was to make a web application. It went on well at first (as always), we gathered some helpful members and started working and researching. I literally spend all my free time trying to learn web based programming, no drama, no movies. Things went on a few weeks and we even got a web server set up with a simple website and original design. Regretful to say, that was the furthest the project went. After 3 weeks of Christmas break, the 2nd term kicked in, and my members were all so busy with their own final year project in college.

I realised that I had to move on with other things. I was glad though I did learn a lot more about the web now. So, my second plan came in. Since I know nothing besides science, I started to read up all about business and economics. I was trying to read a book a week, in the end, ppstream took over my life... Sadly, 3 books was the best I got to.

About 1 more month to completion of final exam, see I am not counting down to the beginning. I have been procrastinating for first week of easter (supposed to be study break).

The thickness of all the lecture notes for this year. 7 cm, isnt that little?

Lets see what I can remember....

More outings with uni mates. This was hiSushi, unlimited sushi buffet!

Poker night and Stephanie's birthday. We really had a lot of alcohol this year.

One of its effect...

Inevitably, I turned 21.

And had the worst shooter I tasted. Tequila + Vodka + coagulated cream, make me feel like puking straightaway.

Rest of the term I guess I spend most of my time doing courseworks and project.

The little corridor of our department, dont you get it ? BioEngineering, means green....
Actually my department should be electrical engineering this year.

Anyone with good summer plans?

Give and take

2010-03-06T22:19:00.001Z

When you sit alone in a room for a day, you get all sorts of wild thoughts running in your mind.
I was suppose to force myself to work on the piece of Matlab code my supervisor gave me, I wonder why I get more and more reluctant to work on weekends.

Currently, I would think that anything could be achieved in this world, but there is this one simplest primitive task that I always fail at .... relationship. Not only the guy/girl type, I think I suck at all sorts.. from friends to family.

I would wanna blame how I was introduced to this world in the past 18 years, instantly I could slap myself for having this thought. I believe I am not a caring person, and I didn't know how to. I don't wanna follow the pathetic path that I've witnessed for such a long time. I hate to be alone, but am I better off alone?

Can my reader tell me why is it so hard to cultivate relationship than to score A? Maybe I was born with the lack of some part of my brain. Am I a caring and helpful person? Yes, come and slap me or something! Scold, criticise and say yes, you dumb moron!
I should be contented. Mediocrity is a luxury, love cherishes. FML.

Ps: You could/should totally ignore this post, it would be good if you could show me a finger, better if you say fuck off.

Snowboarding trip 2010

2010-02-14T18:35:00.001Z

Today is Chinese New Year and Valentines day. Fortunately for a person who is away from home and single like me, this coincidence saved me from grieving in two days. Though I should wish those of you who are cherished, a happy CNY/Valentines or both of it!

While the productivity through the day is greatly reduced by the mood, weather and occasion, I rather spend it on reminiscing the wonderful times earlier this year. This year's winter was much colder, nevertheless we headed to the colder region of French alps for a frost blasting thrill.

Welcome to Villard de Lans!

We took a plane to Grenoble and rode a local hire van to our hostel, much better than the painful 20hours bus ride last year.

The alphines on the slope are all covered with snow after 2 days of heavy snowfall.

One of the path taken most. It is green, means easy. It is also our daily rendezvous.

This path is call Salamandre. A long flat green path, I hate it the most because its not a slope, and without gravity doing the job, I always end up walking the path.

This is a view from the chair lift.

And the chair lifts looks like this. Sitting on it is not a pleasure because without heat generated from body movement, you would feel how is it like to be exposed to wind as cold as -10C.

The most beautiful summit I found in this ski resort. I like the paths too, long blue(medium) trail, although in the end we always ended up in descending the black (very hard) trails.

Occasionally if we think snowboarding and skiing is not dangerous enough, we tried standing on an icy slippery see-saw.

The weather changed drastically in the week we were there. When we arrived, too little snow cause most of the paths to be closed. Followed by 2 days of extremely fine and sunny weather, 2 days of extremely cold and foggy weather, and 2 days of heavy snowfall.

A mini snowman or snowbaby....

We started off with moderate weather of snowboarding and skiing

Then there was a day we had a great lunch with a good weather on 2000m above sea level.

It seems so warm and cozy sitting on these benches sunbathing. Well actually part of your body not facing the sun is very cold.

The next day, it became foggy..

Worst, came heavy snowfall...

Fresh snow is so thick, you could bury a person with it.

Most of the time we got stuck in thick pile of snow.

And the cold is unbearable.

See the frost deposited on their hair. So "cool"!

When we were not snowboarding, we spend our time playing card games.

And we cooked our dinner most of the nights.

On the last day, smart as we thought we were, we forgot to bring our shoes to return the snow boots.

But plastic bags worked well on snow too!

As always, I believe that the French are better in appreciating food.

Something quite relative to the fondue, where you melt the cheese and eat it with your meat platter.

The pie of the day. Seafood baked with potatoes and cheese, delicious.

Another pie, if I were to remember, its something called forest pie. Claimed to be very meaty instead of forestry. Reminder that forest is not a habitat only for vegetation, it is also a habitat for animals.

The table of our last dinner in France.

Dessert: Dame Blanche. Very creamy

A very special alcohol drink which contains mountain herbs.

On the mountain restaurant

French toast.

Apple pie.
The french do have a habit much like us(slacking). They spend a long time for lunch, chatting for the first hour before they start looking at the menu, and more talking after that.

Besides, we have a lot of different crepes, from savoury to sweet.

The popeye crepe.

and their alcohol is really strong!

Burning crepe.

Finally we bought those alcohols home. There were these bottle of sugar soaked in 80% alcohol concentration, a cube gives you instant warming sensation.

The riddle of the trip:

Go in hard hard,
Come out soft soft.
In out in out,
juice come out....

I know that a normal 'adult' mind of yours would thought of only one answer. But you should guess a type of food.

If you would have guess it is ice-cream, we share the same great mind. Apparently your answer is still wrong...

Oh, its time for real work!

Biomedical Engineering, Are you sure?

2010-02-07T17:31:00.000Z

I was a little amused by the way I used to write back in my first few months of blogging. I didn't recall having such intriguing observations back then, when I had a Malaysian secondary school student mentality. I can't write in the those styles or reproduce those thoughts anymore. Writing is a way to present ourselves, and I've begun to realise its importance. A first class degree will only buy you a ticket to the arena, while the battle has just started. Victory shall not be the goal now, you should think of survival! Forgive me for my pessimism.

Meanwhile, I should use blogging for more practice.

It struck me again on the whole purpose of university education. Debates can go on, so I will not further elaborate. To be more specific, I would like to talk about why choosing a Biomedical Engineering degree is not a wise choice, for a typical cynical Asian mindset.

As most would say, we prioritize personal pride and money. We couldn't be blamed because the fact is, we were born in different conditions compared to the western. There is the lack of passion. I am not saying the passion to be rich or famous one day, its the passion to commit to what you believe in. At this point, you would correctly guessed that the Biomedical Engineering path requires a lot of passion!

The term biomedical engineering puzzled every single employer in the market. Engineering firms doubt that we learn maths or calculus, while bio-pharmaceutical companies question our biological knowledge. So, when they found out that we are not good at any specific field, we got kicked out from the job market. Same goes with graduate schools. Medicine faculty hesitated in allowing what they would thought of, denied undergraduates to re-enter medicine school; economist weren't convinced by the way we present our ideas. Hence, there were endless night of weeping over rejection emails which further demoralized and disapproved our believes in our competencies and abilities. Till now, the most valuable financial incentive you hope a degree will lead you to is in vain. You could even argue that investing 1 million ringgit in stock market brings you higher return and lower risk!

Consider a popular degree/career choice among us, medicine. It is so popular because many were convinced that it will lead to the two incentives I mentioned above, pride and money. Not to offend my fellow future doctor friends here, I fully agree to the fact that your career involves passion and sacrifice. However, we should look at the obvious. Your passion and commitment sacrifices fruit you with high pay, well acquaintance and respect. Who would appreciate the CT-scan or MRI if it is not the doctor who used them to treat your disease well? The public wouldn't recognise the researchers just as they wouldn't for the producers and directors behind the scene.

Revealing the truth, Biomedical Engineering degree is a research path. It takes more passion than greed and inspirations. It requires one to sacrifice, contributing silently to science. One could never see its reward or incentive. Perhaps one should follow the parent's advice: " Study medicine la!"

We weren't born in a developed country. Our basic income is inadequate to fully enjoy the luxury of technological advancements. We have lower living standards. Even a university education is considered being fortunate. We didn't come to contribute, we came for a trade.

There was this incident in my freshman year. Take note that I heard this conversation after one term of academic study. One day some medical students were revising for their mid-term test, one questioned: "What is a sternum?" , to my surprise none of them in the group knew. Pathetic is the fact that their government subsidised their tuition fees, cutting fees from £20 000 over to £3000. These students show no appreciation on their given advantage. A form 5, o-level student can simply give the answer: "That is a bone". What would be if thousands of rejected students back home had this chance?

I shall try my best to culture my passion. Life is unfair, accept the fact! For those of you who are still determined to be a bioengineer, you are warmly welcomed.

Modern tuition

2010-02-03T02:24:00.000Z

A while ago, we sat down at the department's cafe whining about our pathetic life again. It always the topic, our hopeless career future. I mean, what for spending a million worth of money here studying and end up couldn't even get a decent job interview? Sighs...

So whether you believe in the high-tech toilet cleaning business or dreaming to become the next Warren Buffett, you've got to like this idea; Tuition teaching! We have to admit that in this academic results oriented Asia-Pacific region we came from, tuition is a big market. I am not going to discuss about my plans of starting a tuition enterprise here (or if I ever had any), but rather mesmerized by what my hk friends showed me that afternoon...

They said top-notch tuition teachers in Hong Kong can earn up to 10s of millions of hk dollars.

Then they showed me one of the top tuition sites in hong kong. Take a look at their teachers and the webpage below:

Wow... I thought they just got into a TVB website. I mean look at them, they are like tv stars! More shockingly, most of the classes are not conducted in real time.... you pay to go in a room to watch a recorded dvd!!

But the best part is, I like their teachers. The english tutor named Antonia below, she has got to be the prettiest teacher I can ever imagine, she totally a boy's fantasy! Well, too bad that you wouldn't really get to see her even if you attend her classes.. lol

Why don't we have that in Malaysia huh?

Our year 3 house

2010-01-31T23:30:00.000Z

One fine day.... when I opened the door and stepped out of the house

I saw this sign. This is a bad sign which obviously means my current rented house have been sold. Since our rent contract was on a 6 months basis, we could get kicked out anytime.

So, before I got suddenly dragged out from my bed and throw to the roadside, I should write a little blog post for the house I stay in this year.

Since 3rd year is the final year for most people, we decided to make the last year homely. Hence we rented a 2 and a half storey house.

The entrance of the house, a stair that leads to the upper floors and a hallway to the kitchen.

Under the stairs, you would find a hidden toilet where many thought that its a store room, others wouldn't even notice its existence.

This is the kitchen. Big kitchen for big eaters.

The best thing is, we've got a backyard where we can have barbeques during summer! At least we hope so......

We got plants and herbs. You might notice that they are all dead now, not because of lack of care, but its winter dude.!

Climbing up the stairs you see a spiral stairs up the loft and a small mezzanine for physical workouts!

On the right is my room.

These furnitures were all bought from ikea.

Lastly, this is the loft, the 'guest' room

DeJaVu

2010-01-15T12:37:00.000Z

Came back from the beautiful snowy mountains of Alpes and still waiting for the pictures.

Urgh.. Today I had it again, this feeling, and it started me pondering.
I am sure you had this feeling before: the sudden feeling of familiarity that this scene in your present time somehow seems to be occurred in the past. Sometimes you could even predict what the person is going to say, and you get goosebumps.

After all, I realised that those scenes were just in my memory, it didnt actually occurred in real life but it was in my dreams. It then brought me to the thought for a reason. When we sleep, although we lose consciousness, our brain is still working. Through billions of connections of neurons within the brain, it could generate unlimited amount of possibilities which sometimes we call dreams. But... most of the time we dont remember much of those dreams do we?

How many random scenes (dreams) do our brain generate every night? 10, 100, 1000 .. ? I actually believe that it is a huge number! What is then the probability that it actually coincides with real life? Statistically it is almost impossible. However, why do we still get it rather frequently? Is it the malfunction of the brain that it instantly links the present to the past memory? Or, do we believe our higher order cognitive ability in successfully predicting the most possible future out of infinite randomness....

Should I trust fate/destiny or agree with life is just pure random combination of events?

Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. Think more my friend! But beware, genius and crazy is separated by a very thin line !

2010

2010-01-03T03:09:00.000Z

Its against the norm for a blogger not to post a blog about a new year. So here it is...

While others spend their time partying and countdown.... (even with skype nowadays) I was.... well doing the most lame thing you could do before you advance to a new decade. I bet you would never guess it, to save you time... I was
well...

Playing cards! With 2 other friend of mine... whining things that guys would complain about..

The thing I thought about new year is that its like a new chapter for everybody. No matter how shit and bad it was the previous year, lets give life a new start, and a reset with new resolutions!

I am the one reluctant to accept a year had just passed like a blink of the eye. As I am now in 3rd year of University, I couldn't believe I am almost done with studying. I hate the fact that too much time was wasted in 2009 and I had achieved nothing significant. To count what I did, some was really cool, from visiting a few countries to the best thing I did in 2009, climbing mount Kinabalu and diving in the sea.

