Saturday, July 31, 2004

Moi will be in Singapore on the morning of 21st August. It's Odacia time again. Feeling apprehensive. I still bloody don't know bloody why. And I don't think I mean it. I've just got a few things to accomplish in the 2 days I'll be there.
1. Meet Odac
2. Meet Lionel
3. Meet SheShuShueh
4. Meet my brother
I'll figure out how I'm going to perform this miracle!
I'll be back again on the 31st anyway...

There's a tornado going on in my head right now. I'm hearing little snatches of conversations with myself. "You're doing everything, you've gotta let some things go" "You can't trust anyone these days to live up to their promises" "Maybe it's time to throw in the towel, no? Not yet?" "No, that isn't you... it's never been you...."
And then there are little snatches of things you want to say out loud. Not over the phone, nor online (which is worse). Just out loud in your face, so I don't have to guess at the smiley faces or weird chatting syntax.

Saturday, July 24, 2004

After the end of another harrowing week of work (work? nah, I think it's called staring at the little clock at the corner of my computer screen tick away the minutes), Ravi, Sachpal and Sugi whisked me away to Giant at Kelana Jaya for some Starbucks cold chocolate drinks (branded ice Milo - lah!). Then after church, the same culprits (this time with Menon in tow) kidnapped me to Syed's for plain ol' mamak-ing and plain ol' banging. Damn it, these are the kind of people who will still insult me to my face, 50 years from now in front of our grand kids! And we'll still get a kick out of it. (Although I won't go so far as calling you my machas... someone has already claimed you guys... *cough*)

Thursday, July 22, 2004

They say the city can numb your senses, and numb 'em pretty bad.

To be able to gape at towns like Bukit Beruntung and Kuala Kubu Baru (barely an hour's drive out of KL) and wonder in amazement how these little towns (their pride and joy being their local mosque or one of the many mushrooming local 'universiti's) far from the nearest Golden Screen Cinemas or glass covered skyscrapers have managed to spawn and produce residents, nay whole families, with much more than a proton wira parked in their porchs.

I have been a city girl much too long.

I watched as a group of primary school kids came charging at our Pajero on their bicycles. "So young, so daring already", commented my supervisor. But I was thinking of the kids from the primary school down the road from where I live, whose maids shelter them with umbrellas (what from? acid rain?) and carry their school bags and usher them into Mum and Dad's Mercedes which is blocking the entire road so that Junior has easy access to that big plush back seat.

You don't really know who to feel sorry for. Perhaps my own blinded self.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Ladidaa... Results are out! Well, for EEE and ISE that is. No one has dared make that fatal phone call to the department to find out if we're eligible for 2nd year. So we just sat around and waited for the whacked up British post and non-existent Pos Malaysia to deliver that much anticipated envelope, while everyone else from Math & computing to medicine and the rest of the engineers, already knew their results! EEE likes piling on the suspense, I suspect.
And phew! I passed! Oh alright, I wasn't in danger of failing... but it was nice to see my name on the pass list (30 out of the 41 ISE first years... only 3 quarters of us passed???). And nicer still to see that the only subject I got a B in was management... MANAGEMENT??? *pout*!!! And I missed by one bleedin' mark! But still numb with shock that I actually managed to scrape an A in Analogue! Couldn't stop staring at the mark for awhile... I mean hallucinations happen, don't they?
Now I can spend the rest of my summer,  relatively worry free!

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Time for an update (partly to give Sherene something to do when she's bored)
 
I am currently a week-old overqualified secretary. They say I'm a trainee engineer, but it sure doesn't seem like it. The first few days of work were dreadful, just like any other first days. I was literally watching the hands of the clock tick away as I waited for the golden hour - 5.30pm! Although leaving my house at 8.15 just to arrive on the dot at 8.30am is like a dream for most people!
 
Within those 9 hours, my best friend is the telephone. That's because I have no internet access (yes, gasp! horrors!) and my job is basically to make phone calls to suppliers to check on their quotations and products. It's been quite fun talking to some nervous and too-eager-to-please suppliers, pretending I actually know what I'm doing when I haven't even been to the water plant yet! Hopefully next week I'll get to visit the water plant which is an hour's drive away.
 
Haven't been all too sociable the past week. So it was a good thing Virus invited most of the Amanian Interactors and Sugi to her house for a little party. Nice catching up with everyone, even if London and UK talk dominated most of the conversation.
 
Also managed to hold a committee meeting on Thursday. Go us! Finalised more things regarding the camp. It's all coming together nicely now. With a push and a nudge here and there... we'll get this committee moving! M-nite ideas are blooming as well! And I'm not telling you what they are... you'll just have to come and see for yourself and be amazed! Oh yes!
 
Alright then, till the end of next week. And remember, a computer with no internet is virtually dead!

