All dressed in white

The Woman in White is really a very delightful, (slightly heartstrings-tugging) musical. Its everything I didn't expect, which leaves little to say because I really went to watch it without any expectations. It's no morbid ghost story - not even the slightest bit close to Woman in Black (and certainly not the sequel to it, which caused much hilarious laughter today). It's no typical Andrew Lloyd Webber, and that's something! The music is more epic musical than Lloyd Webber's crazy contemporary with liberal doses of chromatics and atonal scales. It's no truly happy ending love story (but that would have made it so passe wouldn't it?). In fact it's more of a 'New Woman' genre and most of it echoes of Charlotte Perkin-Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'... all the 'hysteria' and "I know best, I'm a doctor" and "don't confuse your pretty head with all these details". Ooh, and the good-guy male lead is yummilicious (see here!).

It was really just a lovely musical to sit back to and relax, if only I wasn't worrying about how to segment speech signals at the back of my mind.

And it was great meeting up with some MSoc people again. I just realised today how much I'm going to miss them over the summer. Don't even know if I'll make it for the Fresher's camp. And what happen to our plans for a road trip this summer? Things change so much over the course of one year. People and places and activities and friends.

Need to figure out how I'm going to earn enough money to pay off my rent for the summer. Anyone needs a henna tattoo job?

I know I worry too much. I've been trying to scare myself with the fact that fretting makes you age faster, but that's not working all too well now that I'm worrying myself to death about wrinkles and white hair.

So, on my list of latest worries, I'm worried that I haven't got the right stuff to wear for my Andalucian Dream Adventure. And why should I be fretting about this? Firstly, it's a burn-me-to-a-crisp 36 degrees in Seville. I have been mentally unloading my wardrobe (mentally, because the obsessive compulsive in me would like my clothes to stay in neat piles) and the only things made for all 36 degrees of heat is my hot pants, which Lionel said I can't wear as we shouldn't attempt to attract unwanted attraction. Secondly, I would like to look nice on a holiday for once. For the past few trips I've been bundled up in no less than 3 layers of woolies and cardies and what-nots. So for once (and especially with Lionel's new Nikon D70s) I would like to have pictures where I look like I'm really having a holiday and not trying to win ba zhang of the year award.
What's a ba zhang? This is a ba zhang.

Once the holidays are over, I'll have to start worrying about looking for a place for the next academic year. We're going house viewing tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed. Now that Yi Shan is moving out, we've become a household of 3. The 'tua chee' doesn't really count, I suppose. The highest priority seems to be to look for a place with a TV. One year of deprivation is too much torture to inflict on these guys.

Then I'm starting to worry about the next academic year and what's in store. This time last year I at least knew that I had an entire club to run and activities to see through. But next year, it's a whole new clean slate. I have nothing to expect. Nothing to occupy my mind!

Oh, I have told a falsehood. I have a melancholic script that has been writing itself in my head since I started revising for exams. Oh there, I lie again. I have had two different stories writing itself in my head. It's like a niggling dream, which I had to tell myself to snap out off for awhile. But now that exams are over, the entire stage play is forming itself in my head. Oh sure, only after M-nite and during exams do my creative juices really start to churn! Could I not have had this luck while I was writing the M-nite script? Anyhow, I think I will turn it into a short story over time. That should keep me relatively busy all summer.

I'm spouting too much rubbish. I should get back to unwritten Matlab programs, and deciphering phenomes. If I have one absolutely terrible failing, it's procrastinating too much!

Yi Shan has nicely set me the task of making tong sui. Ling zhi kang in particular. That's not going all too well since I have only a very vague idea of what is actually in ling zhi kang, until I call my mother tomorrow that is.

This is only task number one of many other cooling deserts I have been set to make for our household. Its not that we're really dying of heat (living underground and all) but this is the hottest weekend London has faced this year. We are seeing highs of 32 degrees, people! (You south east asians and southern asians - yes, I am pointing at India - let us have our moment of sweltering glory for a minute here). I just cannot begin to imagine the temperatures in Spain. I'm starting to think the only solution is to lose the extra clothing.

So here we have yams, sweet potatoes and sago ready to be made into bubur cha cha. I am chilling cincau in the fridge so we can have it together with the lychees which are also chilling out with them. (Oh, bad bad pun... will not happen again, I promise!) We have two tubs of Haagen Daaz sitting nicely in the freezer too. Unfortunately Ben & Jerry's are still not on sale, but their official website has a really cute explanation of how the ice cream is made.

I need a new pair of shoes. Not having anything with heels is killing me, because I am too short for my new skirts! Michelle was in London this week and finally persuaded me to get those skirts I've been eyeing, after I finally decided what length and colour I wanted which took all of 4 days. Thank heaven for friends like Michelle who've stuck by me since Standard 1 and 15 years later tells me to stop being a dingbat and just buy it if I like it! But now I have no one to talk me into buying shoes. Not even Amar who has finally returned to Warwick (you have gone back haven't you, and you aren't just lurking around?)

Busy, busy week next week. My Godmother has invited Lionel and me over for dinner on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday the good ol' MSoc bunch will be watching Woman in White with some of the Emperor's Gate household. Then on Friday, it's off to Barcelona (where I suspect we will bump into hoards of people we know) and then to Andalucia (where we will see nobody but gypsies and bullfighters... what a relief!). In the meantime I'll just work on segmenting speech signals. Don't bother about me.

Guns in the Hands of Babes

Its been a brilliant week, hasn't it?

On one hand we thought the government was finally getting it right when our Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein made it known that the PSD will state the criteria for selecting scholars. Then Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Zin has to go and spoil it all by announcing that NS trainees may be taught to handle firearms as part of their training, namely M16s (oooh... I'm thinking Wei Kiat would love to have gone for NS, even though his obsession with guns and all other harmful weapons is scary enough as it is!).

Not only is this news extremely disturbing to me (and I just cannot imagine what my parents are going through seeing that my sister has 2 years to go before NS), it is even more disturbing to hear the words that are coming out of the mouths of senior government officials. Do they truly believe what they are saying?

To quote the Deputy Defence Minister in The Star (16 June 2005):

“It is more of an exercise in learning to take care of oneself. This is so that they are confident of handling a weapon.
Another reason was that after their NS training, the trainees were eligible to enter the armed forces and the firearms training would be helpful then,”

I am not alone in seeing the contradiction here, am I? You don't learn to be independant so that you are confident of handling a gun! Does he realise the atrocities that result from learning to handle firearms? Does he know that in the Singaporean NS, boys have died from mishandling firearms. It isn't just a matter of Malaysian NS trainees going amok and shooting one another and trainers (as if it wasn't bad enough with the brawls that occurred over small things like stolen handphones). Will we now have NS trainees getting their faces blown off due to a carelessly loaded M16 in the name of patriotism?

Sure, our Malaysian youth think its cool to be taught to handle guns. But just speak to our friends in that sunny island down south. It really isn't so cool when the gun is in your hand and a fatality could happen anytime, especially with the typical Malaysian lackadaisical attitude. Sure, I speak with no firsthand experience. But I know the fear of worrying till I'm sick about my closest friends in the army.