I believe by learning from past mistake is how we learn. Throwing away regrets, and take each of them as a lesson is the best way! I shall try my best to stick to this theory....

Lets hope 2010 comes with more challenges and fun!! I wish everyone who read this emotional post till here, a very happy new year !

Well, as I said more challenges are coming up, I was in the stupid college the next day, rushing for my project report due on 11th Jan. The college was totally empty

Hmm.. Good start! Good start!

A better start ? I am going snowboarding in less than an hour time, hope I dont get owned by the slopes.

Happy 2010 again!

When London brought us back together again

2009-12-29T15:34:00.000Z

Warning! Reading this post may result in considerable amount of emoness.

Without much noticing, its the end of autumn term! And its time for celebrations. This year, Christmas was very special as I get to spend it with a bunch of old friends, staying together and gathered for a few awesome nights.

My house this year, is large enough to hold 5 guests staying over Wil Liam, Ai Woon, Chai Earn, Yiew Wen and Siang Ling.

It all started on the Saturday night where Ai Woon came over, and we started planning for the coming ultimate festive week. The fact that my housemates were back to their home countries, I asked for her and Brian's help to do some chores, cleaning up the house for the guests. But I just have to stress that my house is cleaned on a weekly basis okay!!

On Sunday night, we came out with a wonderful Christmas Menu and an exploding long list of items to buy. Armed with backpack and bicycle, we rode to the market early in the morning to start pumping up the items. Wil Liam and Chai Earn was expected later, and Ai Woon went back to get her.

That night didn't bring us far as it snowed quite heavily. I prepared some light dishes with the help of Wil Liam or should say their tastebuds?

This is the char siew which ranked a little bit lower than Ai Woon's ( or was it?). Made with pork belly marinated half a day with mixture of sauces suggested by online recipe and then grilled with a home oven.
If I would remember clearly, it was with half a cup of sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, five spice powder, pepper, garlic, and ginger juice.

Well, I knew that char siew wouldn't satisfy many, so I added a steam fish and some iceburg lettuce..

You rarely find fish like this in London

Wil Liam chopped the pork.

On this very same day, with the help of Brian, I experimented a special dish for Christmas Day itself. Marinating a duck for making duck confit!

The next day, before Angeline's arrival, we went to town.

I think there was a reason.... but lets just say, the reason was to visit

The colourful city of London!
Dinner was at GBK, I think Wil Liam shouldn't eat Carl's Jr anymore after he tried this.

The delicious journey continued on 23rd with Yiew Wen's arrival. I was home trying to prepare a nostalgic Bak Kut Teh dinner, with the others running around at Harrod's and Hyde Park's winter wonderland.

Actually, they are not the bad guy.... I ditched them because its too cold to go there.. haha

No! seriously, I was preparing dinner.

An aromatic herbal intense soup
and...

Spicy black version of Bak Kut Teh to tickle your tongue prepared by Min Ken.
I loved it, as it definitely spoils the diet plan if Wil Liam or Chai Earn was on one.

The big day comes now.... 24th and I thought it would be more challenging because I saw Yiew Wen and Ai Woon reading recipes for Christmas. Well, it seemed like they prefer leaving me the job. Imagine the world now.. the guys do the cooking......

Let me revise the Ultimate Christmas Menu!
Starters:
Jamie Oliver butternut soup
Smoke Salmon Bagel
Ceaser Salad
White Wine Mussels

Main Course:
Duck Confit spaghetti
Roast Chicken

Dessert:
Fruit tart.

Yes, we made this all by ourselves, no 打包, no cheating. Guess what, it took me one hell of an afternoon in the kitchen.

First masterpiece of the day:

Duck Confit spaghetti. Really draining all the time resource. The duck confit took 24 hours to soak in salt and 48 hours in oil poach. I got to step into the kitchen in the crazy freezing night to flip the side of the duck, forced to pause my prison break drama.
Then, the duck is poached in oil for few hours to cook before leaving it to mature in the fridge for few days. Not to include the frying of the duck again and the spaghetti.

Next, I should introduce you to Ai Woon's babies

She washed, brushed and crushed the worms individually for quite some time. The mussels.

And Chai Earn's masterpiece

Oops... not this one....

Smoked Salmon bagels.
See how she does it the pro way.

Creamy mayonnaise and horseraddish (wasabi's friend) top the crispy bagel. Then she lay a piece of smoke salmon and fried an egg cooked to just perfection on top... finally dressing it with some black pepper, garlic flakes and a fresh piece of parsley.

See how they recommend their dish. Every single bite gives the sensation of the spicy pepper and horseraddish together with a spike of smoke salmon covered with crispy bagel balanced by the smooth oozing egg yolk.
If you are tempted, ask her to prepare ok ? Anyway special thanks to Ai Woon ... the "founder" of this recipe.

The list goes on with the roast chicken where Wil Liam personally sodomized them with lemons

Not to forget massaging them gently with olive oil and chicken stock.

That night's dinner table

Chef Chai Earn's bagel

Ceaser Salad

Mussels! In aromatic tangy white wine sauce.

Roast Chicken

And a nice sweet dessert made by Angeline and Wil Liam

Both are equal proud of their creation.

As the saying goes, its so hard to judge because both of them are equally tasty.

And somehow, these monkeys came out with a special thing to wear that night

They got some twinkling tiny badges to wear and thought they look like VIPs. But yea.... VIP to our house.

Secret Santa gift exchange session for the night

Guess what? We missed the countdown to Christmas! Maybe some got partially drunk already...

On Christmas Day, we were locked in the house because there was no public transport on service. We ended up whole day in the kitchen preparing and eating and preparing for steamboat dinner.
Ai Woon made honey dew sago dessert, with her mum's recipe 10000km away. Through many trials and error, we got a very large pot of dessert. Brian was a great fan as he finished a lot of it.

We got lots of food.

Wil Liam made wanton with mince meat. There was too much of mince meat, he even made pork balls.

The next bit, I was very unclear of it. I thought that the whole time I was the one in the kitchen, but it turned up, just when I was upstairs for a little while, something "peanut butter" happened.

To elaborate about the peanut butter description we used, I have to tell you its origin.
When Yiew Wen first arrived in UK, she found out a way to pronounce a peanut butter brand name. It was so obvious but none of us found out until she told us.
YW:"See, this peanut butter... SUN PAT!! (38, 三八)"
Oh what a stupid name... sun pat peanut butter! hahaha

Back to the peanut butter incident that happened. They took my lovely vege and dance !!

I think she initialises it...

So I can only think of the stories that goes...

"Hey, vy is not here, what should we do ?"

"Lets annoy him and play with his (already very scarce amount) of vege he got."(blek)

Then, probably they don't know what to do, so they posed..

"Hey this is boring..." (Wil Liam probably rush into ken's room to on Just Dance by lady Gaga)
And they started dancing....

And there goes my vege........

Boxing Day this year was not as expected. We scared them from stories like World War 2 to suffocating in the tube station like you are stuck underwater. However, there were so little people this year, economy crisis hahaha.

So the ranking of Boxing day is
1. Yee Ai Woon
2. Ee Wil Liam (after catching up on the next day)
3. Yap Siang Ling
4. Me
5. Teoh Yiew Wen
6. Tang Chai Earn

ranking is based on the credit flow score strictly to GBP.

As much as I can tell now, and there goes the story of once a wonderful Christmas Gathering.

Project 365 (part 2)

2009-12-28T18:35:00.004Z

Cant believe I am doing this for over 100 days now... I'm proud because I did it more than a lot of bloggers did. First term in 3rd year of university is now gone!

Part 1

DAY 100!! 20/12/2009 Sunday

Went for a little bike adventure to the west. We targeted to reach Richmond park but end up in Wimbledon Park. Its all icy, snowy and cold, but its really a chilling fun day.

Day 101. 21/12/2009 Monday

Wil Liam and Chai Earn reached London. I prepared roasted pork(char siew) and some dishes to celebrate our first reunion dinner in London.

Day 102. 22/12/2009 Tuesday

We were at the 'The Stupid Clocktower' again. Brought Chai Earn and Wil Liam to walk around the city centre. Initially the plan was to watch Avatar, but due to some noobness involved, plan failed, leaving me still a clean sheet in "never watching a movie in London before".

Day 103. 23/12/2009 Wednesday

Yiew Wen joined the fun today. We had a Bak Kut Teh dinner followed by drinking game. Look at the nice amount of alcohol which we finished that night!!

Day 104. 24/12/2009 Thursday

Its Christmas Eve! Spend almost the whole day buying and preparing for the Ultimate Dinner !

Day 105. 25/12/2009 Friday

There is no public transport today. So again, we spend the whole day preparing for a steamboat dinner. It was the first steamboat after Sungkai Trip in summer for some people present here.

Day 106. 26/12/2009 Saturday

Boxing Day!! As we spend the whole last night scaring them how crowded boxing day in Oxford street is, it turned up beyond expected. It was so much less people, and the girls have fun buying discounted items, well the guys as well!

Day 107. 27/12/2009 Sunday

Brought Yiew Wen, Wil Liam and Ai Woon to have their "last meal" before they leave. We went to Bayswater for the Legend...-wait-for-it....dary duck, but it wasnt that crispy therefore not so legend-wait-for-it-dary anymore. Time for everyone to go back to reality, the assignments and exams (emo ~~5mins~~ 1 day)

Day 108. 28/12/2009 Monday

Counting the days left in 2009, time to start working!!

Day 111. 31/12/2009 Thursday

Preparing for Snowboard trip!!

Day 113. 2/1/2010 Saturday

Back to college to complete my interim report, with absolutely no one in the college. Come on, who goes to the college in this time?!

Day 114 - 121

Snow snow snow and snowboard trip!!

Day 122. 11/1/2010 Monday

Back to usual routine. Went to the gym to catch up with fitness lost during the trip.

Day 123. 12/1/2010 Tuesday

Sweet and sour pork! Back to cooking

Day 124. 13/1/2010 Wednesday

Snowing 'heavily' in London. Reminds me of Grenoble. Still enjoying the first academic week without lectures.

Day 125. 14/1/2010 Thursday

Went Paddington for futsal which surprisingly only 6 people turned up.

Day 129. 18/1/2010 Monday

My lectures finally start for the year. Obviously the attention span to focus in lecture is only very short and applies to first few lectures of the term only.

Day 131. 20/1/2010 Wednesday

Finished my Entrepreneurship exam. Although the person beside me was writing like he is doing a dissertation, I am happy because I think I can just pass the exam. Later, we celebrated at a taiwanese restaurant!

Day 133. 22/1/2010 Friday

Got these very very huge avocados, 3 for 50p. Each of them make a big smooth blend of milkshakes !

Day 134. 23/1/2010 Saturday

Perhaps a very bad unlucky start for my housemate Xuhua. His bicycle got stolen today where he parked outside our college building near Royal Albert Hall, one of the sightseeing stops for tourist, at noon time! The lock he showed us suggests a clean cut made by the thief.

Day 135. 24/1/2010 Sunday

I realised that days are much brighter now as sun sets later each day. I have 3 days of weekends this term. Although it was a Sunday, I went to college for a little project discussion.

Day 136. 25/1/2010 Monday

Went around taking pictures of cars for our project.

Day 139. 26/1/2010 Thursday

Found a ceiling fan in a lecture theatre in the department of computing.

Day 141. 27/1/2010 Saturday

Its pizza night! I think we all gathered to release stress and misery accumulated from last term using the common alcoholic way. It was indeed a lot of fun.

internet Revolution

2009-12-08T00:51:00.000Z

Internet has become a part of our lives. Think of what you do most online... Obviously its for ~~stalking~~ communicating with the world!

Let us feel less guilty, internet is not just about watching dramas. It is our most powerful and biggest source of information. When it comes to assignment and course work, nothing can be done without the internet. Agree?

Well, if you still think you are in that era (or been dragged into)

Yea.... I guess going to the library can still be an option.

So which website would you go to look for ultimate solutions when it comes to coursework? The first one in your mind....

Is it ..Google?

Yes/No ? Undeniably its a yes for everyone.

Perhaps a little more geeky...

Wikipedia?

Woah, you guys are way out... Why not you ask your dad how to use the latest Google Android application?

I mean who da hell.... needs google and wikipedia? Its super annoying reading pages of wiki search and end up saying :" WTF?? I know this already bastard... give me something I want to know!!"

NOW... you go for

Yes! youtube! Youtube is very useful! Its not just for music videos or porn(if you could still find....). You can find videos from people teaching you how to solve a differential equation to how to use programmes to do computation of your scientific work. Genius idea !

Now, stop google! Go youtube! When you start youtubing for academic videos, you will start a revolution among your friends.

A friend of mine used youtube to look for solving a mathematical problem in the college's computer room. A professor came by, dropped his glasses and said:

"Can you tell me which era am I in now? I didnt know people youtube to solve a 2nd order differential equation in Matlab!"

Weekend in Nottingham

2009-11-24T18:44:00.001Z

Despite complaining for heavy work load and "being busy all the time", we spend our precious weekend gathering in Nottingham. This time, the Londoners, me and Ai Woon visited Nottingham.

University of Nottingham is known among Malaysian for Nottingham games. However, though studying here as a Malaysian pansy for 2 years, this is my first time visiting Nottingham. As this is the very first time, we are always bombarded with lots of comments and reviews from people who went, or even from the Nottingham student themselves.

