| 夠力 GAOLAT | Blog

20120209: Face book™

2012-02-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

WHERE'S MY twitter? Asked my friend as he were in search of his Bahasa Melayu workbook. I should have answered "in the internet" but since he had just lost his book, I don't dare to agitate him with all the nonsense.

Local publisher Info Didik has been using Twitter as the name of their secondary school-based workbook series for years and this year we have "Twitter 2012". So every time when the teachers enter the class, we often hear instructions like this: "Class, take out your Twitter.", or maybe when their lesson is about to dismiss: "Class, we're using Twitter tomorrow. So please bring or not you'll kiss one mark goodbye for your coursework."

Nevertheless Twitter has been defined as a twittering sound of a bird by The Free Dictionary by Farlex. And I doubt the reason why they chose a name of a social network, probably just a name to attract more Twitter users to buy their book? That's why in the next few years students will be bringing Facebook to school! #

20120206: Back To Normal™

2012-02-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

EVERYTHING GETS back to normal finally. I can finally walk with both of my legs! I'm looking forward towards the upcoming school holiday and I won't miss the chances of travelling around Penang eating all those mouth watering dishes and visiting all the places that I haven't been before. I'm always keen in going outstation, just waiting patiently for the opportunity.

It's getting better and better now and my legs did a very good job. I can really walk step by step and sooner and later I'll be walking at faster pace, running in the field and marching! Of course, I promise to be more cautious when it comes to those bumpy surfaces and staircases so that I won't be turning my life upside down as well as my parent's.

To be honest, I'm so grateful to my parents because they've been taking care of me throughout the day and night watching after me. Because of me, they weren't celebrate Chinese New Year happily. Also a big thank you goes to my walking stick and my medicines. Without them, I'll still be limping around and the condition would became even worse. Thank you speeches also go to my doctor, grandmother, relatives, friends and strangers. Signs off.

At the same time I wish everyone a Happy Chap Goh Meh and a prosperous Dragon year ahead! #

20120201: Dreaming Beyond School™

2012-02-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

WE'RE GRADUATING very soon, don't we? In just a mere eight more months and we're freed from this prison-like school. We're not going to be controlled by all the school regulations any longer and the good news is, we can now have a longer hair, finally. This is something that everyone is anticipating for, but not necessarily in that order because whenever it comes to the moment when we gotta bid farewell with our classmates and all the bunch of old friends...it's really awful!

We gotta face it though. But not now. Anyhow the civics teacher had raised the topic of life as a scholar this morning. Many postgraduates might have consider of going abroad instead of studying locally, probably owing to the reason that they wanna experience new cultures in a new surrounding. This is damn true because I'm thinking of migrating to Singapore. Let's scrap that idea because it sounds rather impossible for the time being.

By the way I'm just thinking of how life's gonna be in college? Imagine when there are no more fierce-looking discipline teachers running after us with a foot-long rattan cane in their hands. Imagine when there are no more single lined exercise books and we're no longer required to complete our assignments using a ball point pen. Imagine when we're walking into the classrooms with smart phones in our pockets and headphones over the neck. Sometimes all these kinda imaginations really do made me feel awkward since it doesn't carry the feel like a proper institution.

Likewise we'll get used to it as what the teachers told us. We're given the freedom just because we're already matured at that age. But now we aren't because we're still adolescences and not yet fully matured, half childish behaviours and glad to say that we're still young.

No one is going to control us after we step out of the secondary school. We should have been happy for that but we might have miss the days as a secondary school student. Why? Because it's difficult to control ourselves. That's why school regulations nowadays are implemented to instill proper attitudes so that we're able to exercise self-control in the coming days as an adult.

As the saying goes "don't dwell in the past, don't think of the future, concentrate on the present moment", let's spend the final months as a secondary school student properly. Not going to elaborate any longer. Bye for now. #

20120123: Gong Xi Fa Cai™

2012-01-23T03:16:00.000-08:00

IT'S THE year of the dragon, not officially but theoretically, it's a new year in the Chinese lunar calendar. According to a book I saw in Popular, Feng Shui masters had stated that the year of the dragon would only begin in sometime around mid-February. I can't really recall the precise date.

So today everyone shall be going to pay a new year call at their grandparents home. This year the weather is a little strange because for the past 16 years, there's no rain during CNY but this year since it appears to be a water dragon year so perhaps it would be the water dragon that causes the humid weather.

Before I sign off, I'd like to share with you an enduring Chinese New Year message from Maybank which I think it's very inspiring - those who're not afraid to fall, leap the highest. It simply carries the meaning, asking people to drop their bad habit of being kiasi, kiasu, bo hood and dare to do something as to achieve success.

With that I wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year. 新年快乐，恭喜发财，财源广进，步步高升，事事顺利，学业进步，生意兴隆，身体健康，万事如意，家和万事兴！#

20120121: Life Without One Leg™

2012-01-21T02:51:00.000-08:00

LIFE WOULDN'T be complete without a leg, I realised the fact, deeply in my heart. This is the third day I'm walking with my walking stick, facing all the difficulties in moving around the house. I already went to the Chinese Sinseh twice but practically it seems like getting worse. It swelled up!

That's why always keep both eyes widely open when you're walking down the staircase. Don't ever attempt to make stunts, jump, dance or even talk as you're walking. Always concentrate on what's on the floor, especially holes and banana skins. Those rascals might end you up like me, today.

I've been so miserable right now. Sometimes I felt alone, lonely, helpless and the worse thing that I wouldn't expect ... I'm now a disabled. I'm rather problematic in almost everything including returning to my bedroom located in the second level, bathing with a plastic chair, difficult to reach the food when I'm hungry and even wearing my clothes.

Thinking of how difficult it is. What I need for now is a wheelchair, to ferry my around. Seriously a strong person don't need that. But I'm not strong enough right now! I'm so ill and weak. I lost all my spirits. I'm literally dying. I can't go shopping. I can't go anywhere I like. What kind of life is this? It's totally meaningless!

My life is so miserable now. :(

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Have a prosperous Dragon Year ahead! #

20120115: Word Count™

2012-01-15T03:20:00.000-08:00

I HATE counting the words sometimes. Why should we count since there's no point of limiting the number of words we are going to write because longer essays are usually more significant. By the way I'm not talking about summary or ringkasan or rumusan or 摘錄要點 or 概述文章. But honestly speaking the school editors shouldn't be restricting the number of words we're going to write for our so called "graduation message".

I'm not trying to blame them or asking them to forget about the word count. Yet I have to tell them that

25 CHINESE CHARACTERS ARE TOO SHORT FOR US

TO DELIVER OUR GRADUATION MESSAGE!

Thank you. #

20120111: The Magic of 9™

2012-01-11T03:20:00.000-08:00

MANY OF us have been facing problems in memorising the multiplication table when the primary school teachers told us to do so. The toughest one would be 9 and 12 if I'm not mistaken, last time I might as well experiencing the same problem too. Actually even if we don't memorise the table, we still can work it out by using a much more time consuming method which is getting the solution through the calculator screen. Of course we're always encouraged to make ourselves more familiar with the table, then we should be able to solve mathematical problems in split seconds without wasting all the time to press the calculator.

Recently my friend discovered something that might come in handy to those who face problems in cramming the multiplication of 9 into our brain. I do believe mathematicians in this world have already dig up this formula long long time ago before us, but anyhow nice try.

So here's the idea.

First take out a piece of paper, then write 0-9 in ascending order.

Add in the second digit by writing 9-0 in descending order.

Then that's it. These are the first ten multiples of 9! But what about solutions with three digits. Actually you can predict the following term easily, not using the AP formula but the same way like what we've done before.

108

117

126

135

144

153

162

171

*180

*189

198

... and so on

*Precaution: Multiples of 9 should be repeated twice (e.g.: 9, 18, 27 ...) before proceeding to the next number.

Interesting isn't it? Practically I'm falling in love with the number 9!

Well, I'm trying to explain but if I fail to convey the message clearly, I gotta apologize because I'm not a mathematician, but just a mere secondary school student. Nevertheless there are even more information on how fascinating the number 9 is. It's for sure that you'll come across a several as you google the net. #

20120106: School Dazes™

2012-01-06T07:59:00.000-08:00

LIFE AS a Form 5 student is no longer the same as those days in Form 4. Moreover we're not in Science One. I'm not trying to show off about my class but seriously I'd prefer to be in the second instead of the first. Do you know, the atmosphere of the first class is always full of pressure, wherever I walk I'd see everyone burying their face into their text books, whereas majority of them (including me) are busy writing in our exercise books, rushing to complete our homeworks. That's why I miss the days I'm in 4S2, at least the class offers me some fresh air to breathe in.

This year, the teachers teaching us are kind and generous, especially when it comes to homework. Nevertheless I can see piles of homeworks stacking up at my table and most of the time at school and at home, I'm holding with my blue pen and surprisingly it used up in three days. How awesome the teachers are. At the same time it gives me some sorts of bad sign. I think I'd be writing an essay and solving Mathematical questions on Chinese New Year, don't even have the time to collect ang paos. No lah, just kidding. I don't believe the teachers would be so cruel.

Besides completing homeworks, the library is also giving me a lot of errands to run. Next week would be the orientation day and I'll need to prepare for the talk to brief the new students on how to use the library. Next Saturday will mark the start of the CCA activities and I really hope to see an increase in the new intake!

By the way, I won't be writing long this time because I'm too tired of running, the time passes too fast and it's too difficult for me to catch up. I've got to go. Will write more soon. Bye. #

20120101: Beginning of the End™

2011-12-31T03:05:00.000-08:00

AS THE chime clock strikes 12 midnight, colourful fireworks lit up the night sky marking the end of 2011, at the same time we welcome the arrival of 2012.

Indeed, 2011 is a momentous year where I experienced the most changes in my life. It was the first time that I studied in the afternoon session since I was in the primary school, instead of morning session. I wrote my first article for the school bulletin. I learnt to voice my opinion. I learnt to communicate and socialise with different peoples. I played games at last. I shook hands with the chief minister. It was the first time I step up to the second highest position in the librarians board and till now, I still couldn't believe that it's true!

I had bad habits, bad attitudes and how'd they appoint me as the deputy head. But I was willing to change. Years before, I was quiet, non-talkative and wicked. Some even said that I was boastful, liked to be a smart aleck.

That turned me quite down. But ...

Ever since I've been studying in 4S2, I knew things in my head wasn't right. Earlier in this year, I realised that fifteen years before, I was a nerd, lacked of confidence, dull, timid, a bit (very) kiasi and kiasu. Fifteen years before, I had slow-thinking and my mind was always blank. That was why my brain was rusted.

In conclusion, I was a nerd, I was a bookworm. That was why I had got no friends. That was why everyone was trying to avoid from making friends with me. That was why everyone hated me. I was kinda like people's eyesore.

Honestly, I was sad.

Because I wouldn't want to behave that way anymore ... In 2011, my teachers and classmates in 4S2 really saved me. (Seriously I had been brainwashed by Lim Peng Chew.) They made me realised the true meaning of life. They made me realised that life is not as long as you play, study, eat and sleep. In other words life may be versatile sometimes and this eventually made me realised how fun learning was. I realised how important knowledge was and finally I realised that Science ruled the world.

The thing that really matter was our thinking. As a Science student, we should behave scientifically, all the time. Firstly, we should do things very fast, walk briskly (instead of travelling at a snail's pace and I'm not talking about speeding). That's a matter of efficiency. Secondly, we should practice doctor's handwriting because you're studying Science. Thirdly, we must dare to try be it dangerous or not and finally we must learn to be dirty.

And finally I changed my behaviour. That may sound stupid. But that really works and that's why I say 2011 is rather awesome. Although I thought it's the toughest year at the beginning but everything ends on a happy note. I've got a great time in 4S2 and Heng Ee.

Anyway let's drop the subject and let the party begins! Welcome 2012 and I wish everyone a great Dragon year ahead! #

20111223: Gurney Paragon™

2011-12-23T02:54:00.000-08:00

WHILE WAITING for my friend who's watching the new year's eve in the golden screen, I stroll along the stretch of Gurney Drive. The day is windy, way much comfortable than cooping in the house. Something strange is that there isn't much crowd even though it's a school holiday.

On my journey back to Gurney Plaza, I come across a new landmark. The two towers standing high on the ground of the St. Joseph's Novitiate, it's Gurney Paragon, a new shopping arcade for Penangites. I believe O.C. had been issued because Coffee Bean along with some other F&B outlets has settled here. So I've a sneak peek inside.

The exterior of East Wing, at the bottom left corner is the St. Joseph's Novitiate as mentioned

Under Construction

Nice toilets

Not many of us actually notice the existence of the new shopping complex because the shopping complex is still in the midst of construction and give it another two years, it shall be done by 2013. I doubt the usage of the 85 year old building at the heart of Gurney Paragon. Perhaps the developer is trying to preserve the historic building, not an eyesore seriously, quite nice.

I dare not go inside because they've blocked the entrance with some vases. But by observing from the outside, the pre-war building is well-maintained. In other words, it's given a new coat of paint, modernised with new flooring, ceilings and installed with new fans (instead of air conds) for ventilation and it suits the vintage architecture very well. That made it looks more or less like a museum or an art gallery. By the way I'm just guessing.

> Quote from the official website of Gurney Paragon: St. Jo's will house stylish restaurants and contemporary cafes, in an ambience lied with heritage that's perfect for al-fresco dining.

East Wing, his twin-brother standing beside would be named as West Wing

Above the podium, the two high-rise building are actually high-end super condominiums priced at approximately a million ringgit. Not really affordable for low-income families but millionaires and top business tycoons should own a few of them. Imagine waking up every morning with the sunrise and work out at the gymnasium with all the splendid sceneries, wouldn't it be better than going to the school everyday?

School's re-opening very soon and let's don't talk about school because honestly I'm still in holiday mood.

Oh ya, it's Christmas! It won't snow so badly because of the tropical weather over here and I'm still hoping of opening a snow land in Penang like the one in Genting. So now we should call it the day and... Merry Christmas and a great year ahead! #

20111211: Happy Dragon 2012™

2011-12-11T22:23:00.000-08:00

CHINESE NEW Year is looming around and as we're strolling around the shopping complexes, what we could hear besides Christmas songs are Chinese New Year songs being played as their background music. Today another milestone have been achieved by Astro when they planned a...what they called "million people" music video.

The theme is Happy Dragon in conjuction of celebrating the upcoming Year of the Dragon of the Chinese zodiac. So after one month of hard work, this music video is now set to debut on the television screens via satellite by 9.30 pm today...actually it's just now because I've just watched the thing and it's really fascinating. Damn impressive.

A lot of participants, approximately millions of them regardless the age and race, joined the video shooting. Although we aren't one of the participants, but as far as I knew, the dance steps can be learnt via YouTube, so perhaps you can try it at home!

So here's the music video. #

20111203: Camp Construction 2011™

2011-12-03T22:22:00.000-08:00

CAMP CONSTRUCTION 2011 was being successfully held this morning. We receive overwhelming response by our members with more than 60 of them participating in today's camp despite having some absentees who're on their vacation outside Penang. I must admit that they enjoy playing with the water the most and apparently they don't like the training.

In-house training session

I'm certainly not surprised because it's very obvious that most of them are already in holiday mood with their gamer blood flowing in their capillaries and of course, after spending a whole Saturday at school, now I can finally heave a sigh of relief and enjoy the rest of my holidays until the last few days, I gotta return to school for the orientation day to brief the new Form 1 / Remove students on some of the library rules. What a hectic holiday I've ever had!

It's really tiring you know...err...you possibly won't know unless you're the camp organizer. Our overall performance is satisfying. We have a smooth start and everything runs according to the schedule as planned. But when it comes to the mock test session, our members starts to be impatient because they're probably too energetic after having their one-hour lunch break. Pretty upset when someone's trying to peep into their friend's paper.

Finally after a whole day long facing those monochrome booklets and watching at those very dull, unattractive slide shows (we know we've been driving most of our members into their dreams), our members now can take their time with the games session where most of them are anticipating of. Once they change into their casual attire, they head down to the school field and everyone is guaranteed to return with a soaky, damped highly absorbable cotton T-shirts. I might as well get everything wet including my camera (luckily I didn't spoil it), my wallet and...almost everything.

Lining up to the school field

The one throwing is Edric (brown shirt), very friendly deputy head

Our librarians (who're also scout members) setting up the obstacles

Another game held at the Wawasan Foyer

The one who did the mischief is Edric and a few of our naughty members who're looking forward to seeing me like a drowned rat. I even slipped and honestly it's painful.

By the way the game runs overtime and we've been cleaning up the Level 1 foyer and the canteen for almost one hour later than the scheduled dismissal time. After everything is done, we return home except the scouts who are going to attend another activity at night. Anyhow it's my first time walking around the school compound in my flip-flops and before I leave the school, I enjoy the sunset at Level 8. It's very quiet and romantic up there. When there aren't any other buildings nearby, the view from Level 8 is just nice and fantastic.

Another memorable experience gained today and as an organizer, I gotta tell you the truth. It's very exhausted and when I'm back at home, at the moment I open the door, I approach the chair at the living hall briskly and zzz...

Enjoy the pictures. #

20111202: Pre Camp Construction™

2011-12-02T22:22:00.000-08:00

I'VE BEEN working for three continuous days after I've returned from Johor last Tuesday. Today I as an organizer, now realised how difficult it is to organize an activity from the beginning till the end. My job is to brief our members on the basic library skills and how to apply the skills.

Now seriously, it's not an easy task to prepare the two booklets (one on theory and one on practical) and the mock test because I've got nothing in my hands to refer. Even if I have, the notes prepared by the committees dated a few years back are not arranged in the right sequence. They're lousily prepared, be it in a rush or so. They don't have a fixed list of topics or syllabus that a librarian should really master so they'd provide the school a better and a more efficient service.

The problems are still there although we've already sacked so many of them (not to mention the word again). I thought once we moved to the new premise, our librarians will take everything serious. But I'm wrong sometimes. Some of our librarians are still not confident enough and are playing a fool when they're on duty.

Luckily this year our principal Mr. Goh comes up with a brainstorm of organizing a training camp. So I'll take the opportunity to re-do everything. My motive is to equip each and every of my juniors with the correct way of using the library management system, actual method of handling new library properties and proper skills of maintaining the library's tranquility and solving discipline cases wisely that would eventually end up with a win-win solution instead of a commotion which might lead to conflicts between the two parties.

Talking and imagine is easy but when it comes to the preparation of the two booklets, it's a chaos when I've got no idea on how and where to start. As I'm typing word by word into the word document, I remind myself constantly whether our members would understand what I'm writing and the most importantly whether our members would accept the knowledge that we're going to impart.

It's totally different from talking when it comes to practical. The same goes to the library skill. Actual scenes might be different and difficult to handle than reading at those theories in the booklets. There's no point to memorise than to apply. Thus we've to learn to be more alert, more confident, more hardworking and of course more disciplined.

The booklets are finally completed after a month of hard work. I've been updating the booklet for a several times because I found so many errors during the last few hours before December 3 and it's damn frustrating. Get everything done finally.

Packed my bag and I'm ready for Camp Construction 2011. It's the first time in the board's history to organize such a massive training camp. Hopefully everything runs smoothly tomorrow. Good night. #

20111129: Johor Day 5™

2011-11-29T22:21:00.000-08:00

THE MOMENT that I was not really anticipate of was here. My uncle dropped us at the bus terminal on his way to his office downtown. It was kinda reluctant to leave because there wasn't much opportunities for me to travel outstations. You know, sometimes I was already bored of staying in the island. Nevertheless, it was always good to be home.

We were so lucky on the day we were leaving because we had our first time experience on a double-deck bus. Likewise my cousin and I was offered a first class seating (which was the front seat of the upper deck)! This was awesome and I earned a chance to snap splendid views throughout our journey home.

Our bus

Singapore's SBS Transit was spotted at JB

We departed at 9:00 am although the bus was supposed to leave on 8:30 am. It was OK since we were not in a hurry. But to be strict, that was just too much.