But then our Deputy Defence Minister again has to make other inane statements, and this one unsurprisingly appeared in the Singapore Straits Times (17 June 2005):

'People were comparing our national service programme with Singapore's,' Datuk Zainal Abidin said on Wednesday.
'If they can incorporate weapons training in their programme, I do not see why we cannot do the same. We train trainees in unarmed drill and combat and we give them disciplinary training.
'There is only one thing missing, and that is firearms training.'

He doesn't see why we cannot do the same? Because we are NOT the same! Singapore is training a reserve army. We are trying to instill patriotism in our kids. It's not that Singapore can incorporate weapons training. They need to! We on the otherhand do not need one more way to arm young hooligans who beat up other trainees and even their own instructors until the Defence Minister was ready to call the army in to sort them out.

I shouldn't have this feeling of giving up on my country more and more everyday, but when I read things like this, it is hard not to: (Straits Times, 17 June 2005)

'There is nothing wrong with it as it can help the security of the nation. Guns can be used for a peaceful purpose too,' Datuk Siva Subramaniam, secretary-general of the National Union of the Teaching Profession, told The Straits Times.

Not a single religion in our country would ever professed that guns can be used as weapons of peace. And they made you in charge of our teachers? Why??!!?? And also in the very same article:

Datuk Michael Yeo, chief executive of the Asian Strategy Leadership Institute, said weapons training should be provided in addition to military-type drills already in the national service scheme.

Oh yes, we needed to hear a representative from each major ethnic group in Malaysia make a stupid comment for the benefit of Singaporeans to laugh at us. Why are these people allowed to walk freely on the streets? They might as well remove gun laws in Malaysia.

And finally from the big guy himself (and we know he is a big guy since that talk that was held in Imperial College), our Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak comes out to reassure parents with the words:

“We want to include the element of discipline among the trainees and strengthen their spirit. The trainees will feel much more motivated and disciplined when they learn to stand in line with their M16 rifles,”

And further comforted parents by adding that the NS concept would not be changed to one that was focused on military training as was done in Singapore. (Read more here)

Oh sure, we don't want to be like Singapore. But yet we can whine that if they can have weapons training why can't we? Oh, help! God, please help!

Has the Defence Ministry seen the photo slideshows they show the recruits in Singapore on how guns have exploded and disfigured trainees? Have they read how every once in awhile, a young soldier dies on account of a misguided bullet during training? And we haven't yet begun to talk about M16 wielding angst youth with emotional or mental problems. Do we need an unnecessary death to occur before the Defence Ministry stops waving around these ridiculous ideas? At least discuss the pros and cons of it before telling the public and causing a wave of fear among parents, not the other way around!

It's raining. So I can't go to the post office. It's not a torrential thunderstorm, the way I'd like it to be. But its heavy enough to make Greg's belated birthday card more belated than it already is.

Yes I forgot.
If it helps, I remembered right up till the day itself, and then in the fiasco that was a Control Systems exam, I forgot. I just plain forgot.
And I deserve it. For making a fuss about my own forgotten birthday.
Lets call it a truce. Ok?

Anyway, I've steered away from lampooning our local education/scholarship/entire government system, because this is just much more interesting. Come on, admit it! How many of you have visited SarongPartyGirl since the 'scandal' exploded on a 6 by 4 in the Singapore Straits Times (or the tiny Lion City column [which also means snigger at the perasan kiasus down south] in the Star)? And how many of you went there explicitly searching for this?

For an extremely narcissistic SPG (although, seriously... those tippex sharp tits are scary!), who speaks volumes of her experiences, she clearly isn't any dumb Ah Lian. And the brouhaha the media is throwing at her isn't worth it. Although I really find Kennysia's parody rib tickling!

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In other news... Michael Jackson has been acquitted of all charges as I predicted. In some foreign xenophobic island really far in the south, I hear a mentally deranged ex-classmate still screaming ectastically. You guys know who I'm talking about. That aside, I am glad MJ will not be doing time. His music is still magic to me, and to kill that magic in our usual blood-thirsty societal way is like chloroforming Tinklebell. Hey they're similar. They're both extremely white and extremely skeletal and extremely make believe. I'm contradicting myself aren't I? Tell me when to stop.

------

I'm starting work by reading the introductory chapter to Digital Speech Signal Processing. I have to re-study Z transforms simultaneously. Its amazing how I managed to completely flush all I studied for my exams out of my brain, and this stuff I was mulling over just 2 weeks ago is just as foreign as... say... Ebonics.

------

Oh, the sun is out again. Time to strut out to the post office in my Ralph Lauren sunglasses.

I love summer!

Who doesn't?

Sandwich Shop, anyone?

I am NOT returning to blogging just yet. I still have one last paper to go. But just for emotional entertainment sake. This photoblog and it's photoessays are an absolute catalyst for homesickness. No matter how much I gripe about Malaysia and 'Malaysian Ethics', I miss the vibrance that is our multicultural heritage. The colourful chaos of our ethnicity. The ancient and everlasting traditions pitted against the background of the modern skyscrapers (and THE sky scraper full of oil). There is really so much more 'life' back home.

Every Picture Tells A Story

It really does!

The 'victimisation' of Schappelle Corby has lead to quite a few of my aussie friends covering the case; some emotionally, others with better judgement. Aun Teeng's blog had this link which I thought was an interesting read into Australia's own 'unbabaric', 'untainted', extremely white judicial system.

When justice gets lost in translation

The west has just got to stop becoming judge, jury and law of the east...

Four more to go. Just four! And there are just so many things catching my attention that I want to do. The more blogs I read (particularly those lucky critters who are done with exams for the year), the more I want to -

1. Go Shopping!!! I have yet to find a shopping buddy in London. I can't shop alone because I end up reasoning with myself and buying nothing. I can't shop with people other, because I feel bad making them wait for me when I try on stuff. So far, I've only been able to shop with Charmaine and Sherene (because I know they'll be honest, and also extremely persuasive...), and my Mummy (because she's my greatest critic - she's had 22 years of practice).
2. Cook!!! I am dying to take over the helm of the kitchen again. It's not that your cooking is bad, Lu. In fact yesterday's Californian Rolls were great! But, I just wanna make something to clear out all these leftover things we have in the fridge and spice cupboard before we leave for summer.
3. Watch Hong Kong-ese serials. I miss watching my Cantonese soap dramas. Like Charme said, its a pity Venki's already left for the UK. If not he could have passed me a stash. Anyone else making a trip to the UK? Anyone wants to send me any belated birthday presents? No guessing what's at the top of my wanted list.
4. Berjalan-jalan. Then Lu will have company on his wandering trips. The weather's so beautiful right now. It's just cruel to keep me chained to my room and my notes.
5. Start on my Andalucian Dream Adventure this summer. One whole week in the south of Spain (and a little bit of Barcelona)! Eeps! It's unbearable to wait so long.
   