Wai Kit (once our Malaysian soc sports committee) said: " Aiya, Nottingham nothing much one la, just a big uni."

Ee William : " Nottingham is a place without chinatown"

Even Yiew Wen gave us a very rural impression for Nottingham.

So, you guys can picture Nottingham now can you ?
For me its something like :

Hmm... got trees, bushes, grass... Typical forest in the cold countries.

Ok ok... to be more realistic, our impression for Nottingham might be someplace like this

A little sandy path through nice countryside scenaries. Wow! look at the fallen leaves, the feeling is so right. You could imagine a scene in a korean drama, where Yiew Wen would run from the other end of the trees and greet us... running slowly.... as the wind blow the fallen maple leaves to your face.....

Right?

However, the day before I left, I told one of my coursemate about me going to Nottingham. The response was: " What?? You going Nottingham?? There has got nothing!! Just a University and buildings in the Uni !!"

Ok, that seriously spoilt the whole picture of Nottingham. In my mind, I thought I was going to --->

These explained the total shock as me and Ai Woon stepped out of the train station.

Let me rewind to 20 mins before we reached. As the train approached Beeston, a stop before Nottingham, they announced that passengers should go to the first few coach as the platform is not big enough to accommodate the whole train.

" Eh, should we move to the first few coach as well? Our next stop is Nottingham le ..."

Well, the real story now... Nottingham has got a city centre with trams and busses!! They even have an ice skating ring for winter, malls and loads of cabs!! This is a proper CITY ! Why didnt anyone at least tell me, Nottingham is a city, not an ulu place (rural area)?!

The first activity once we got down was mamak! Our mamak this time is not spicy, but its still 9.30 pm as usual! Yes at least its still at 9.30, in a pub. However we regret that not everyone could attend this session.

The mamaking session ends at 11.50pm a bit earlier than usual because the pub seem like closing. Oops, we almost forgot that we were in a very ~~ulu~~ uk city.

The next day, William made me a special omelette for breakfast which he said, inspired by Genting breakfast.

He too showed his talent by making us a delicious tiramisu. How delicious was it? I guess that could only be explained by Yiew Wen's blushing face straight after tasting the first bite.

The homemade tiramisu by William, if you hesitate, you wont even get a bite.

Bad rainy weather didnt stop us from visiting around.

'L' is for London! This is the university and the lake.

They like to call this the mancis building, but I heard munchy's all the time, which left me with a swt face.

Let me prove that Nottingham is a city

Can you see buildings? And wide pedestrian roads?

Cool contemporary architecture, come on, its so cool! This is named the sky mirror.

Though there is the oldest in in UK

And a castle...

Robinhood, the hero of Nottingham

Daylight is scarce for winter times... Soon, it was pitch dark and rainy at 5pm.

The next day, we were brought to a park which even prove the city status of Nottingham. Why do I say so? Normally, in really ulu (rural) place, there is no need to have parks, because its grassland everywhere. To have a park like this

for people to take a walk, this proves that people in the city needs a relaxing green area.

That afternoon, Yiew Wen and Tsi Ngar made us their ultimate homemade lasagne.

It earned 6 points from me and 7 points from William.

Next stop! Christmas in London anyone?

P/S: The night after I was back in London, I found out that it was so much more lively and bright here in the night. Even after midnight. So I take back my words.... Nottingham is indeed ulu ! If you would wanna feel like in a horror scene, go walk around in Nottingham after sunset.

Changes

2009-11-19T13:04:00.000Z

As an engineer, we ~~love~~ must like to do calculus. Especially those derivatives, its everywhere! So I thought of ways not to get haunted by it, and why not I apply it here?

Don't worry, you are not reading through a calculus or mathematics geek shit post....

dx/dt is the change of variable x with respect to time, some mathematicians and engineers spend their lifetime solving differentials and changes of unknowns..... Didnt they realise that we are all changing? Can we ever predict the solution to our life like how you solve x(t) explicitly?

Reminiscing through past years of my, I giggled when I saw how we once looked and acted like.
In this post, let us solve the d/dt of ourselves, ie. changes with respect to time ok?

Say, d(person)/dt = +ve means change to a good point of view. d(person)/dt = -ve means hmm not so good.
Add parameters like ---> fat, slim, dumb, smart, i dont care, wth, wtf ......

Let's start with an ancient piece of photo, when world was once analogue and with no digital cameras.

This is a class photo of 1S SMKB. It took me 5mins to find myself. How long does it takes to recognise someone?

Then, moving on to form 4

This is year 2004 cny group photo.

Then we got cny 2005. The highlight of this photo should be the person on the far left. I looked at him as if I knew. Wow, he looked like my size now, during that time.

People in cny 2005.

Soon we graduated from secondary and moved on.

A random bbq party we held on christmas 2005, in zk's house. Still everyone looked different back then.

This picture was taken in Bukit Tinggi 2006. Highlight the top left person. In this picture, he was so "small" back then...

In summer 2008, we came back together for gathering. This is Santini during Tsi Ngar and Kim Hung's birthday.

And we had a day trip to try all the delicious food in Melacca.

Till 2009, most of us went overseas. Amsterdam when we were high from Heineken.

Yes, this is how we look like now. Sungkai 2009!

Legendary adventurous trip

2009-11-08T13:16:00.000Z

In summer 2009, I went Sabah to visit Stephanie, one of our coursemate. The reason why I am only blogging about it now is that I just got the photos!

Remember the awesome to Arthur video? It was during this trip. The trip lasted about 10 days. During these 10 days, we went from learning how to dive, to climbing mount Kinabalu, and to getting an advance diving license.

Ah if I haven't mentioned, Stephanie is this person below, she is like the princess of Sabah!

By the way, if you have a very good impression of Sabah paradise beaches, I can tell you, Sabah's beach looks like this:

Oops.. actually this is one of the crappiest beach in Sabah by the roadside. Sabah beaches are really pretty!

Before I go into the beaches..... If you are hungry, I am sorry, but I have to spoil your appetite, because what you are eating now, might be just shitty as always. Welcome to the seafood heaven!

Lots of fresh living seafood caught from the ocean! Most of it you wont even see it in the peninsular.

Still not spoilt for choices?

Garoupas, prawns, shells, all types of seafood!

Look at this type of shell prawns? Its RM 100 for 1 kg. But we got lobster, which was double the price...

Now time to eat!

Buttermilk lobster!

Soft shell crab. Have you eaten this amount of soft shell crab like eating a huge tin of cookies? And we had a 7-star grouper fish too!

After filling our stomach with heavenly seafood for our welcome night dinner, things went serious the next morning as its our first day to dive!

We started off from Sutera Harbour.

Suit up!

Went to an island around the Taman Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park to confine water training near the beach.
In the afternoon, we hop on the boat to go for real diving in deeper waters.

Sadly, there was no underwater camera to take the pictures in the water.

Stephanie with her equipments..

A swim after an exhausting dive...

Thats the expression when you become pro.

Besides, we spend alot of time on different islands as well, sunbathing and playing volleyballs.

But sometimes you get distractions when you are trying to relax...
For example :

When you are happy happily sunbathing....

Suddenly you see...

Then the outcome...

Forget it if you see nothing in this 3 pictures story.

After diving into 20m underwater, we set foot to conquer the 4095m above sea level mountain the following day. Climbing mount Kinabalu requires a lot of training and determination. Even though before that I ran Menjalara park 10 times up and down the hill, going up the 1st 1km trail of the mountain has already got me draining all my reserved energy. All left was just the mind, to collapse and give up, or to thrive every one step further. And finally you step on the highest ground and shout: "TO ARTHUR!!". I was so proud to never giving up, carrying an extra 1kg bottle of Guinness up 8km of the mountain trail!
(the Guinness was a challenge/bet/joke.... when I brought out the bottle on the peak, people took photos of us..haha.... " What? You brought a beer !!?")

Because of the popularity of this Mountain, climbing it actually cost a lot. If you think you could train hard and give it a go, think again..... One night accomodation costs at least RM450 + guide + everything will round up to about RM600, even if you book early. So should you have this ambition, remember to save while u train!
The whole mountain was crowded with non Malaysians. It felt like I was in UK. I can tell there were lots of british, Americans, Japanese, HK, Singaporeans....

We started our journey all pumped up with "energergy", a special form of energy derived from our kind.

We were trying to do a chant to absorb some energergy.

And off we went.

The one little girl in the middle of this picture didnt follow us up.

This the begining of the trail, green,wet rainforest.

As you ascend, less and less vegetation.

They have pondoks (stops) every 1 km of the trail, each with different names. Like this one, pretty sure you are little dizzy when you reach here.

It took us about 3 and a half hour to reach the resting house and settlements. Faster than normal people do. It was more than exhausting. We took a nap and had a buffet in the evening, sitting and chatting with a New York couple.

The next morning, we woke up at 3am to continue, normally people start from 1 or 2 am, but with our overwhelming confidence and energery, we made it 3am.

It took us another 2.5 hours, again faster than normal to reach the peak and catch the sunrise at 6am.

Its the spot everyone takes a picture! See, we reach before sunrise, so energergetic!

And its time to celebrate!

Cheers!

~~After gulping down Guinness and got drunk...~~
We sat for 10 mins.....

And found out that it was actually very cold with all our wet clothing on this peak.

After a stunning and beautiful sunrise, we headed down. (we were lucky that the weather was really clear)

Down we went... rolling down..

And because we still felt energergetic, we did some stunts.

This is the view from the last "pondok", 7km up the mountain trail. The view of the villages and settlements down there could be seen clearly here.

We took an adventurous package, which include descending this part of the mountain like abseiling.

The people in this picture might seem to be in an awkward position, but its really steep and hard to maintain an upright position.

The descend only took like 2 hours, they were literally running downhill like a reward is waiting for them.
Tired and sluggish, we head back to the ocean the day after to complete our advanced diving. Walking and especially going down stairs had never become so hard. Our quadriceps and calf felt very painful. It made us hesitate for some time when we were going down steps.

That was, the legendary adventurous trip I had this summer. Never had combine so many adventurous activities within a trip.

Last but not least, let me introduce here a new award....
The Queen of sleeping.

She could sleep anywhere from land

To sea

To the mountains

Sweet dreamz..

Pre Halloween

2009-11-02T01:33:00.000Z

Now I found out that if kids come for trick or treat and you refused to open the door, the trick would be putting in 2 maple leaves into your mail.

Lecture was suddenly canceled last friday, leaving me the whole day free! Since I didnt feel like working or mugging whole day long, I decided to make a dinner and invite my coursemates for mingling session.

Seems like its a pre Halloween night, and so I made a western themed meal. I know its very lame having a "Halloween" doing nothing related to it, we ended up that night playing "killer", was it Kim Hung's favourite game?

Let me show you what I got for that night, I carried like tonnes of food from the local market nearby...

Firstly I got 2 corn fed chickens and of course 2 lemons to shove up their asses! The roast chicken is one of our "signature dish". In fact, the actual use of the lemons are to suck up the smelly juices from the cavity of the chicken, leaving a clean roast chicken. Some people just hate the smelly chicken smell do they?

Mussels! Really fresh mussels from the local fish store. These cost about 5 pounds.

And some greens for the day. On the left is something that looks like coriander, a herb widely used here, namely Parsley. (Why do I spend time explaining these? I doubt my readers know about herbs, besides ginseng, or "I cant think of anything so common anymore", or...... ) If you don't know what is on the ---> right..... erm.... you should knock your head with a hammer! Its a mini tree! You know when you walk in the fantasy land, those trees that will grow... those kind... yea a mini tree!

Next, its time to clean the mussels. Cleaning them is no easy job. They got beard like fibre that is stuck in the shell. And the most disgusting thing is .............

Can you see that there is some white calcium deposit on the shell? It looks like those little things you always see growing on a shell right? Well, examine carefully, you will see that its shaped like a hollow curvy tube. And WORMS live in it!!!

The red earthworm like parasites live on those shells! I pulled out quite some of them. eeew... Do you still wanna eat mussels ? hahaha

After all the cleaning and preparing, its time to cook!
Presenting my final awesome product!

OOps... This was what I ate before cooking for the real dinner, so hungry.

The mussels are cooked with butter, ~~bouquet of garni~~ (ok its just some random herbs), celery, leek and white wine.

Er an obscene dish, but.....

Roast chicken with lemons in the ass!

Some mash potatoes and roast potatoes as carbo source.

Guys, start sharpening your knives today. Cooking can be fun!

Walking on the streets....

2009-10-26T12:43:00.000Z

As I mentioned before, this year I spend about 1 hour 30mins walking on the streets everyday.

If I would have do that in Malaysia there will only be a few consequences:
- I get a skin cancer resulting from intense sunburn
- I got robbed
- I got killed because I tried to fight with robbers.
- I got killed because some snatch thieves kill you before you try to fight.
Trivial right? Because, nobody actually does that. Even if someone does it, he dont live to tell.

So far, I encountered some incidents while walking on the streets on London. Some quite dodgy but I must say there are really interesting to share.

First you might think London is a really safe place to be in. Occasionally you still get muggers on the streets, less violence than those in Malaysia, but they would still beat you up if you rebel.

Its rare to met up with those muggers because they only appear in the night. Unlike Malaysia, everything is 24 hours like mamak, convenient stores and robbers, they all work hard for a living.

What I met on the streets are professional beggers. They dress well and they dont sit on the floor with a cup. They come up to you with interesting pick up line like:
" Hey, you look good today, can you please give me some money to get a cool hair cut just like you? "
Ok, that was just a joke, they dont say that.