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Just put down Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Very gripping tale of crime, trickery and lesbianism. Er... yes, I now realise Sarah Waters is a lesbian writer, but an extremely talented story teller. Her depiction of London in the mid 1800s is so real... as she runs familiar names past you - Hammersmith, Charing Cross, Picadilly - and yet paints it in different colours and makes it a completely different place! London, the warm, close-knit world of theives, pit against the cold, gloomy, country side mansion at Briar. But I think I might have liked it a little better had the two female protagonists not gone down on each other. Oh, come on... you guys go read a gay novel and tell me if you don't get goosebumps!

Oh and by the way, I start work on Monday at SPLASH - a subsidiary of GAMUDA. And of all my biggest worries... I have no working shoes!!!

Monday, July 05, 2004

Pretty good weekend, for the strangest of holidays yet. I have never waited so long to see my parents, to want my parents around so badly, to wish I did not have the dreary monotony of child-care, house-care and even car-care, to want to be treated as a daughter and not as a fill-in mother.
I take for granted - the trips to eat my favourite char kuay teow, the freedom to run around KL or PJ when a phonecall comes in, the late nights out without care or responsibility of knowing who's going to lock up, thinking that my sister's education (or re-education) had nothing what-so-ever to do with me, treating my boyfriend's visits as my first and only priority...
But it isn't so. Life is much too short and precious to be about me alone.
And so I go for early morning walks with Daddy, 4 times round the park and as many times as he can walk before he tires himself. And I run around depositing cheques, arranging appointments and calling people for Mummy, even if I'm just dying for more hours of sleep. And I stay at home every night just to sort out Ling's homework and piano practice, even when Sachpal and Jere call to tempt me out.
And I'm so glad you're being so understanding, honey. Thanks for coming up to KL to see me and yet not see me. For allowing me to run off from KLCC before nine so I could take a straight LRT home. For finding your own way through our lousy LRT system with unconnected lines to spend a day, running errands with me and bumming around with Amar. And not complaining that your day was uninteresting, (well it certainly wasn't uninteresting when we were ransacking Amar's room and having banana leaf lunch with Soha) although it couldn't possibly have done any justice to the rates you are paying to stay in KL! (Next time, honestly... either my place or Amar's for free! Who stays in a hotel when you have friends right here?). And thanks, honey, for telling me where my priorities should be. And it's right here, at home.

Saturday, July 03, 2004

News Flash #1
Mummy and Daddy are finally back from Singapore. But that certainly doesn't mean my babysitting burdens have been lifted off me (so sorry, I can't do weekends for the next 2-3 weeks). Instead I'm mum's chauffeur, dad's nurse and my sister's punching bag. Anyway it's good to have them home again and be treated to REAL malaysian food.

News Flash #2
Lionel's in town. I went down to Lot 10 to meet him and his army buddies, who are very sweet in trying their best to limit their mandarin and speak more english than is way past their norm, but I appreciate it. We walked around Petaling Street and Jalan Alor, perpetually eating (the national past time in Malaysia) and haggling for clothes and tit-bits. I'll be seeing him again tomorrow. Hopefully with Amar and Soha as well, if they're not too lazy.

News Flash #3
Evelyn, my all-time favourite scholarship officer, called to say I may be getting a placement for my practical training soon. Yay! No more aimless bumming around days. I just can't work right without some rigid monotonous schedule to help me mark the days. No, I'm serious!!! Without a fixed uni time table, I'm quite at a loss as to how to pass the days.

News Flash #4
Nah, just toying with you...

Friday, July 02, 2004

Sunday...
Wh-wh-where am I???

Monday...
"No shit! It's noon already??? What?? Send you to school??? NOW???"

Tuesday...
"You're kidding right? 8.30 in the morning is an unholy time to send you for tuition!!"

Wednesday...
"Must you go to school everyday? I wanna sleep!"

Thursday...
"Not my fault you haven't finished practising your piano. You're going for piano class NOW so I can come back and sleep some more!"

Friday...
"Oh come on! Get up! It's 8am and I'm already up before you. Get moving!"


I'm basically under house arrest. Apart from hanging around Jerry's house one afternoon and meeting Ruba at Sunway Pyramid for half an hour, I haven't seen much sunlight (I make sure no deadly UV rays can hit me while I'm driving!). Jerry and Pal dropped by last night to pay me a little visit. God bless them, they never change. Still insulting me and their own mothers. Anu, Sugi, we want you back here!!! With Ravi of course... in one piece and not violated. I miss Jun Ling... there's no one to update me on good ol' PJ gossip. Maggie's not even here to debate with. Ashwyn Donovan's in the states (I hope, I REALLY hope!) and not around to help me get pirated software. Damian... hmm... where the hell is he? For a guy who lives 2 roads away I haven't heard a single squeak from the him!

But on a cheerier note, Lionel will be here tomorrow! I want to go cycling at Ubin too! And I'd gladly go to Sungei Buloh... not like those soccer fanatic bums! I'm an Odacian after all! Can't you guys wait for me to come to Singapore?