I won't be ranting and raving for the next week. There's a slaughter-house full of exams just over the horizon. So screwed. so screwed.

In a bold new move (one probably not thought through clearly) by the Information Ministry, they are encouraging cinemas to play the Negaraku before all films begin.

In the secretary-general, Datuk Seri Dr Arshad Hashim's words :

We need to acculturate the citizens to always stand at attention and sing along proudly. The respect and appreciation for the national anthem is waning and the blame is on us if the future generation can’t sing Negaraku

Well, by all means play it as much as you want during official functions and in schools. In fact I absolutely encourage it. But in cinemas? Lets not turn respect for our national anthem into a laughing stock!

Oh yes, did you manage to catch a glimpse of the Imperial College Malaysians in The Star?
If not, here it is:
Students keep our flag flying high

I have no words to describe how proud I am of my countrymen in IC. They never fail to keep me in awe. And, er... don't try looking for me in that article. I was sitting for a Software Engineering exam while the whole thingamajig was going on and everyone else got their 15 seconds of fame.

In recent Malaysian news...

The PM has agreed to a 5-day work week for civil servants, as well as the re-introduction of the Cost of Living Allowance (Cola - for lack of a better, 'grander', name).

This means, less working hours for my daddy. He will be called on to spend more time at the golf course with Rafidah Aziz, yes? Oh, so much for spending family quality time.
Perhaps I kid you.
Perhaps it means my mum can now give my daddy the task of doing more Saturday morning errands. He shouldn't be playing golf anyway, with his bad back.

And on behalf of a legion of scouts, guides and rangers and other uniformed groups, I am bemoaning the 5 day work week. It was bad enough when they cut the working week to allow civil servants to take the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month off. All of a sudden, Saturdays - which were usually meant for earning our guiding badges or ranks and taking tests and planning hiking or cooking activities were limited to 2 Saturdays a month. Because teachers weren't available on the 1st and 3rd Saturday. Such an encouragement to character building through healthy, organised, activities. And it wasn't just the uniformed groups that were hit by this. As Interactors, who try our best to hold our charity events and activities outside of school hours - Saturdays became a headache for us as we fought for venues in school with other societies and the school authorities who were themselves limited to holding school functions on those precious, precious Saturdays.

Now with the greenlight to get rid of Saturdays for civil servants altogether, we can say farewell to our brother scouts and sister guides (and aunty rangers). All the talk about the need for National Service, about the wasted youth and their incorrigible activities, about the lack of patriotism or the motivation - is really such utter rubbish if you can't see for yourself what is being done (or rather not being done) in our National schools. As it is, my sister has to attend guiding activities during that small 1 hour window on Fridays, when the seniors in the morning session can meet the juniors in the afternoon session to take their tests and hold important events like installations or inaugarations - events which are supposedly landmarks in a guide's life, hastily squashed into a one hour period. My sister has yet to learn how to pitch a tent or do any nature tests. There hasn't been a Saturday where a teacher is willing to spend time to supervise these girls. And with the new proposal it looks like there won't be, for a long time!

Lu si hokkien lang boh??

Well, technically I am half hokkien. My dad's side still retains all the nuances of what I call the brash, rougue-ish hokkien syndrome. My amah when I was a kid was hokkien, and whatever hokkien I picked up was from listening to her speak it to the other amahs around the block. Of course she didn't speak hokkien in the house. Not around my mother, a daughter of a respectable cantonese family. As the saying goes, in a cantonese house a Hokkien is not a person. They're lang.

How my mum got away bringing us kids up to speak more Cantonese than Hokkien right under the nose of my proudly Hokkien father still amazes me.

Which anyway, brings me to this
Wa Si Hokkien Lang
I can't understand most of it, but it's funny all the same. How can hokkien sound so unbelievably rude and funny at the same time?

ps: The link is courtesy of Tock: The Paratocks

The exam period has come to a temporary standstill for now. I have an itsy bitsy break to study for Math and Language Processors while the EEE people toil over Power, Fields and Devices and curse the ISE people lolling about enjoying their peace.

Sometimes I wonder what gets me through exam times here. I seem to hover around aimlessly like a cloud with no wind to guide it, while back in JC, I was frustrated to the max and at my books from the crack of dawn till the lights in the study room were turned off and all I had to fuel my drive was the fear of my escalating stupidity and Charme and Sherene.

I'm feeling a sudden nostalgic 'home-sickness' for the days when we'd gather in the cold boarding school study room in our varied colourful pyjamas, with a pile of notes so high, armed with no less than 10 past year papers. I miss the "Good BRAINS" notes, Charme slipped me before A-Level Maths. When I jump around before my exams and Vidu and David tell me to stop looking so nervous because I look like a petrified hamster, I wish I was holding hands and jumping while chanting the '4 As, S-Paper Distinction and GP A1' mantra with Charme and Sherene, like we did every night before A levels. 2 thirds of us didn't achieve it, but that's besides the point. It really made me feel like there was a goal and I knew which way to shoot.

Right now, I know there's a goal, but I don't seem to know which side of the field it is. I'm getting distracted by every little thing, until Lionel puts on that disapproving tone and I'm back at my notes for another 15 minutes more before something else catches my eye. My attention span is as bad as Charme's was back in JC. Hehe...

These exams are probably more important than A Levels and yet I don't seem to be giving much of a hoot about it. I'm taking last year's achievements for granted.

I will be kicking myself at the end of it all.

Why do I always, ALWAYS, do this!

Watching Star Wars after spending 2 nights mugging for Control Engineering is a bad idea. Mostly because of the intense pressure in my eyes after the paper ended. I woke up with one rather red eye just before the exam which, although was causing me no pain, garnered alot of unnescessary attention from everyone else. And I think I've pretty much learnt my lesson that red eyes and flashing light sabers can lead to pretty painful migraines.

I don't think I'll post up my verdict on Star Wars, by the way. The only reason I watch Star Wars is because of Ewan McGregor, and to say he gave a stunning performance is one hell of a big big lie. The other reason I watch Star Wars is because of Natalie Portman (and NOT the styrofoamic Hayden Christiansen). She's watchable. Very watchable. (Stop giggling about saphists, Amar!)

Exams start tomorrow

Coffee buzzes, haunting nightmares and heart palpitations to follow.

3 weeks till this torture ends! It hasn't even started and I'm already sick of it. Or more eloquently put - wahlaueh! i really buay tahan liao!!!

Just a year ago I wrote this:

macro proc CodeToSummer(sunshine, flowers, &summerloving)
{
while(1)
{
do
{
hitch up those skirts
and in flimsy flip flops
or thongs
blatant on your feet
discretely beneath sheer clothes
run to lectures
past the wilting bluebells
forgotten in the bloom
of the red red roses
the daffodils have had their day
and now the tulips have come out to play
and the grass has never felt this great
as frisbees fly overhead
and the smell of barbecues
pulls me away from my books
} while (the sun is shining);
do
{
snuggle under my plump duvet
peek out at the falling raindrops
breathe in the fresh eau de summer
even in this faded English city
the sun never sets
undaunted by rainclouds
they don't get a chance
not in summer
just as my notes
don't stand a chance of being read
not in summer
as they flutter in the breeze
} while (summer rains are a pouring);
if (autumn should come) then
{perhaps it'll be time to take a break from this summer spell}
else
{i'll just enjoy this summer loving!}
}
}

I could do with some of that summer right about now!
The weather this year is just too cold for its own good. You know it is when you still have to scamper around the house in search of warmer areas until you figure it's best to just snuggle under a duvet!