But I got some lines like:

" Hey mate, I need to get a hostel tonight but I am lacking a pound, could you just please spare me a pound for the night?"

Brian paid for this. But LOL, the next day the man came to us with the same line again.

" Hey, I just got lock out my house accidently with my phones inside. Could you please spare me 50p for a phone call?"

"Hey, could you just give me 20p please? I dont need much, I just want 20p"

So far, I have only given the 20p because that guy seems older and its a reasonable amount. I got even teenagers trying to get money from me.

Then there was this car incident. Last Tuesday while I was walking to play futsal, a guy rolled down his window of his car...

" Excuse me, are you Japanese?"

"No, I am Malaysian."

"Oh, hi there, I am Italian. I worked for Harrods, do you know Harrods?"

"Yes...." (thinking that he would ask for directions)

"I am going back to Italy, and I am driving to Heathrow now. I got a few jacket from Giorgio Armani. I need to give them out for free because my luggage is too heavy. "

"What size do you wear?"

"Er... M "

Then a horn of a car behind him.
Suddenly, I got this "survival in Malaysia" instinct that we run from scenario like this instantly.

"Errm I am actually rushing for some events.. See ya!"

Funnily enough when I was sharing this incident in my friends birthday dinner later on that night, I found that my housemate encounter the same thing that very same day when he was on the bike. Then, one of our HK friend say he even went onto his car!

So, our conclusion for the night was, lets start our thai boxing class next wednesday!

Science and Art

2009-10-22T12:11:00.000+01:00

All my final year friends are busy applying for their job lately....

The problem with our degree course is that it is not widely recognised or needed. Come on, who the hell knows what biomedical engineering is? If you do happen to be that one in a million, why on earth do you need to recruit us anyway, we dont make money.

Yes, we face this fact, and accept that this is what we are. When things come into your 3rd year or final year, you get really materialistic and realistic. Don't give me bullshit like "Oh, I like my course, I am so enthusiastic about learning how protein is synthesised in the cell..." bla bla ... It is now all money first! To be fair, people like us now are pups going into the wild, finally set free, we'll need to hunt for food (money).

If you think this guy here

is your daddy, fine dream on !

People like us will get hungry very soon, and our degree is not a solution. All my coursemates are therefore joining what we call the "dark side". The finance and business sector. Yay!!

That is what a biomedical engineering/engineering degree brings you:

- First, there is no fuckin' firm that want to employ people in this discipline

- If you somehow, managed to get into a research team say Imperial college for example, you will do something like making a cost free but efficient prosthetic for really poor people. (ethical!)

- Or, get a normal engineering job in Malaysia, work for whole life also cannot repay the cost of studying spent.

Finance and business sector brings you:

~~- More chicks~~
- Alot of job opportunites from all around the world.

- High paid job

- A huge variety of majors and discipline

- At least when you go to Merrill Lynch and say, hey I do a BioEng degree, they will say ok send in your CV. Unlike when you go to Siemans, they would say, I am not sure about that, check our website....

That is why I choose to do 2 business modules this year.

The first one is entrepreneurship.

I liked it so much, because the first lecture slide of the course is this

Yes!!! straight to the point. How to turn idea into money....Woo

And I think business people think better than science people. A diagram of a business module might look like this

But a diagram for a analogue circuit and systems module look like?

The first one is so easy to understand as long as you know english. The latter, dont ask me, I dont know what the f*ck it is also.

So I tried to convert the diagram into a simpler art format with paint, and this is what I got.

Understandable ?

Come my friends, lets join the Dark Side!

What I do on a regular Thursday

2009-10-15T11:49:00.000+01:00

Today is Thursday.
And this is the first time I do live blogging, actually blogging instantly.

Just now, I woke up at ... look at the clock:

If I were back then last year, it would be SHIT !!! super late.

This year, its ok, chill man.

Then....
I did some push up.

Damn freaking cold !! Must warm up the body, if not you would just be shivering whole morning.
Next, its time for breakfast.

Had some cereal that I always used to have.

Today suddenly got the mood to drink some coffee, so I stole a spoon of nescafe.

Not to forget to check the refrigerator.

Of course, I need to do some business as well....

Finally, time to dress up !!

And And.... .wait for it .......

GO TO PASAR (Market) !!

The reason I checked the fridge just now is to see what to buy.

I went to the local meat store too.

WALAO Eh.... no need go school 1 ar ???

hmm... ok maybe I should start preparing to go college now.
3rd year damn nice !!

When London brought us back together

2009-10-12T23:16:00.001+01:00

Its amazing that we as a group of friends and kaki's, from SMK Kepong Baru somehow ended up all studying in UK. Well, not all of us.... but most of us.

Last friday, London became the place for reunion, from places like Spicy to Genting to Sungkai, now London. Wow.

So it begun with an afternoon of grocery shopping, 3kg of pork and some iceberg lettuce. Then there was a herbal bak kut teh meal with some side dish of dark stew pork. The dried style by Master Ken was with dried squid, okra( ladies fingers) and dried chilli.

Posing like they cooked it.

The thick oily bak kut teh herbal soup. I put the whole rack of ribs and belly into it.

Posing while other person is cooking...

After a fatening dinner, we went for a walk around the river bank where there are the big ben and London Eye. Its routine for everybody who visit London to go, and its quite standard, I bring everyone I know there.

This is what some people will call it "the stupid clocktower". Hmm... I think its quite stupid.

This is the millennium bridge.

The next day we woke up early for a whole day of touring.
Firstly, we hit the wax museum, its my first visit there. Dont be surprised, many Londoners haven't actually been there. Its always like "Still few years to go, sure I will be there someday " attitude.

Photograph

Photographs

And even more photographs

Eh run! Not pose.

Lunch at chinatown. Again its legendary roast duck. Legendary roast duck is a must try in London, because its so much better than Malaysian roast duck.

Then we went to Covent Garden, my first time there as well during daytime.

There was this random black guy...

Who somehow came to hold U Wen and Hun Sze when they were trying to take a picture.

Uwen left eye says:"what" ; Right Eye says "the"; Mouth says: "F*ck".... Oh question mark on Hun Sze's head :"???"

Then we went into a candy shop which I forgot the name

Colourful cup cakes!

All of them had ferrero rocher shakes

Me and William had a orange chococlate and aero mint.

Then, we went to Oxford Street. As long as you are carrying double X chromosomes, its like heaven. If you accidently get a Y, oh its like hell.... Well the Y is pairing one X, so the X will help to suppress the Y by letting a bit of interest at first, but soon after, Y is so fed up, it will make the Y carrier suffer!

Simplifying you get --> Girls can stay there all year round, guys tend to lose their patience. That my friend, is Oxford Street.

That night dinner was good too, we went to a Korean restaurant.

Kimchi soup.

Hot beef soup

bibimbap

And a hotpot ends the day!

Later I got a conclusion from Ai Woon...
" Its not easy hosting! damn tiring."

羊皮卷

2009-10-02T21:07:00.001+01:00

过着四个月长的暑假，又没人陪伴，实在很无聊。

有一天下午，我没事干，就在客厅里的书架翻了翻。无意中发现一本不知从何来的书。

我猜应该是我的表哥留下的。我这位表哥是激励我最多的人。他就是我之前到会伦敦参加毕业典礼的那位经济学毕业生。他很不简单，从小只在彭亨州一个叫做 Kuala Lipis 的小市镇长大。父母受到的最高教育也到不了中五。可是他很努力奋斗，凭着毅力，得到了国油奖学金到了英国。如今他也在英国一间会计公司的赞助下，半工半读考取会计文凭。不但教育全免，每个月还有2千多英镑工资呢。

话说到这里，此书叫《羊皮卷》

它竟然有五百多页，原本不想看它的，可是无聊，所以还是翻开了几页。这本书是由英文翻译成中文的。
里面有一章让我阅读了以后，沉思，回想了很久。

那一章叫做 “思考的人“。
里面就说到了人是他思考所塑造成的。不管环境是怎样，始终还是思想最有影响力。作者也谈到了梦想和理想。他说人一定要有梦想，那样子他才会随着梦想进步。因为你会朝着你心中的渴望的目标努力。所谓的梦想，不是愿望更不是惰散。只有没有思想和懒惰的人认为一切都是运气，命运和机遇。

这里我想分享我已达到的梦想。我从小没啦，中学时期的梦想是到外国深造，特别是英国。当中读书的努力也免谈了。只是勇敢做出决定的那股冲动，就改变了我的现在。为什么这样说呢？

我虽然是个独生子，可是家里并不是有钱能负担的起英国的。

“此人又来吹水咯！”
说真的，你看看我爸妈开的车子......

当年我刚考完了A水平，我就毫无去向，天天呆着。我妈一直鼓励我读医。想了想，读医不便宜；按了计算机，我才发觉，原来到英国留学是比在这里念医学还贵一倍。当时，我只唉叹了一声：“ 这也是许多人的梦想啊！所以说梦想吗，又有几时会实现呢？”

一直到了八月，周围的朋友都陆陆续续报名大学了，可是我一点行动都没有。爸妈都很担心。我告诉他们，我还这么年轻，不如我想休息一年，慢慢考虑。我不知道为何天下母亲都能看透儿子心，妈跟我说：“我知道你很想到英国留学，对吗？”

可是我都尽力申请奖学金，填了数十张表格，写了那么多推荐信，邮寄到全马各地，新加坡，我一个回复都没收到。

有一天晚上，我爸拉我出来谈话。
如果你有阅读《富爸爸穷爸爸》那本书，我老爸正是书里所提的穷爸爸，他给了我很多启发。

“我今天到了一处询问了关于此处所提供给人民的升学贷学金....”

“在这儿的贷学金，根本都不足够在英国3个月的开支！”

“你还没听我讲完！我遇到了一位贵人。”

o.O

“我向他解释了关于我的情形，此贵人告我叫你准备资料给他，他帮我写推荐信，看看公共服务局可不可以帮到你。”

“哦？怎么做？加上公共服务局？没希望的啦！”

“行动比没动好! 要不要动，怎样动，随你便！”

不过，我还是花了很多时间，准备了很多文件，就好像一个人要向大老板呈交 proposal 似的到回先前所说的该处。

事情当然没有那么简单，贵人的秘书见了我们，说了许多令我失望的话，他说：“每年我们都收到很多这样的 case ，我们只是为了安慰他们帮忙推荐，又有几回成功的？”

长话缩短，我走了很多很多趟，到了贵人的办公室，见过贵人一次；又走了公共服务局数次。忙碌了一个月，我都快要放弃了。

到了月尾，妈又问了：“好了，现在实际上，你有什么打算？” ...我摇了摇头。
终于，有一天，我打给公共服务局有了一项消息。
"我们只能提供你我们的贷学金，20万”
我问道：“可不可以再给多一点？”，答案是不能！

又回到了我爸和我谈话的另一个夜晚。

“才那20万，加上你们打算让我念书的储蓄，最多也不是呆得了那两年？”

“儿子，穷富有很多定义。也许，你看到一位有钱人的儿子，现在有钱，多两年如果生意失败破产了，一切也是归零。两年不长也不短；可以改变很多事情。也许两年后你会后悔当初做出的决定，也许你会欣赏你当初的勇气。”

就这样，我战战兢兢地到了英国。一个很突然也很冲动的决定，去实现我的梦想。

第二年回来，我发觉老爸的欠债已无法还清，财产都比买的时候落了约一半的价钱。我感到很低落，有少许责怪我不因该自私，明知是不可能的，还固执的去了英国。我知道，可能回不了伦敦了，更悲惨的是，可能大学文凭都没有。

有一天，我爸叫我到贵人的办公室，他说人一定要感恩，不管成功或失败。是的，我回去那里是为了说声谢谢，顺便问候曾经帮过我的人。就在那时，我和贵人的秘书谈起了我的第一年大学生活和成绩，又刚好说到我要再到公共服务局碰碰运气，申请更多的贷学金。

他说：“你慢着，我再让你推荐一次 ”

我说到：“不，我这次的来意是纯粹问候，不是来麻烦你的。”

他回到：“不，我也是纯意要帮你的！”

是的，我的贵人如今已升级成为政府部门里，华人能攀到的数一数二的职位了。身为执政者的都得给他一些薄面。

又经过了很多奔波和忙碌......
就是这样，不知何处来的 “运气”，最终我在这第二年得到了公共服务局奖学金。

突然我又从沉思中醒了过来，好了，下一章！

....... 朋友，你有梦想吗？

Day 13 to Day 15

2009-09-26T16:36:00.000+01:00

Project 365!

I finally found out that getting a photo to post everyday is really hard. Maybe, its me, always sitting at home doing nothing!

Day 13. 24/9/2009

Fetch my mum to Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri to settle something regarding her retirement. (pencen)
This is the place where everybody else loses their income, but it is where my allowance come from!! Muahaha. You can see the reluctant and "dulan" look of people in the office, especially when they need to queue up with number tickets. I would wanna stand up and say a big thank you, but I wouldnt do so because I am sure I will definitely get beaten up.

Day 14. 25/9/2009

I was so bored, and begin to look forward to my coming year in my ~~gay~~ college.
It turned out, my college is so SMEXY! ....my journey from where I stay to college "erected"!!!!
This is first year...

Then 2nd year....

Now 3rd year....