Tuesday morning at Johor Bahru, traffic flow was smooth

Felt sad to see these structures being abandoned for years, this was one of them - the Skudai Plaza

Finally we arrived KL around 1 and they stopped at Pudu Sentral to pick up some passengers who were heading up north. So in the meantime, we had a tour at the newly refurbished Pudu Sentral. This time we only managed to visit the toilet with a cost of 30 cents per person and bought some snacks as the bus was about to depart on 2. We returned to the bus just before it began to drizzle.

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur

Entrance to the Smart Tunnel

Puduraya: This was the place where the Bersih rally was held on 709

Confucian Private Secondary School / 尊孔獨立中學

The Departure Screens at Pudu Sentral to create airport ambience

The staircase to the platform at the Basement, you gotta press the button to open the door (to prevent exhaust gas from entering the departure hall)

Very quiet departure hall, unlike years before it was a chaos and crowded with people

Otis Scenic Elevators at Pudu Sentral

Torrential rains lashes the capital as we continued our journey. I thought they had built a Smart tunnel in the heart of the city and it was its job to deter flash floods from happening. Thus I wouldn't expect to see floods in KL. Yet that day I spotted one part of the road (I didn't know where it was) was full of muddy waters. Perhaps Smart will only work during major floods. Whatever forget about it.

Heavy rain at KL

Cloudy day, no mirages were seen

Menora Tunnel

Winding road

Sultan Azlan Shah Bridge / Jambatan Sultan Azlan Shah spanning 360 m across Perak River

It was already evening and traffic jam was expected at Butterworth. Then by the time we reached Penang, the time was already 7:45 pm.

Traffic moving at slow pace

Last photo was taken at Penang Bridge

So that was the end of my story. I returned home with more than a thousand photos (thanks to my camera, you did a very good job!), some souvenirs from Malacca and of course, all the great taste of delicious street food and awesome experiences in my mind. I was looking forward to my next vacation, regardless where my destination was. After all I enjoyed my trip very much and I loved travelling!

THE END. #

20111128: Johor Day 4™

2011-11-28T22:20:00.000-08:00

THIS IS day 4 and nothing's special for me to elaborate. So just let the photos explain.

Morning - Breakfast.

Number

A typical Johor coffee shop

Lui Cha or Hakka Salted Tea

Another type of Wan Tan Mee served with minced pork

Noon - Went Tesco.

Tesco Desa Tebrau

Signboards similar to the one in Tanjung Pinang

Very nice design of the ceiling

This is the hypermarket

Afternoon

Hokkien soap operas are dubbed in Mandarin on Channel 8 (with English subtitles for selected titles)

Evening - Dinner.

Sin Chop Coffee Outlet at Pandan, well known for its Ikan Bakar or grilled fish

The Rojak

Otak-otak / 鰻魚包 (Spicy)

Fried Clams (spicy)

Fried Cuttlefish (spicy)

This is the Fried Stingrays (very spicy) and scary. After all it tasted quite nice

ABC (Ice Kacang, not spicy) very effective in curing burning mouths

Another desert, we called this Ice Sea Coconut. Whatever it was, I had already forgotten what it was actually called

Night - Night market.

Soya bean vendor

Tampoi Raddish Cake

We had a light supper after returning to my uncle's home from the night market. I watched an episode of A Song to Remember, the latest Singapore series, just in time. Malaysians were encouraged to watch Singapore series with English subtitles. Singaporeans were good in playing English words. Their standard was pretty high. They were adapted to use idioms and proverbs frequently in their conversation. It was killing two birds with one stones by referring to their subtitles while watching as this will definitely come in handy in enhancing English glossaries and our writing skills.

We packed up our things and sad to say that our trip was coming to an end. Felt reluctant to leave but hoped to visit Johor again, not forget about the lion city, in the coming days. Good night. #

20111127: Johor Day 3™

2011-11-27T08:45:00.000-08:00

The story continues.

Wan Tan Mee was a famous dish in Penang where it was available in almost every coffee shops. In Johor, the taste was different and unlike Penang, the Johor version of Wan Tan Mee will be served with a bowl of soup. This was the Wan Tan Mee stall located in a street in a place called Pandan (I wonder why it was called Pandan).

Poh Kee (葆記) Wan Tan Mee was operating by the roadside, beside a Chinese temple

They served only Wan Tan Mee, along with some appetizers namely fried dumplings and dried bean curd soup. The Johor Wan Tan Mee contained more black soya sauce therefore it tasted much sweeter if oppose to those in Penang. The noodle was thinner and it was very soft and very what you called Q to the bite. Overall, it was beyond description. (Too difficult to describe, I'm not good at describing.)

This was the Johor Version of Wan Tan Mee, looked very appealing

Soup with dumplings

Meat dumpling (Wan Tan)

Dried Bean Curd Soup

View Poh Kee Wan Tan Mee / 葆記雲吞面 in a larger map

> Rated 7/10. Visit now: Poh Kee Wan Tan Mee Near Sum Shing Meow (三神廟) Temple, Jalan Sendayan, Kampung Kangkar Tebrau, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim. Limited parking bays.

*** Fast forward ***

At night we went to this Aeon shopping centre at Tebrau City. There were rumours that Ikea was going to set up a store adjacent to this building. The piece of land was huge enough to build an IKEA as big as the one in Damansara and an IPC but till date, there was no action on the project.

Aeon Tebrau City was doing very well. Despite its neighbour Tesco who had offered free parking, Aeon's parking bays were still mostly occupied. It had two levels of parking, on the ground level there were outdoor parking and there were covered parking on the basement. The car park was very spacious and well-lit. However the building was not well maintained.

Basement Car Park

It caused inconvenience to the shoppers and I faced problems of having a vacant toilet when all the toilets were locked (spoilt) and the only one was occupied for almost ten minutes. Some escalators were out of service and we were forced to cram ourselves into the elevator like a canned sardine. Some more they didn't draw yellow lines on the escalator and this would cause accidents. Hopefully the management would take note of this.

Very weird signage appeared at the entrance of the male's toilet

Escalators under maintenance

Aeon had decided to use analog indicators for all its elevators which made the building looked rather old fashioned. But we knew Aeon was a Japanese company and maybe it was because most elevators in Japan were designed with analog floor indicators and that was why we had these in Tebrau City Shopping Centre.

Kone Elevators

Aeon's Jusco had a big outlet here. It occupied three floors (supermarket on the ground and department store on the other two). Other than that, the bakeries on the ground floor will usually had clearance promotions at the night few hours before the complex closed. The prices of all those expensive buns will eventually be knocked down and therefore my parents bought some of them for supper.

Jusco at Level 1

Jusco Supermarket at Ground Floor

Level 2 was a suitable place for teenagers to hang out where game shops and cinema was located. Food court and fast food outlets were also available.

Fascinating design of the ceiling, taken at Level 2

The Courtyard

There was a long queue at the autopay station owing to the faulty autopay machines. Very unpleasant experience when you had only one of the working. Thought of avoiding the queue by making the payment at some other stations but at last we ended up in another long queue at another autopay station. It seemed like the autopay machines weren't sufficient and Aeon should add more of these machines.

We stopped by Asri's to try the tallest Roti Tisu ever seen. We ordered two and this mamak stall had gave us one very tall Roti Tisu and probably because the football player scored a goal which was subsequently been nullified due to the offside foul, the other one Roti Tisu collapsed. So we asked him to replace another one but he refused. Anyway at the end of the day we enjoyed the two designs of Roti Tisu very much. #

Roti-roti Tisu

View Restoran Asri Rosmerah in a larger map

> Rated 7/10. Visit now: Restoran Asri Jalan Setia 3/8, Taman Setia Indah, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim. Ample parking bays.

20111126: Melaka & Johor Day 2™

2011-11-26T03:28:00.000-08:00

IT WAS a cloudy Saturday morning when I woke up at 6 something to watch the Singapore free-to-air channels. There were a few like Channel 5, 8, U, Suria, Vasantham, Okto and CNA which showed more than enough shows for Johorians to watch throughout the day and night without the installation of the satellite dish. To my surprise, they even received some Indonesian channels, for free of course. How jealous!

CNA

Zui Gui for our breakfast, tasted like Char Koay Kak

For your information, err... not much crows over here in Johor but in Penang, there were plenty of them which simply proved Johor was much cleaner than Penang. Roads in Johor were wider than those in Penang Island and I barely saw any tall buildings besides rows of shop lots and terrace houses. Instead of staying in blocks of apartments like Penangites, most Johorians would settle in a housing estate. Melaka had the same thing as well.

It took about two hours to arrive Melaka from JB. In the streets of Melaka, traffic jam was unavoidable because there were too many junctions and too many traffic lights. Moreover it was a weekend holiday, that was why the streets were getting more and more congested and the tourist attractions were getting more and more crowded.

Melaka Welcome Arch, near Ayer Keroh Toll Plaza

The World's Bee Museum (located quite near to the PLUS toll) was our first stop. We didn't had to pay for the entrance fee and some more the place offered us free honey and a free tour around the museum. They showed us the bee hives, explained on how the bees breed and how they collect nectars and eventually store it as honeys in their hives.

Artificial bee hives

Models on how bees build their hives

Most of us believed that bee stings might be poisonous but today we were told that some bee stings were effective in healing wounds! It was a very nice service by their staffs and lastly we were persuaded to invest in some of their products.

This was the so called Melaka Chicken Rice whose rice been shaped into a ball-like shape and looked more or less like a fish ball. This was the Chicken Rice that couldn't be found in anywhere else except Melaka. We tried this extraordinary dish in this Famosa (Gu Cheng 古城) Chicken Rice Ball outlet.

Famosa (Gu Cheng / 古城) Chicken Rice Ball Restaurant

Two years ago, I dined in the other outlet which was located a few steps away from this restaurant called Hoe Kee. But this year due to the snaking queue we gave up and went to this outlet. Both outlets located at Jonker Street and both served the same chicken rice balls but slightly different taste. I'd prefer Hoe Kee's to be honest. Nevertheless Gu Cheng had also produced satisfied customers.

Gu Cheng's Chicken Rice Ball served with chopped chickens

After our lunch, we went to some tourist spots nearby. One of the famous ones was the Christ Church and passed by the Melaka River. The place was so crowded and congested, of course many photographers were seen busying snapping for photos and models posing for photos. We even spotted a Malay couple in their traditional wear (it was their wedding ceremony actually). Oops it looked like I forgot to mention about the trishaws.

Christ Church Melaka

Melaka River Cruise will travel you across the historical city, providing awesome views of Melaka as well as a relaxing and a windy ride on the Melaka River. As luck would have it, I won't get to ride on this motor boat as the pier was located quite far away from the Christ Church and as my uncle had his two-year old twins with us, we abandoned the plan. Quite disappointing ... whatever la ...

Melaka River with the River Cruise

We had a window shopping at the Jonker Walk in the evening. Lots of fascinating stuffs but bought nothing this time. Anyhow Jonker Street was a very successful night market whereas in Penang, Campbell Street had since been emulated Jonker Street some years ago but it was given a cold shoulder and turned out as a desolate place at night.

South entrance of Jonker Street

Located at the south end of Jonker Street (near Melaka River) was the San Shu Gong (三叔公) building where local food products was sold. One of my favourites was the Lao Po Bing (老婆餅). Walking up north, there were a line-up of shops offering a variety of antiques and unique souvenirs. These include T-shirts, magnets, key chains, very cute-looking Angry Birds flip-flops (thought of having one!), Wasabi tissue holders, postcards, old photographs and even rattan furnitures, just to name a few.

Jonker Street was surrounded by historic buildings, most of them were built prior to World War II

Wooden chopsticks with Chinese surnames (explanations included)

Fortune tellers ... =='

In addition, at this lively Jonker Street, you'll bump into a several hawker stalls every (approx.) 20 m, each showcasing local street foods (very uncommon in Penang), all at a reasonable price. Therefore your stomach had no way to growl.

Radish Cake, smelled nice

Hong Kong Dim Sum

Ice Kacang was commonly known as ABC in Melaka, KL and places other than Penang

Food galore - A collection of food stalls and kopitiam at the north end of Jonker Street near the event stage

Besides eateries and souvenirs, Jonker Street might as well featured a few clan associations (會館) namely there were Hainan Association (海南會館), Teochew Association (潮州會館), Yong Chun Hui Guan (永春會館), Tu Yang Hui Guan (荼陽會館) and so much more.

Hokkien Huay Kuan (福建會館)

At the north end was a big stage (built in 2010) where outdoor performances and live shows were held. This permanent stage had been the visitor's hot spot when there were a bunch of events like karaoke, opera shows, wushu performances being organized from time to time. Similarly this stage will be staring in Happy Dragon 2012's CNY MV.

Jonker Street (a.k.a. Jonker Walk) event stage

We waved goodbye to Jonker Street after spending a whole day here. Err... quite a waste that we had not been to A' Famosa, the Zoo, the Museum, the Crocodile Farm and we only been to Jonker Street and perhaps we had paid a visit to the Melaka Christ Church, A' Famosa (in 2009) and the Melaka River. Anyway the weather wasn't that good by the time we went Melaka.

I swear I'm going to drive here next time. Just joking by the way and ... I'm already tired of typing. So enjoy the pictures and we'll continue the rest of my story in the next few posts. #

20111125: Johor Day 1™

2011-11-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

HEY I'M back from Johor and Melaka. Very enjoyable, indeed. Came across lots of fascinating stuff. Our trip to Johor was five days four night at first but since we travelled by bus, our journey from Penang to Johor had taken around twenty hours which was almost two days. This had eventually shortened the trip to maybe three days.

Travelling by bus was a waste of time. Didn't you believe that? It was damn bored when I had nothing to do and nobody to talk with when my cousin sitting next to me fell asleep in the bus. Yet I chose not to sleep in bus despite my boredom. Simply because I didn't wanna miss those awesome views.

Through the windows, I witnessed the sunrise in Penang Bridge and the sunset somewhere around Northern Johor, the greenery of the oil palm plantations along the highway, spectacular views of the highlands, arrays of concrete buildings and tall skyscrapers in the capital of the country and things where you can't see in Penang.

On Penang Bridge

Menora Tunnel

Bald Hills at Ipoh

Oil Palm Plantations at Perak

Tung Shin Hospital, near Pudu

BUT EVERYTHING SPOILT! My mood turned from exhilaration to frustration when besides nothing to do, nobody to talk with and now I had nothing to satisfy my hunger for lunch. They even stopped at TBS for almost an hour waiting for those passengers to board their bus. We knew these bus operators were trying to fill all the empty seats with passengers in order to avoid business losses.

They wasted so much time here and some more brought us to a place where only Nasi Kandar was offered (very expensive). I wasn't a racist honestly but at least they should had stop us at a R&R instead where more choices were given. That's why nowadays we, as a smart consumer, shouldn't trust those bus companies even though they were being recommended, sounded so reliable and was awarded 5 stars. No such things dude, please don't ever been convinced and inspired by those sweet-talking salespersons in the bus station. This was really disappointing.

Doubtless most bus stations in Malaysia were renamed lately to a much better sounding name which ended with the term "sentral". The new name was to reflect and to cope with the stylish and modern image of the newly refurbished bus terminal. Upon completing the refurbishment of Puduraya, the terminal was immediately renamed to Pudu Sentral after the Prime Minister's visit to the newly renovated bus station. Penang was going to have its own Penang Sentral in Butterworth near the ferry terminal. Melaka had Melaka Sentral. KL might as well had KL sentral which served as the main transportation hub in the country's capital.

Pudu Sentral

Now after around ten hours of journey, the day was already dark. It drizzled at Negeri Sembilan in the evening but I was glad to say that it was no longer raining in Johor. And finally!! Here we arrived another sentral in JB called Larkin Sentral at 7:42pm. The place was very vibrant and to be honest, it was very noisy but not as crowded as the old Puduraya.

Sunset

Two main pollutants at this Larkin Sentral namely the exhaust pipes of the express buses and the freaking annoying touts walking around the bus station. These touts were shouting the destinations like for instance "KL", "Melaka" and as we bumped into them they would ask "where are you going? are you going KL? we have the bus. are you hopping in?" Moreover they were quite persistent sometimes even if we rejected them they would follow us from one end of the terminal to the other end.

My uncle picked us up and good news was we were now heading for dinner! Every time I visit Johor, my uncle would ferry us to this restaurant and I was here for the third time! And now located in Taman Pelangi this was Ah Kaw's Restaurant (阿九 / 三樓炒米粉). Well reputed for its Char Bee Hoon and their self made Tau Fu, this restaurant had been serving tasty Char Bee Hoon since 1979 with all its Feng Shui items hanging around its premise.

Restoran Ah Kaw, Taman Pelangi

There were old irons, some sorts of gourds and I believe they had roaring business because of its Feng Shui. But not forget about the taste of their fried Bee Hoon which tasted much better than those sold in Penang. They had added extra ingredients like prawns and eggs where those Penang hawkers didn't include in their dishes. I wonder what's the secret recipe in Ah Kaw's mind.

One of the Feng Shui items in the restaurant - the iron

Ah Kaw's Char Bee Hoon 阿九三樓炒米粉

Anyhow some other good foods served were the self made fried Tau Fu, fried fish, fried sotong and also not forget about their chili sauce. Majority of Ah Kaw's dishes started with a fried. So ... it was good to have a flask of tea (I'd prefer the coconut water instead) with you.

Self Made Fried Tau Fu 招牌豆腐

Fried Kam Heong Fish Fillet 甘香煎魚片

Fried Sotong 炸蘇東

Coconut Water (Fresh)

The taste of Ah Kaw's Fried Bee Hoon still remained in my mind. They were unrivaled even if they came up north to compete with those Penang hawkers. Still I would prefer Penang's food. I'll be telling stories of Melaka in the next post. Stay tuned and that's my recount for my bad experience in the express bus and my satisfaction towards Ah Kaw's Fried Bee Hoon. #

View Ah Kaw's Restaurant / 三樓炒米粉 in a larger map

> Rated 9/10 for Ah Kaw's. Visit now: Ah Kaw's Restaurant 33, Jalan Perang, Taman Pelangi, 80400 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim. Opens daily from 12 noon to 3.30 pm, 6 pm to 11 pm. Closed on Tuesdays. Limited parking bays by the roadside and in front of Ah Kaw's premise.

20111124: Rumour or Fact?™

2011-11-24T04:06:00.000-08:00

THIS AFTERNOON I visited the Pizza Hut outlet at Sunshine Square together with my friend and this Pizza Hut branch had a satisfying service unlike those in Queensbay Mall which offered very unfriendly service. The Indian and Malay waitress were so friendly and really passionate to their job. They served us whenever we need help, so to say that there were only two of us in the entire restaurant.

I enjoyed the meal very much because of its very good service and of course I wouldn't had to pay for my meal. Thanks to The Star's NiE for awarding me the regular pizza for participating in this Mac Inc. competition. Didn't managed to get a prize but at least our group had sent the two very lousy magazines to The Star, wonder how would they react when they come across our piece of "art".

Back to the main point, so it popped out a question: what had caused Pizza Hut business to go from full to empty? Actually rumours had been spreading across the country few years ago that Pizza Hut had been a racist company where their order form had included a race column to fill in by the waiters. If the customer was a Malay, then they weren't required to pay for the service and government tax. If the customer wasn't a Malay, then they were required to pay the service and government tax.

Nowadays we had seen so many anti Pizza Hut pages mushrooming in the social networks especially Facebook urging Malaysians to boycott the racist company. The rumour was spread through mail and it sounded rather true and trustable. This had gave their rival Domino's Pizza a chance to gain better business. When Domino's Pizza offered a better taste in most of their dishes lately, loyal customers of Pizza Hut had switched from the Hut to Domino's.

Moreover, when the rumour had clearly claimed Pizza Hut as a racist restaurant, locals knew Pizza Hut was no longer their choice for dining (some more when there's an alternative) and it had certainly turned their customers into angry clients. It was believed that most of them were Chinese who had already started to boycott the company few years ago since they received the "news" on the racism practiced by Pizza Hut, doubtless it was unfair to apply those charges only to certain races.

Instead, I learnt that this e-mail sent in 2007 may be a hoax because some of them believed that Pizza Hut was trying to make a marketing research and the race box in the ordering form might be prepared for marketing purposes. After the issue was brought up, Pizza Hut immediately blacken the box and denied the contents stated in the e-mail.