A little conversation in Baa's comment box triggered a memory in the deep rusted recesses of my brain. I suppose it will always be spoken of as the RJ Odac tragedy. It's been more than 5 years now, but I don't think it's become an urban legend yet to batch 21 and beyond. The accident at Ubin still plagues us. When we think it's been forgotten (and rightfully it shouldn't), it comes up in a random conversation which leads to a random google search which leads to this:

Rachel Wu's guestbook.

Which up till February 2004 had been regularly visited by a loyal friend and her boyfriend. Her homepage (which xiaokai showed me a few years ago) no longer exists. Nor any of the links to websites of her friends and homepages dedicated to her. Five years after she has passed on, she has ceased to exist on the world wide web, save for this guestbook.

But she, and Sharon Lee, the other victim of the accident, will never cease to exist in the memories of RJC Odacians.

It's a brilliantly sunny, blue sky-ed morning. I've been working on a problem sheet since 8.30am and only noticed the beautiful weather now (time check: 10.40am). I'm in such an awful blur. That's what you get when you've spent 15 minutes trying to work out a question on Middle Earth and all it's species for Software Engineering. Apparently the Fellowship of the Ring has an immense wealth of class associations. Not like it should be a surprise to me, after all - geeky software engineering teachers and Lord of the Rings always walk hand-in-hand. Brings to mind Jason Fox of Foxtrot.

Ignoring all the above blather.
Today I shall vow to study until noon.
At least.
Without any distractions.

It's torture to just concentrate on work for even more than an hour!

Alright, if I make it till noon... I will... erm... pass all my papers!!!

5 days left to my first paper.
Shouldn't I feel a little more terrified?
Not even a cold chill down my spine?

Second year makes you so relaxed.
Or maybe it's just the aftermath of M-nite.

Instead of practising on past year papers, what do I do?
Watch 50 first dates (oh-so-tissue-box-emptying-sobbable!), and make glutinous rice balls for desert.
If I manage a 2-1 this year, it'll be a miracle.
If I manage a 1st, my classmates are going to throw me into the Thames.
Now is that motivation to study, or what?

I am renting this blogspace to Lu for his 20th birthday today.

He would like the world to know that he is now the proud owner of a new pair of Creative Inspire T3000 Speakers. He also pretty much let the whole building know by test blasting them last night.
Oh, and here's the latest in Charlotte's series of lame and sadistic jokes:

"A babyseal walks into a club. The end."

Oh, oh! And there's more.

"A babyseal walks into a bar. Looks like babyseals never learn."

Don't ask me why babyseals. It's nothing personal towards you, Anu or Ronan Keating.

Your SAT Score of 1510 Means:

You Scored Higher Than Howard Stern You Scored Higher Than George W. Bush You Scored Higher Than Al Gore You Scored Higher Than David Duchovny You Scored Higher Than Natalie Portman You Scored Lower Than Bill Gates

Your IQ is most likely in the 140-150 range

Equivalent ACT score: 34

Schools that Fit Your SAT Score: California Institute of Technology Stanford University Princeton University Yale University Harvard University

What Does Your SAT Score Mean?

This is so amusing. I didn't apply to a single one of those! I got into Brown instead! Looks like I'm smarter than the average American, but dumber than the average Singaporean. Don't ask about Malaysians.

Houston, we have KAYA!

The latest prize trophy in Emperor's Gate is a 200ml bottle of home-made kaya, now sitting sweetly in our fridge after more than an hour of flapping like worried hens around it, watching it cook and frantically worrying that it will never thicken or turn into a horrible egg mush like the first attempt. Second time round, we cheated. We asked Tao for advice, and everyone knows when it comes to the subject of food, Tao never fails!

The things exam pressure does to us. We make kaya and bake chocolate chip cookies (which everyone finished by the next morning! I should know by now to double my recipes instinctively in Emperor's Gate!).

Just passing by.
It's a Beautiful Saturday morning! But it will rain this afternoon. Getting to Chinatown and back in the rain will be most fun. Our supply of asian food products has hit an all time low. That usually means we're running out of the essentials like IndoMee or Lingams or Kicap Manis. This time we've run out of easy-to-cook Lee Kum Kee sauces. No one has time to prepare proper meals with exams coming up, yet we can't bear to compromise our usual proper, 'wholesome' dinners. (A dinner of rice, 1 meat and 1 veg is as wholesome as it gets in Emperor's Gate). And after Lu's sister decided to use my Asam curry to cook BEEF last night (like, huh???) I think a trip to Chinatown is not just justified, it's out of desperation!
Oh yeah, I finally finished off the Da Vinci Code in a day. Not so brilliant. Not so captivating. I cannot stand Americans writing about Europe. As for the church and the sacred feminine, not even a hint of a whisper about Mother Mary - THE sacred feminine of the church. Wonderful fiction though. Why didn't I do more code puzzles when I was a kid? Then I wouldn't be an engineer!
Otherwise... I was just passing by here.

The lunch of a pitiful exam student. A self made tuna sandwich and a glass of apple juice. That's my sexy vampiress glass. It came in a set with one for each of our household members. Lu got the Dracula one, Yi Shan the Frankenstein one, and Lionel the Werewolf which Marvin broke and has yet to replace!!! 

The latest additions to the 'Furry & Cuddly' family - Fei Fei Ya and Tiger, from Sweden. Have I ever mentioned that Lionel is also very much elligible to be part of the Furry & Cuddly family?  

These days I'm picking up really weird quotes from my Computer Architecture textbook. So there really is that little ray of sunshine bursting through in my oh-so-cloudy room. I mean you've got to laugh out loud when sub chapter 4.4 on logical operations begins with:

"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

Lewis Caroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

Come to think of it, my software engineering lecturer does talk like Tweedledee, which has really helped my understanding of OOP loads! Sanjeev still believes he lives at home with his mother.

My command of English is deteriorating drastically.

I can explain convolution of signals and modulation and demodulation very eloquently, but I can't put together a 2500 word essay on Virginia Woolf, even after laying all the facts down before me.

You know that feeling when the word you want is on the tip of your tongue but you can't, for the love of God, spit it out? That, for me, is occuring at a frequency of 3.5 sentences! I'm beyond being horrified at my own inadequacy.

I am doomed. Doomed to sentence my artistic/literary self to euthanasia. Doomed to grow white hairs which I will pathetically try to dye while staining the rims of my very thick old fashioned glasses and be cursed with a bad complexion for the rest of my engineering/scientific life. The prophetic words chanted by 9 year old boys who threw paper chalk bombs at me in pri school shall eventually be fulfilled. No one can runaway from the curse of being a nerd.