Long ~~hard~~.... 2.1 miles journey to college. I have to walk 6km daily just to go classes and back. Have your parents told you? sometimes, skipping school is healthier! Imagine the 6km walk on the main road and the amount of carbon intake into your lungs....
Good excuse to ponteng, dont you think so?

Day 15. 26/9/2009

If you wonder what do I do in Imperial 3rd year, these are my subjects. Been through it all day long, and yes... I dont have a single clue on wat the fu*k I will be studying in any of the subjects above. Okay, I think I am screwed

Lake District

2009-09-23T20:59:00.000+01:00

British people are with wonderful humour. I told them my meter reading and cleared all the bill, still they came out with a new bill. This time after the 2308 pound incident, they gave me discount!! Now its 786. Well, you know google run out of middle finger images la !!

A little bit earlier, just before I called British Gas, I organised a trip to Lake District. This was our post exam trip in June. Lake District is the place to be for an escape + (plus) an adventure! To those who figure out where to visit England, I recommend Lake District. Its beautiful and reasonably cheap, compare to you know Scotland.

Lake District, is not a resort or a town. Its a HUGE AREA (district) with England's largest lake and national park. There are many many lakes and places to go. I choose Windermere, the largest lake. Here we were, a small backpacker's hostel in a small town named Ambleside in Windermere.

I choose backpacker's hostel because is cheap!! 20 pounds per person for 3 nights, self-service breakfast included. The downside is, you might have to share room with different people. But, we as a group get a room for ourselves for the 2nd and 3rd night.

We took a train to Windermere Station, disembarked, had some lunch and took a local bus straight to the hostel. The public transport even in a small town like this is very convenient.

The tea in Windermere town that afternoon, was great!
I had scampi

The name scampi sound so cute right? Yea... its what they called "king prawn" breaded and fried.
Some of them had scones.

Its so awesome, no Delicious can fight. hahaha

This was the cafe

The 1st day was relaxing and we took a walk around the area.

While these two were trying to fight....
We found some writing on a bench. Omg a romantic message!

" Tom I come back to try and find you. Not a day has gone by which I have not thought of you. Love you."
Tanya from Canada.

Actually there were more message written down describing how they met and had a great time. There was even a message saying it was the 2nd time she came back! Well these messages dated some 10 years ago. WoW!

The 2nd day, we went for our first adventure. A bike trip around the whole lake. Guess what, it was an exhausting, 42miles journey. What we got was a mountain bike and a map. Thanks to iPhone with GPS, we managed to track down even the small dirt path.

Poor thing Melissa seldom be in the photo because this is her camera.

When I first got on the bicycle I PKed. Grr. I tumbled and fell on the tar road. I had to argue that its the brake's fault. Normally rear brake is on the right hand side right? right ? Well my friend laughed and told me its always on the left. WTH I got Aaron to agree that its on the right okay....

The result? pain + pain for 42 miles of ride.

We seemed to get lost all the time.

And there seem to be a person who always dont give a damn about where she is.

I kept laughing when the other guy fell as well. He had a minor dizzyness.

Not to say, he fell the 2nd time after trying to ride with one hand through rocky roads. Lols

A guy who always laugh at other person's mishaps.

The road trip was really scenic and tranquil.

We were lost again somewhere near a castle....

Because of losing our way all the time, we didnt get lunch, we were totally exhausted.

But I caught Melissa camwhoring. Hahaha!

That night we went for a satisfying dinner. All of us had a 3 course meal !! And I'm not joking, English take their 3 course defination really seriously.

Can you imagine that? This is a starter! Smoke salmon salad.
And there were salad prawns..

Then it came the main course

And desserts

The 3rd day, we went kayaking on the beautiful lake.
It was fun, but tiring because to kayak to the other side of the lake takes like half an hour.

We waved to alot of yatches and boats and cruises.

Funnily, a group of people on a boat greeted " Konichiwa" to us.

Nah, nobody brought a camera to kayaking except for one funny guy. The above pictures weren't fake, but its just after we came on shore....

There, we were, the happy moments in Lake District!

That funny guy missed his train on the last day when we went back, and dropped his iPhone into the lake.

But, I have got to say, William , iPhone rocks! It saved our life when we were lost with good GPS navigation. Besides, it saved itself after drowning in the lake. I can't believe it , my friend dried the phone, and now its fully functional.

A letter to my baby

2009-09-22T05:38:00.000+01:00

Dear British Gas,

Hi, my name is Voon Yuan, your loyal fan and great supporter.

First of all, I would like to thank you for supplying me with energy to our nice little flat in Earls Court. We wouldn't have survived the extreme winter without your helpful engineer who came to fix our boiler/heater ~~AFTER TWO FREAKING MONTHS we called you !!!~~

Recently as we moved out the flat during summer, I was so sad because I had to call you to end our relationship. (Supplier and User). I have to confess that I wet my pillows many times thinking of you.
Until one fine day during the summer, I received an email from you. I was so surprised and excited!

Oh! Didn't I ended my relationship with you? And you still remember me.....

This is the kinda email you used to send me when we were together.

It was jaw-dropping when I click to the link to view my bill.

I cant believe it! After all this while.....

I thought we said we were clear to £0.00 when we broke up!

Confused as I was I ran up the stairs and called you with my new bt hub kick-ass cordless phone.

I was shocked to find that you have changed your number!! Your cute operator gave me your new number 0800 048 0202. Dont blame her okay?

Then when I finally get to speak to you ~~AFTER ALL YOUR MOTHER FUKIN OPERATORS AND COMPUTER CHECK~~... Your 2nd girlfriend answered. So, I spoke gently, I swear it was just as gentle as you would go up her arse....

Below was our conversation:

"Hi, I would like to ask about my bill and its an important matter."

"Oh, ~~I need to give my bf a blowjob~~, I put you on the billing department okay? "

10 fuckin (literally okay) minutes later..

"Hi, I am blabla from billing department. I checked through your account."

"So, do I have to pay you £2308.94 ??"

"Yes, sir... indeed" (bloody scottish accent)

~~"But why? because I hooked up on your wife?"~~

"Can I speak to the lovely lady who spoke to me at first? I havent finish flirting with her yet."
"Okay.. If you wish"

"Hi, cutie, can you check what was the final payment I've made to British Gas?"

"Yes, its £354.54 ."

"Do you know why I paid you this amount? Its should be the outstanding amount to terminate our energy supply by 19th June 2009. It was based on our true meter reading!! "

"Oh, ~~I thought you paid to get me laid.~~.. one moment I checked it up for you. "

Another 10 fuckin minutes.... (luckily I was using my kick-ass cordless phone, I can on loudspeaker, listen to the purrring voice the girl made, while I continue to work with my stuff )

"Yes sir, we finally found that it was based on a meter reading 10xxx is it correct sir? "

"~~HOW the fuck I gonna remember my meter reading??~~ I have no idea.. I guess so."

"But we dont have it recorded on our system, so we billed you. " (Equivalent of saying I am a guy but I have no cock! )

" Well, since you tell me, why dont you record it now ? I'm done !!"

"Okay sir, we will send you a new bill in 10 working days."

"WTF???? You gonna bill me again???? "

~~"Yes... for that phone porn you heard for 20 minutes!"~~

Thanks for your time dear... Oh, I have decided, since we didnt meet for so long, I compiled a short video specially for you. Enjoy dear !!

Please DO NOT estimate me okay ??

Yours sincerely

vY

The day I got my BT hub.

2009-09-19T01:28:00.002+01:00

One fine day when I was in London...

I was told the night before that our new broadband hub will reach the next day.
You know, we are all very excited about getting our new internet connection, claimed to be 20Mbps!

Early in the morning (actually its 10.15am) .... I heard a knock on my house's door.
I was somewhat dreaming, but I didnt know why, that soft slight knock woke me up almost immediately. As I'd told you, my mind was pre-programmed that my hub will reach today.

I popped up straight away, dash down the stairs and worried that the guy would leave. The truth is, those delivery guys do leave very quickly if they don't find you at home. As a result, you would need to pick up your package at the local depot.

And the story continues....

I rushed down, grabbed the door handle, flung open the door, prepared myself to say thank you.....
To my surprise 2 middle age black lady was standing in front of me.

Me on the other hand, so shocked, and was shivering (because cold la! )

Lady: " Good morning."

Me: "..... Good... ~~mourning~~ moorning........"

Lady: " Do you like peace? "

Me: (Yes I LOVE peace! Now could you give me some peace and piss off ? I wanna get some sleep here!!)
" Well, of course I do."

Lady: " How do you think we can be peaceful? "

Me * scratch head *
Lady: " Have you been reading the bible lately? " * flips open a page of a bible *

Urghhh I knew it!! Another Jesus lesson. You know it wouldnt be nice to chase them away.... what should I do? pretend that I am one of them.

Me: " Yes, I read it. Just finished a few months ago."

Lady: " No, I am not going to talk about the bible. Will you let me in? "

Me: (what the hell?? For f*ck sake no!! ) " Er, I might need to ask few of my friends, they might be interested, but they are not in at the moment. "

Lady: " Lovely, can I come back in the morning or afternoon?"

Me: " Unfortunately, we will always be busy in the morning or afternoon, we have lectures everyday. " (muahahaha.)

Lady: " Evening is fine too. "

Me: " err.... we'll see." Giving an extremely tulan look.
Lady: " Meanwhile take this.." * reaches her bag for something *

Me: " Oh.. I've already got a bible, its very kind of you."

Lady: " No, you wouldn't have this. "

* hands over this book to me *

Swt..................speechless......... !@##!%$&(*+_&^!

after a long -_-''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' face and

I got angry and threw it on the desk of my friend who wouldnt wanna wake up to answer the door.

After 1 hour.....
I heard another knock again. This time it was a loud and quick knock.
But paranoid I was, I walked slowly towards the door to peep. The knock came again, it sounded like the guy couldn't wait to take a dump.

Random guy : " Hello sir can I use your toilet? "

Finally my hub has arrived.

Nice cool hub.

It has the latest wireless N technology. The signal is so strong, I even get a full bar strength 2 floors below the hub.

And it came with a house phone attached.

Why is there a USB port??

thelondonpaper

2009-09-17T17:12:00.001+01:00

A few days ago while I was in London, I took a long lonely tube ride to Heathrow fetching Chai Earn and friends.

Since I was bored, I randomly picked up one of these to read. (they are always scattered all around in the tube)

Usually, you find alot of people giving out these free papers on the streets but usually I wouldnt take. You know... I am so used of growing up in Malaysia, when stranger approaches you, you just keep saying NO!
No matter what intentions they have.

Eg. "Hey!.!."

(Your mind would only perceive the "Hey!" shout and send out reflexes like Omg another scammer on the streets)
" No, no no... I am sorry, no time!"
" You dropped your wallet.... =.=''' "

Am I correct? Lols that was actually what happened to us in Scotland.

Well, I was so bored and I read almost all parts of the paper. Its full of gossip news ~~and sometimes nice hot pictures !!.~~

Even upside down...

Until I found this really really interesting page. Normally, it doesnt look very interesting and I would just flipped through thinking its some advertorial page. But that is this corner here that is just so awesome! check it out!!

Its called Lovestruck. Basically, its for flirting with the newspaper. You can send whatever messages you like to whoever random person u happened to meet on the bus, tube,.or restaurants or banks or ... Mars, Jupiter...etc

What's really really interesting and funny, are the messages the people send.

The message above is what I call a typical message. It reads:

" Rosa, the gorgeous dark-haired girl I saw on the Northern line (this is the london overground service line) to Waterloo last week. I missed two trains before speaking with you while you ate your burger. How about that drink? Guy doing sudoku on the tube."

Now I find this really cool :

(Sorry for the weird angles. I was like a weirdo taking pictures of the newspaper)

"To the beautiful dark haired girl waiting outside Mansion House station at 1pm on Tuesday. I caught you checking out my bum when I turned around. Fancy another look some time? Rear of the year "

Wow!! Rear of the year!! Loved this nickname. I wonder if she is a girl. wooshh.

I really like this column until the I read the next ~~fucking~~ message:

OMG WTF !! 哇特发 !!!!! Gay shits!

Finally this message below freaked me out the most:

" To the cute Asian guy at Kingston, 7am, end of platform on Wednesday. Me: tall, suited and thought you were cute. Drink? PRETTY COOL "

I swear I will not go to Kingston (wherever hell it is)!!!
* Instantly throwing the paper away.*
* Wipe sweat with sleeves *
* Looks around pretty carefully ~~showing middle finger to every guy that try to divert their eyes towards my sight.~~*
* gaze at chicks*

Chic Paris

2009-09-14T22:28:00.000+01:00

During the weekend of my visit back to London, my cousin and I brought our parents to Paris.

The 1st impression when I say Paris, people would think of fashion, style, high quality, high end, classy life. Yup, indeed you find all these in Paris !! Even their train station smells like you went in

But, maybe its true that grass is always greener on the other side...

After 2 years in London, I find Paris "cOOler". Perhaps london and alot of european cities share the same high end life. Is Paris overated? You have got to find out.

I havent got the time to visit all around Paris, especially its famous Disneyland (NOOoooo..... not when you are with parents.. omg) 2 days 1 night is really a short trip.

A little side track...
I realised that airlines are really safe! They made all the little precautions even in the budget airline industry.
So dont worry, when you accidently again, light up your cigeratte in the lavatory, there is always a safety measure! Hahaha

But....

There you go.

There are alot of fashion outlets and brand in Paris that you dont really find it elsewhere. Good news right?!

