Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year! The blog may go into hibernation until after the 1st week of January when exams end. Till then, write me letters and send me love songs!

I am home!

As it says on the lid

If you haven't got my number, email me. If you haven't got my email, msn me. If you're not on msn, facebook me. If you're not on any of those... how do I know you again?

Saying farewell to the winter freeze

I'm outta here!

In approximately 4 hours.

I can just about smell the hokkien mee!

The term ended on a good note with our Entrepreneurship presentation finally being put to rest. (The lecturers liked us, they REEEALLY liked us!). Deep down, I probably felt sorry for the mainland China team who were after us and presented a business plan that was not only incomprehensible, but incompetent... which resulted in several politically incorrect messages being typed on my laptop...

me: aku benci sgt org cina cakap bahasa inggeris!
iylia: but ur disowning ur heritage
me: eh, keluarga aku sudah 3 generasi di tanah melayu, okay....

...and several members of our team hiding under the table while trying to quell their desire to laugh out loud. We finally left for drinks at Harringtons where we sat in a corner and laughed at the poor China team.

I said a lot of my goodbyes last night at the Linstead Christmas party, where the nativity play really was a good laugh once I stopped being a prick about the immaculate conception not being Jesus (No, really! The immaculate conception is Mary!) and took up my part as... no, not a cow, sorry to dissapoint everyone... but as the angel Gabriel.

We ended the night with a round of horrible karaoke-ing, and I woke up this morning with a sore throat after belting out Uncle Kracker's Follow Me a few times last night.

Now for the important details. My plane will probably be touching down on Saturday evening, sometime after 7pm. And then I will proceed to spend the next few days eating everything in KL and working off the jetlag. Call me, you know my number.

I want it to be freaking 27 degrees!

Time check: 11.40am
Position check: Under duvet, drawn up to my neck, and a fleece blanket around my icey toes
Next move: What the hell? I am NOT moving!!!

When I turned in at 11pm last night, I resolved to get up at the break of dawn and start working on my interim report. That didn't happen when my brother, who had gone clubbing at Zoo Bar, knocked on my door and woke me up at some time between 4 and 5am. He's currently taking up a lot of the floor space in my room. It makes it difficult to get out of bed and navigate my way to the bathroom. Thus I think I will stay in my pyjamas, thank you.

I resolved again to get up at 9am for accounting lectures at 10. Have you ever tried teaching accounting management to an engineer? We great beings who can understand spectral estimation and empirical mode decomposition of non-stationary waves are completely clueless when you start talking to us about operating costs and insolvency, etc. etc. We think being able to debit and credit items are as good as it gets. Of course it goes without saying that we have incredibly natural management skills... because we're not so fussed about all those social science theories like opportunity costs and what nots. We've already taken it into account, differentiated it and plotted it's spectrum.

To make a long story short - I crawled back under my duvet and decided that the last lecture of Accounting for the term wasn't worth attending. I'll attend the tutorial tomorrow.

Then I thought I'll wake up around lunch time, and get cracking on that annoying interim report. No luck, it's freezing out there and I'm still under my duvet. I know I will eventually have to make it to my department by 1pm because of an entrepreneurship meeting that must go on by hook or by crook. Or Soha will DEAL with me...

Ok, it's about time to budge and face the 12 degrees of cold outside. Brrrrr...

As Christmas draws near

They say it's hard to be a Muslim these days. Sometimes I wonder that it's even harder to be a Christian.

Living in London, post London bombings and Heathrow bomb threats, everyone is very gingerly tip-toeing around any issue that might incite the wrath of the Muslims. Halal food, not shaking hands with the men, and headscarves are just a few, not to mention being careful not to represent the Prophet or God in any way.

However, what happened to Christian sensitivity? I know it sounds mad, but if truth be told, ignorance of Christianity is almost as wide spread as Islam.

This Thursday we're celebrating Christmas at Linstead by putting on a nativity play. I'm playing the part of one of the barn animals. One look at the script and I'm glad I have no lines. It's one thing to make things satirical and as far as everyone knows I am always sporting enough to laugh at myself and my beliefs. But it's difficult to know when to draw the line.

Should I feel bad about singing "While Shepherds smoke their pot by night?". Should I feel slightly insulted that Mary exclaims "Holy Shit" when told she is to give birth to the son of God? Should I be hopping mad that the moral of the nativity play is safe sex?

I don't actually know what I should be thinking or feeling. It has obviously irked me enough to write about it, but what exactly I am annoyed about I don't really know.

Perhaps it's just the idea that nothing is sacred anymore. That something so humbling as the joy in the birth of a baby can be misconstrued and spun into a tasteless story and the true joy of Christmas is no where to be found.

Genting is moving to Sentosa!

Lionel woke me up on Sunday morning with the very exciting news - Spurs had won 5-1.

Oh and Genting had won the Sentosa bid.