I wasn't sure whether Pizza Hut was trying to tell the truth or attempting to cover up. With that we made a conclusion, as one united nation, we all should stop identifying people's race because we were not Malays, not Chinese, not Indians but we were all Malaysians. Last but not least, I enjoyed my Pizza. #

20111120: The Holidays™

2011-11-22T05:38:00.001-08:00

HOLIDAY OFFICIALLY starts and it's now the second day. Boring is the only word to describe my current feeling and it might cause my head to spin when asked how we are going to spend the remainder of whopping six weeks of holidays. It is for sure people would spend their holidays outstation probably travelling out of Malaysia, enjoying the Genting theme park, picnic by the sea, taking part in camps and so on and this would definitely be great!

Nevertheless we knew some would prefer playing dotA, watching movies, singing in the karaoke box, skating at the rink and hanging out in the shopping complexes. Quite rare to see someone studying during the holidays. But to my very surprise, many of us is hiding at home for days and weeks. No transport makes the reason. By the way we've got a good news. We're departing to Johor in a few days time. But wait! We're travelling by bus. It sounds rather disappointing yet on the other hand it would be great to enjoy the views on the highway.

Anyhow we're travelling out of Penang. So perhaps we can travel across the causeway to Singapore.....when I own a passport in the future, hopefully by next year after I finish my SPM. Just put that aside, that's thinking ahead.

Camp Construction 2011 is about to be hold on 3rd of December by my Librarians Board. I, as the Deputy Head, am really headache and so tired of this! It's really tiring you know whenever it comes to the preparation for the camp. Whatever it is, the most disappointing thing is that we've made too much errors in our booklet, some more it's already printed. Really problematic, indeed disappointing.

Meanwhile this holiday would be the very last year end break ever in my life (if I skip Form 6). That's why we should appreciate everyday of the year end break instead of wasting all the times and all the moneys and all the efforts on all those useless stuffs. The very common example is sleeping and refuse to step out of his/her home sweet home.

I'll see you after I return from Johor with some pictures as a gift to all my readers. Happy holiday and have a great time! #

20111118: The Finale™

2011-11-22T05:37:00.001-08:00

AS WE were snapping photos with our friends in the class, Mr. Cheah the discipline teacher came and he looked rather furious when he saw all the drawings on the blackboard, he yelled at us. We knew it was his responsibility to make sure that everyone behaved as a Heng Ee student before we were dismissed for our holidays. But to be honest, he spoiled our holiday mood. Our class remained silence for a several minutes and just then, he reappeared and informed us a good news: "4S2 you may leave now". Immediately everyone rushed out of the class before the music bell would rang.

I had to admit that time flies. One year had past and next year my classmates in 4S2 were to go to different classes. Some went to the first class, some remained as a second class student, some went to the third, fourth and whatever. Practically, 4S2 had been disbanded.

In the past few years, we were still having the exam in the last day of school. This was to prevent students from skipping classes and avoid teachers from becoming lazy after they finished going through the syllabus. This year there was an exceptional. For the first time in Heng Ee history, the exam was brought forward and we had an opportunity to celebrate the last day of school! All thanks to the introduction of the new SAPS system by the government.

During the last period, the whole block of school building was lost control. I bet Mr. Goh was going to be very angry. What to do? Everyone was so happy and was ready to welcome the holiday. Yet behind all the happy faces, I knew most of us felt reluctant to leave the class and bid farewell with their classmates.

No point for us to be sad because the important thing was to look forward. Thinking about which class I'm going to enter had made me very stressful. Thinking about the SPM, we were going to sit the exam in LESS THAN A YEAR's time!

Owh shut up Kelvin! Forget about SPM, forget about the stress because IT'S ALREADY HOLIDAY!

ATTACHMENT:

The class photo taken this afternoon with (from left) English teacher Mdm. Yap, Civics teacher Mdm. Tung, Form teacher & Maths teacher Ms. Tan, A. Maths teacher Mr. Lee and the one looking to the ceiling was Mr. Pang, our Moral teacher. Very blur, don't know why. I'm hiding behind, looking very stupid. #

20111108: A Real Chinese Hero™

2011-11-12T03:41:00.001-08:00

TODAY THE school had invited Mr. Bock Tai Hee from 董总 Dong Zong to give a talk on the development of Chinese Education in our country. Remembering those days when Chinese and Indian immigrants migrated to Malaysia, vernacular schools where the teachers imparted knowledge and taught the students using their own mother tongue had been established. When the Japanese began to attack the peaceful isle of Malaya, Japanese schools were established and Japanese were taught. When the British colonised Malaya, English served as the official language for education.

Until 1957, the year when Malaya declared independence, the government had adopted a new education system where today most of us felt unfair and was still looking for fair attention. That was why Mr. Bock was here to fight for the "Justice for Lim Lian Geok" campaign. By the way, who is Lim Lian Geok? When Mr. Bock asked the question, no one dared to make a sound, the lecture hall was so quiet. Now after the one and a half hour talk, we realized how great Lim Lian Geok was as a brave educationist who dared to fight with the government until he lost his citizenship.

Although he had left the world in 1985 but his spirit of persistence was still alive among us. Most Malaysians were still urging the government to restore Mr. Lim's citizenship as well as recognizing an equal status for all ethnic cultural rights but it all ended in disappointment as the government had turned deaf ears. What Mr. Lim trying to defend was that the government was trying to abolish Chinese vernacular schools and eventually turn them into national schools with Malay as its official medium of instruction. Those who insist will had to turn "independent" where the government wouldn't fund the school at all.

When the school had asked for government funding, they would now be "national-type" schools and at the same time they follow the curriculum set by the Ministry of Education. In these national-type schools it was compulsory to learn the Chinese language. According to Mr. Bock, in order to be a true Chinese, one must be sent to a Chinese school and learn how to speak, write and master the Mandarin and inherit the Chinese culture to future generations. A Chinese that couldn't speak Mandarin would put him/herself to shame. Chinese school students too should be appreciative and learn to master our mother tongue although we knew it wasn't easy to score.

So far SPM Chinese had been one of the most challenging subject in the entire public exam and this had made most of the candidates pissed off and eventually gave up studying Chinese. Mr. Bock encouraged us not to give up and should work hard even though you couldn't pass the subject. Our hard work would pay off one day because I always believe that nothing is impossible when we put our efforts into it.

Mr. Bock brainwashed us with the story of the late Mr. Lim. The word "brainwash" sounded like kinda I was not confident with Mr. Bock's story. But to be honest, I believed what Mr. Bock had told us because they weren't a politician. Likewise I was impressed by Lim Lian Geok's struggle, you know he was just an ordinary teacher. Yet he was brave enough to voice out his opinions and to stand against the government. We thus honoured him as the "Soul of the Malaysian Chinese" more commonly known as "旅魂" by the Chinese community.

Lastly I signed the postcard which was going to be sent to the Prime Minister either at the end of this year or in the beginning of next year. The contents in the postcard are written in four languages and very sad to say that I had already forgotten what was written there. The only one I remembered was to restore Mr. Lim Lian Geok's citizenship and equal right and treatment for all schools in Malaysia? Whatever it was, I had signed the thing.

Anyhow I believe I'm doing the right thing and Mr. Lim Lian Geok's story deserved to be told to younger generations and generations to come. #

20111104: The Graduation Ceremony™

2011-11-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

I HAD attended the school's annual speech day for the very first time in my days as a secondary school student this morning, even though I wasn't one of the graduates. I was here for the prize giving ceremony. Thanks to Datuk Yeap Beow Chong for awarding me RM35 for scoring 7As in PMR. Those who were not involved were not allowed to be in school because the size of the hall wasn't enough to accommodate the expanding population of students. That's why only the graduates are attending speech day. Those who involved in the cross respect and those prize winners will stand a chance to witness the ceremony.

I had to say that the school wanted the students to perform well during the graduation ceremony because our principal always demanded for the best of the best. The reason was rather obvious, it was simply because Mr. Goh wanted to take care of the school's reputation. Apart from that we knew the school also wished to leave good memories in the graduates' mind. That was why the school had held several times of rehearsals before the day. There were four times of rehearsal in total, one on Tuesday, full rehearsal on Wednesday and Thursday, finally the last rehearsal on Friday morning just before the ceremony started at 9.

At 9 am sharp, the VIPs arrived school and were welcomed by thunderous applause upon stepping into the school hall. They were led by Mr. Goh to the stage and sank into their seats. The graduation ceremony kicked off with the singing of the national anthem and the state anthem. The school's board of director was invited to give his speech and it seemed like no one was mentioning the development of the vacant library instead of turning such a huge space into a store room.

After Mr. Goh's school annual report, the school's symphony band had entertained us with an energetic rendition of the classic Malay folk song "Geylang Si Paku Geylang". Followed by the song, it was the prize giving ceremony. (Above) This was the photo of my friends and I taken by the school's photographer where I feel my face looked like a stupid. I was in front of Mr. Goh.

At the end of the prize-giving ceremony we have two special awards: the Outstanding Performance in Co-curricular Activities (CCA) and the Model Student. We've got three prefects who won the first award and the second award was a boy and a girl. How can one achieve the status of a model student? To be honest I can tell you that it was tough. Even if you wanna had an outstanding performance in CCA, it was, seriously, no easy job!

These five students were literally insane. Although they acquitted well in CCA, they might as well do well in their academics. They were good at time management and good at solving problems. They were liked by their friends and their teachers. These were successful students that we should emulate. I really look up on them because they were indeed fantastic.

Like one of them, Joo Kheng (above: in green tie), the boy who fought for a cleaner, greener environment where he stayed back in the school's recycling room to help tidying up the place a day before PMR, instead of studying at home and at the end his result turned out as straight As. What I like was his commitment towards his principle. It was rare to see people who tend to sacrifice his time and his effort just to save our ailing mother nature. He persisted that recycling efforts mustn't stop even though it was in the exam eve.

It was rather unbelievable to see such a student. That's why our school Heng Ee was great enough to produce a future environmentalist. But I remembered that the emcees had mentioned about his ambition as a pilot.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the graduation song the most. I was doubtless to say that the lyrics were very meaningful. During the full rehearsal yesterday morning, Mr. Goh told us that our school's graduation song was rather special. Unlike other graduation songs where people may sing till they moved to tears, the song brought us happiness feels like sorrow. It was simply amazing. Unfortunately I did not record the song and I'd say that the song was great. Kudos to the school's symphony band who rendered the song so well.

The ceremony ended at about 11.10 am and by the time the VIPs left the school hall, the band played the Nobody But You song, making the formal scene rather informal. Anyhow it was all over. After this we had performances from representatives from each Form 5 and Form 6 classes. What I see were things like dancing, singing, beat boxing and so on. Some of them were taking photos with their friends and the hall was liven up with the joy. I noticed some of them even cried. What to do? We were about to leave our friends...

It was our turn next year and seriously I didn't look forward to the graduation day. Hopefully it won't come that fast. It wasn't easy to bid farewell with our friends, teachers and of course, the school. Thanks St. John for giving me an opportunity to attend such a meaningful occasion. #

> Credits to the school's official portal for the photos. Click HERE to view more.

20110916: Heng Ee 55th Anniversary™

2011-09-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

THE EVENT ended with a success! Indeed, after months of preparation and hard work, we've successfully launched the newly constructed Block F, the eight-storey Bangunan Wawasan yesterday morning. In conjunction with the school's 55th anniversary celebration and the launch of the extension wing, the school has organized a grand dinner for about 300 tables in its school field. This main purpose is to gather the school's alumni besides celebrating the school's 55th birthday.

All thanks to the late Datuk Rev. Father A. Julien. He's the hero who gives us the opportunity to gain knowledge and continue our secondary education in a Chinese institution. Without him, we won't be here and thousands of students won't have the chance to master Chinese as their mother tongue besides Malay and English as their national and second language respectively. With the establishment of Heng Ee Primary School in 1952 and Heng Ee High School in 1957 by Datuk Father A. Julien, the school have successfully produced plenty of talents every year.

National-type schools like Heng Ee does not receive funds from the government but in the form of donations from the public. The eight-storey building Bangunan Wawasan along with the other five existing blocks are all being built from the sum of money invested by the board of Directors, the state government and the other Chinese education supporters.

Due to lack of funds, facilities in a national-type school won't be as complete as national schools (SMK). Even if it's complete, it's very simple. Like what we have before the construction of Bangunan Wawasan. The 3 school library sucks and very uncomfortable. Sixth Form students are forced to "float" from one class to another.

But our community have loosen their purse strings and donated RM 2 billion to the school for Bangunan Wawasan. In this Wawasan Building we have a modern library where the school have hired designers to yield a suitable and the utmost important, a comfortable place for the students to study, at the same time also solved the problem of floating classes for both Lower and Upper Sixth Form students. Today we've made it! We (Heng Ee) stands high as the highest school in Penang with eight-storey high!

Thousands of us turn out at the school field and we enjoy the music by the Chinese Orchestra, Harmonica and Symphony Band and dance performances by students from Heng Ee Kindergarden, Heng Ee Primary and our school. A special magazine is published to commemorate the construction and the launch of Bangunan Wawasan. I get the magazine by donating RM 10 to the school.

With that it is hoped that the new facilities equipped in the new extension block will stretch out its helping hands to aid our students in both their academics and co-curricular activities (CCA). Hopefully our students would play their roles to take good care and make good use of the new facilities to be a successful person in the future. #

20110909: Bangunan Wawasan Heng Ee Grand Launching™

2011-09-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

TODAY is the Heng Ee's big day! The so-called "big day" is a very grand celebration to commemorate the 55 great years and the 55th anniversary of the establishment of Heng Ee in 1956. In accordance with the celebration we will also launch the new eight-storey building named Bangunan Wawasan where the new library, new observatory deck and new lecture theatres and multi-purpose rooms are housed. I'm very proud of myself as being involved as a crew in this grand event although we gotta sacrifice our holiday!

Can you imagine how grand the event is? The Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is visiting the school! That's why we call it a big day. VERY BIG DAY!

Several months before, almost 80% of the entire school population are involved in the preparation of the event. Honestly the experience is definitely tiring. Moving all the books from the old library to the new one, arranging all the books into the new book shelves, planning a new schedule are no easy jobs. Still our school members sacrificed their free time, put it all their efforts and stand as a nation in spite of making the event a success.

And finally, the day is here.

While waiting for the VIPs to arrive, we still managed to do some final preparations like the labelling the book shelves and we've even painted some parts of the damaged walls!

Full rehearsal starts around 9am where the school principal along with the other two school board of directors to have a final look on the building before the opening ceremony begins.

As everything is completely done, we look downstairs through the window to check whether our guests have arrived. It's a cloudy day and it seems like it's drizzling. That's why our school have rolled out the Heng Ee Umbrella, where our school crest is printed on it. It's coloured with our school colours that are blue and white, produced exclusively for Heng Ee.

Our CM, Lim Guan Eng is the last to arrive the school. The time is about 10 something. The opening ceremony starts as he steps into the school ground. In the library, we could barely hear some Malay musics and from the windows, we're able to enjoy welcoming dance performances by our school Dance Club. The national anthem Negaraku and the state anthem Untuk Negara Kita are played and with that we know the opening ceremony begins.

What I'm very curious to know is what Lim Guan Eng is going to say in his speech. However although the ceremony is held one floor below the library, it's still very difficult to listen to the speech delivered by the VIPs as the place is soundproofed. At the end of the launching ceremony, the school song is sung.

The VIPs are then invited to visit the new school building starting from the observatory at the rooftop. Then followed by the library. OMG! It's my first time to meet the CM in person and I SHAKE HANDS WITH THE CHIEF MINISTER! How wonderful! How fantastic! It's gonna be the most unforgettable day in my life! Anyhow I'm very happy.

Mr. Goh guides the group of VIPs around the library. Showing them the Teachers' Reading Lounge first. He says the school always acknowledge the teachers' contribution to the school. After that they go round the library and finally the principal asks the VIPs to leave an inspiring message to be hung at the notice board.

This is me posing in front of the computer. My junior, Jun Chen is sitting next to me. Spot us on Kwong Wah, 10th September 2011.

Many of our guests, visitors and reporters have expressed their satisfaction and look up to students studying in Heng Ee. Some of them advice us to appreciate and make good use of the library as a place where knowledge is gained. They say long long time ago, the library isn't air-conditioned and have only a few books to be loaned unlike today, we have 8 open shelf racks full of books. Besides we've got the reference collection, CD collection, magazines and so on.

After all guests leave the library, we've now finished carrying out our duties. I visit the observatory but did not use the telescope because teachers are making up the snaking queue and I'm too impatient to wait for my turn. Anyhow I know we won't be able to see anything from outer space on a cloudy day.

Whatever it is I use the lift! No one would travel up 8 floors using the staircase. As we use the lift, we should have donated to the school as I feel the school won't be able to foot the rising electricity bill if everyone is using the elevator.

Both of these elevators are the Schindler 3300AP, made in Switzerland.

Exhibitions on Level 3 & 4 are also quite interesting. Anyway I only have the time to glance through the exhibition room because I'm in a hurry. Here are some pictures...

With that we should call it a day! A great day with full of awesome memories! Before I end the post, I wish my school a happy 55th birthday, have a wonderful year ahead! #

20110908: Dropped™

2011-09-08T23:24:00.000-07:00

MY results dropped, as expected. This would eventually cause my position and literally everything to drop. I don't like to use the word "drop" to be honest with you. I'd say "top" is more better than "drop". But I was forced to as my performance for the last 2A exam is very frustrating and indeed disappointing.

Looking at those top students in our class who passed the exam with outstanding results, it makes me really feel resentful. But I know that I don't deserve that kind of result because I don't put much effort in it. I've studied but I'm still that stupid. I've done a lot of practices but still I'm such a useless person.

I'm an idiot because I didn't have sufficient preparation for the exam. Another very serious matter is that I'm doing the last minute revision!

Ya stupid, I'm trying to comment about myself. Anyway this is the consequence of being last minute. That's why we shouldn't do things at the eleventh hour. If you've the courage to try, you'd end up with a very horrifying ending like me unless you're lucky enough.

Anyhow, work hard everyone. 2B exam is just 5 weeks from now. The year end exam will be carried out on mid-October as the general election will probably fall around November. As so to avoid disruption, the year-end exam will be brought forward. Good luck and I wish everyone all the best in tomorrow's launching. #

20110826: I Failed!™

2011-09-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

AS we shop in the supermarket, the consumers are always right.

As we work in the office, our boss are always right.

As we study in the school, the teachers are always right.

Don't you think that it's damn true?

My results are DROPPING. I'm serious!

Should we blame the teachers for setting all the difficult questions? No! We should blame ourselves for not paying enough attention in class and do not have sufficient preparation for the exam. We MUST blame ourselves for studying in the eleventh hour! We MUST blame ourselves for burning the midnight oil!

That's awesome! After all my results are dropping. I failed A. Maths! For the first time in my life! It's going to be true. Last year was the lucky 6 year, the highest for the whole Form 4 is 66% and only 6 of them managed to pass the test in 4S1. Thanks to Mr. Khoo. So do you think I'll pass the exam? With flying colours? Say YES, please say YES. Wait till the cows come, you moron!

Should we blame the teachers for not giving us enough time in the exam? Yeah maybe, because one hour and 30 minutes are literally not enough for us (most of us), honestly. No! We should have condemn ourselves for not doing enough exercises, practices everyday. Why should we blame ourselves? Because someone is about to make miracles. The DotA warrior is getting 99% (1% minor mistake) again, leading everyone very, very far in front of the others, standing in the front line bravely, unafraid. How admiring.

How come? I don't believe! It's impossible! It's impossible. What if it becomes a possible situation? NO!!! I'm not dealing with jealousy this time. We must emulate the others. Don't be sad because you wouldn't change the fact. At the end of the day......my results are still dropping.

What to do?

Don't blame the others, blame yourself.

Goodbye. I'm such a failure. Extremely frustrated. LOSER! #

20110827: New School Library™

2011-09-01T03:34:00.000-07:00

OUR new school library rocks! I remember when I first stepped into the place, I was stunned, standing there with my mouth opened. It's new! Very new! Very modern, stylish and high class. The design is cool, fascinating. I'm sure that everyone will like it and I believe the school has hired designers to design the library.