Walking on the streets of Paris makes you feel like a jacoon. People are just so trendy.

They have poster promoting parties.

We stayed in a 2 star hotel for 110 euros per night, near Champs-Élysées, one of the world most famous avenues.

Straight after lunch, we went to visit the Eiffel towel. However we didnt went up : ( due to some limitations...

The view from bottom..

Beautiful piece of architechure.

Then we went on to cruise along the river Seine
The boat cost 8 euros for students, unlimited ride within that day. It brings you along the "much cleaner than Thames" river to all the wonderful sites.

Omgwtf.. There were alot of ~~guys~~ people sunbathing almost naked on the bank.

The 1st stop was Notre Dame de Paris

Its a cathedral with lots of sculpture. Entrance free!

Thats how it looks inside.. although it says no photo taking, I was blinded by flashes once i stepped in.

Then we skipped a few of stops, until we reach Louvre!

Fatique is an issue if you try to walk with your parents you know. So we didnt went in the museum either.

No we didnt went in!

Came across this cafe, I wonder how would you pronounce it.

We ended our day early because everyone was lack of sleep. They even fell asleep on the cruise on river Seine!

The time was 6pm. No night activities. sigh......

The next day, we went to visit a french market. I find it similar to those you find in London. But I have to say, the French know at least what is the best thing in life:

SEAFOOD!!!! Look at the king crabs and big big prawns!

Well these are the ones you find in London too.

Well thats all! Merci.

Project 365

2009-09-14T01:30:00.032+01:00

If you haven't heard about this you can click here.

I've got to try this, and see how free I can go to post a photo a day for 365 days. (hmm.. maybe its because I was too bored spending these few days in London with my auntie uncle and mom. Aih.. what to do?)

I shall edit this post to add the photos up, so in the end I can view the whole long list of nice memories! HOpefully 365 of them.

Its a great great day to start my project 365 with this:

Day 1. 12/9/2009

Paris!! I'm here the 1st time today after studying 2 years in London.

Day 2. 13/9/2009

In a hotel room with mum. I tried to recall the last time I was in a room with her? Primary school?
Felt very weird... but hey, when will be the next time I'll share a room singlely with her?

Day 3. 14/9/2009

At last I bought some mop and pail to clean our house.

Day 4. 15/9/2009

Did this.... And ended up caught in the rain. Grrr.

Day 5. 16/9/2009

Bye bye London! and hello KL again. Gosh, took plane 7th time this summer.

Day 6. 17/9/2009

Oh it felt like suddenly you lost 1 day in your life.

Day 7. 18/9/2009

Sat back at home staring in front of the computer all the time.

Day 8. 19/9/2009

Went to Jogoya for lunch first time ever!! I remembered last year we were nearly there when zk and aiwoon was around. But, she hated it so much....

Day 9. 20/9/2009

Went to the pasar malam first time in year 2009 ? Yes I think so, after 3 months I was back from summer.

Day 10. 21/9/2009

Went to IKEA. Its pronounced as .. eyekea... not ek-kea by the many other people in this world. Its was crowded because of Raya holidays. Found out that some things are cheaper here, some are cheaper in UK. Say, the document holder/rack, it cost like RM20 here but its £8.99 back there. I bought one to bring back UK.

Day 11. 22/9/2009

Went to Menjalara Park to jog. There used to be people who wants to jog with me in summer 2008. This summer, I came to jog alone every now and then. I jog quite often, and it was my training ground before I climbed Mount Kinabalu in August. The people over there always give me a weird look. Either its like, "hey why is he alone?".... or ... " Come on, a kid like you this age is motivated to jog?" I think the later makes more sense. I only see young people with athlete outfit jogs here. Where are the others? You can't even run away from a robber man !

Day 12. 23/9/2009

Took the car to service. (I dont really use "my" because I only drive quarter of its total mileage) Well, my mom was lazy to service it, and the previous one was like 9 months ago???? Its alignment was totally off, ended up the tires all screwed. Changed 2 sets of yokohama tires. The whole service cost RM420 in total.

Day 13 - 15

Oh, now I can see it, I am starting to skip the days that nothing happened. Literally, nothing! I woke up stare at the ceiling, read papers, check mail, eat home cooked food and sleep.

Day 17. 28/9/2009

When I was eating some wan tan noodles at a really old store in a really old town named Kepong, I saw this hello kitty mug. And its not only one, its on every table! Well, it contains pickled chilli, for the noodles. The owner's children must have liked it so much.

Day 18. 29/9/2009

Saw my cousin online and she was back from Melbourne. Straightaway I asked her and her brother out for "Gamer" in midvalley. I recalled that at some point, my summer was so busy with numerous events to attend in a day. How I wish I could split those events and put in these days....

Day 19. 30/9/2009

This picture was taken on the Menjalara park hill top. During secondary times, I used to fly kites here, and even catch grasshoppers. I also used to view the whole Menjalara when I was on top of it. Now realised that lots of new apartments rose since I went to UK.

Day 22. 3/10/2009

Its mooncake festival! Had some catch up with my old school mates Ai Theng, Hong Yau, and Shi Bin. In the evening, we went to my uncle's house in Bangsar for a little Mooncake dinner. The house is really nice, with a swimming pool. We (cousins) ended up playing Wii in the TV room.

Day 23. 4/10/2009 Sunday

Finally met up with HELP college mates, Keng Yih and Tick Siang; the best buddies in A levels. Our chem lecturer called us the 3 ducklings, noisy and sticked together speaking mandarin and cantonese.

Day 24. 5/10/2009 Monday

Spend the very last few hours in Malaysia assembling a chair from Ikea. Yes, I haven't packed yet. Till then, bye Malaysia, and hello London againnnn.....

Day 25. 6/10/2009 Tuesday

Walking towards the Air Asia Airbus. Air Asia to London is not that bad as many would perceive. It actually have large seats and wider spaces than MAS. Just that, there is no entertainment system, main cure for jetlag !! When you got no movies to watch, you just sleep, there is no reason to get jetlag.

Day 26. 7/10/2009 Wednesday

Our department 3rd year and final year project presentation. Somehow this 2 professors wanna show their photos in same the bath robe....and... the same hotel room...... WTH ????

Day 27. 8/10/2009 Thursday

Went shopping in Ikea London. We bought alot of furnitures. Fortunately, the delivery agreed to give us a ride with our stuffs home! Imagine loads of goods and 5 people in a 7 seater car, thats what you get !!

Day 28. 9/10/2009 Friday

Tsi Ngar, William, Yiew Wen and Hun Sze came to London. Me and Ai Woon host.

Day 29. 10/10/2009 Saturday

As usual, the London tour will be wax museums, china town, oxford street!! Wooo! etc I think the best place for them is still Oxford Street.

Day 30. 11/11/2009 Sunday

Send them back to Nottingham. I am back to start my real term routine.

Day 32. 13/10/2009 Tuesday

First Entrepreneur class. Now I find that I like business modules more than technical subjects. At least it makes more sense than stupid signals, maths and MOS devices.

Day 33. 14/10/2009 Wednesday

Picture took from walking a long 3.5km road to class. Damn all my other 3 housemates have no class today.

Day 34. 15/10/2009 Thursday

Bought a chicken to roast for dinner. And yes ! The lemon is to shove up the chicken ass. Oops... 18 SX. If you are under 18, do not try this recipe at home.

Day 35. 16/10/2009 Friday

Spend my Friday night at TGI Fridays. Celebrated Xin Ying's birthday, she is one of my ex hall mate.

Day 36. 17/10/2009 Saturday

We came out with an idea to work on! So the day was spend on brainstorming. Later that night I found this very huge fly in my room, managed to snap a close up shot.

Day 37. 18/10/2009 Sunday

Carried a huge luggage bag to return to Ai Woon. Melissa tagged along to pay her and Emily a visit. We went to eat Okonomiyaki, a japanese style omelet.

Day 39. 20/10/2009 Tuesday

It was a busy day. Firstly had 2 hours lectures only ... haha. Then straight after, I went futsal with bunch of HK friends. The night ended with a dinner to celebrate Chen Si's birthday.

Day 40. 21/10/2009 Wednesday

Min Ken's bicycle has finally arrived. If you purchase a bike from UK, it is sent to you with parts and pieces. So, we took an afternoon to assemble it before riding off to get groceries. Two days after that, his paddle fell off. ROFL

Day 41. 22/10/2009 Thursday

Today, I changed my personal message to something like :" UK are full of idiots"
Well, you should see the cheque send to us by British Gas, pay --> Mr Seah??

Day 42. 23/10/2009 Friday

Today is Siang Ling's birthday. This is the third week of our term and, we are still having guests all these weekends. Nigel and Esther joined the celebration.

Day 43. 24/10/2009 Saturday

Natural History Museum of London. This is one of the famous visit for London. I stayed opposite this building for my first year, and pass by daily when I go to school. YES!! Today was my first visit to the museum with our guests. Soon, when there are enough guests visiting me in London, I would have cover all the attraction in London, which I always think I will be there "one day" eventually. Come come, visit me more!

Day 44. 25/10/2009

Time for a home cook meal! Fish porridge. This is how I make our fish porridge. Cut thin pieces of ~~fresh~~
frozen fish meat, cook porridge. When porridge is done, I will add the thin fish slices into the porridge. The meat will be cooked by the heat stored in the porridge. This way, you get sweet, tender and juicy fish meat in your porridge without spoiling your porridge or fish.

Day 45. 26/10/2009 Monday

Formatted my computer. Downloaded CS4 to work on and end up with deadly virus. I hope our project can work on.

Day 46. 27/10/2009 Tuesday

A piece of interesting information I got from watching entrepreneurship class video: According to one US research, for every 10points higher in a women's IQ, the chance of finding a mate is decrease in 10%. Girls, dont be too smart... haha

Day 47. 28/10/2009 Wednesday

This is a small modern art museum called king's place. I went there to watch Xuefei Yang concert tonight. I dont think many people will appreciate classical guitar, but the performance was really good. However, I find the person sitting next to me falling asleep.

Day 50. 31/10/2009 Saturday

Halloween! We didnt celebrate it much, except for a simple dinner last night. Saturday is a busiest day for markets around my area. This is a fish store, they sell all sorts of seafood, very fresh and reasonably cheap.

Day 51. 1/11/2009 Sunday

Sunday night, and I am in college for a project meeting. Well its not actually night yet, but its 5pm on November, so its pitch dark like night. Argh, why do I need to work on Sundays? To be fair, I had a free Friday.

Day 52. 2/11/2009 Monday

Winter is coming! See the large amount of piled up leaves.

Day 53. 3/11/2009 Tuesday

The first task for our year 3 group project is to take 500 pictures of wine bottle labels using iPhone. What a tedious job. It doesnt sound like a project right?

Day 54. 4/11/2009 Wednesday

Tried the crepe in a very famous Crepe shop in South Kensington. It is famous and you need to queue up during peak hours. Well, not too bad I say.

Day 55. 5/11/2009 Thursday

Stephanie found a way to look even more stylish when she forgot her hair rubber band.

Day 56. 6/11/2009 Friday

Preparing a steak dinner and welcoming Ai Woon. Melissa's cutting a pineapple... Looks pretty dangerous.

Day 57. 7/11/2009 Saturday

Went "Marketing". Can you count the number of fruits and vege we've got? Leek, okras, lettuce, banana, avocados, tomato, lemon grass, spring onions, pineapple, clementines, scotch bonnets, shallots, ginger.....

Day 60. 10/11/2009 Tuesday

My bicycle has arrived too. Now we got 4 bikes in the house.

Day 61. 11/11/2009 Wednesday

Its Michael's and Jo Jo's belated birthday. Had an great time eating and singing K in China City, china town.

Day 63. 13/11/2009 Friday

Visited Xin Ying's apartment near St. James Park. Ate okonomiyaki again. I remembered Xin Ying said " What do you think he will look like when he is 60?" She was addressing to Jiun Siang, but I would like to put it here and lets see whether I will read this again when I am 60. Oh the picture was taken in Haagen Dazs desert dine in. Delicious desserts that make you feel happy for few hours.

Day 64. 14/11/2009 Saturday

The girls made us all a homecooked dinner. Fantastic night with 7-8 chinese dishes, great catching and guessing game, and early smash on the birthday Brian.

Day 68. 18/11/2009 Wednesday

Winter is drawing near, it is rare occasion that one could enjoy a sunset view with clear skies like this around this season.

Day 69. 19/11/2009 Thursday

A sick person and an empty bottle of "Pei Pak Kou"

Day 71. 21/11/2009 Saturday

Reunion at Nottingham! Today, Londoners visited Nottingham!

Day 72. 22/11/2009 Sunday

We had a great chit chat mamaking session in Yiew Wen's accomodation kitchen from 3 till dark. Its nice to find out a lot more about our usual hang out gang that is still able to stick together in UK.

Day 75. 25/11/2009 Wednesday

At last, a sunny day which made cycling to class fun!

Day 76. 26/11/2009 Thursday

Made char siew! honey roasted pork.

Day 79. 29/11/2009 Sunday

Gloomy weather with a rainbow.

Day 80. 30/11/2009 Monday

Sunset on white apartments... Part of bicycle ride to college (1)

Day 81. 1/12/2009 Tuesday

They instantly process the chopped trees beside the roads. Part of bicycle ride to college (2)

Day 82. 2/12/2009 Wednesday

Part of bicycle ride to college (3)

Day 84. 4/12/2009 Friday

Night, night. Most of the time night falls before I return from college.