Part of me was waving the Malaysian flag and shouting "Malaysia Boleh! Genting Boleh!"

The other part was saying,"Siao boh? They're actually going ahead with the whale shark tank ar? If Michael Jackson come and dangle his baby outside his hotel window above the whale sharks, then how?"

Lionel was more upset that Nobu and Gordon Ramsay wouldn't be coming to Singapore as part of the Las Vegas 8th Wonder plan. The boy thinks with his stomach 30% of the time...

Anyway I just thought it was very suspicious that around the time the winning bid was to be announced, Najib had to come out and spew good things about Malaysian relations with Singapore. Did we just give our southern neighbours a part of the SJER so we could reap a few economic benefits from Sentosa? Such neighbourly love. Doesn't that make you feel all fuzzy inside?

Check out the video links on channel news asia. I wanna stay in the resorts on stilts. When Lionel earns enough money. I tried laying out my entire tai-tai plan before him but he will have none of it...

Home is so close

When was I last home?

In the blink of an eye, 3 and a quarter years have passed, and it feels like it's always been cold and rainy. Out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of a sunny land where it's always 27 degrees and when it rains, coconut trees sway. But it goes up in smoke before I can reach out for it.

I'll be home for Christmas. Just you wait and see.

Please have char kway teow, asam laksa and piping hot hokkien mee!

If I count 4 days down, it doesn't go by any faster.

Currently listening to...

Belief by Gavin DeGraw

Belief, makes things real.
Makes things feel, feel alright.
Belief, makes things true.
Things like you, you and I.

Tonight, you arrested my mind.
When you came to my defense.
With a knife in the shape of your mouth,
in the form of your body, with the wrath of a god.
Oh, you stood by me, Belief

Builds from scratch.
Doesn't have to relax, it doesn't need space.
Long live the queen and I'll be the king.
In the collar of grace.

Oh, tonight, you arrested my mind.
When you came to my defense.
With a knife in the shape of your mouth,
in the form of your body, with the wrath of a god.
Oh, you stood by me, belief.

I'm gonna yell it from the rooftops.
I'll wear a sign on my chest.
That's the least I can do, it's the least I can do.

Tonight, you arrested my mind.
When you came to my defense.
With a knife, in the shape of your mouth,
in the form of your body, with the wrath of a god.
Oh, you stood by me.
And I'll stand by my belief.

Weekend update...

I'm so busy, and yet I'm giving an update on why I'm so busy. You can skip this one if you were looking for a post with more substance. If you were looking for a blog with more substance, you are clearly in the wrong place. Check out the links on the right.

Amidst the end of term rush, I sacrificed all dignity I had to be a punching bag for the juniors in my accounting group (who are so proud of handing in our report 5 FULL MINUTES before the deadline). Perhaps if there had been less hijacking of my msn and less raunchy emails sent out involving cheesecake and meeting ON pool tables, we could have handed in our report 5 FULL HOURS ahead of the deadline. Oh well, if it was more fun to torture me, so be it.

Anyway, we ended off the week with the EESoc Christmas dinner - an evening of turkey, chocolate fountains and cheesy disco music. The highlight of the night must have been dimunitive Prof Cheung standing on two chairs to give his speech. That or the macarena. The night would have ended on a good note, if only I wasn't cornered at the cloakroom by a drunk Greek who harangued me with questions about whether I thought gays were normal. And because I wouldn't agree to his opinion that gays were infact abnormal... he proceeded to accuse me of being "westernised" and changing my way of thinking because I am now living in London... then I got accused of wanting to follow the great Western idea of secularism and that the Chinese have no concept of God's will that gays be segregated from society.

That pissed me off. Firstly because, I refuse to be associated with Chinese thinking. I am not from China. I'm Malaysian. I do not support secularism, in fact I grew up in a country with so many religions if you threw a stone you'd hit a mosque or a temple. Secondly, I am far from being westernised! I am as Asian as they come and believe in the rising of the Asian superpower that will kick America's ass. And lastly, if you hold such venomous hatred for gays - you are probably insecure about your own sexuality and hide it behind your pretentious hold on religion.
Moving on. Today was the OSC world cup. I witnessed a mini war brewing between Iraq and Iran and then Spain and Iran. Such hotbloodedness on the pitch.

Time to get going to Wei Kiat's birthday dinner anyway.

Incoherence... is that a word?

The Dress Code according to PAS

I was speaking to a Malay friend today who hasn't been keeping up with Malaysian news and hasn't been home in awhile. I told him and my Sri Lankan friends who were listening about the new RM500 fine for sexy dressing in Kelantan and how all Muslim women are required to cover up to their ankles and wear a tudung or headscarf to protect the chastity of women.

My Sri Lankan friends exclaimed "What? How can they? What about the men? Shouldn't they have a dress code too? Why are men never to blame?"