A legend's star has faded.

Half an hour ago, The Star announced the passing of one of the fathers of Malaysian Theatre - Krishen Jit.

He set the stage. He directed the show. He took his encore. And now the curtains have closed.


Theatre Legend Krishen Jit dies
Krishen Jit - Kakiseni.com
Krishen Jit - Cameronian Awards

Fare thee well, Bob II

Although you became a part of our steamed tofu dish, you are sorely missed. As Lu said, we have raised you well; it was your time to go to that big onion patch in the sky.

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

Term has started. Lets get down to business. Essay due this Friday. Computer Architecture exam next week. Following that - endless weeks of mugging. I'm not telling you. I'm telling myself!

I need to blog this quickly before Lionel complains I am spending too much time typing away and annoying him with the stagnated staccatos of my keyboard (maybe it is annoying, but I can't hear anything with these earphones on, thanks to you!)

Today was a really full day. One of those days where you realise you haven't spent a single moment loitering around the house wondering what to eat next or what to surf on to next and ignoring that essay you still haven't started on. Instead I managed to do a million and one things while still ignoring that essay I haven't started on. I feel very accomplished.

Task number one was to wake up on time (the task was not to wake up, it was being on time!) and get dressed so that the two Emperor's Gate households could be taken out for a dim sum lunch by Fidel's mum. Only power restaurants like Royal China (which we all believe is being run by the Chinese/Hongkey mafia) can command a queue of more than 20 people half an hour before it's stated opening time, although I was possibly more afraid of Fidel's "we are leaving at 11am SHARP" threat than missing out on being first in line for dim sum. Lu's plan today was to reunite with his dim sum girl whom he spotted (no, actually I spotted), when we were at Royal China last friday due to his dad's treat. Yups, we have been frequent visitors of Royal China lately. It's all good when parents come to visit.

Task number two was to go to Oxford Street to get more thank you cards. I discovered that my brain doesn't really work all too well when my stomach is digesting carrot cakes and instead of walking towards Marble Arch where my favourite bookshop is, I walked towards Tottenham Court Road. Which wasn't too bad since I used the walk back to pop into several shoe shops. Couldn't decide on which one to buy because Lionel's voice of reason was booming in my head (which was along the lines of "NO! You can't buy PINK shoes! What are you going to match it with??!!")

Task number three was to marinate some chicken for tomorrow's dinner with the ISE girls. I have embarassingly FFK-ed every single ISE outing there has ever been since the dawn of man, so there's no escaping this one. What is it with me and my classmates? I used to avoid hanging out with my classmates in JC, at all costs. (Sometimes there are just small clappy things you've had enough of duling school hours itself, what more after school hours! So you can't brame me, can you???) But I do like my ISE coursemates. I really do. But I'm not all so keen on partying and boozing till dawn with them.

Task number four was to do menial errands - such as laundry. I interspersed waiting for laundry by sorting out the thank you cards to be posted off by the juniors with the programme books and DVDs. Oh and some where in between that I had dinner too, which Yi Shan cooked. God does work miracles. This is the third time Yi Shan has cooked this week. When I commented that his wife will surely thank me for house training him (makes him sound like a terrier) his reply was "Aiyah, why lah? I will surely find a wife that can cook!". Girls, beware! If you cannot cook, you are not YiShan ISO compatible. I feel sorry for Yi Shan's wife already.

Task number five was to get rid of the old bananas by making caramelised bananas with rum and cream. My household is getting fat. And I'm not helping.

And task number six is to stop blogging and finish reading the waves before my brain shuts down on me.

And just like Amar I shall end with a quote - No se ría de las cotizaciones de Amar

Why would you want to do this?
Bets open on Benedict's successor

What kind of morbid fanaticism has encouraged the world to place bets on the papacy as if it were the World Cup?!

Lu cleaned the 'other' bathroom today. The corridor has stopped smelling of wet dogs. It's a shame Lu had to clean it just 4 days after Yi Shan was supposed to have cleaned it. No prizes for guessing who does a better job.

The next time I make stew and let it cook in the crock pot for 3 hours, I promise I will not:
1. go on a tomato frenzy, because boiled tomatoes are not as sweet as popping them into my mouth raw
2. finish of the remains of the spanish red wine by pouring it all into the stew.
3. forget to add more cinnamon.

I want to make caramel bananas, chocolate chip cookies and finish reading 'The Waves' all at the same time.

I've had it with all things intellectual (my current Communications II notes inclusive). This blog shall return to the nonsensical trivial stuff I'm so used to spouting.

3 books arrived today in a BIG box with BIG bubble wrap. Unfortunately it wasn't the pop-able kind. Looked more like toddler arm-floats. Anyway back to the books. There was Bill Clinton: My Life for Lu, The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion for Lionel and Spike Milligan's A Children's Treasury of Milligan for me. All for 7 pounds. More books for our bookshelf! Including the entire set of Peguin Book Great Ideas for 10 pounds. Yups, that's 20 books for 10 pounds! I'm pretty engrossed in the Spike Milligan. I've loved his insanity since I was 6 years old. I swear my kids will grow up on Milligan and Roald Dahl instead of Mother Goose and Enid Blyton and sing about cows that go Bong! and monkeys that say Boo!. It will definitely boost a healthy imagination.

I have one more essay to do to wrap up my Literature course. Virginia Woolf and mordenism. It would be so very very interesting if my mind wasn't saturated with AM and FM and source coding and entropy. No, signals and Virginia Woolf aren't good bedfellows. Even if I end up reading both of them in bed.
Most of the time.
All of the time.

The MNite DVD is out. I don't know how much it costs yet, but you are very welcome to pay me what you think it is worth. Around the range of 10 - 15 pounds will do. We're not merciless profit makers. (I'm kidding, it should be less than 5 pounds). I don't know if I'm excited or apprehensive about watching my baby as an audience instead of a crew member. My family has already watched it, and they loved it (because I wrote it... they are so supportive...) but my mother always overexaggerates when she's praising me, so I'm keeping my expectations low. Oh alright, medium.

Oh yeah, and maybe I'll just mention it here that Prof Constantinides accepted me for a UROP project for DSP algorithms, so I won't be back in Malaysia or Singapore till September. Please don't hit me! It's not that I don't want to go home, I do! Ever so much! But it isn't that easy to get a UROP project especially in a topic I'm ever so interested in (yes, I'm nuts! but digital signal processing *is* CooL! end of story!) and I just have to try this out so I know what to do for my 3rd and 4th year. I'll bring back chocolates. Forgive me yet? Charme, Sher... I swear we'll finally meet up and have that oh-so-long bitching session we've been needing so badly!

Alright. I'm tired. Another day has passed and I probably didn't know it.

From the Catholic Society at Imperial College:

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Dean of the College of Cardinals, has been elected as our new Pope. Let us pray that he may guide us faithfully.