Day 85. 5/12/2009 Saturday

We bought a multipurpose food processor. This is avocado milkshake! Very yummy.

Day 87. 7/12/2009 Monday

Christmas is near, and that means end of autumn term real soon. Our college put up nice decorations every corner, with really pretty trees.

Day 88. 8/12/2009 Tuesday

Had a meeting with Dr. Bharath (Project supervisor) at 9am, how early! Imagine looking back down after climbing these floors to the supervisor's office.

Day 89. 9/12/2009 Wednesday

Part of bicycle ride to college (4)

Day 90. 10/12/2009 Thursday

Quite surprise to see our neighbour not from next door, but from the next 2 doors send us a Christmas Card!

Day 93. 13/12/2009 Sunday

Was in the college's library from 1pm till 11pm. As a result of Christmas party yesterday, we got to rush for everything.

Day 94. 14/12/2009 Monday

This is a Motorola Milestone, the new Motorola model with Android 2.0 os. And this is what our 3rd project is about! How bout this... it is free for my use now until I complete the project I guess. But yea by that time, I would be bored of this phone already! Hahaha, want to do a 3rd year project like mine?

Day 95. 15/12/2009 Tuesday

Sai Kit's and Nanyi's birthday! All the chinese in the class except for few Singaporeans went to celebrate and sing K. It was hell lot of a crazy night as you can see from the bill I've got here!! We got more than 10 dozens of beer and a freaking high night.

Day 96. 16/12/2009 Wednesday

The crazy party continued to the next morning.. Here we were 4am in the freezing morning eating duck rice at China town with lots of half drunk people.

Part 2

I'm a UCL graduate

2009-09-10T01:58:00.000+01:00

" I'm no mug. I'm a UCL graduate "

My 3rd year starts on october, but I am already back here in UK a week ago. Well, I was here for my cousin's graduation at University College London.

I was quite reluctant and regretted that I promised my mom and auntie to guide them to UK so early in September. So I packed late at that night just before I fly. When I opened up my laptop bag...something heavy dropped out.

Oh shit!! Its a bottle of tiger beer I bought for Sungkai Trip 2 weeks ago. I didnt drink it that night. And I've got to hide it. I knew my mom would find it, no matter where. At last I decided to place it here.. the best hideout I found

Yes! It is my bookshelf, the most obvious is sometimes the least noticable.

Here I am, embarking on a familiar nostalgic road. The road to leave home...

You wouldnt know how hard it is to travel with 3 ~~elderly~~ grown grown ups. They thought UK was a dessert and London was a refugee camp. As a result, the only young person there had a free gym workout.

Look at the amount of luggages...(food, maggi, toiletries...)

On the MAS boeing 747, my mum insisted that I sit with her. Damn.... that means there is no chance to check out some hot stewardess (nah.....are there any?)

I hate flights, because I cant sleep. Why??

1st. ~~You need to keep an eye on all the stewardess~~ You are always awakened by somebody (apparently some auntie or steward...shit...) to ask you whats your choice of meal. Grrr!!

2nd. Because you paid so much, every meal and every chance they are serving drinks, you would just take.

3rd. And because you paid them some money, they serve you with alot of drinks and snacks you just couldnt not take.

4th. Still, because you paid for the airticket, you need to watch as much movies as you can.

After hell lots of juices, coffee, tea... Its time to go toilet. And that is what you find in the toilet.

Normally you hear the warning: " Smoking is prohibited throughout the flight and smoking in the toilet may set up the fire alarm. "

On the other side of the lavatory you find this:

Is this a cigerette sign ? I'm pretty sure it is. So I opened it to check it out.

I was thinking... Is it used for what it was build for? Disppose cigarettes?

Or, maybe, when someone accidently, opps... lights up his cigarette, and soon found out,

HOLY SHIT!! I am on a plane's toilet. Then he has got to say.. pheww.... I can throw it away quickly to this safe container!

Or.. One might need to ring the attendant. " I lit up a cigarette!! What should I do?"

Should we ask him ?

Ok, hell lot of boring crap. Talk about the graduation in UCL, I pitty my cousin, because I dont think it was a grand one. The ceremony was only for economic faculty students.

Apparently, if you look at the picture of the tickets... you will see 1 chinese on the left, 1 malay looking in the middle and 1 indian on the right. WTH? Is this really UCL ?

I guess by wearing this proves it is.

Outside Logan Hall

Graduates..

Some boring majestic brass band (why is it only 3 old people there playing?)

A speech from the head

And then some drinks and some free for all photo sessions. Thats it. Thats all it!!! 3 years of life and RM600,000. That was pretty much it.

Congratulations to my cousin graduated with a first class hons degree from 1 of the best university in the world (thats what the dean said). Luckily to him it was the 3 years without the RM600,000 for a petronas scholar. Well done!

16th Malaysia ?

2009-08-31T18:56:00.000+01:00

A while ago, I called some of my single friends (who are still free enough) for a little adventure.

This time we headed to the goldcoast of Malaysia. We took many pictures, and a random video.
Somehow, this video instantly reminded those of us who watched the 15Malaysia video that it should fit into the 16th video.

Although there are 70++ more recommended videos tag 15Malaysia in youtube.....

I decided to proudly present our new production!
Don't worry, I am not stealing from your blog. See, I still give you the biggest credit by naming it after you. hahaha.

A Taste of Sepang

Synopsis:

A group of Malaysian overseas student decided to visit Sepang and for once they are not going there for the airport. At the end of the road, it was a beautiful horizon with calm waters. The surrounding vegetation would suggest they reached the sea, but it seems like they found a big lake. Now, its time to check it out...

Production team:
me
Angeline
AiWoon

Logistic manager:
Aaron Lee

Happy Merdeka everybody!!

Time accelerates.....

2009-08-23T16:16:00.000+01:00

My best friend Zk (oh yea, he got a blog. go read go read ) just left Malaysia.

Then, I felt like this year's summer was much shorter than last year's. It seems like there were less outings and events.

Maybe, its because we are so used to the concept of summer. The mamak sessions, the movies, and it felt just like a normal dream. Unlike when I first step out of school, everything was a new sight, and I was consciously living through it.

On my 2nd thought, I kinda came out with a theory. We live in a world of relativity. When we were one year old, just like my cousin's baby, 1 year is so significant. This year after I returned, she grew from a sleeping baby to a baby girl who can walk and talk.

Now, 1 year wouldnt mean a lot to me, its just another year in uk... Sometimes I wonder, when I am much older, will 10 years still matter to me? Well, I might say, its just another 10 years. Exactly like how my parents would talk to their old friends: "Hey, how have you been in these 10 years?"

Fortunately, I am still at the point where I would ask my dear friends, "So, what have u been up to this year?"

Man, life is short....
We should have more fun!

To Arthur

2009-08-16T18:51:00.001+01:00

Went to Sabah for a 10 days trip, it was so much fun and adventure. We went diving for 4 days and up the mystical mount Kinabalu for another 2 days. The remaining days are for rest. During the trip, we went to watch GI Joe, but just before the movie, 1 commercial inspired us. Below is what it was:

The next day, we bought a bottle of guinness and head up to the mountains !! I was determined, no matter how hard it could be, I will bring the guinness bottle to the highest peak.
And so, the celebration begins.....

A missed out post

2009-07-30T18:10:00.000+01:00

Wow, I just found out that I typed a long page about my easter trip and it was still in the drafts. Now its time to publish it.

Amsterdam it is.

Results

2009-07-26T16:42:00.000+01:00

Congrats for those who pass the year! Good luck to those who needs to resit.

Oh time for results release!!
Someone is obviously happy about her result. ^.^ We shared the joy with her and we get to eat this:

Yum yum.

So, how about mine?
Well should I be happy or sad?

Was initially quite satisfied with my results, after all the slacking and chilling for the year, I still managed to secure a border line 1st. Then I got a 2nd and 3rd email, telling me mistakes they made in recording my marks... swt... Good thing they send me a better result.

So, why should I feel sad?

Our engineering undergraduate courses here have 2 types. Bachelor in ~~life~~ engineering(BEng) and master in engineering (MEng). Looks like all the person I know in my class are going to BEng course. That means, I am off alone to MEng. Come and think of it, that is not bad eh? You get a chance to go to other department and study one academic year there.

Hmm.... lets see what would my life be on the 1st day of lecture in 3rd year. Wake up in an autumn morning, had a nostalgic dream of what I did in Malaysia. Walk out of the house, everybody still sleeping...Walking ~~enthusiastically~~ reluctantly on the streets, freaking 45 mins along the long Fulham road, talking to myself.
At last I reach a new department, take my last 5 mins to find the room. Now I can already hear the lecturer talking, (oh shit I m late!)... Slowly I push open the door, even my lightest push will attract everyone's attention! (trust me, you been in lecture halls before right)

At this moment, Holy Shit!! I just got 200 guys looking at me!!
In my mind it will go like this: "Wtf ?!?! omg ... omfg .... I dun wanna study here !!!"
In the rest of the 200 mind: " Wat the hell is this random guy doing here? Get the efff out we had enuf!!!"

And I m not joking, welcome to electrical engineering department of Imperial College London.

Happy or sad ?

Four Seasons

2009-06-26T14:09:00.000+01:00

Some time ago, I found from my random picture folder, the view outside my window..... To my surprise I actually took a picture of four different season.

Then I came to recall the time that I always wondered what would a life with four seasons would be like....

This is where I stayed for a year, it looks nice, but the building on the right is a hospital, and the stupid road is a main road. Noisy sirens, ambulance and annoying motorcycles throughout the year. Now, I kinda miss it though, I cant fall asleep because its too quiet.

Autumn

Mark the start of my year in uk. The 1st time I stepped into uk, and its always the beginning of the new academic year. It felt like every piece of fallen leaf contains the memory I brought from home, but it will soon no longer be there. Its quite emotional and its always hard get the brain starting, after rotting for few months.

Autumn also marks the start of new challenges, new fun ahead!

Winter

This year's winter was great, and fun for the biggest snow in 20 years.
But normally its always dark and gloomy for winter. As daytime is short, you dont even catch the moment the day pass by. Busy term with lots of lectures and assignments. I dont particularly like winter except for the snow.

Spring

At last you can catch the sun!
A beautiful season, as you see flowers blooming and buds popping out. Sort of cheers you up after a bad long day of lectures. And there goes your academic lecture hours. All that left when spring time, its just exam.
Then when I look out my window, goodness, another year has gone, so fast?

Summer

Exam time and study time. I love this season the most. It felt as if you had study the whole night, but the night is just too short.
Long long daytime, some days it never gets dark. After exams, summer time means fun and holiday. Four months free to go! Weather's just nice to go out without an additional hoodie which is so annoying to take off and wear again all the time.
Oh missed summer so much.

Luck

2009-05-13T23:20:00.000+01:00

Was I always so lucky back in the days?

Its awful, feeling ultimately blank looking at the exam questions today! 1st time ever I left 50% of the paper blank!!

There is no such thing as luck in exams..... Its always, I am good!! I don't need luck.
Once again, I was fooled by luck.

Never wish good luck because there is no luck!!

I can accept failure anytime in my life, but not now!! I want my degree!!
I was wrong... study 70% of the course material wont yield a 70% result.

And why did they rose the passing marks to 40% ????

F*Cking screwed!

Amsterdam

2009-04-10T23:15:00.001+01:00

During this busy and critical easter month, when one had to wake up earlier than lecture time just to get a desk space in the library....
And I went for trip!! As planned earlier with AiWoon we went to Amsterdam, the wonderful land of windmill and tulips!! Well is that just the flowers that attracted so many tourist???

Absolutely not!!

Perhaps the most interesting fact of Amsterdam for ahem.. naive young people like us is that prostitution and drugs in Amsterdam are legal ! Yea, its just like having a chicken rice stall in town.. its legal, nobody felt disgust or disturbed. Do you remember one of the essay/debate topic in high school ? Should prostitution be legal? The picture here is, why not, its totally a win-win situation!

When there were ships, cannons and trading, Amsterdam was a very prosperous town owned by rich merchants. Everytime the sailors returned home or passed by, they were paid with money. And with money, the sailors would seek some fun and some chill out moment in the local bars. The problem was, the sailors after being out few months at the sea, needed "something". So, they seeked for young ladies in town. The locals didnt like this, and said: Why not we select a group young ladies who were willing to do so and leave the rest of our ladies pure. And this was the origination of prostitution.

There are 3 mottos of the Dutch and they still practice until now - money, discrete and tolerance. Well, the sex industry paid taxes and attract tourists, that is money. Having coffeeshops which sells drugs is discrete, and they tolerated it, because this keeps the rest of the young ladies in the comunity pure. Today, the red light district in Amsterdam is a very famous tourist attraction. You will be amazed by how organised their sex industry is.

The impression of the red light district might be like dodgy, small dark and smelly alley. In the middle of here there lies a church. Besides, according to the tour guide, there are police in the few entrance guarding every night. There is even a kindergarten right in the middle of that place. Ask the kids: "Do you know what are those ladies doing?"
They will answer you: "I think they sell kisses."