As we read or study inside the new library, the feel is totally different from the old one. We have new chairs, new tables as oppose to the old one which have very uncomfortable chairs (plastic chairs). Meanwhile in the new library, we have cushioned chairs in selected tables and in the so called Teachers' Reading Lounge, there are sofas, purchased exclusively for the teachers.

There are also discussion zones (where the cushioned chairs are placed) behind the open shelf racks. These four seater reading tables enable students to form study groups or carry out meetings here in the library. This is certainly fantastic.

The circulation counters are placed at the centre of the library. The school is providing us new flat screen monitors. I expect them to upgrade their computers to Windows 7 but unfortunately they're still using Windows XP. Anyhow the system now works more efficiently than the prior ones. Now the three computers behind the circulation counters are not for gaming purposes but may only be used by the librarians and the teacher advisors.

The new librarians' workroom looks much smaller than the old one. The only thing is that they have separated the storeroom from our workroom into the small "darkroom" beside the emergency staircase. The new storeroom is extremely eerie, very smelly, stifling hot (even though the air-conditioning system is functioning) as there's no ventilation in the entire room. If anyone would have locked inside, there's only a result: death.

Don't worry anyway as the store room is not the place for you to read! Without any doubt, I can tell you that reading in our new school library is going to be an enjoyable experience. Make your way to our new premise on Level 2 (New Building) as we resume our regular hours very soon. Stay tuned! #

20110730: Annual General Meeting™

2011-07-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

IT'S the annual general meeting and today we shall witness the promotion of some of our members to either committee members or as high as chairperson to help managing the organisation. Most of our societies have implemented the autocratic way (in other words we call it 'easier way') of electing the new committees instead of democracy where everyone has a chance to choose leaders, which they think are capable and competent, to rule the society.

In fact the chances are only given to the teachers in order to avoid confusion and commotion from disrupting the meeting's progress. This year the new committee list comes in complete surprise as I'm appointed as the Deputy Head Librarian which is a post that I'm not expecting for. I'm expecting things like secretary but the consequence turns out to be rather surprising.

It's going to be a tough year ahead as the new batch of committee members will need to shoulder a little more assignments. Our very first mission is to move everything out of the old library and then into our new premise which will take place progressively in the next few weeks. We don't have much time as the launching falls on 9th of September which is only a month left for us in the preparation.

Despite tough and challenging, I'm ready to face the challenge. My aim is to make the library a reputable society just like the prefects. I'm not interested in entertaining the ordinary members but I'd be very interested in the reform of the existing management strategy.

With that I wish all the best to myself as well as all our librarians. I'll do all my part and my very best in the coming days.

Do you feel that? It's a very tough year ahead because it's going to be the age of glory for our board! Err...let's make it a false statement till next year, we shall see the difference. #

20110717: Annual Flag Day™

2011-07-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

ONCE again St. John members hit the streets yesterday and this morning in accordance with the annual flag day. The annual flag day was held over two days annually. I was involved in the flag day for four years and collecting funds from people was not an easy task. Honestly you might often end up by being scolded by people or so. It was really pitiful as these people didn't had any rough idea about flag day although they knew we were trying to gather donations from the community.

We need funds from the people for the purchase of medicines, ambulance or so for our voluntary organisation, the St. John Ambulance Brigade to continue with our life saving work for the community. But I was pleased that most Penangites actually gave us strong support. As luck would have it some of them claimed that our members were very annoying and was trying to avoid us and this might had save them some money. Some of them would have ignored you and even shouted at you but anyhow so far I didn't bump into such people before.

Most Penangites actually support us as they knew our brigade provide efficient service and was a helping hand in the community whenever and wherever they need help. That's why I was proud to be a St. John member not because of that we triumphed in so many state or international level competitions but the fact that our members had saved thousands of lives before the casualties were sent to the hospital for further medication.

There were things that many people didn't know was that the annual flag day was actually an inter-school competition. We compete with each other to collect the most funds and on Sunday afternoon, our vice chairperson announced our outstanding performance on Saturday had turned out as the champion on the island. It was hoped that our school will once again triumph in the state competition. Rewards for our two days of hard work were a total of 14 marks for our CCA score.

Back in 2008 when I was in Form 1, our school turned out to be the second runner up. Then in 2009, we were the first runner up and last year we were the champion. Hopefully this year our school will retain our champion's crown and next year our members shall put in all their efforts to top the state again for three years in a row.

For four years, flag days usually end up with a happy ending. As I returned to school with a tin full of coins and banknotes, I felt very proud to myself and was very grateful to people whom had donated to us. At the end of the day, my legs were full of bruises because of the stupid shoes and some of us even suffered from sunburn, yet we felt happy as we did a very good job. Flag day was always a memorable day and to me it was really meaningful.

20110707: I WASTED 7 HOURS™

2011-07-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

This post has been removed due to lack of interest.

Thank you for your feedback and your continuous support.

20110702: Run Malaysian!™

2011-07-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

ALL students were involved and compulsory to take part in the 1Malaysia run or in full we addressed the national level activity as 1Murid 1Sukan 1Malaysia (in English: 1Student 1Sport 1Malaysia) run. Officiated and launched by Datuk Seri Muhyiddin Yassin, our Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Education, students from all 13 states will be flagged off simultaneously at 7.45a.m. earlier this morning.

4137126 children from 9980 secondary and primary schools had been participating in this programme. Therefore the run was said to be recorded into the Malaysia Book of Records as "the largest participation of school students in a run". This simply proved that the latest government policy had received overwhelming response from teachers, parents and of course the participants.

Quoted from an article of The Star, Datuk Seri Muhyiddin Yassin hoped that the event would encourage a sporting culture among schoolchildren. In our school, we ran two rounds of the school compound. The route was quite short and I can tell you that it's less than 1 km, for sure. But this worth 14 marks. Anyhow it was difficult to own 14 marks for co-curricular because you gotta arouse from your sleep early in the morning and attend for the uniformed bodies some more after the run. Even worse was that the day was actually a holiday but for the sake of the run, we were all forced back to the school.

Yet we as a patriotic Malaysian citizen should show complete support to the 1Malaysia campaign and try our very best to burn the true spirit of 1Heng Ee and 1Malaysia. After all the simultaneous run ended with a great triumph and most of us enjoyed the run. #

20110701: Tesco Tanjung Pinang™

2011-07-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

THE third Tesco and probably the largest on the island is now officially opened last thursday (June 23rd). Situated on the reclaimed land of the uptown Seri Tanjung Pinang developed by the well famed developer E&O and a stone's throw away from Penang's latest retail marina Straits Quay, I believe this Tesco outlet is located in a strategic location. Nonetheless Tesco's existence doesn't seem like affecting the popularity of its neighbour Straits Quay Mall, neither does Gurney Plaza since they are still as vibrant as before. But it may kill Island Plaza in the long term.

Although it has been a week after its grand opening, this Tesco is still flooded with customers. I understand most Penangites, including me, likes to visit new landmarks. The two levels of parking spaces are almost been fully occupied by the shoppers even though the time has shown 10 pm. Anyhow, the night is still young as tomorrow's a Saturday. We're lucky enough to save a place for our car.

Similar to the newly refurbished Tesco Jelutong, this complex features two levels of covered parking with more than 1000 bays and a mall with about 40 shops and a food court on Ground Floor. Tesco hypermarket is located at level 2. Pity that I don't see any bookstore here.

During my visit to Tesco this evening, the first thing I must mention is that the air-conditioning system is very effective and achieved 100% efficiency, perhaps. The experience of roaming around the complex is like you are quivering under the chilliness in the north pole, especially around the frozen department. Nothing's spectacular pertaining to the inteorir design but the exterior design looks more or less like the Western architecture of Straits Quay.

As stated in the signboards, Tesco are committed in helping and encouraging their customers to go green. So Tesco is trying their best to set up environmental friendly shops or better known as green stores in order to protect and conserve the environment for future generations. I'd like to highlight Tesco's initiative on using LED light bulbs in all its refrigerators. This eventually reduces the energy consumption which I think is indeed, a step in the right direction. Besides, most people doesn't notice that the small green structure outside the hypermarket is actually the recycling collection centre where people can send recyclable materials here to exchange for reward.

Lastly, congratulations to Tesco for their success in opening their new outlet in Tanjung Pinang and we welcome their presence in the heart of this new waterfront community. Well done! #

20110618: Double Confirm?™

2011-06-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

SOMETHING'S not right because this morning I was called to be the organizing committee for the upcoming 22nd Intersquad Competition, scheduled to be hold on December. The intersquad competition, held once every three or four years was obviously one of the gala and grand event to be conducted by St. John. Participants of this inter school competition were all from different St. John and Red Crescent Society divisions in the entire island and some of them may come as far as from Butterworth and even Sungai Petani (WTH?!).

Years ago, I was involved in the 21st Intersquad Competition as a helper. This year, eventually, they chose me as the organizing committee which I think was a bit horrifying. When Yi Tong conveyed almost 15 of us the breaking news, my mind was bounded with question marks as everything happened in a split second.

It was about time for me to meditate.

At the beginning, I was full of anticipation. But then my mood undergone a complete change from exhilaration to fear. I was thinking of asking them since when they started to look up on me. I was a happy-go-lucky guy and it was doubtful that they can pass me such a challenging task without taking in any consideration.

I asked Yi Tong whether she peeped into the right name. She nodded and urged me to be more confident. Frankly I was not confident to myself because I had got zero experience. Hopefully I will benefit a lot from this. After all, since they granted me the opportunity, I shall appreciate and try my best to discharge my responsibilities and duties completely.

BUT WAIT!

Are they mentioning Intersquad or Intergroup in the first place? Are they telling me the right thing? Everything sounds beyond belief and unbelievable. It looks more like a JOKE! #

20110610: Police™

2011-06-11T04:27:00.000-07:00

ONCE again, I'm back! Have you ever thought of becoming a police officer? I guess nobody dares to as local polices have bad reputation since they often been seen corrupting people's money. But recently in Singapore, Mediacorp launches a new Chinese crime series known as C.L.I.F., debuts at Singapore's free-to-air Channel 8 last week.

The four letter word "C.L.I.F." are actually initials for Courage, Loyalty, Integrity and Fairness. The series, set to be the most realistic drama ever made in Singaporean TV, should have fascinate many local viewers. Look at the actors, they look so capable, strong, energetic in their full blue-black uniforms. How wonderful if I'm also the one of them.......equipped with guns and snipers.

Stop dreaming, boy!!! You might have to fulfill the four characteristics before you can become a skillful police officer. Of course you must be very brave and bold. How can you be a police if can scream like a baby who wanna go to the toilet when a cockroach crawls over your leg? Secondly, you must be faithful to your country. How can you be a police if you work with the gangland and inform them whenever there are police spotchecks held?

Be integrity, that's also very important. How can you be a police if you found a wallet full of cash but refuse to return it to the actual owner? You must be fair, after all. How can you be a police if you always corrupt moneys from the innocent without consideration for others? You may result the country in dangerous consequences, the collapse of a country. Understood? With that, we roll out the acronym "C.L.I.F." as featured in the latest Singapore Chinese police blockbuster.

Before you become a police, you may need to undergo whatever physical training and you have so much more to learn. Well in fact, polices are indeed, true heroes as shown in TV series like for instance we have CSI, Hawaii-five-O and Crime Watch. Unfortunately, C.L.I.F. is not shown in Malaysian television for the time being. By listening to the theme song on YouTube for multiple times, I can imagine how interesting the storyline is. Pretty much actions in it.

To be honest with you, I don't think I'm going to be a police but I'd be very happy if I'm given the opportunity to wear the police uniform. Looks very smart. That's what I like. But I know the day would never come. #

20110608: WTH?!™

2011-06-08T02:14:00.000-07:00

RECENTLY, IT'S informed that the National Service programme is about to be lengthened its training period from the current three months to six months. Read The Star in details.

"How many more trainees do they want to kill?" asked a mother as interviewed by The Star. It is understood that most parents are concerned about their children's safety as throughout the hell-liked training programme, there are a numerous number of extreme activities. Albeit risky, these activities are held to build up self-confidence in our young generations. So the Chinese saying goes, "a good medicine is bitter the taste." Moreover, this is very crucial because they, the youths, will shape our nation to become a well-developed country.

But actually we are considered lucky because other countries like Singapore for instance, all Singaporeans will have to enrol in the military once the reach the age of 18 for 30 months (TWO YEARS!) rather than the cheap cheap 3 months in Malaysia. So why shouldn't we go?

Still, most of us dislike to be there, including me, hanging around at the campsite for THREE months. Though we know that we'll be doing something meaningful there but to me, I better wish that I wouldn't be selected to be one of the scapegoats!

The reason is just because of the Government whom are trying to cut down the cost. That's why not all Malaysians will have to attend National Service. A selection of trainees will be made randomly every year. You will need to check into the military once you were selected. But for those who are not chosen, they are all freed and escaped from this stupid programme.

It's certainly unfair for those people who have attend the National Service. In order to ensure total fairness, this program should be a compulsory to every Malaysian son. So I'd better pray to the God that my name is not going to be selected by the officers.

What for we volunteer ourselves to attend the program if there's an alternative way to go? I want to further my academics as fast as I can. No, I want my three months holidays. Of course I'm not going to stare at the computer screen everyday at home. I want to do something significant rather than spending my time in the campsite. I don't like to be controlled! Simple as that. #

20110606: Year 16™

2011-06-08T01:38:00.000-07:00

FROM the bottom of my heart, I'd like to express my gratitude to my father for the new camera (I like it so much), my mother for the cheese cake and also to my godmother for the KFC, my grandmother, my aunts for the ang pow. Secondly I'd like to thank all 43 of you whom had "spammed" my wall this morning for all your awesome birthday wishes.

Can you imagine that kind of feeling? When you have your facebook posted with all sorts of birthday wishes. It's cool! Thank you especially Jonathan Hon for being the first, Chean Ghee who had been staying all night long waiting for my birthday, my sister Jia Jie, Khai Yuen for spending the whole night chatting with me, Zhi Pei for guiding me in MH and all 43 of you (to me, it's a big number).

It's already been the 16th year and hopefully this new year will start off with a fresh start. I wish I wouldn't be chosen to attend the National Service. Don't you know that it's going to be extended TO TWO YEARS?! Noooo!!! I'm not going to waste my time at the campsite, doing all the nonsense. If they are doing so, please make it compulsory for everyone instead of selecting part of us randomly. This is just unfair. Others may have gone overseas to further their study in the university, but those unfortunates will have to stay back for stupid training! I'm going to write more on this soon.

Finally......looks like this would wrap up today's post and happy birthday Kelvin, have a BLAST. Thanks to Daniel who had taught me a new word this morning.

Happy rice dumpling festival to all my readers at the same time. #

20110601: Western Food™

2011-06-05T03:19:00.000-07:00

JAMES Foo and Family are now operating their western food restaurant in their new premise in Tanjung Bungah. They are having roaring business by the time I made my first visit to their restaurant. We'll have to queue up at that snaking queue for almost 10 minutes to wait for our turn to be seated.

This restaurant, I think, probably big enough to accommodate up to 100 people. The drinks are prepared at the drinks counter at the centre of this restaurant, just like Old Town. Foods are prepared in the kitchen. As I peep into the kitchen, unlike other restaurants, the chefs are dressed in their neat, white traditional chef uniform. It seems like we're dining in the hotel.

This is a non-halal restaurant as porks are served. This restaurant does not serve any oriental dishes but offered mainly western cuisines. I've got this thing called Stuffed Fish (RM 9.90). It's actually a recipe of Cordon Bleu. They just replace the chicken with fish. Tastes very nice with their self-made tartar sauce.

The restaurant is brightly lit and beautifully decorated. The interior design is just nice and cold enough as it's fully air conditioned. But the cozy and romantic ambience together with the warm background music are all spoiled because the small group of crazy teenagers. They are actually supposed to be chase out of this restaurant if I am the boss and I'm going to send them to the asylum. It's simply ridiculous as they shout, they laugh, banging the table with the cutleries and so on. It's sounds like they're so hungry, so excited and couldn't wait to bite into their foods they've ordered. They're making this restaurant like a market or even worse than a market.

Anyhow just ignore them. What Penangites demand are the quality and James Foo's restaurant really satisfies our taste buds. Be sure to visit them one day when you're free but it takes quite some time for them to serve your foods during peak dining hours. After all, it's worth-waiting. #

> Rated 9/10. Visit now: James Foo & Family Western Food Ground Floor, Block 21 Annex Building, Jalan Fettes Park, 11200 Tanjung Tokong, Penang. Opens from 4pm to 11.30pm. Closed on Mondays Limited parking bays.

20100529: OMG™

2011-04-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

JUSTIN Bieber was acting for CSI! I knew the news had came very late for me because I'm not fond and not a fan of Justin Bieber. Lately my cousin told me that Justin Bieber was one of the guest appearance for the crime series and some more he was acting as a villain.

He appeared in two episodes of Season 11 and surprisingly played as an antagonist for both episodes. I thought he was acting as a super hero that saved the day. And.......the most unforgettable and memorable part ever in CSI was when Justin Bieber got shot by the police and finally kicked the bucket. That was just awesome and fantastic. Thanks to the screenwriter who had came out with a remarkable ending.

I wonder how the Bibieliars would react at the moment their idol got killed at the TV screen. They might had turned crazy and shouted at their parents. They should had cried for days or even weeks for the death of their favourite superstar like what they had done for Michael Jackson. But they must be happy for it because the worst actor ever on screen was killed. Is it true enough? I'm sure you knew the answer in your heart.

I was standing at the neutral point honestly. Though, even those fans of Justin Bieber can't stop themselves from breaking into laughter when they watched these videos created by creative video makers all over the world. I was impressed as you see those videos are made out of the original 1-minute footage from CSI. They were so amazing.

Enjoy yourselves. #

20110528: Annoyed™

2011-04-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

SOMETIMES it's very true that we may seldom find co-curricular activities very annoying and irritating. When you're enjoying your holidays, they will have phone you and require you to go for duty from the morning till the night. In the beginning of the holiday, they will carry out activities during the holiday like trainings or so on which I hate the most.

Why? Because holiday is the time for people to rest. Do you know that this is the very last holiday and next year we won't be having any holidays because SPM is really near by the time. In the future, I think there won't be any chance or having any holidays in the university besides public holiday. So I'm two weeks off and I'm not working for the school during holidays but I will study for myself.

Whoever that tend to dial my number and order me to help to run their errands, I'm going to shout at them. Some may ask me to go hang out with them in the shopping mall. These kind of people are deserved to be cursed. I DON'T WANNA WASTE MY HOLIDAYS WITH STUPID STUFFS! Yeoh Wei Zhu is getting 100 marks in his Additional Maths and I gotta do something! He's not going to get the first in the next exam! I promise.

Perhaps you should say that you wanna go out instead of hang out with me because I realise that staying at home may be bored sometimes.

You know, there's a big difference between those terms and people nowadays really don't care about it. YET I CARE! Like Chemistry and Chemist. Upper secondary school students would call Chemistry as Chemist or Chemi. They are so wrong. Totally wrong. Chemist are not a subject seriously and it's a kind of profession. I don't think Chemi exist as a word in this world. It's Chemistry.

Let's take a look at the difference between going out and hanging out. Going out means to do something meaningful outdoors like visit to museums or going to the aquarium or maybe taking photographs of sunsets by the sea. Eating delicious meals in the restaurant are still tolerable because I love foods. These are all healthy activities. But unhealthy activities are like watching movies, singing in the karaoke, skating and these are all to be done when we hang out in the shopping malls!

Seriously I don't desire to be a movie-goer. Watching movies in the golden screen would make me sleep. If there are touching stories, they would move me to tears for the whole month or more than that. Singing in the karaoke box could cause sore throats. So what's the point for you to dress beautifully or handsomely and go hang out with your friends? It's just stupid.

Opps......

What a big difference after all. Sorry, I've probably gone out of topic. Anyway I love holidays and I appreciate it so much. I know I won't be having any school holidays after I enter the university. #

20110527: Our New Campus™

2011-04-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

THE eight storey building for our school is, not officially but already opened for the lower sixth form students and their class are fully air-conditioned. There's a sneak peak: the library has air-conds and yellow lights. Located on the second floor and third floor. It's now twice the size of the previous one. More spacious and more comfortable. Not furnished yet and we'll probably be moving around July or August.