The prayer for the new Pope as distributed by the Vatican is as follows:

God our Father, shepherd and guide,
look with love on Pope Benedict XVI, your servant,
the pastor of the Church.

May his word and example
inspire and guide the Church,
and may he, and all those entrusted to his care,
come to the joy of everlasting life.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.

Amen

My humble thoughts for today:

1. Britney Spears, a mum-to-be at the age of 23, still seems like a little girl who doesn't know what or who she wants to be. From heralded sweet young thing to 'can't-give-her-the-time-of-day' trashy vamp, she's not unlike some other little girls I know who have no direction of where they want to go.

2. According to a Minister in the Prime Minister's department, bibles in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia are banned. Really? But I grew up learning worship songs in Malay. And sometimes we recite the Lord's prayer in Malay. And well... alright, I would still rather read the bible in English... but I'm thinking of Margaret Ebon, the Kadazan-Dusun guide we had during Odac's Trusmadi-Kinabalu expedition in Sabah. She told me she was a Christian, but she spoke to me in Malay, just like every other Kadazan-Dusun I met. I remember her English being simple and enough to get by, and I respect - enough to keep up her faith. I'm sure she'd appreciate a Malay bible, in line with the religious tolerances of our country.

3. They want to change the name of George Town to what??? A Seberang Jaya state assemblyman has called for my mother's hometown to be renamed Bandar Datuk Abdullah Fatim to rid it of it's colonial past. Besides, the name 'George Town' is hardly used by the locals and is only used in official government documents and geography textbooks (where? I don't recall learning much about George Town at all. Actually I learnt more about it in history than in geography!). A USM Humanities Lecturer Prof. Dr Muhammad Hj Salleh (is this the same MHS whose poems we used to study in Eng. Lit?) probably thinking that the state government is as usual being too rash about this sort of trivial things they love to do, and asked that a study be done to find a more befitting name for our beloved historic state (well, I love it more for its food than it's history) like Tanjung or Tanjung Penegri as the locals call it. But please, please, pleeease... can we not change Gurney Drive to Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee Drive and Macallister Road to Jalan Arumugampillai?

Mails for MSoc rarely come my way these days, but sometimes one or two ignorant senders do happen to think I'm still the MSoc secretary and today I received this from the Majlis Syura Muslimun UK & Eire, which is possibly the stupidest request I ever heard.

Assalamualaikum

MSM is planning to forward a Press Statement representing all UK malaysian societies (NGOs, student societies, malaysian societies) to the relevant parties, hopefully this Tuesday. The issue is to raise concern and to oppose the proposal by Sisters in Islam and "Jawatankuasa Kaukus Parlimen" which will be very detrimental to the Muslim in Malaysia.

We believe that even though we are all in the UK, we should voice our stand as it will impact our lives and family especially when we go back to Malaysia.

As such, I call upon all societies to join us in this issue. We all should stand together regardless of differences, if any. The draft press release is being finalised and all societies are invited to support it. We will include your relevant societies details at the end of the press release if you agree.

The sample of draft press release will be uploaded to our newly launced MSM Weblog by tomorrow night. Please have a read at: http://msmukeire.blogspot.com/

If you agree to include your societies details as to support our stand, please email to both of my email addresses (zifri78@hotmail.com and zifri.baharudin@csfb.com) the following:

---- Irrelevant details section deleted to facillitate reading (dulcinea) ----

I do hope to receive your positive response, if possible by Monday midnight.

Thank you

on behalf of Majlis Syura Muslimun UK & Eire

Zifri Baharudin
CREDIT | FIRST
SUISSE | BOSTON

---- Contact details deleted (dulcinea) ----

------------------------------------------------------------------
Dijangkakan, sekurang-kurangnya 10,000 orang umat Islam akan berhimpun di Masjid Kg. Baru, sebagai menyatakan bantahan terhadap tuntutan dan keangkuhan Sisters In Islam dan Jawatankuasa Kaukus Parlimen yang mana antara intipati tuntutan mereka adalah;

1. Menuntut agar Undang-undang yang bertujuan mengawal moral masyarakat dimansuhkan termasuklah semua undang-undang diperingkat Kebangsaan, Negeri dan kerajaan Tempatan.
2. Menuntut agar kuasa Mufti-mufti dikaji dan dihapuskan.
3. Menuntut agar kerajaan mengiktiraf kebebasan beragama dalam Negara ini, dalam erti kata lain membenarkan Umat Islam yang ingin keluar dari Islam mengistiharkan kermurtadan mereka secara terbuka tanpa campurtangan Mahkamah Syariah.
4. Mendesak agar pihak Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara menghapuskan pernyataan status Agama dalam kad pengenalan, bagi memudahkan Umat Islam mengsistiharkan Kemurtadan mereka.
5. Membenarkan agama lain memberikan pandangan dan mempersoalkan cara hidup dan akidah umat Islam melalui cadangan mereka menubuhkan Majlis Perundingan Antara Agama (ICM).
6. Mendesak agar pihak Jabatan Agama tidak campurtangan dalam urusan peribadi Umat Islam di Malaysia termasuklah dalam tatacara berpakaian, pergaulan dan cara hidup, walaupun ianya bertentangan dengan hukum Islam seperti tidak menutup aurat, tidak bersembahyang dan berpuasa atau melakukan maksiat seperti judi, minum arak dan zina atas dasar menjaga hak asasi manusia.


Sorry that I wasn't able to translate it, but for those of you who understand just enough Malay, you'd be just as baffled as I am. Here is a society whose members have been educated abroad, exposed to different cultures, backgrounds and religions (I hope, unless they have been abiding by 'kampung syndrome' rules) and yet are ready to oppose freer and fairer ruling in Malaysia without the intervention of Islamic laws in our multi-racial, multi-religious community.

I also thought it seemed a little silly to call for such an urgent press conference without giving any real references that the claims above were true. So I did my own little research and found even more baffling and downright ridiculous news articles (like this one: Harakah Daily). When, when, WHEN will my country be free from such oppressive zealots? Who claim that the fall of morality in our society is due to our laws not being restrictive enough. That only the laws of Islam will be able to cultivate a perfectly moral society. Funny enough that almost every case of rape in the news for the past few years has been committed by a Muslim. Repression and oppression has never worked and never will. Am I going to watch my country's laws change from humanitarian to ultra-utilitarian? Please, no!

Bob the Christmas tree has now been replaced with our new pet - Bob II 

It's time I stopped taking a gamble with my exams.
I know this is futile, but I have to say it:

I vow to study till my eye bags are as dark as coal and my coffee mug is stained to the rim and my pens run out of ink!

Tambah minyak... banyak banyak...

1 mug of Nescafe vanilla coffee - check!
1 playlist saturated with enough counting crows, damien rice and lene marlin - check!
1 desklamp to shine hope in the darkness - check!
1 knee-high stack of math books and notes - check!

Think that's good enough to bury myself away for the next two weeks. If I'm lucky I'll be able to move away the math notes and replace them with Signals and Systems in a few days. Depending on efficiency.