You will be surprised that the prostitutes here own their own body and business. There is no pimps. It works like this. Shops around the area are converted to many small rooms with a big windows just like shopping centres. The whores rent the unit and pay monthly rent and taxes. When you walk by, the windows, they will be standing with bikini and try to attract customers. The window is also a door, the customers would go in through the door. While some windows are with curtains closed and this means that they are having business. Those windows will be lighted with either red neon lights or blue lights means a gal (or probably not) with balls. For your information, nobody is naked by the window.. lols
Maybe you might also think of like there will be some gangster or thugs behind these business, so when something turns wrong, you will be dragged and who knows what might happen. Actually, its not. The whores take care of themselves. When there is something going wrong, they have this alarm system, all the other ladies around would come and kill you instead. If you are curious, a 15min blow would cost 50 euros. Request for other services - prices unknown. There is also a very narrow alley where the elites are. They are a little hotter and younger and expensive! Just so you know, some prostitute there are fat or old or both... omg .....

~~ Above information is provided by the red light district tour guide, which I paid 15euros for.
I was 10 times more attentive than any other lectures that I paid 20k pounds for :) ~~

The following might be disturbing...

Since its a "must try", we went to watch a sex show which cost 30 euros. Let me tell you, its really a show for entertainment. Its like a circus just that its erotic. The show consists of live sex, (so a 3D porno), and some strips. The thing is they are so flexible. They can twist and swing their legs to whatever style and position they like instantly. They can even follow the dj music beat. But its quite fake because the same pair can repeat the live sex hourly. Maybe they are just too used to it O.O However the most amazing part of the whole show was this younger girl. (I think most of them are over 30, abit eew) She can smoke with her vagina. She came out with a strip dance as usual and started lighting up a cigratte which she smokes for a puff or 2. Then she did a yoga style shoulder stand and stick the cigratte into her part and started sucking air and puffing.

Something interesting for guys.... hehehe. its that they have this live participation. There was a part where guys volunteers are asked up the stage, the dancer will peel a banana then lie down, place it sticking out of her vagina and ask them to eat it. eeew ??!

Then there were some interesting encounters walking on the streets of the red light district that night.

1.) We were bumped by 2 friendly teenager. From their attire, they looked more like they were heading to a mosque. At first they greed us and asked us where are we from. The minute we said Malaysia, he said "assalamualaikum" .... wth, muslim kid ? What are you doing here ?

Then he took out a small plastic bag of something from his pocket and ask if I was interested. Something like a few grams of caramel or cane sugar. He said "coke". What! I always thought it is in some white powder form!

2.) When we were loitering outside a "theatre", a bouncer came to approach us.

Bouncer: " Hey, what are you waiting for? come in!"
Me: " How much?"
Bouncer: " 30 euros, and if you come in now I give you 2 free drinks!"

We were still deciding ... err.. maybe not tonight ... er....

Min Ken: " Its bit early now, how about later?"
Bouncer: " Early?? You asians are crazy man. You got a f*cking big brain, but a f*cking small penis (points at his own penis)!! Why not you go eat your f*cking peiking duck or something?!"
Min Ken: " Thats a great idea! where is the duck?"
Bouncer: " Yea, go eat your f*cking peiking duck behind that street!"

LoLs and walked away.

20

2009-03-26T17:50:00.000Z

Wow, 1 more day , and 2nd year is gone... ended. Cant believe its over. Busy 2nd year.

Finally presenting our product of the year:

For those who would want to pursue bio mechanics.... this is what you do, I dont like it, and maybe thats why i didnt like the year. Presenting our prototype for design project, a brace for cerebal palsy patient.

It took us 2 terms, lots of group meetings and time. Luckily our group did it quite efficiently haha, so we are among the fastest to finish our prototype!

The most important lesson is to learn to work with people, no matter you want it or like it or not. Its definately hard and harsh for many people including me, but I think that it is extremely vital for working in society next time.

Last saturday.... ...
Well hmm guess what's this guy doing ??

And these people....

Something's not right!!

One tradition here, birthday no one gets away easy.
So, as expected, numerous attempts were made to egg me even at the very 1st hour of my 20th life. Due to my extreme high alertness and thanks to miss aiwoon whom just at the hour (0000) msn me to wish me happy birthday. First thing, I popped up, paused my video and rush as fast as I could to the toilet. Immediately with few eggs came smashing onto the toilet door.

As I thought everything should be over on that night because we were all too busy with the projects. So I just ask them for a dinner the next day in a japanese restaurant nearby. And we happy happy went to eat a great meal. Cost in totals 250 pounds for 2 tables.

After a not so full dinner, we walked out of the restaurant. I was actually thinking what to do for the project later, and suddenly, someone smashed my head. It just took a few milliseconds for the impulse to travel to my cerebral cortices. Within moments for some circuitry analysis going on my brain, a reflex impulse was first rapidly send to my lower limbs and I started to dash away. Ok I just got a hard smash of egg on my head. While fleeing I could sense using my peripheral visual inputs and auditory inputs that an army were chasing behind me.

I started to realise that I made a mistake because I didnt expect the ambush on the streets!!! Imagine 1 poor girl got splashed with some eggs beside the road. There was an explosion of flour too like flash bangs.
After analysis, I counted more than 20 eggs, 2 bottle of whipped cream, 1kg of flour, and water.

The results... I guess I wouldnt want to eat eggs for this coming week.

Omg... even when we were taking group photo, someone quietly spray whipped cream on my head!!

情人节

2009-02-15T22:11:00.000Z

And guess what i did ??

......

Prepared lunch for 40 people!!!!

count the number of portions... haha

Woa... didnt expect that i had to spread love to 40 people.......

Basically I cooked chicken rice to cater for members of Malaysian society for the full run of Malaysian night which will be on next 2 weeks.

Bought chicken, rice, ginger, garlic, soy sauce ...etc. Work from 12midnight to 5am...

Boil chicken, cook rice, add slices of cucumbers into tupperwares.
Place inside boxes.

And people lined up to buy for 2 pounds per packet.

Sigh..... What a day!!

White CNY

2009-02-02T23:22:00.001Z

Wake up its Chinese New Year !!

2nd year of my Chinese New Year being abroad. So I am quite used to not getting angpows, and not getting to feast. On a Saturday before new year eve, we decided to celebrate. Because there wouldnt be any holidays and time to have it on the real day.

Went to china town to get stuff for our mini dinner in the night.

Since its chinese new year, so must feast right? Ok had 1st time dim sum in London, no no dont consider the price, cause its priceless ha ha ha. And surprisingly they serve bubble tea, you know those colourful ones you can find it in pasar malam.

I ordered an apple flavoured 1, and they serve normal teh tarik type with pearls too. Dim sum menu here is pretty much like Malaysian 1. Siu mai, har gao, wu gok, lobak....

The food we had for steamboat night, enough to feed us 2nd night.

Just that I was thinking of not getting an angpow this year.. What a surprise!! A very kind singaporean in my class, she actually put chocs into angpow packets and gave to ppl in the class on the 1st day of cny. So we still can mood up abit.

Chinese New Year, red red red spring festival, suppose to welcome the coming spring. So spring is drawing near indeed.? Well, it is though. The following few days, London became warmer, like 6-7 degrees celcius. I was so hot in the night that I woke up, feeling so itchy, kick off my duvet, and opened my window wide open. My friend even had nose bleed, saying that he is just too hot !

Until the point, one night I need to implement some physics, forced convection!! Open the window, outside air didnt came in, so I used a fan to forced it into my room.

Cool ~~~ natural air cond.

London weather was so unpredictable. Few days after that, it snow. Crazy amount of snow, and so rare that it snowed that much until everything in London got into a mess.

What to do? Snowball fight of course.
Yesterday night went outside the road, its all white covered with snow.

The result of a fight at 12midnight of a Sunday. Prepared to sleep in lectures tomorrow.

To show how thick the snow went....

The next day, 1st hour reach college, omg class was cancel due to poor London transport, everything is quite chaotic. The next thing, every1 rushed out to the area and started snowball fight. I realised how it feels like to play with snow without gloves, painful ....

This guy used a bin to scoop snow...

Hmm... snowmans, and yea they are everywhere, some with different designs, some with obscene figures....

But this 1 really must give credit to the person who made it. Its so tall, ... how did they stacked it on????

2nd year's thought

2009-01-21T22:25:00.000Z

Honestly, have you ever thought that you had chosen the wrong course? Are you envious ? " I wish to be like him/her because he/her did the right choice of studying what they like?"... hmm.. what about if I could make a decision again?

....Random thoughts.

In primary school,
Chinese primary school is nightmare for every student I guess. Its stressful for a kid, who should be growing up in their lovely wonderland, but... just for that UPSR, we had the longest class time. The longest class hours I ever had in life, especially 全日制 some sort of whole day system. We had to study from morning 7.45am till 5 or 6 pm, 4 days a week.... Wtf is that.
Worst still is the cruelty, children now are so lucky because they wont have it now. We got punished not because we are naughty, but we were not perfect in our practices.
Practice makes perfect, but canning makes practice perfect! That is those sort of character we were shaped, and those characters we carried with us...Well I brought it to secondary school; to university now. I am still a perfectionist, those who don't favour to accept people's idea.. I believe that if I work hard enough, I could accomplish without needing to rely on others. Academic wise this is like the "ISO certified mind", I never fail to express this strong stubborn character. Not too bad, this had brought me so far, so good.

I can clearly remember the tone sounded from Cikgu Koh (our malay teacher in primary 6B): "Siapa salah?!"
Guess what, a number of student would stood up, and she went around the desks, delivering a powerful whip of rattan strike, hopefully the pain and fear will make sure for life you wont do the same mistake again. This was the story: while we were doing past UPSR year papers, she would discuss the questions and answers 1 by 1. We were marking our friends paper. So whoever who did a mistake in a similar question that were taught before, we got punished. Phew, I remembered there was this time, I was too tired to study my spelling and fell asleep on my bed, and I got only 3 out of 10. Then 7 hard strokes came on my left palm. I had a blue black, numb and swollen palm for 2 weeks. I didnt dare to tell my mum or dad about it. I kept my palm hidden or in my pocket all the time.....

In secondary school,
Self motivation was needed. During form 5, really thought SPM would be everything.
Its like after achieve good results, I can get scholarship or get good good future plans, which I would have to worry after that whether I get distinction or not. Exams wouldnt be scary and stressful after that. I just need to pass everything and thats all.

Together with my good gang of friends, we mug and compete to nerd even more... (seriously, SPM was the only time that I studied the hardest). It turn out not bad, and so what? It didnt really seperate and grade us well enough to get us what we wanted. Disappointed and ok I was wrong.

In A levels,
"Ok, this is really the final final 1. Study hard to get into university and course you wanted, and that's it! Time to relax and pass the exams. Life after would be so much easier because I would be doing what I am interested in isn't it? Dont have to force my mind to memorise every single word in the Sejarah text book, no idiotic moral subject or EST... Its just like you are free to do what you like, listen to subjects that even you dont go lectures you would read up urself in wiki."

Well, study study study for A levels, trust my thoughts for 1 last time .....and poof!!

Present...
"OMG... Why am I studying this? Its just feels like SPM where we were forced to study this subject because it is part of the course, part of what we had to go through to get to higher education." I choose this ! wth ?? Did I really choose this?

Main topic of the day, how do you define your university education?

The formal kind of university defination... (when I say formal, I mean this was the kind of thought of parents, people around me, even I myself had this mentality up till A levels and the time I choose my course) :

-University is the time you choose your career.
-Choose WISELY, think twice because its gonna be your lifetime dealing with this (whatever you specialise in university)
-Its final and completion of your sweat and stressful education journey. Without university degree, you surely wouldnt worth a single bit in working society.

I believed that most of us "regretted that choice" in university. You might think of what would that course be like... (visualising yourself sitting in the theatres, looking at the slides randomly generated from your cerebral cortices...) Then when you get in, you get some greatest shocks of life to find that its totally different from expected, even more as you progress through the years.

Definately, these were my past experience. Refused to convince myself that I did a wrong choice, I came up with my version of philosphy, a thousand reasons why I am lucky that I ended up here. ~~despite the f**cki*g truth that I went to a shit gay college with gay course~~

I realised that , you dont and most of the people dont, have to go for a lifetime career which revolves around what your degree. Its always easier said than to have this concept implanted into your mind. Say for example, you study medicine or engineering. I wouldn't want to spend rest of my life till age 50-60 by going to the engineering firm/clinic every weekday morning and come home in the evening.

The fact is, in our famous amous Engineering college here, most students actually intend to go into investment banking after graduation. Degree is just their platform or passport to go to banking. Ironically, when there is a career fair, we (as bioengineers) would be rejected by 100 of engineering firms, and always welcomed by banks and investment companies and even law firms.

Now, me defination for university has completely changed. It is my higher education, a must in my life. I dont or never relate my degree with my work or worst still incomes. What ever I learn will be my knowledge. Its essential for me to pick up knowledge in various disciplines. Thats why I never complain to study some boring modules. University is a maturation state of education life. This is where passion, enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge can be seeked. Nobody forces you to study in university, nobody stops you from being successful in life for not going to university. However, wouldnt you think that its a waste in life not to go for a higher challenge than giving excuses of why you cant achieve better?

So how about change of course?? Nah! I still reckon ts made a bold decision of changing from pharmacy to business and economics. He sacrificed time and money to study what he is interested in. I would like to do biology if I had to choose again. We shouldn't care what people say right? What course is shitty, no jobs, no good future.... all nonsense!! I do what I do and I follow my passion.

ts: " Which 1 should I choose? Australian based or UK based?"
me:"Which 1 harder? Go for that one!!"
ts:"That is always u"

CNY is round the corner. From a person who cant celebrate cny, I wish everyone a happy, prosperous and productive bull year ahead!!