Classrooms in this building have two functions I guess. On the weekdays, it's for the sixth form students and on the weekends, it will be used as the music rooms for the performing arts societies. The classrooms are much bigger than that of the classrooms in Block A and E. New tables, new chairs and they are not using old traditional blackboards but white boards instead.

During the exam, Xian Hong, Jason and I went through the whole building and I can tell you, from the eighth floor, you can enjoy splendid view of the whole area of Green Lane and almost part of Air Itam.

It's very tiring if you use the staircase to climb up to the eighth level because this building has got a very special staircase design. A rectangular design. It's better for us to use the lift and I used the lift for six times throughout the 1B exam week, which means that I owe the school RM6 and probably I'll make it as the donation for the school concert.

The school won't be able to foot the electricity bill if everyone wants to use the elevator. Supposedly the sixth form students are the only group of students that are allowed to use the elevator or maybe for those who wants to go to the higher levels. I think the school will soon hire a lift attendant to collect moneys from the lift users and also to take care of the so called touch screen buttons so that it won't worn out that fast.

Heng Ee won't be able to control their students if no special eyes are installed in every corner of the school. There will be at least five of these cameras in a level. And every level will have a boy's toilet and girl's toilet, as well as a handicapped toilet. Looks like we wouldn't have to go to the old toilets anymore. Hopefully our school citizens will care and appreciate the new facilities.

The official opening date of our new campus will be on 9th of September this year. Stay tuned for more updates.

9th of September will be the official day for the opening ceremony for the new building. #

20110415: Just Married™

2011-04-25T00:51:00.000-07:00

The royal wedding is broadcasting live on news and terrestrial channels all over the world and is watched by millions of spectators. Imagine how romantic it is when thousands and millions of eyes pinned on the television screen watching at your own wedding ceremony, people standing at the roadside watching and cheering for you and your bride. Owhhh I really like that kind of feeling. Congratulations to Prince William and Kate Middleton for having a successful royal wedding today and after all, I like their balcony kiss.

20110409: Traces VI™

2011-04-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ST. JOHN

Unlike any other school across the island, our school's St. John division only celebrate our anniversary once every five years and perhaps I myself may only attend such glorious event once in my lifetime unless I return as an ex-member. Our anniversaries were celebrated in a very large scaled event and imagine how prominent the celebration was to our members. Today's event had achieved a significant success and I was so proud to be a St. John member of our school.

Last five years, we successfully organised a massive campfire to celebrate the golden jubilee at the school field. This year our organising committee had came out a very particular brainwave which was a grand and formal celebration. Months before, all our members were told to pass the hat around in order to raise funds for the anniversary. Those who exceeded the targeted amount of RM50 will be given a free ticket to the RM35 dinner.

A talent search programme was held to select skillful performers among us. Dancers were then chosen and the date was fixed, it was on the 9th of April. After months of preparations, the day everyone was waiting for was now here. Those who were attending the anniversary must had a huge headache as the dress code sounded very confusing - formal wear. Nevertheless everyone still dressed up formally and showed themselves up at the Sunshine Square Banquet Hall.

I took a lift up to the fourth floor where I came across most of my friends. At the same time I told myself, everyone looked so much matured today. It's like someone was about to walk up the aisle but the fact was, we were here to celebrate St. John's 40th birthday.

As I hand in my ticket to the helpers at the reception, I was brought to my seat. The place was in a topsy-turvy condition as everyone was busy seating our guests. Once the emcees announced that the event was about to start, all face turned around and pinned their eyes on the stage to enjoy the very first performance presented by the school's harmonica band. Good thing that they had played one of my favorite song, Lemon Tree.

It was 6.45p.m. and the event finally kicked off with the very first item, the fashion show. The models were all handsome boys and beautiful girls from our school's St. John. I'm very sure that all the clothing were being sponsored by Sunshine (just making a guess, don't believe me).

Followed by the fashion show was the speeches by our division surgeon is it? Dr. Cheong if not mistaken and then Mr. Goh. Please take note of some bad habits practiced by the Chinese. When people was giving their speech on the stage, be it appealing or boring, they will never bother to listen yet to continue with their absorbing conversation. Unfortunately, this happened this evening which had caused one mark to be deducted from our overall performance.

Then it was the talent search competition where all our guests will judge for the five performances performed by our five contestants. One of them was imitating Jay Chou and the other one rendered the theme song of Titanic. It seemed like our members were so versatile. They can sing, dance, able to play a musical instrument and the like. But the sound system was so ear-piercing and it was very painful as the place I sit was quite near to the speaker.

We had our dinner at the same time while enjoying to the songs and the most excitingly, the Lucky Draw. Luck wasn't on my side this evening as I returned home with an empty hand. The grand prize was very attractive and I'm sure that everyone wanted it so much - the Samsung touch screen handphone.

Other than that, there were also beatbox performances from the school cadet team (KRS) which fascinated many. They really deserved to be awarded the best performer of the day and well in fact, they won. There were magic shows by magicians from PCGS which sounded a bit dull. No idea on what they were doing.

And.....finally the performances by our own division was the best among the others. They include the Nobody Dance by Lady Gaga, street dance, acrobatics by Yi Tong and lastly all our helpers came to the front stage and sang the Chinese theme song named "reunion" by Wu Qixian. Our members and ex-members were invited to the front stage to take a group photo and this marked the end of the anniversary.

The five-year-once event will only be back in 2016 when Traces VII was launched at that instance. I promise that I will be back for the next anniversary. Hopefully I did not break my promise. Well done, our organising committees! Well done, our helpers and performers! Well done, for those whom involved in the organising of the anniversary! Well done to our St. John members! Although it had already over, but your hard works for today's anniversary won't passed off from our mind and it shall stay forever. So to say that it was certainly a historical and wonderful night that I'd never ever forget.

“吃得苦中苦，方為人上人，勇敢踏出第一步，成功就在你左右。”

- 我們聖約韓救傷隊口號

"There won't be any gains without pains as the recipe to success, be brave."

- Our division's catchphrase.

20110331: School Buses™

2011-03-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

These days we've been advised to spend wise as our daily expenses are rising from time to time. We're often advised and told by our parents to save up our money and put them all into the coin box. This is certainly because of that their cash outflow is about to exceed their monthly income.

In spite of this we're given only a few ringgit a day for our breakfast/tea-time in the school canteen. When we tend to request for more money maybe to pay for the class fund or to buy some reference book, we'll more likely to be given a stern look. I understand everyone is working persistently to earn for more money and attempted to spend wisely. But these thrifty parents are not intelligent enough as they neglect their child's safety.

Every time when my mother fetch me back from school by motorbike, I realise how lucky I am. As my bike passes by some of the school buses, I try to imagine how risky it is for the bus passengers when some of this school buses are apparently overload. These bus drivers should be sued and fined because it's too dangerous for the passengers. I don't understand why these students still dare to have a hazardous journey home by patronising to these irresponsible bus companies. They aren't air-conditioned and it's so uncomfortable and so much unventilated inside the bus. What a horrible experience!

The school and the parents should take note of the issue. When a fatal accident occurs, tell me what's going to happen? What are the consequences? Are these parents going to blame the school again? If they are, these are brainless parents. The school won't take any responsibilities but the insurance company will. Please get rid of boarding these buses. They are all money minded, evil business persons. The best way is through car pooling or choose the correct bus company. The greenest way is of course, walk home on foot if your house is near to the school.

20110329: Offensive Brochures™

2011-03-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of us received two leaflets lately pertaining to the redevelopment project on Pulau Jerejak. The earlier leaflet was printed and published by the current state government DAP or our CM himself and the latest one is from the Barisan. The two brochures distributed to millions of citizens on the island must have made people suspicious, wondering who is telling the right thing.

By the way I don't care much about the truth but I'm very keen to know what are they going to do if they are given the permission to develop the whole Jerejak Island. Seems like it's going to be hotels or resorts again. Nothing's particular enough. After browsing through the net, I don't actually see results of upcoming projects in Pulau Jerejak but news about the big scandal in the isle.

I'm very disappointed because I personally feel that it's just a waste for the beautiful scenery when Pulau Jerejak is not well developed. It wouldn't be sufficient to be a successful tourism product with only a small resort and limited attractions and facilities. Who wants to be there? They'd rather enjoy a cup of coffee at Starbucks or Coffee Bean in Queensbay Mall.

I suggest Genting Group to build Resorts World Jerejak here since most Penangites are compulsive gamblers. Thus we don't have to travel for such a long distance up to the peak to enjoy our theme park. This would definitely save up a lot of resources. But the only problem is the lands in Pulau Jerejak are just too small in size. Or an alternative, they should organize activities like jungle trekking, this would promote eco-tourism and conserving the nature instead.

20110325: Cross Country™

2011-03-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

This year's cross country turned out to be a cloudy and eventually a rainy day where everyone was running under the rain. The downpour was quite heavy that day but still we will have to continue our journey. Most of us (including me) did not prepare for the rainy day yet only a few of us had brought an umbrella or maybe raincoats to stay dry from the rain.

The 4.5km run began from the entrance of the Youth Park stage, Persiaran Kuari (Kuari Drive) via Jalan Utama (Main Road) and Jesselton Gardens, finally the Youth Park. This year, our friends from Intel will be accompanying us in the run in conjunction of the PC Pal Program held exclusively for Heng Ee students.

As usual, there must be a teacher every 30 metres to keep an eye on the student's safety throughout the run. Some of them are damn annoying ones as they asked you to run instead of walking like a sissy. I'm the one who's walking all the time. In true fact, sports aren't in my blood. (Pictures above) Teachers on the run.

Upon completing the marathon, it started to rain. We ran as fast as possible before the torrential rains been brought out. Hong Wei and I heaved a sigh of relief as we reached the ending point. Once again, I missed the chance to obtain a bonus mark (hey you're not running at all!). The standard time is set as 40 minutes for our category (if not mistaken) and for being late, we were not eligible to redeem the reward which is one bonus point.

The reward sounds pretty dull and wasn't that attractive. Instead of one bonus point, it should be cash money....so people will run as fast as their legs could carry them after the cash. It's pardoned that the school didn't have enough funds to award these students. So the marks shall replace the cash. Every year there will be 20 places for each category and I'm sure that all the top 10 were all athletes. Congratulations to all the winners, I'm so proud of you all........

At the end of the prize giving ceremony, we sang the school song under the rain. The scene was so romantic? Perhaps it was quite cool...something new to me. It was my first time after all. Finally we were dismissed and were allowed to enjoy our weekends. Before I left home, I bought a cup of bubble tea from the hawker stall at the roadside (an act that strongly opposed by our school principal) to get rid of my thirstiness.

> Photos courtesy of the school portal. Click for more photos.

20110320: Final Break™

2011-03-27T01:43:00.000-07:00

Today will be the last and one final day before everything gets back to normal. My seniors in Form 5 told me last year that Form 4 will not be as easy as you were in the PMR level. We should own up to the fact that SPM is going to turn our life miserable. But SPM is not as frightening as the O Level. For Science stream students, it's going to be tough in the next few months before we could master our bases in the five major insane (inclusive of the three sciences and the two maths).

Tomorrow will be the day where our marks revealed. It's not about marks or our results. The only thing that really matters is how much effort that we have put in after three months. My target is the S1 class and I'm not crapping this time. It's not an April Fool's joke and we shall see what kind of shit am I going to have for tomorrow.

There's 56 days to go for the mid-year exam and that's really important. The four exams this year are really important, I please you boy......be hardworking. My final year in Heng Ee should be the best among the five big fat years I've spent in this school. My hard work musn't go to waste. STOP! Remember what Carl told us last time? The important thing is not just writing inside the blog or boasting in front of our friends about our target or building sandcastles inside our head but to comply, to implement your desires, your cravings. Don't become a chicken mother!

...... Returns to pack my school bag and I'm ready to school. Say Hello to a new term and I wish everyone and myself Good Luck.

20110317: Earthquake™

2011-03-19T01:38:00.000-07:00

Do you know that Japan was located as the country with most earthquakes in the world? Yes, it was a true statement. The recent issue of the 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami that slammed Japan a few days ago was extremely horrifying. This violent quake had eventually caused another nuclear disaster to occur. Till date, two nuclear reactors were destructed after the quake of which include the explosion of Reactor I of Fukushima I Nuclear Plant on March 12 and three days later, the Reactor II of Fukushima I Nuclear Plant.

At the meantime, it was the one of the largest earthquake ever recorded. According to Wikipedia, it was also the world's most expensive natural disaster on record. In spite of this, let's help and support the Japanese community to brave the calamity. Be sure to donate as evacuation works of rescuing the victims were still in the pipeline. I sincerely pray to the God and may God bless the victims and people in Japan and may the victims' soul rest in peace.

20110316: Stop Memorising™

2011-03-18T01:38:00.000-07:00

Mathematics is easy.

Mathematics is fun.

Based on the above statement, give your opinion. [1 mark]

Let me answer this question for you. Some may have agreed that it's the easiest subject ever unlike the science subjects that requires a lot of memorisation. Some may also admit that it's fun because as you are solving the problem sets, it's like you are in the drama CSI or the Hawaii Five-O, busting crimes just like a FBI. When you top the class with the highest score in the exam for Maths, you will be declared as the forensic hero just because you are able to think well and solve the problems using your knowledge.

That's why I feel memorisation is not an appropriate method of learning. For instance, for someone that is weak in English or Malay or their mother tongue or any other language subjects, they tend to swallow in all the sample essays into their stomach. When it comes to the exam, they just vomit it out onto the answer sheets and that's all. Whenever they spot an outstanding word, they will just straight away memorise the word without knowing the meaning.

Despite that the person's language is going to improve, but the problem is still there. The essays written will definitely sounds very awkward since the person only cut and paste whatever he/she had memorised. It's probably due to the fact that the nutrients in the essay haven't yet diffused into their cells. Likewise, one that is good in writing may not be good in speaking. Only those whom are good at both are considered as an A+ student. That's why there are oral test but oral test in my school is stupid because the teacher asks us to memorise the script and present it to the whole class. That's not right!

After all, memorisation is not encouraged. It's a kind of a stupid method. I used to do a lot of memorisation for PMR and at last, I end up like today, forgot everything that I've learnt in Form 1 to Form 3. So now in Form 4, try to avoid memorising because memorising is too suffering. Believe me, memorising is nothing, understanding is everything. Remember that.

> Disclaimer: Part of the content of this post may not be true.

20110315: New Choice for Penangites™

2011-03-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

With the recent opening of Food Gallery in Penang Times Square, Penangites will now have an alternative choice of dining instead of having meals at the roadside or in the kopitiam. The new food hub will house a total of 20 stalls in which offers a wide variety of local cuisines. From Hong Kong Dim Sum to Western Food, the Food Gallery offers more than 200 types of tantalising dishes. Meanwhile Food Gallery looks much similar to a typical Singapore food court that provides a comfortable and clean dining ambiance.

The food court is managed by Bali Hai and the design of the charcoal, cutleries and kitchenwares at the corridor is quite attractive. By the way, for those that park their cars at the Chin Ho Plaza can take the outdoor escalator to the Food Gallery. The escalator is still in the midst of construction. Also please note that there are a several hidden stalls at the corner.

I tried the Mango Flavoured Chicken Chop Rice (if not mistaken, that's the name for the dish) from the Tiong Hua stall and the soup is totally tasteless, honestly. I can't recall the price yet I believe the food prices will be kept reasonable to attract and bring back their old customers. Besides, you've got this Vinegar Loh Mee (if not mistaken) where the soup tastes rather similar to the Shark Fin's Soup. At the meantime, the prawns are cut into very small piece and I've only found two of this mini prawns in my soup.

Apparently, foods served in Food Gallery are guaranteed fresh and clean. The seats here are much comfortable than those in the kopitiam. The temperature indoors is just nice. Everything's perfect and we wish Food Gallery all the best. With the opening of Tao and Ming Garden in May, I believe Penang Times Square will be another happening area in Penang.

> Rated 8/10. Visit now: Food Gallery First Floor, Birch the Plaza, Penang Times Square, Jalan Kampung Jawa Baru, 10400 Georgetown, Penang. Opens daily from 10am to 10pm. Hong Kong Dim Sum is served from 7am every morning. Ample parking bays at multi-level carpark, Chin Ho Plaza and soon the basement car park in Phase 2.

20110313: Lee Wei & Amelia™

2011-03-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today is gonna be a special day as we shall witness the born of a new couple and soon a new family. I really have got nothing much to express except sending words of congratulations to my cousin, Amelia and Ah Wei. Nonetheless we sincerely hope that their marriage will last forever. How romantic and I wonder when is my turn to get married....kind of like so excited yet this is not the suitable time for me to do so.

The ceremony begins at about 11a.m. when the bridegroom arrives the bride's house which is also my cousin's house with 8 Perodua Myvis in a row and I'm the one whom are going to the open the door and welcome the bridegroom. Actually to be frank I don't like doing things like this but the ang pows really draws my attention. Just joking anyway and I'm not volunteering myself cause I'm not money-eyed. In the house, Amelia's friends tend to lock the door to prevent Ah Wei's gang from entering the house. Unfortunately Ah Wei doesn't have the house key and guess how unlucky they're as they're about to face numerous obstacles before they could successfully step into the house.

As time doesn't allow, Ah Wei and his gang of what they call, brothers are asked to have a tea break in the house. I was wanted again to serve Ah Wei with a cup of egg tea which tastes extremely disgusting. Luckily bridegrooms are not required to drink this kind of drink unless if you want to. Then they should help themselves with the Nyonya pastries before they could proceed with their stunts.

Once again, the group of boys are chased out of the house and they will need to answer a few questions, sing a song and perform some sorts of acrobatic actions. Once they failed the task, they will have to drink and eat four kinds of strange foods including the cup of extremely sweet Milo with eggs, the spicy yet tasteless noodle, wholemeal bread with chilies and a cup of lemon juice as their punishments, even though they can do it well. This eventually allows them to enter the house but they would need to search into the bucket of ice for the room key to unlock the bride's room. Playing those games consumed quite a lot of time as it uses up almost 1 to 2 hours to complete everything.

"Mission accomplised!" Yelled Ah Wei's friend and I guess Ah Wei might as well heaved a sigh of relief as it has been a long way before he gets everything done. The ceremony continues with the tea drinking ceremony and so on. We took the family photos with Ah Wei and Amelia and they have their lunch before returning to the bridegroom's house. We followed their car to their house in Island Glades and the weather is just way too crazy. It's still as hot as you are in the oven although you have already turn to the maximum speed of your fan in the car.

We reach the destination in about 15 minutes time and I don't manage to see the time as I'm already all in. Quite dizzy and a motorbike nearly runs into me. Forget about it. I shall be more careful while crossing the road next time. Continues with the tea ceremony. While the team are heading downtown to the Guan Yin Temple to pray, we have our lunch and then head to their new house in Greenlane Height to have a nap.

Just nice as when they come back, it's already 5. Imagine how tired after your own wedding. The feeling is totally different when you're the bridegroom or bride. You're wearing the coat and the tie or the wedding gown. You'll need to overcome all those challenges or punishments and so on. The most important thing, you can't go to the toilet and you're not allowed to eat because there're lots of eye pinned on you including the biggest eye, I mean the camera.

May this day you share

be filled with love and laughter,

May all the days ahead

be happy ever after!

May God bless the new couple and I wish both Ah Wei and Amelia a happy weeded life. Best wishes and congratulations.

20110312: Wedding Dinner™

2011-03-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

The Midlands Court Restaurant is located in the third floor of the Midlands Park Business Centre and is easily accessible via the elevators beside Berjaya Hotel. There are ample underground parking spaces and I don't think there are discounts for the restaurant guests.

In the restaurant, the decorations look quite ordinary but I like the vase. Perhaps I think it has got an inappropriate layout. People sitting at the corner might not be able to see the stage as the pillars are blocking the view. The toilets and the interior are clean enough and I rate 10 out of 10. Besides the wedding course dinner, they also offer popular Chinese cuisines like the Peking Duck, Por Choy Soup with Chinese Ham and not forget about their famous Thai-style chicken.