It's the Maomao fund!! Alex (or maomao as many here lovingly call him) will soon be able to make his way back to London, after he returned to Singapore last June on completion of his exchange year. With all the spare change that mysteriously turns up around the house, I'm sure we can collect enough coppers to buy you an air ticket back here in about a few years. You'll have to pay for your own return ticket though...  

This is how much money we have collected... enough to bring maomao from Heathrow to Gloucester Road by tube. 

I love spur of the moment museum sight-seeing! Our museum of choice today was the National Art Gallery (which is currently housing Carravaggio: The Final Years). And when they say advance booking is recommended to guarantee entry, they mean it! (for Carravaggio that is, not the gallery; what self respecting UK museum has entrance fees? The Tower and Madame Tussaud's NOT inclusive, and not on my preference list either!)
Lionel and I decided some time around noon that we'd go to the National Gallery today. At about 3pm we finally detached ourselves from work and tried to get going. At about four something we made it out of the door, with Lu, Amar and Yi Shan saying he'd catch up later. At about 5pm we finally made it to the National Gallery only to find Carravaggio SOLD OUT! Like what the hell? (We're allowed to say that because on the 1st wednesday of each month the museums are opened till 9pm, but I suppose we weren't the only ones who were capitalising on this).
So, well, no Carravaggio. Instead we got to browse through (yippee!) Monet, Canaletto (my current favourite for being able to show off very detailed and very fine brush strokes), Seurat, Titian, Leornado, Michaelangelo, Raphael (yes, Yi Shan, those are the ninja turtles) and loads more.
We had to leave the museum at about 8pm, because Amar was whining, and headed over to some Japanese restaurant near Piccadilly where we stuffed ourselves on sashimi and bentos. The last time I ever felt so full was when we were guiltily indulging on Misato and gelatos with Luke! I think we grow fat everytime someone comes to London to visit.
I'm not very sure I'm studying as efficiently as I am eating and sight seeing. Double integrals - what art thou?

One year on... and still very much in love with you...
Even if we didn't make it to Belgos
And dates turn into group tours
Muaks!

As the pope draws closer to returning to God, I am joining the billion Catholics all over the world who are praying for the peace and serenity of the Holy Father in his journey back to the arms of Christ. As one of the priests said, he is dying the same way he lived - courageously.
It is hard to see the passing of a pope; it isn't something you imagine you will live through. His voice, though distant, has always been one of moral comfort in a disturbed world; a blanket of security that was not extremist and yet would not condone the deadly sins the modern world has blatantly accepted. He dared to speak out. He dared to confront.
And then I ask myself why sometimes it is so hard for me to bravely play the part of a Christian that I should.

For the pope who was a strong Marian supporter, I have only this humble prayer:

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc,
et in hora mortis nostrae.
Amen.

I...

... am feeling like the biggest procrastinator in the world!
... am the only one not watching Naruto
... still have a bunch of Thank you cards to write
... met up with Luke who came all the way down from Newcastle and gave him the grand tour of Imperial which took all of 10 minutes
... scored an unbelievable 99% on Comp Architecture coursework which uplifted my spirits for awhile
... really like being able to cook again
... am tired of pasta and pizzas and sandwiches
... want Chinese food! 24-7!
... think I should watch a musical tomorrow
... am trying very hard to decide which subject to start studying first
... want to go back to the Natural History Museum and walk around the Darwin centre
... am currently addicted to Amazing Race 7
... made myself cry while laughing, although it's partly Lu's fault
... think too much about myself, I think....

This is exactly why you should never allow yourself to succumb to a full fledged flu just before taking a one week holiday across snow, frost and ice! You'll end up half drugged like me, bundled in layers and layers until I resembled a dumpling, and coming back to the hostel to rest before it got properly dark (which was the only thing we could do anyway because it seems there isn't much of a night life in the Scandinavian region)

So it was 3 nights in Copenhagen. I swear all the medication I was taking was non-drowsy, but my time around Copenhagen seems abit hazy. Alot of nice buildings, statues, and my much awaited pilgramage to find The Little Mermaid. My daddy said she'd be abit of a dissapointment, and really she isn't much of a statue to wow and gasp at, but it's the whole fairy tale, the sorrow in her eyes as she gazes at the bay, the city she loves but can't be a part of, the love lost and the life she gave up. That is the magic of The Little Mermaid.

It was a pity the Tivoli is closed until April. My parents said it's quite a sight, but then again me and my motion sickness didn't miss much I guess. Otherwise Copenhagen is just a dear little fairy tale city with a very attractive royal family (actually, I'd think ANY royal family is attractive after having to live with the British royal family and their antics for the last one and a half years)

Malmo was a really pretty harbour city, my favourite kind really. With the cobbled streets and oldish squares, and lots of alleys. Goteborg after that was rather dissapointing. Probably because of the horrid misty weather that met us after 3 days of pure sunshine! The Maritime museum we visited though was really one of a kind. After climbing on and off and through so many types of boats, warships and submarines, I've really had my fill of boats for the rest of my life!

After Goteborg, the sunshine in Stockholm was really very much welcomed. What really amazed me was how the lakes stayed solidly frozen, and I mean COMPLETELY WHOLLY frozen and yet the sun was blazing! There was still plenty of snow all around, and coupled with the lovely harbour views and canals and alleys, Stockholm was truly the cherry on the icing (and there was plenty of it - ice I mean!)

So I'm finally back home, trying to rid myself of the last stubborn bits of this flu and remaining MSoc secretary work. Come on, come on, come on... let go!

PMS is hitting everyone hard. That's 'Post Malaysian Night Syndrome' for the uninitiated. Or for the committee, it's more of an empty nest feeling. From 30 e-mails a day on average, our inboxes are now almost empty. We all reach home way before dark these days. We haven't seen each other in days. Conversations between Dzam and me have degenarated to e-mails because I hadn't seen him in person since Tuesday! And while Ayish and I used to complain about M-nite problems everyday, it's now become sporadic emails and very hurried msn messages. I hadn't even seen Chien Liq or Nicole or Tao or Chris since elections, when we used to sit in the JCR everyday. And if it wasn't for last night's cast and crew dinner, I would have plunged myself right into Easter break without seeing anyone at all for 5 weeks!

But yesterday was a great dinner, with some of the best laughter and fun we've ever had! Good food, thanks to Chris, good jokes, thanks to Tao and an overall sense of - we did it together! The autographing of the posters was hilarious, what with Tao's www.yongTAOfoo.com and my "and to think we were gonna call it 'my ladoo is too sweet and other stories...' "

Finally handed over officially to the new committee after the dinner. The usual long meeting of do's and don'ts. Am feeling abit freer, but still need to sort out a few more last details.

Will be leaving for Denmark tomorrow morning for four days and then to Sweden for three days. Weather in the region looks set to turn me into an ice cube. Now if only I can get rid of this stupid cough before I go. By the way, antler's horn is a wonder fever cure!