My Malay friend said, "What's wrong with that? It's according to Islam"

...
...
...

I'm reevaluating my choice of wearing a baju kebaya to the Christmas Ball this Friday. You see, even though it isn't really my actual traditional attire (ethnically speaking) and actually belongs to the Muslim majority in my country, it's body hugging, butt emphasising, bustiere like design is likely to erode any morals I am likely to possess as a woman. To ensure that my morality is kept intact, like money in a wallet, I should wear a burlap sack according to PAS.

Invisible kayaks

The odacian in me says: So cool!!!! I wanna try it!!! Imagine kayaking and being able to admire all the blue under you? Can batch xvii invest in one?

The charlotte in me says: Capsize drills *shiver*

The nerd in me says: Hoi! We're two days behind in getting that Database coursework finished! Stop blog-crastinating!


Click on pic for more info.

Typhoon Durian has struck the Philippines

Pray for them.

BBC - Hopes fade after Philippine storm
The Star - Grim search as typhoon kills hundreds in Philippines
Channel News Asia - Rescuers reach Philippine mudslide disaster

SPM Sejarah and I have some issues to settle Part II

As mentioned before, SPM Sejarah and I are old foes.

Anyway, I found the new syllabus here:
http://www.geocities.com/rozmansmkbm/
Click on 'silibus' and if you can't see the links on firfox, try IE

I haven't got the time to translate it right now. Will get to it at some point.

-----------------

I found some spare time (i.e. I'm procrastinating other things for the sake of SPM Sejarah). Everything here is very crudely translated. I have never tried translating History before!

Form 4
Chapter 1: The emergence of early civilisations
i) Definition of civilisation
ii) Characteristics of civilisations
iii) The process of the formation of civilisations

Chapter 2: The rise of civilisations
i) Aspects defining the rise of civilisations
ii) Contributions from civilisations
iii) The emergence of religion and teachings of the old world (Hinduism/Buddhism/Christianity/Islam/Confucianism/Taoism)

Chapter 3: Early civilisations in South East Asia
i) Forms of early governments (Agrarian and Maritime societies)
ii) The influence of Hinduism and Buddhism on early governments (Ruling systems/monarchy/temples/Sanskrit)
iii) Summary

Chapter 4: The beginnings of Islamic civilisation and its developments in Mecca
i) Early Jahiliyyah Arabic societies
ii) The life of Prophet Muhammad before being appointed as a messenger (rasul) of God
iii) Prophet Muhammad as a messenger of God
iv) The spreading of Islam to Mecca
v) The reaction of Arabic society

Chapter 5: The Islamic Government in Medina
i) First and Second treaty of Aqaba
ii) The Hijrah (Migration)
iii) The Constitution of Medina
iv) The spreading of Islam
v) The Treaty of Hudaibiyah

Chapter 6: The Formation of Islamic Governments and their contributions
i) The Khulafa Al-Rasyidin Government
ii) The Bani Umaiyyah Government
iii) The Bani Abbasiyah Government
iv) The Uthmaniyah Turkish Government
v) The meeting of Islamic civilisations with other civilisations

Chapter 7: Islam in South East Asia
i) The arrival of Islam in South East Asia
ii) The spreading of Islam in South East Asia
iii) The influence of Islam in South East Asia

Chapter 8: Changes and influence of Islam in Malaysia before the arrival of Western influence
i) The effects of Islam on politics
ii) The effects of Islam on social culture
iii) The effects of Islam on the economy

Chapter 9: Developments in Europe
i) Social and cultural changes in Europe
ii) Travels and explorations
iii) The agricultural and industrial revolutions
iv) Western imperialism in Asia

Chapter 10: The British policy and it's effects on its national economy
i) Traditional economy
ii) Trade
iii) The British policy on agriculture
iv) Effects on its economy

Form 5
Chapter 1: The beginnings and devlopment of nationalism in South East Asia
i) Western Imperialism in South East Asia
- Western Imperialists
- Factors of Imperialism
ii) Changes in political systems
- The introduction of Western bureaucracy
iii) Nationalism in South East Asia
- Factors concerning the rise of Nationalism
- Developments in Nationalism

Chapter 2: Nationalism in Malaysia pre and post WWII
i) The trials and tribulations (hehe... being poetic) of local leaders in opposing the British
- Reasons for opposition
- Opposition events of local leaders
ii) The Nationalist movement up till WWII
- Factors catalysing nationalism
- Islamic movement raises the thinking of the races
- Newspapers, Journals and Novels as instruments of awareness of nationality
- The nationalist fight by Malay organisations
- The Nationalist movement during the Japanese occupation

ps - I just refuse to translate the rest, because it is becoming rather depressing. Unless someone does it for me. *hints* I am also appalled at my translation skills... bleargh!

pps - Thanks for the help guys! I will eventually link some of this stuff up with wikipedia when my next bout of procrastination comes around again