The course dinner should have cost more or less RM400 to RM500 which is equivalent to RM40 to RM50 per person. And today, we've got the chance to test the quality of this restaurant as my cousin hold her wedding reception in this Chinese restaurant. As usual, although in the invitation card, it states the wedding reception will begins at 7pm sharp but eventually it will starts 1 or 2 hour later because Penangites doesn't care about punctuality.

The dinner starts off with the cold appetizer and followed by my favourite shark fin's soup (stupid waitress grabs away bowl before I get to finish my soup). Subsequently there are two dishes of chickens in two different flavour, then there comes the steamed fish and the prawns. The yam rice comes after Yam Seng (toasting) session and finally the hot dessert.

The dinner ends quite early at 10pm, bearing in mind that the restaurant has got an efficient and excellent service.

> Rated 9/10. Visit now: Midlands Court Restaurant Third Floor, Block 488D Midlands Park Business Centre, Burmah Road, 10350 Pulau Tikus, Penang. Opens daily from 11.30am to 2.30pm and from 6.30pm to 11.30pm. Call 04-2267788 for reservations. Ample basement parking bays.

20110304: 1A Examination™

2011-03-04T07:45:00.000-08:00

The upcoming 1A term examination is important because it's my like face. I'm not going to be in the second or third class next year and I want to return to the first class. For being in the second class for two years were so embarrassed as this reflects my laziness and somehow proved the fact that I'm not working hard and did not put in the efforts in my academics.

This time I'm serious and I'm not going to miss any part of my book. At the time being, I don't encourage you to buy Sasbadi reference book except Malay and Physics. Sasbadi Chemistry and Biology are the worst because they are just incomplete. I'd prefer Longman for Chemistry and Oxford for Biology and perhaps the text book itself for History. Or perhaps I only trust my own since the notes from the reference books nowadays are not reliable so it's better for me to create my own notes.

So starting from next week, the Form 4 will be taking the exam in the morning session and I guess everything has back to normal. To be frank, the afternoon session really sucks because the teachers here like to deduct the coarse work marks that eventually would influence our overall exam score and forget about it since it's our fault. Luckily there are no coarse work marks involved in the SPM examination.

We'll be taking part in the first term exam for five days starting from next Monday with Additional Mathematics as the first paper in 7.40 for one and a half hour then followed by the Chinese and Malay Essay Competition. Maths, English Essay Competition and Chemistry on Tuesday. Here comes the toughest subject ever, the mother tongue, Chinese on Wednesday, might as well as Moral and Biology. The next day will start off with the English paper, Civics and History. Then the final day will be Physics and the exam shall ends with the one and a half hour Malay paper.

So we shall call it the day and I gotta continue with my revision. Good luck boys and girls. Work hard as to pass your exam with flying colours.

20110210: Fire™

2011-02-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

Two groups of arsonists are said to be on the loose following five “suspicious” fire over the past week. “We do not know their motives as they seem to be striking at random,” Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng told reporters after visiting eight stalls at the Anson Road market that were ravaged in an apparent arson incident on Friday.

The market fire was the latest of several recently reported cases on the island. Other recent blazes include a fruit store along Melaka Street that was set on fire with a Molotov cocktail, a motorcycle in a shopping complex car park that was set alight by two men and the burning of red banners in two apartments in Batu Lanchang.

On the destroyed stalls at the Anson Road market, Lim said the damage was estimated at RM70,000.

Meanwhile, another four cases were reported in various parts of George Town district within 13 hours. A biscuit shop in Perak Road was almost burnt down but owner Loo Eng Huat, 58, and his neighbours managed to put out the fire before it could spread. Cardboards were found burning outside the entrances of two flat units located on the ninth and 13th floor in Paya Terubong barely half an hour apart.

A single mother, who only wanted to be known as Teh, said the cardboards were meant for recycling and she did not expect them to be a target of arson attacks. “I woke up at 3.30am after hearing a loud noise and when I was putting out the fire with water, I saw a person’s shadow near the lift lobby area. He ran away when I went to take a closer look."

At 2pm, a fire also broke out at the ninth floor of an apartment in Island Glades.

***

With that we could make an inference, the arsonists are strolling around the city centre at night!!! Besides Anson Road market (which is a stone's throw away from my house, OMG! I'm in great danger!), there are lots more of similar incidents happened all over the island.

This is clearly a stupid action by the arsonists for putting up fire at people's house or the state government-owned buildings, then rush home, turn on the TV and watch the victims crying in front of their burned houses and eventually laugh at those victims....I guess there's a little queer in their brain. Should be sent to the psychiatric hospital instead putting them behind the bars.

Have you ever heard about why they are doing so? The CM didn't know their motives but others may know by talking a load of bulls in the market. There are actually two possible solutions...first they are crazy and mentally unbalanced. Secondly they are said to have been appealed to join the new gangland from KL and as long as they show their sincerity and their faithfulness by burning some houses in the island, they will be automatically admitted as a member.

Anyway by comparing A to B, B seemed to be true but still I'm not going to believe it and please don't believe the guesses made as investigations are still going on by the police. Penangites should be more alert and if possible, install a fire alarm in your house to avoid fatal tragedies from happening.

> Full article on The Star Online, "Arsonists on the loose in Penang".

20110207: Water Villages™

2011-02-12T21:11:00.000-08:00

This is my first visit to the clan jetty. Anyhow I only have the time to walk around the Chew Jetty since the jetty is the safest among the others as they may have dogs guarding there and we're worried to be chased by the mad dogs reared by the waterfront communities.

Landscaping along the waterfront of George Town is the Clan Jetties, a water village that full of historic. The water villages was formed since the 19th century when the Chinese immigrants settled down in Penang. There are altogether seven clan jetties including the well known Seh Chew Keo, Seh Lim Keo, Seh Lee Kio, Seh Yeoh Keo, Seh Tan Keo, Peng Ann Jetty and the mixed clanage, Chap Seh Keo.

The jetties are now in great danger as some of jetties are being demolished to make way for the urban renewal and further development plans, for instance the demolition of Seh Koay Keo years ago for the Sri Saujana Flats. Hence it is hoped that the Penang Government will strive harder to preserve the historical Weld Quay jetty settlements from being developed.

20110203: Huat Ah™

2011-02-03T17:55:00.001-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year, peeps. There was no doubt to say that I'm all in after spending a day in my grandmother's house. I didn't see much fireworks this year as I celebrated my new year in the temple, praying to the God for a prosperous beginning. Yet it turned out to be a bad start for me since I had been suffering from diarrhea since Monday.

Still not yet recovered whatsoever and this year was going to be very tiring and pressuring. There were lots of stuffs in school that I'm going to settle like the documents for the librarians, tonnes of homeworks flung by the teacher and so on. Useless!

And.....we tossed Yee Sang this year and it tasted a bit odd. Frankly, I don't like it. We ordered Domino's Pizza for dinner and I slept for the whole day since I'm not feeling well. With that we'll just call it the day and the weather was terribly hot. Take care as you may easily get ill like me.

Bye and Happy Chinese New Year.

20110202: CNY Eve™

2011-02-02T02:08:00.001-08:00

It's Chinese New Year peeps. Welcome Rabbits since 2011 is a year of the rabbit according to the Chinese zodiac. This year shall see the birth of my baby sister and my cousin's wedding. Both shall take place sometime around March. The final preparations for the Lunar New Year is coming to a halt. Yet I could still see a lot of people busy shopping in the supermarkets during the final hours of the Tiger year.

In about six hours time (6.20pm while I'm writing this post), we will be entering a whole new year and I hope Rabbits will bring luck for me instead of......I should have mind my words whatsoever. No countdowns organized in any shopping malls in Penang for Lunar New Year because most Penangites are at home to have their reunion dinner together with their families.

The only place that you can see fireworks clearly and comfortably is through the television screen. Channel 301, Astro AEC will broadcast an array of shows starting from 12pm today and in 9.30pm tonight there will be a gala countdown party broadcasting live from KL. The celebrities will somehow accompany you till late night.

I could really feel the ambiance and the joy of Lunar New Year right now and I'm getting so excited to receive my ang pow.......Walao! That's why we consider Chinese New Year as fun because we'll be earning a lot of money during the festive season.

Huat ah and I wish you Happy Chinese New Year, Selamat Tahun Baru Cina, Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜發財 and iniya puthandu nalVazhthukkal (please correct me seriously if it's wrong because I'm copying this blindly from a net translator).

Bye for now.

20110201: Little Sunshine Cafe™

2011-02-02T02:08:00.000-08:00

Sunshine Farlim Shopping Mall isn't a shopping mall actually and not even suit to be a shopping mall. Don't know why they tend to call it as a shopping mall. It's crazy and recently they rearranged everything in the supermarket. The new layout is horrible. Most of their trolleys have been worn out so be careful because you might be out of control and run into something valuable.

The car park is even worst. It's so limited and the car parks beside the SSF outlet are like you're parking your car in the mountain. The experience is totally beyond description and it's so disappointing. With that we can conclude that the Tesco outlet in Jelutong has the best and the perfect car park among all the shopping complexes in the entire island.

It's a kind of stupid decision for Sunshine to relocate and build their hypermarket on this parcel of useless land. What a waste when they use the land beside the stream as a car park and it's so inconvenience to push our stuffs up there.

Furthermore unlike other shopping complexes, you won't be finding a proper food court here. Today I dine in this Little Sunshine Cafe which looks more or less like a restaurant with my mother. I thought it's operated by Sunshine but the workers here however deny about it since it's run under the management of a private company.

I've got this Seafood Fried Spaghetti (RM8.90) which tastes like the famous Penang cuisine, Hokkien Char and a cup of hot Tiramisu (RM4.00). Other than that, they offer Western style meals like Chicken Chop (RM9.20), Black Pepper Chicken (RM9.20); Chinese delicacies for instance Mongolian Chicken Rice (RM6.50), Baked Seafood Cheese Rice (RM9.90); Japanese Kim Chee Seafood Udon/Ramen (RM9.90) and so forth.

Wrong attempt. Should be little wok instead of little wolk.

This cafe does not charge you any service or government taxes and I think it's a winning spot for budget-friendly shoppers in Sunshine Farlim "Shopping Mall".

> Rated 7/10. Visit now: Little Sunshine Cafe Ground Floor, Sunshine Farlim Shopping Mall, Jalan Thean Teik, 11500 Air Itam, Penang. Opens daily from 12 noon-9.30pm. Limited indoor/outdoor parking bays.

20110131: Time Flies™

2011-01-31T05:14:00.000-08:00

Mosquitoes are flying all around my room and this is torturing because I'm bitten by these fiends yet I can't manage to kill any of them. What the heck! Put my homeworks aside and I'm back here in my blog, crapping to you again. Can I say that it's so bored today? Yes I should because I did not step out of this house since the morning.

Facebook is occupying most of my time today. Spend a lot of time playing Mouse Hunt today. I don't expect myself to play the F**king game for so long since I've been forsook it for so long. Maybe it's because of the brainless Elub Shore mice who tend to steal all my Gouda Cheeses. That's what you call glitch problems (won't be solved forever) - the hot topic that the mousehunters often discussed about and the developers eventually introduces the glitchpaw mouse. Sweat....

What else to do besides hunting in the Tribal Isles? I ride elevators in a typical Singapore HDB flats by watching the videos taken by the Singaporeans in YouTube. Looks like all the lifts in the Singapore housing estates are almost the same as they usually shares the same characteristic like the two look through windows, the floor indicators which will show the building name (etc. Block 689 Jurong West Lift A) and so on.

Feeling a bit dizzy after taking the lift rides for an hour, it's even worst than enjoying the roller coasters. Left the computer desk and continue doing my very last homework, the karangan. I really got stuck when my mind asks me, how to do? Gosh. Log into Facebook and I got all sorts of different answers. Many people replies me that they don't know and what to do? I'm also the one whom did not pay attention in class.

I expect a lot of students to visit Queensbay Mall and Gurney Plaza today. At first, I was thinking like going to Queensbay to have an experiment with the aim to count how much students are there in this shopping mall. But I don't think I have to waste my precious time to do all those useless stuff yet in the end, I'm doing all useless stuff at home. Wasted a day.

I planned to dine in Sakae Sushi today with my friends. Unfortunately nobody accompanies me to board a bus to Queensbay as I'm so timid that I'm worried to go on my own because I'm kiasi. To be honest, I don't like Queensbay Mall because they don't have my favorite elevator and supermarket and Gurney Plaza as well, nothing's special. Only 1st Avenue has something particular for me that is their Otis Bubble Lifts and rumours for the upcoming Carrefour supermarket.

Time pasts twelve midnight and it's officially February now, two more days to go and it's Chinese New Year. Wishing all my blog readers a happy and prosperous new year. Huat ah!

20110129: The Project™

2011-01-29T20:04:00.001-08:00

Today we'll be visiting a special landmark that I've never ever been before, the home for the aged. This is my very first time of being a volunteer, of course being forced by the Pendidikan Moral project. Our purpose to be here is to snap some photos to proof that we're not telling them a tall story. There are a total of more or less 30 participants today, lead by my classmate CM Wong.

The 2 hour volunteering activity starts off with the distribution of biscuits and oranges to the elderly. We wish them Happy CNY and huat ah! Meanwhile Jia Jie chats pleasantly with an elder and she's from Alor Setar. From their conversation, I found out something miserable that makes me realise people nowadays are money-minded, including the workers working in this old folks home. When the elderly request the workers to buy them breakfast or whatever groceries from the supermarket, they gotta pay them extra service charges. How pity!

It looks like they have some sorts of election today. It's like something pertaining about coffee or Milo, got no idea on it and.....we are told to count the votes. They are using gambling cards by the way. Then we're not allowed to visit their rooms and I don't see any of their rooms here apart from the medical wards opposite the hall.

Might as well, it's my first time listening to public announcement made using Hokkien. Quite interesting and I'm glad to learn something new today. I wish our school will use Hokkien or even Cantonese while making announcement instead of Bahasa Melayu and then followed by our mother tongue which is so boring and I encourage them to try something new.

Lastly, I can say that I've taken a lot of photos but unfortunately nobody uploads it into the Facebook, terrible. When we're about to leave, some uncles residing here shake hands with us and send us a sincere Happy New Year wish. We bid farewell to them and this calls it a day.

I think I'm gonna miss this place so much. Today I meet lots of old folks that are being simply abandoned by the children and I really take compassion on them. All of us will grow old and no one hopes to end up their life in such a way of being deserted by their child in the nursing home.

Young generations are too busy with their careers nowadays until they've got no time and cannot afford to take good care of their parents and that's not an excuse. Bear in mind that we are brought up by our parents and without them, we wouldn't be here today.

Thus these ailing parents left here are lack of care and love and I guess that's the aim of our very first Pendidikan Moral project. Thanks to KPM or MOE as they had taught me a very valuable lesson today. I hope to pay a visit to the nursing home soon.

No matter how bad we turn out to be, our parents will always love us, even if they didn’t show it. Give your parents a hug today and say, "I am sorry Mom/Dad, please forgive me for whatever wrong I have done. I love you." "I love you too."

20110122: China Dolls™

2011-01-22T09:00:00.001-08:00

It’s not only Chinese men who are falling for the charms of the so-called China Dolls, the bane of many wives. Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said even Indian and Malay men are now also looking for these women for company.

“This is happening in my own constituency,” said Dr Zambry, who is Pangkor state assemblyman, adding that the problem, presumed to have affected only Chinese families, had made its way into the homes of other races.

Dr Zambry was referring to reports of these Chinese nationals entering the country, first as tourists and then working illegally as guest relations officers at nightspots or masseuses in massage parlours.

There had been numerous complaints about husbands spending a lot of time – and money – on these women who reportedly also offer sex services. “I know it is not only a problem faced by Chinese wives,” Dr Zambry told single mothers at a “Cookies of Love” care project by Perak Wanita MCA here yesterday.

However, he promised the state government would do its best to resolve the problem through its Perak Amanjaya Development Plan, which is the state blueprint to revive Perak’s past glory. “Development and progress starts from the family, and this is what our Perak Amanjaya transformation plan is based on,” said Dr Zambry, who later distributed angpows, goodies and cookies baked by Wanita MCA members to 120 single mothers and their children.

In her speech, Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Heng Seai Kie said according to a census carried out in 2000, Perak had the highest number of single mothers in the country after Selangor. “I do not know what this means. Perhaps, husbands in Perak are more cheeky,” she joked.

***

My classmates in 4S2 taught me a new English term this morning - "prostitute" which means "chicken" in simple Chinese language or "ayam" in Bahasa and.... I guess only what you call cheeky and itchy persons will fall in love in these Chinese harlots. By the way I personally dislike these "chi ko pek"s as they enjoy hanging around in the coffee shop, drinking a cup of coffee and watch out for beautiful girls here and there with a cunning look.

That's so embarrassing if they have been married (or divorced, perhaps) and try to look out for a second one. What an idiot! This also shows that they aren't sincere and faithful in their love so that's why this newspaper article was published on The Star a few days ago. If I'm the police, I'm going to get rid on these kind of person and I'd cut off their itchy penis and to tie up their sperm duct in order to prevent the birth of innocent babies.

Sorry for the harsh language and be thankful to God as I'm not this kind of person that would fond of fried chickens.

> Full article on The Star Online, "even non-Chinese are falling for the charms of China dolls" by Chan Li Leen.

20110121: Threatening Functions™

2011-01-21T06:58:00.000-08:00

That's why we don't call it as Mathematics but Additional Mathematics. After going through Chapter 1, I can predict that Chapter 2, 3 and so on will be tough, very tough. The functions in Chapter 1 are just hurting my brain and it's so suffering! I don't dare to learn Inverse Function at which I shall be encountering the new topic next week, at the latest.

At the same moment, when I'm doing the exercise given by my teacher, I can really tear off my Add. Maths exercise book as I keep on getting the false answer again and again. Still I got no idea on where and what is the problem that lead the equation to a dead end and eventually resulting in a serious mistake. That's very irritating and I'm so provoked with those answers at the back of this light green text book!

I'm going to miss another additional mathematics tuition class tomorrow whatsoever owing to tomorrow's school replacement for the CNY break. See, that's why I hate afternoon session so much. Heng Ee and PCGS are the only school that have afternoon session for Form 4 and I'm so misfortune to be the one in the afternoon session. Sucks!

The first topic of Additional Mathematics - functions are extremely challenging. In fact, once you strike the correct answer, you would jump up from your seat and say "yes" to console yourself after spending hours solving the questions. But if you keep on getting the wrong answer, I guess you will be like me - putting on a furious look at your single line exercise book.

20110115: Orientation Day™

2011-01-15T02:56:00.000-08:00

It was orientation day this morning and....my time was fully occupied by the tasks given my teacher and the committee members. I was told to update the name list, prepare the annual planner and so on. I'm so busy today and I'm so fed up with the two PCs in the library. If I'm not in good mood, I'm going to break the monitor and the printer as well.

First the printer was not working and while I'm doing the printing, the whole paper came out black since this laser jet was running out of toner. Followed by the stu-piak CPU which tend to challenge my temper that it failed to open the documents in the USB drive. I gotta suggest the school to substitute these old computers to a new one but it's impossible since the school seldom faces financial problem. Fortunately, someone gives me a helping hand and finally got my job done.

The library was having an interview session for new members and I hope they won't bring in some mischievous student that will bring trouble to me. The library will start its service beginning from next week and I'm still figuring a capable way to handle these librarians in the afternoon session. This shall be very challenging and we'll see how the librarians co-operate with us, the committee members, next week.

Good news to Heng Ee students! The library will be moving to the new building before May the 5th. So do stay tuned and I'm turning really excited to have a glance at the new library and to take the ride on the new elevators. No news on when we will move in and when students will start using the new library.

Nothing's special in today's St. John activity. Sound like this year, they will be very particular in our attendance because once we were absent for 2 CCA activities, a warning letter will be issued. Something attractive....our division will celebrate its five-years once anniversary this year and Mr. Wong told us that it'll be a very grand and a formal event.

They will be organizing the 40th anniversary of St.John HEHS in a Chinese restaurant in Sunshine Square. An anniversary magazine will also be published this year and donations were still in the midst of collection.

Before we called it the day, a first-aid demonstration was carried out exclusively for the new members. This was to furnish some brief introduction about first aid to the new members. Since it was about time to dismiss, no marching demo were held this morning.

This shall sum up today's post and our next CCA will be on the week after next which is on the 29th of January. Next Saturday will be a school day to replace the CNY holiday on 31st. Bye for now.

20110114: House Practice™

2011-01-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

House practices are usually fun and pleasure during the last two years. This year shall be fun too if my friends are with me during the practices. But the fact is they won't, and at this moment, the school tend to increase the number of practices to 12 compared to the previous 4. Bad news, definitely.

House practices for this year rolls out a few lessons which I think it's really stupid and wasting my precious time. It's mainly about the technique of the three events that we are going to compete in the additional sports day which will be carry out in a few months time. The three events are 100m run, long jump and shot put, same as what we've done before. But this year we'll have to do with the correct way.

Shot put is the one I dislike the most as starting from this year, we'll need to do some crazy actions before we throw the ball that is we'll gotta balance ourselves by squatting up and down three times. THAT SUCKS! I'm so unlucky that I'm the first in the list! That Malay teacher told me to redo the long jump because I'm doing in the wrong way and that's why I show a strong protest against house practices!

Ends.

20110109: Bean Seats™

2011-01-09T07:42:00.000-08:00

I have never been to cinemas frankly but I'm very interested to have a look at this. Bean seats? Owh I learn a new term today perhaps I think it's the first of its kind in the country. You'll find these stuffs in the first-ever bean bag hall by Tanjung Golden Village cinema in 1st Avenue Penang.

Each bean seat can accommodate about 2 persons or a dating couple. They can be known as a family seat or a twin seat. I guess this much better and comfortable (until you can fall asleep when the movie is playing) than those in Premiere Class that GSC had offered so far.

Looking at the pictures taken by the admins of 1st Avenue FB site, I'm just thinking on how's the feeling when we'd sit on such an adorable sofa. Whoa! It's great! As luck would have it, there are in the cinema and I hate to visit the golden screens as after watching a movie, it will definitely influence my mind for a long time. More seriously, it could even move me to tears.

The bean seats are now available in TGV Cinemas, 8th Floor, 1st Avenue Penang. Do visit and share your experience.

> More about bean seats, click HERE. TGV Cinemas, 8th Floor, 1st Avenue Komtar, Jalan Magazine, 10000 Georgetown, Penang.

20110108: Come Home to Good Food™

2011-01-08T23:24:00.000-08:00

Dave's Deli, the home to good roasted chicken, also home to the cheapest food here in Queensbay Mall. Unlike other fast restaurant, Dave's Deli won't be applying any service charge and govt. tax. Thus the price should be affordable. In addition the restaurant will have a special promotion from Mondays to Thursdays where all meals served here will be given a 30% discount.

They mainly offer Western cuisines like their famous Original 1/4 Roast Chicken, Grilled Boneless Chicken and so forth; Pasta dishes like Dave's Lasagne with Salad; Chicken and Mushroom Pies and Mushroom Soups.

I'm here for a Fish and Chips (RM14.80) and Hong Wei's Cream Carbonara with Meatballs (RM13).

Not bad and I recommend you to dine here as it will, of course, saves up a lot of money on those service charge and taxes.

> Rated 8/10. Visit now: Dave's Deli QBM LG Central Zone, Queensbay Mall, Persiaran Bayan Indah, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang. Opened daily from 10.30am-10.30pm. Ample parking.

20110107: School™

2011-01-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

I'm officially placed in the afternoon session. Don't ask me to apply for the morning session anymore because I just don't wanna face the music. People in Heng Ee must be saying that the afternoon session are more stricter than the morning session but in fact it's all the same. That's the truth, I'm not lying.

The reason is just because those discipline teachers in the afternoon have possibly gave a speech with a load of bull on the first day of school. For one hour, they tend to threaten those new students about the disastrous consequences for being mischievous. They are repeating it again and again until I can really shout at them. Be obedient, obey the school rules, don't ever break the rules. What to do? It's all about rules in our school.

Furthermore it's a must to wear those socks with a new Heng Ee logo printed on it. This shall be the latest school rule to be listed and will become effective starting next Monday. I have no comments for it.

4S2, the best Form 4 class in the afternoon session. Every teacher that come into our class will tell us the same thing at their first lesson. This is insane. The teachers here have an extremely high expectation in our results. I don't think I could do well in my Chinese because let me tell you, after looking through the new SPM format for Chinese I can say that the level is so overpowering for those whom are weak in Chinese like me. I'm worried that I might get a D in my very first exam in March.

How come Chinese is so difficult? Not just Chinese, you can even see some essay questions in some useless subjects like History and Moral. Those three science subjects have three papers altogether in SPM! For Malay and Chinese, no choices will be given to you and all the answers have to be written completely by your own! For English, it's much easier because there are still some objective questions....it's, unfortunately, not as easy as PMR yet as tough as O Level in Singapore.

The standard is high enough and I could imagine how difficult SPM is. Now I realise that taking the PMR exam is like drinking a glass of water. Not challenging at all.

Talking about the teachers that taught us, no fierce teachers except our robotic History teacher or maybe our BM teacher. Our Moral teacher looks very handsome but some rumours quote that he may turn mad, very mad any day, any time and any second, so beware of yourselves and behave in class before you end up in the hospital. I dare not make any comments for that since I'm not supposed to do so.

That sums up a week in school and good night.

20110101: IXMM™

2011-01-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

It's the beginning of a new year! 2011 will definitely be extremely interesting because it turns my life upside down right before the new year. Countdowns were held everywhere yesterday night and two famous countdown locations that gathered the most youngsters were Queensbay Mall and the latest tourist attraction, Straits Quay.

It's doubtful to say that Gurney had no plans for the new year countdown this year. But it was the truth. Perhaps the notion was to avoid some ugly incidents from happening like...still remember the rowdy Christmas eve party in Gurney two years ago? Wild teenagers spraying snow on the cars passing by Gurney Drive. Rela members punched by the ruffians and so on.

I didn't see but only hear the fireworks because I'm having supper with my family and my relatives in the kopitiam. Don't worry if you didn't managed to witness the fireworks as after a month, the spectacular fireworks display will once again light up the sky in conjunction of the Chinese New Year celebration.

And this ends the new year countdown. So everything will be back to normal in not more than two days time and I shall miss my holidays. Instead of sitting home, I'd rather go out and prefer to keep myself busy but not to go to school.

Every school has school rules in order to keep students disciplined. Furthermore this school has been too much....cut it off. Ok we're not going to talk about school rules today yet it's so annoying when people asks me to keep on applying to be placed in the morning session. I'm totally pissed off with the arrangement that have been made by the school. People without acceptable reasons can be placed in the morning session. People who have a sucking result can be able to enter the first class. That's too much man.

I should blame myself for not studying hard last year. But just put that aside. I'm not happy with it! My life is so miserable now and that's why I say 2011 is indeed an interesting year ever! It's the first year ever I'm going to study in the afternoon and I just can't imagine how the first day of being in the afternoon school is going to be.

I've got no mood to continue any longer and.....Happy 2011 peeps!

20101231: The End™

2010-12-31T13:00:00.000-08:00

2010 was unforgettable with the laughter, tears, smile and pain and all the unpredicted memories.

And here I am again. Before 2010 ends, I shall present you my very last post for the year. As you see, I've got 15 posts every month. Pretty interesting isn't it? Perhaps I would retain my 15 post culture next year.... Instead of "two thousand and ten", the year 2010 is actually pronounced as "twenty ten" (according to BBC and NAGG). Disappointingly, you could still barely hear the wrong pronunciation in some TV commercials.

2010 was a year I dropped into the second class yet I did not work hard and end up in getting horrible result in my PMR. 2010 was a year that thought me a valuable lesson that I would never forget, I must not be lazy anymore. The year 2010 introduced me a new game called Mouse Hunt which literally turned me into a die hard mouse hunter. 2010 was also a year where I meet a lot of new friends in 3B. 2010 was the year I traveled to KL and Genting Highlands and returned with more than 800 photos captured using my phone.

2010 was literally awesome and had left me a couple of sweet memories like the school days after PMR, the trip to KL with my family, the craziest days in Genting with Chean Ghee, Lee Jie and Carl, the days I'm out with Hong Wei and Kwang Jern and so on.

Toast to my parents because without them I won't be able to live the life I want to. They have done so much for me through the years and I'd like to show my gratitude towards my parents. Thank you Hong Wei, you made me happy, everyday and we shared our experiences together. Thanks Chean Ghee, you cheer me up and help me when I lost my direction. Thank you Lee Jie, Carl and Jia Wei because without you all, we won't get to play UNO in the hotel.

Also a very big Thank You to all my relatives, my cousins, my friends in 3A, Yee Beng, Jin Young, Shu Ning, Jia Hui and so on; my friends in 3B, Jia Jie, Daryl, Joseph, Grace, Danielle, Yan Ying, Huey Ming and so forth. May God bless you with happiness, togetherness, love, laughter and the utmost importance, health.

In 5 hours time, I shall say goodbye to my year so far, 2010 and witness the colourful fireworks that lights up the sky. At the same time, let's greet the arrival of a new year!

Goodbye 2010.

2010 was a year lessons were learned while 2011 will be a year where those lessons would be put into act.

20101228: Water Supply Disruption™

2010-12-30T19:26:00.000-08:00

Please Store Water!

Sila Simpan Air!

請儲水！

ப்ளீஸ் ஸ்டாரே வாட்டர் !

What a bumtastic day that Penangites have ever had! Looks like we are fooled by the notices issued by PBA. We are still getting the same water supply as usual when I check out on my tap. My parents stored as much as they can yesterday night using all the pails, all the containers in our house since Georgetown is located within the service interruption region yet the water is still running, just slow flowing.

People in Seberang Perai, Georgetown, Gelugor, Bayan Lepas, Paya Terubong won't be getting their water supply from 7am-7pm whereas Teluk Kumbar and another area will experience a 24-hour service interruption. Ask PBA for details, I'm not the one in charge of this.

I went to Queensbay this morning and shoppers here were complaining of the inconvenience caused by the service interruption today since most of the toilets here were closed, probably because they were worried of the insufficient use of the water that they had stored.

Many kopitiams will earn themselves a holiday as it's difficult for them to run their business without water. How to wash their dishes? How to clean their stalls? Cannot... So that's why those hawkers dare not operate their stalls and luckily those hardworking hawkers in New Lane run their business as usual or not we won't get to have lunch.

Water has played many important roles in our daily life and there's no doubt of saying water is so important after the experience of having a day without using water. We mustn't waste anymore water and contrastively we should conserve them as a precious natural resource.

20101224: Medical Meal™

2010-12-29T00:33:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve and today I'd like to share with you my experience of having my lunch in such an adorable restaurant in Gurney Plaza this morning. Clinic Cafe, sounds very familiar isn't it? It has since been reported in a Chinese daily thus I guess everyone should know about it.

Clinic Cafe is not a real clinic actually yet it's themed like a hospital. Those waitresses here are dressed like a nurse and the chefs are doctors in this restaurant. Instead of kitchen, they named it surgery room. The chairs are beds for patients, not that comfortable because it's a bit hard. Above us are surgical operation lamps. It's like we are having our meals in the operating theater.

The signature dishes of this restaurant have got some funky names, for instance: Doctor & Patient, Doctor & Nurse, Doctors' Happy Hour and the like. I've ordered a Clinic Prawn Pasta where the spaghetti is drenched with sweet and sour sauce. It tastes a bit sweet and the shrimps are well fried. They didn't remove the shell seriously.

My friend Hong Wei have got Black Pepper Chicken Pasta and he told me that the black pepper sauce is too hot for him. It costs RM13.80 for a set lunch, inclusive of a glass of drink. Limited time offer, from 11am-3pm if not mistaken. You may choose on any drink you desire. The choices are soft drinks, Milo, Lemonade, Tea and so on. The Milo served here is rather interesting as it tastes a bit bitter.

You may choose to sit by the windows where you can enjoy the view or on the other hand, everyone dining in the restaurant should be able to enjoy the Tom & Jerry classics played in the LCD.

But I learnt that the services here are horrible from some people that have got a bad experience here. Also the prices for the milk shake here are not so reasonable because it's not even filled up 1/5 of the glass. Luckily I don't have that. What a waste.

> Rated 6/10. Visit now: Clinic Cafe 3F Gurney Plaza, Gurney Drive, 10250 Pulau Tikus, Penang. Opened daily from 10am-10pm. Ample parking.

20101223: 最終成就™

2010-12-26T06:45:00.000-08:00

我考得好差……太差了。都怪我，老是不讀書。偏是要等到最後關頭才來緊張，才來準備，才來拼明唸書。這次的大考，我考出這麼一張滿江紅的成勣單，真的不懂要怎麼見人。我相信曾經和我同班的朋友們都很了解我這愛空談的性格。我只懂得在紙上談兵，就是不懂得如何去實現！就是不願埋頭苦幹！記得我在去年許下的承諾就是要在今年努力，考上中四理科的第一班。還不是一樣搞出一團遭！這全都是騙人的！是！我就是在畫餅充飢！自我安慰！我是沒用的廢物！我只會逃避現實！現在說這些有什麼用？認命吧。

在領取成勣之前，我想應該是考完華文試卷一之後，心裡就有種預感說︰我可能不能夠考獲8A，不是可能，而是肯定。我的華文一向都很差。不管是怎麼對症下藥都沒效，成勣還是一樣的差。我嘗試閱報，不過我始終就是讀不好華文。瞧我現在的文筆，應該不算能夠拿高分吧，你說。莫非是我語文基礎打得不好？我應該慎重考慮是否要在明年開始出席華文補習班，惡補我的華文程度。

我絕對不可以放棄華文。畢竟它是我們華人的母語，將來的它說不定會被列為國際語言。我身邊有幾位朋友也已把華文擱在一旁，不念了。這怎麼行？他們都說華文很難理解，很難使用華文溝通。想要表達的東西，卻表達不出。到不如應用一些在日常生活上嘗用慣的方言，比方說福建話、廣東話，甚至是英文都可以。何必那麼費氣學習一個那麼有挑戰性的語言。

我讚同他們的說法，因為我本身也是這麼認為。文言文是我在華文科裡最膩煩、最怨恨的書面語。它就是那麼簡短，就是那麼變態。白話文還好，不過文言文確實是快要把我逼瘋了！讀了一邊又一邊就是不懂它到底在說寫什麼。上古文課時的我總是提心吊膽，最擔懮老師把我叫起來要我翻譯一句古話。當時就整個人楞住了，腦海中一片空白，冷汗頓時從前額上流下，很勉強地從座位上爬了起來，和朋友悄悄地在一旁討論了一會才能夠作答。

就是有了這麼一個難忘的經驗，導致我對華文產生了一點憎恨。因此就稍微把它忽略了。另外每一天和朋友，和媽媽溝通都應用華文，哪怕在作文考試中連一個華文字都寫不出。這是我年頭的想法，結果……所以啊，我勸大家做某件事萬萬要顧慮其後果，千萬別魯莽、別衝動。身為一個華人就得學好華文。除了會說，也要會寫。

現在說這些有什麼用？遲了，遲了。米已燒成粥，再說也挽回不了一切。饒了一大圈，又回到了今天放榜日的情景。老實說，我不高興。我很自卑。我很自責。我對我自己實在是徹底失望。眼前看見三A班的老朋友們都表現得那麼優秀，心裡真的很羨慕他們。我真的很想和他們一樣，領了成勣就趕緊歸位大喊發泄。乃為了就是華文。馬來文考不好還好，像歷史、生活技能或者是地理科考得差還可以原諒。可是語文科考不好就太糟糕了，更何況是華文科。好了，少說幾句。

報應！這就是報應！又有另一個報應來了……我明年將獨自面對一連串的打擊。就讀下午班，好處就是可以擁有非常足夠的睡眠，壞處就是要和好友們分離一年。叫我怎麼忍受啊！我是被逼的！是校方把我安排到下午班去的！明年也不曉得誰會和我同班。隨緣吧！我的朋友們……我在二零一二年約定你們在上午班見面。

希望要考上第一班？休想！我不敢再空想了。就看我明年考試的表現來辦吧，我無能為力。我只能希望我能夠在未來的日子中，爭取著每一分每一秒，好好用功讀書就行了。

最後，在此向所有八A和七A的高才生說聲恭喜，我敬大家！

八A學生名單︰駱宏偉、莊家慧、黃桂霞、謝伊霓、黃可婷、葉奕妮、朱凱莉、黃佩雯、翁於欣、林仁惠、朱義文、黃舒寧、吳寶音、黃彥歆、黃翊慧、林銘真、關伊彤、彭璟文、賴珂欣、薛歆霓、戴穩傑、劉凱欣、陳可欣、方郡樓、李嘉民、陳思伊、柯如真、林俊偉、陳雲裳、李有禮、林仁陽、董欣潔、林庭恩、鄭嘉瑜、林子揚、鄭李傑、張志偉、羅家儀、譚欣怡，共四十名。

七A學生名單︰李偉聰、蔣濱如、何曉倩、鄭伊琳、吳艾萍、姚為享、丁瑋銘、黃愷、尤琳雅、杜薈敏、陳志偉、我、陳惠鳴、鐘佳潔、胡惠金、陳嘉琪、李凱雯、洪俊生、張佳敏、林偉良、陳俊溶、張佳煒、林威強、林駿達、葉奕岷、林彥盈、曾佳怡、傅喧容、秦漣漪、林養復、楊婉晴、何嘉麗、尤韻晴、楊偉祝、李淑琳、仇偉康、溫健義、莎菲雅、劉駿翔、陳思薇、陳文廷，共四十一名。

20101218: Way Home™

2010-12-23T01:41:00.000-08:00

Our last day here in Genting. I woke up late today as a consequence of sleeping late last night. Luckily Carl phoned me or not I won't be waking up. 8 o'clock is already a bit tardy because people here usually wakes up very early in order to avoid the morning crowd. Probably also owing to the reason that the breakfast voucher will only valid until 10am and the foods will finish up very quickly.

BREAKFAST. Today's breakfast sees the introduction of a new juice, the Pineapple juice, tastes a bit sour. Chean Ghee joins us after a while because he's one of the latest to sleep yesterday night. We eat a lot as we will be leaving Genting at noon and they told us that we won't be stop for lunch. We spend almost an hour here to enjoy our last meal.

Next to the First World Cafe, you shall see a row of souvenir shops. I waste a lot of money here just to buy some souvenirs home. No bargaining are allowed since the prices are fixed. A lot of unique items here. I like the colourful Genting magnets so much. I bought one with a group of hotel buildings and another one with a spinner inside.

I return to our room and take a bath. Mr. Teoh announces that our bus will depart at 1pm and we will reach Penang at about 7pm. Bad feeling. Feels so reluctant to leave.

While my friends are watching the morning cartoons in our room, I stroll up to the highest level of Tower 2 to enjoy the splendid scenery. At the courtyard, I could see some tissue papers and rubbishes. Probably come from some irresponsible hotel guests. View from the windows at the east end of the hotel, I can barely see the flying coasters at the outdoor theme park. A view that really whets my mind for more holidays.

CHECK OUT. We left our rooms at about 11 and place our luggages at the lobby. More or less one more hour for us to stroll around the plaza. Carl plans to bowl again. Jia Wei's already all in and does not join us this time. I just sit there and watch. The plaza is, however, so much liven up today with the street dances at the Times Square. At the same time, there are break dances at the hotel lobby.

TIMES UP. It's about time to leave, we proceed to the Genting Bus Terminal that is located in just a few steps away from the lobby. It's as big as the one in Sungai Nibong. The roof is colourful, just like the hotel.

One last breath of Genting's cool air that we won't have in any other places in the country other than Genting and Cameron Highlands. Waves goodbye to Genting and down we go. The roads are steep and that's very dangerous. Bilingual signboards along the road reminding drivers to engage low gear all their way down.

BOYCOTTED. I guess the bus driver must have taken some commission from the sotong. He drives us to the same restaurant again.....to have lunch. MR. SOTONG. Nobody dares to patronise their store again since the price offered sounds extremely unreasonable. We walk to the coffee shop nearby, about a few shops away from Mr. Sotong. You'll have this coffee shop.

I forgot what's the name of the kopitiam yet I really recommend you to eat here instead of the stupid, arrogant sotong. Why? The chicken rice here costs only RM3.50 with a bowl of soup. Taste much nicer than the one we had two days ago. Better, cheaper and much tastier. Therefore I'll give them 6/10 because they still can't beat those hawkers in Penang.

I take some photos of the nice view on our way home. A lot of loud snores are heard because everyone's sleeping. I can't sleep because I'm in the mood for some nostalgia.....thinking about my PMR results, what I've done in Genting and so on.

HOME SWEET HOME. We arrive Penang at 7.30pm sharp, exactly 6 hours of journey in the bus.

> Visit my Flickr profile for more photos. Thanks Mr. Teoh for the chicken rice.

20101217: Fun At The Peak™

2010-12-22T22:07:00.000-08:00

Often dubbed as the City of Entertainment, Resorts World Genting (previously known as Genting Highlands Resort) is now one of the world's most successful integrated resort. Thanks to Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong whom has such a big vision of transforming a remote mountain into a cool mountain holiday resort. Tan Sri Lim's story to success is ultimately an inspiration for the young generations.

Actually I'm just talking crap. I can't sleep well because I'm so excited to get into the theme park and this is the day. Once again Chean Ghee heard those queer sounds again in the night and then followed by some footsteps in the corridor. I'm so curious that I don't hear anything. Maybe I've got some problems in my ear or is it a paranormal experience......no one knows except Chean Ghee.

I wake up at 6 because I've got something important to do. Yep that's right. My trip shall only be valuable when I film some elevator here. I've filmed 4 elevators altogether in my KL trip earlier this month and this time I record 5 elevators, two in First World Hotel and three in First World Plaza. I dare not go to Highlands Hotel or Theme Park Hotel because it's too early and I'm scared of being alone.

I like to walk alone around the plaza early in the morning. Nobody's there to disturb you, no sound pollution and the most important thing is that you don't have to squeeze yourself into the crowd. Nice feeling, so peaceful and relaxing. I'm so glad when I look outside from First World Plaza. The weather today is pretty okay, but it's a bit cloudy. Hopefully it won't rain.

I briskly walk back to my hotel room because I'm suffering from tummy ache. Hong Wei is having his long bath in our room so I gotta borrow the toilet in Lee Jie's room. After then we wait for Hong Wei, get our tickets from Mr. Lim and we are off for breakfast at First World Cafe on 8th Floor (T2) / 3rd Floor (T1).

FIRST WORLD CAFE. There are Western breakfast, scramble eggs, fried bihun, mango juices and vegetarian meals. Self-service buffet breakfast and I always love buffet because I can eat what I desire and as much as I want. Not bad and I like their breakfast so much.

CHECK OUT. We pack our things and ready ourselves to check out as three of our rooms have been booked by others. With no doubt, I can tell you that all six thousands room in this First World Hotel has been occupied. Might as well as those in Highlands Hotel, Theme Park Hotel, Resorts Hotel.

We move our luggage to Jia Jie's room and we will be enjoying our theme park for one whole day. While on our way to the theme park, Chean Ghee recalls of his jacket. We return to our rooms and LUCKILY because I almost forgot about my water tumbler. Thank God! I'm so forgetful. At the same time Chean Ghee found his jacket.

OUTDOOR. We play a lot today. Chean Ghee, Lee Jie and Carl play the most. While I'm join them at last after riding the craziest roller coaster in Malaysia called Cyclone. Hong Wei and Jia Wei raise the flag after playing the Pirate Ship. Let me name all the outdoor games that we've enjoyed today: Tea Cup, Spinner, Pirate Ship, Flying Dragon and Cyclone. Don't forget about that Antique Car.

Unfortunately, we don't manage to play Cockscrew because Chean Ghee is a bit worried of our safety. They've also got some brainwaves of playing the Grand Prix Fun Kart yet the ride will require us to sign the so-called death certificate. Too thrilling and as a result, we abandon the plan.

LATE FOR LUNCH. After riding the Spinner for a second time, we have our lunch in the McD outlet in Highlands Hotel. While having lunch, Lee Jie surfs the net and plays MouseHunt using his handphone.

RAINS. It's 4 o' clock and we're back again to the theme park. As luck would have it, on our way to the Flying Dragon, it starts to rain. Quite heavy and we are relieved that we have already go through almost all the thrilling rides. I haven't get to ride on the Flying Dragon yet, haish. We stand an opportunity to drive an antique car before we left the theme park. Quite unforgettable when Lee Jie and Carl tries to chase us using an old, slow antique car. Chean Ghee is unsatisfied with those queue jumpers in front of us.

Back to our rooms and I wonder how we're going to sleep tonight. Five rooms for 30 persons, this means that there will be six of us in a room. Okay just leave this aside, we'll talk about that later.

DINNER. At night, we have our dinner in this restaurant called Flavurs. Stupid restaurant with impolite waiters. I'm not pleased with their service honestly, shouldn't pay the service charges. Perhaps they are too busy with their customers. The foods are so small unlike Kim Gary who offers food in large sizes.

INDOOR. It's time for us to enjoy the indoor theme park. Venice Gondola, a small boat transporting us round the indoor theme park. There's artificial fellow standing behind us and some French musics been played throughout our ride. What a romantic passage! Rio Float, colourful floats hanging in the air and goes round First World Plaza. A ride takes about 5 minutes and therefore it's pretty fast. Beautiful sceneries can be seen on the float. Recommended.

Euro Express, the Genting's only indoor roller coaster. Not as crazy as Cyclone seriously. We spend almost an hour waiting for our turn as they are undergoing some technical maintenance at that moment. Adult Bumper Cars at allow us to go bumping with our friends. The funniest thing here is that I don't know how to operate the car and it's painful when people knock onto your car. Driving isn't that easy to be honest.

Carl, the bowler plans to bowl in Genting Bowl and this place is crazy. They play the hottest music all the time like Micheal Jackson's Beat It or so on. Mostly English musics and I'm not familiar with these. Only Chean Ghee, Lee Jie, Jia Wei and Carl play and meanwhile Hong Wei and I just sit there and witness their performance. Lee Jie has got the highest score owing to the fact that he strikes for a few times. Not lucky but pro.

4D Motion Master Theater in Genting is Malaysia's first and the only 4D cinema in the country. Hong Wei watches the 5 minute 4D film, Haunted House alone. Chean Ghee and I dare not take the risk of watching the horror movie as to prevent bad nightmares.

It's 12 something, Chean Ghee and I come across Daryl's gang at Starbucks. They are not going to sleep tonight and they are playing True or Dare here, asking people questions about their dream girl or dream boy. I buy a cup of cold Chocolate from Starbucks and accompany them till late night.

1 o'clock but you know, night is still young in Genting. In some bistros, karaoke live bands are still working, playing the latest Chinese hits to entertain those late night customers. I can still barely see some compulsive gamblers, praying for luck at the entrance to the gambling area.

OUR ROOMS. No rooms for us because we've to share with the others. The room where my friends are in, is fulled. Therefore I am forced to spend my night in Ming Sheng's room. Someone told me that Shuen Yew's room has 10 person in it. I wonder how they sleep in such a small place.

It's 3.30am and I'm driving bumper cars in my dream.

To be continued...

> Visit my Flickr profile for more photos.

20101216: Rainy Day™

2010-12-21T22:47:00.000-08:00

We alight from our tour bus in front of the hotel lobby at around 2pm. It's terribly cold out there yet there's no snow. I grab my luggage and straight away head to the lobby. The Christmas decoration in Genting is so attractive and it adapts the concept of recycling since most of these decorative items are made out of plastic bottles. I like it so much.

I'm shocked when I see the crowd in the lobby. It doesn't look like a hotel, much similar to the scene of a bank or bus terminal or so on. It's so busy here and that's why people call it "peak season" where the room rates are slightly raised because of the crowd here.

And that's why people call Genting "The City of Entertainment" just because there are so many activities here and there. In the lobby, you'll get to listen to live bands. While waiting for your turn to the customer's service, you'll get to watch the classic Mr. Bean or Nat Geo. There are quite a number of television sets here in the lobby, broadcasting a variety of shows.

3PM, CHECK IN HOUR. Snaking queues at the check-in kiosk. Oh ya speaking about check in kiosk. Probably the hotel is worried that they might not have the time to serve their guests thus they introduce this, the check in or out kiosk machines. They are placed throughout the lobby. The device saves a lot of time but still there are a lot of people queuing for it. This is what you call the "peak season".

FIRST WORLD PLAZA. We're not using check in kiosks anyway. While they are checking in, we have a walk in First World Plaza. Not much changes in it. The Twin Towers are still there. The New York statue and the gold statue are remained there. The two signature attractions, Haunted Mansion and Ripleys on Floor 2A. Note that there are also a Genting Times Square here. Wonder why the phrase "Times Square" are so popular around the world....zz

Standing at the entrance of outdoor theme park. The mist is heavy. Hence it's the fact that we won't be able to enjoy the theme park today. Whereas tomorrow will be the day. The crowd moves indoor when outdoor ceases operation due to the extreme weather. Beware of pick pockets and molesters, seriously.

Star World and Lotto are places that we couldn't enter because we're under age. You must show your IC before you enter and there's a policeman standing by here to prevent those naughty boys from going in secretly.

We go to McD to surf the net (using their WiFi) when we are told that the procedure of checking in will take quite some time. After Chean Ghee bought an ice-cream, Wei Zhu phones me and informs us that the key cards are with him. We rush back to the lobby and meet him up.

HOTEL ROOM. Finally we're in our room. It's nice to sleep in such a cold climate, especially in Genting. One by one, we go to the toilet. Meanwhile we play UNO. Just to tell you that the size of a First World Hotel room is small (more or less 250 sq ft) yet expensive. But I'm very satisfied with it because it has a mini fridge, two safe deposit boxes (to store our money) and a mini television set. It's a home from home, very comfortable to be in the hotel room.

Unfortunately there are no satellite programmes here, only some local terrestrial channels and a new channel named Vision Four. Quite new because you won't be receiving Vision Four in residential areas. This channel will only appear in hotels, broadcasting some shows that I've never seen before. Looks like Hokkien shows in NTV7 and 8TV is much better than that.

DINNER. After watching the evening news, Lee Jie, Carl, Jia Wei, Chean Ghee, Hong Wei and I go for a Genting food hunt. Only a few restaurants here, mostly serving Chinese cuisines because only Chineses come for gambling. The prices (not including the gov.tax and service charges) are horrifying, almost twice the price at the ground. Many fast food outlets can be found like Marrybrown, Burger King, McD for instance.

At first we choose to have McD for dinner but Hong Wei insists because he demands for cheap and particular dishes. This causes us to walk as far as Highlands Hotel. These hotels are so beautiful to be honest. Luckily I've got this opportunity to make our way here. Snap a lot of pictures there. It's so foggy at the entrance of Highlands Hotel. The feel of standing there is much like raining but it's actually not because fogs are made up of water vapours. Pro huh?

We end up at this KFC outlet in Highlands Hotel. Fast food is the only choice for a budget-friendly meal. Or an alternative, cup noodles. We have a set of snack plate with 2 pieces of chicken, a bun, a coleslaw, a mash potato, a packet full of wedges and a cup of Pepsi. RM16 something I guess, if I'm not mistaken.

Upon having our dinner, we discuss about what we're going to do at night. They plan to have UNO where the loser will be punished. Then we talk over concerning about the punishments. Carl (perhaps) suggests that the loser will waters in the toilet bowl. Chean Ghee recommends to record the loser's dancing. Lee Jie might as well make some suggestion to be pranksters. The rest of us just listen.

After dinner we walk back to our hotel room. Pretty far honestly from Highlands Hotel to First World. On our way back, we stop by the loo. Then we're home again.

FETCH! It's because that Chean Ghee accidentally heard some knock on the door before that and now he heard some noise coming from our room. Oh my Godness. I try to tell myself to calm down because I'm a timid person as well. My hands shivered as I knock at the door to tell the "brothers" that we apologize for being here to disturb. Chean Ghee and I knock for a few times and STRIKE! A cold wind blows upon us. Slowly, the door creaked and squeaks loudly when it opens. A shadow appears and ARGH!!!!!

It's Wei Zhu.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Not really funny. It's, however, laughable for me and Chean Ghee. Wei Zhu looks very surprise and meanwhile Hong Wei is just....sweating at a corner. That wraps up the story.

We'll of course be sleeping well tonight because Wei Zhu will migrate to Shuen Yew's room. Then left 3 of us. We should sleep soundly tonight and we don't have to pack like a sardine. Ok, then Mr. Teoh phones and tells us to gather at the lobby as he has some announcement to be made.

At the lobby, he announces that for those whom'd like to bowl will have to proceed to Level T2A's Genting Bowl at 10.30pm and the ticket for breakfast will be distributed tomorrow morning. Got it? Yes. Then we have a stroll in the plaza. The indoor roller coasters sound so stimulating. Unfortunately we don't have the wristband to gain access to the theme park. Looking at the fogs outside, we hold on and pray for tomorrow's weather.

The bowling array are crazy. The musics are so loud and I just can't stand the noise. Chean Ghee will join them for bowling while Hong Wei and I return to our room to have some rest. We'll have to save up some energy for tomorrow's plan. Tomorrow shall be an extremely amusing day ever, if God bless us with a sunny day.

Good night everyone. Lights off.

To be continued...

> Visit my Flickr profile for more photos.

20101216: On The Way™

2010-12-19T19:18:00.000-08:00

The so much anticipated 3 days Genting journey begins today! Everyone looks so excited and looking forward to visiting Genting together with their friends. We gather at the Mobil Petrol Station opposite Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal. I offer my transport to Hong Wei since he has no transportation there.

We board our bus exactly at 7 and before that I buy a copy of The Star so that I could pass the 6 hours through reading. It's a long journey seriously but I won't get bored because I have most of my friends accompanying me. Chean Ghee sitting with me, Ooi Carl and Lee Jie sitting behind me, Jia Wei as well then Hong Wei and so much more.

All of us are chit-chatting, sometimes we break into laughters after having some jokes. Some ought to play card games like UNO or even tend to shake their elbows in the bus. Pretty interesting and the bus is bustling with noise, no way for us to sleep.

We stop by Gunung Semanggol R&R for breakfast but apparently most of us only visit the toilet. Nasi Lemak etc. are served there for those hungry ghosts. The rest area is well decorated by the array of colourful flowers. Handphone charger are available here, but it's not used for free.

We continue our journey after spending around 15 to 20 minutes here. The bus driver plays Final Destination, a horror movie which I dare not watch. I can see those in the centre enjoy their favourite film so much. After crossing the tunnel at Jelapang, you'll see three Tescos along NSE. The first one on your left, Tesco Extra Ipoh, followed by Tesco Ipoh after 500m and the last one on your right, Tesco Distribution in Simpang Pulai. Ipoh is probably the best part of the entire stretch of highway.

Our bus then exit NSE via the Kuala Kubu Baru exit near Tanjong Malim. The time is now about 12 noon and we decide to have our lunch here before we hike up to Genting Highlands. I'm here to tell you and to WARN YOU! DO NOT HAVE YOUR LUNCH IN THIS RESTAURANT CALLED MR. SOTONG!

His boss is really sotong seriously. He deceives our money, keeps on pulling customers to their kopitiam. RM5 for a plate of Chicken Rice (there's another stall in walking distance, RM3.50). Nevertheless I give them 0/10, no good at all. I'm not picky eaters yet I'm telling you the truth whatsoever. Don't get taken by them or not you'll be regret, just like us, the sotong victim.

Leave the stupid sotong restaurant and we move on to the City of Entertainment - Resorts World Genting. 50km from the foot to the peak, that will take about 30 minutes to reach the top. Instead of taking the Genting Skyway, the bus will fetch us directly at the entrance of the hotel lobby. Many shall feel dizzy after going through winding roads like this.

It's so disappointing when it starts to rain while on our way there and with no doubt, this shows that Genting is raining. Hence the outdoor theme park will be closed due to the bad weather. Poor thing, we won't get to play but luckily we've got tomorrow. So the important thing is to pray to God. Hopefully the weather will allow us to have fun in the theme park.

We reach Genting safely at about 2pm.

To be continued...

> Visit my Flickr profile for more photos.

20101215: Traveling™

2010-12-15T00:55:00.001-08:00

Traveling to places out of Penang are great. I like the feel so much because I'm already bored of staying on this island. Yet I won't be bored with the local cuisines. Tomorrow will be my second trip of the year and we'll be going Genting Highlands.

Everyone should be happy and could even shout when they know they have earn an opportunity to Genting Highlands. This time I'm going together with my friends. Looks like most of my friends are all agog but I'm not. I'm not getting excited, don't have the mood to pack my luggage also.

It's already 5pm and I'm not ready to go. The reason is probably owing to the reschedule of the PMR results day. The date is actually 28th of December but some rumours are heard that it will be brought forward to 23rd. Two days before Christmas. I'm feeling so much pressured now as I knew it, I won't be getting straight As. I've got no confident at all, especially for the Chinese paper. It's so embarrassing, so disappointing.

Hope I enjoy my trip so that I won't waste my money there. Have a safe trip and I won't be around for three days. I will be back on Saturday and I'll once again bring back a number of interesting stuffs from Genting. Bye for now.

20101213: Local Pyramid™

2010-12-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

What's the point of traveling for such a long distance just to witness the ancient Egyptian pyramids? There's no need to do so because there is already one in Malaysia. The Sunway Pyramid shopping complex in Subang Jaya is built by the inspiration from the famous Egyptian style architecture, the Pyramid. In fact, the building really looks like a pyramid and inside, you'll see a lot of mummies standing surrounding the Pyramid court.

It's quite similar to First World Plaza in Genting. There are ferris wheel, skating rink, archery centre and the like. Perfect place to hang out. Next to Sunway Pyramid is the water-themed amusement park, Sunway Lagoon. It offers boat ride, water sports and all sorts of water activities. Entrance fee required.

The queue of cars and buses at the car park entrance have proof that Sunway Pyramid is one of the well-known shopping destination in Klang Valley. I don't know how the car park looks like because we park our car at the roadside with the price of RM8 per entry. Parking charges in KL are way too costly.

Talking about the interior. I like the design of Pyramid atrium so much. Poor thing, I only know that it's very unique but I got no idea on how to describe. Let the pictures explain, visit my Flickr profiles for more photos. Nowadays, the speed of uploading pictures using Blogger is a slow crawl and I can't wait for such a long time. Flickr is much better so be sure to visit my Flickr profile.

There are four major parts in Sunway Pyramid: Pyramid Atrium, Orange Atrium, Blue Atrium and Pyramid Ice Rink. In between the Blue Atrium and the Ice Rink Atrium, there is a pathway linking both zones called the Marrakesh. The ceiling is painted like a sky so that it feels like you're outdoor. Fake coconut trees made by plastics can be seen here.

In the Ice Rink Atrium, you'll see a lot of punk skaters here, skating joyfully with their friends that impress the spectators around the court, especially small boys who'd like to learn skating from their seniors. Some are like dancing with their girl friend, holding each other's hand. How romantic.....Meanwhile some pranksters are chasing after some of the young skaters there. OK, cut it off. I'm talking rot!

Toilets in Sunway Pyramid are F.O.C. and err....quite unique and what-you-call environmental friendly. You can wash yourself using the toilet bowls after answering the call of nature. I really don't know how to make use of the device because it's my first time to see such thing appearing in a shopping complex. It's so clean and sweet-scented. As luck would have it it's not designed by the renowned toilet contractor Phua Chu Kang. Hahhahaha....

Sunway Pyramid is very weird in naming their floors. Instead of Lower Level 3, they call it Basement 1. Instead of Level 2, they call it CP1. Maybe that's because it's easier for people to search into their cars and to prevent people from getting lost in their car park. Four floors of shopping levels: LL2, LL1, G and F.

Wow...I've been writing a lot today and that's so much about Sunway Pyramid. Visit Sunway Pyramid when you're going to KL to witness the magnificent structure built by Malaysian. Also remember to buy some cookies from Marks & Spencers (branches in 1U and KLCC).

> Log on to Sunway Pyramid 's website to find out more about the mall. Sunway Pyramid, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya, Selangor DE. Opens daily from 10am to 10pm. View my Flickr profile for photos.