Today marks the day I finally take the burdens off from my shoulders and pass it on to the new Malaysian Society Committee of 2004/05. Good luck, with it! And don't come running to us when it becomes too heavy to carry, which it surely will.

Perhaps we had expectations that were a little too high. Perhaps it was because we were just too exhausted after M-Nite to intervene too much (rightfully). Perhaps the system just doesn't work, and it's time to review a new system. It's with heavy hearts that we are passing on our successes after blood, sweat and toil and yet we're unconfident and quite admittedly scared as to how well the new batch will perform. The club is losing its confidence. There is a lot passion but there also needs to be rationality and a good amount of plain down-to-earth, common sense. There were just too many RONs voted today. And THAT is an indication of times that are shifting, of a dangerous unsure-ness in our members. An indication that many thought the candidates present were not capable enough and a slight dissapointment that popularity once again wins over silent hard work.

The best of luck to all of you. You will really need it!

And I so hope you don't end up in the state I am in - a fever that only seems to be getting worse, a horrid sorethroat, a very dry cough and 2 lab reports and an exam still to get over with!

And it's all over too soon... but it couldn't have been more perfect.

I may have been running around backstage and watching only snippets of the performance, but I can say without a doubt that 'Of Bunga Raya's and Coconuts' was a dream come true for this exhausted scriptwriter.

When the audience first broke out in laughter at Leslie's "Even my Perodua runs like a Ferrari" line, I was jumping up and down with joy backstage! (It's a scriptwriter's prerogative to be over-emotionally elated by such small things) And the night just got ever so much better from there!

From the bedazzling opening dance with UV lights and stunts that stunned the audience, to the show stealing aunties, to the comeback of the great chef Han and the impromptu lines that were added to my script by Chien Liq, to the hilarious Tai Chi scene, to the heart-rending flashbacks with the mini Ling and Ravi, to our new mascot - the papier mache chicken - that was thrown on stage, to the absolutely random dikir barat songs and YMCA addition, to the laugh-till-you-cry Bhangra fight scene, and the ever so fun Finale Dance.

By the time it came to curtain call, I had no words left to say. And you know that feeling when you've waited so long for something to happen and then it just rushes by so fast and slips through your fingers and you'll never get it back again. And then you think, but I don't want it to end. But it has, and another page has turned, another chapter's ended. It's back to being a full time student again. No more late nights and meetings and frenzied phone calls and money counting, although we should still have those good old creative team gossip sessions over mugs of hot coffee at Starbucks.

And I mean it when I say I'm incredibly honoured to have worked with a team who really played up to their best talents. Ayish, our producer, and her calm and controlled way of organising everyone and knowing exactly what she wanted to see on stage. Tao, our co-producer, and his own brand of humour who had everyone rolling off their seats with his signature Bhangra dance. Dzam, our director, and visionary who made the most effort to take care of our stars. Chien Liq, our creative consultant (and my partner-in-crime in creating this masterpiece), and his wacky ideas and for playing up brilliantly to my script. Nicole, our performance manager, and her absolutely stunning dances - the result of so much hard labour. Jia Hong, our props manager, and his very methodical and very organised way of handling everything. Cheng Chun, our co-props manager, and his calm, cool ways of responding to Jia Hong's methods and always keeping that smile on his face in times of stress. Chris, our darling tech manager, for handling all the technical things we couldn't deal with and trying so hard! And each and every one of the freshers who were such amazing and professional performers. Asking for rehearsals when we said they should take a break and not tire themselves out. Taking care of all the little details we couldn't handle. And remembering everything we said, about the cues and performing and smiling and... for first time performers, you all were just brilliant!

Alright, I'm zombified! I would ramble on further, but this is one exhausted script writer in need of ALOT of sleep.

It snowed very prettily this morning
As I stepped out of my door
Blurry eyed at 8.45am
Hair uncombed
Clothes pulled on in haste
Reciting demodulation steps under my breath
Zero-crossing
Coherant demodulators
Minimum Shift Keying
M-nite at the back of my mind
Like a stubborn tumour

And then there was snow

Coating the cars in blankets
Frosting the walkways
Lightly dusting the bushes and grass
And even the stone lions guarding the Queen's tower
were given a delicate topping of icing sugar
And the continuous flakes falling out of the sky
Creating random white patterns

on my black black coat

and on my black black hair
and my black black bag
And tingled my senses
A few infidel flakes
Slithering down the white of my uncovered throat

Snow makes me feel poetic
I wonder why...

I've never known stress like this.

A show to put on.

A compiler to build.

A Comp Architecture coursework to hand in.

A lab report to write.

A literature exam to study for.

All due in the same week. Two on Tuesday. Two on Friday.

Bad luck comes in Two's for me.

And now I'm asking myself if it's at all worth it.

Because I haven't had much or any sleep.

Because I haven't had more than one meal a day.

Because some people just don't like the way I do things.

Because I can't do everything and still have time for myself.

And because I wanna kick myself as there's no turning back!

Come back to the village with us on the 12th of March.  

ditto... 

I can't upload a coloured version, I don't know why...so here I present to you, Of Bunga Raya's and Coconuts! Come home to the village this Spring... 

Take the Test! 

Take the Test!  

I'm freezing my little butt off here. Lionel says my butt isn't altogether that little, but that's not the point. The point is that the temperature has decided to dive into the deep end of the freaking ice pool in mid February! Just 2 weeks ago I was so delighted to see daffodils blooming again to mark the beginning of spring... but NO! You cruel, cruel February winds had to crush their delicate little stalks and force them to crouch, pitifully, head down towards the ground.

What's wrong with you February? Can't you at least snow angelically to make up for it?

In accordance to Lionel's 'I will not celebrate Valentine's Day because it is a commercial and expensive affair' I stayed home on the 14th, and instead of a celebration of couple-hood, Lionel and I cooked a nice all-british beef steak dinner for the Flat 1 household. Tis a far better thing to do for others... as Cher would say on Clueless.

My schedule is in shambles. The pressure is on overcook. My msn nick says 'This is a slow and painful way to die' which has caused much alarm from quite a few MSoc people. If you can't guess why I'm slowly dying, take a look at the other committee members and see if you will notice our tempers getting hotter, see if you recognise the depravity of sleep, see if you can pick out our trembling fear...

Less than a month left. One coursework due 2 days before M-nite. One compiler to program 3 days after M-nite. One literature exam to sit for 5 days after M-nite. I am doomed! Really I am!

To quote Fidel:
"Brussels and mussels... hey, that rhymes!"

Without being my usual cynical self, one weekend is too much time to spend in Brussels. There has to be more to the mussels and waffles and chocolates! (No complaints about the mussels though... I had close to 2kgs worth!) The home to the EU and NATO headquarters is surprisingly a subtly charming little cobblestone and gothic inspired town. (And I mean gothic as in 16th century architecture, not gothic as in Ozzy Osbourne). Lionel and I wandered around (in rain, sleet and hail) for two days without a proper map (the only one we had was in Dutch!) and after about 5 hours of walking, we had covered almost every touristy thing there was to do, including paying the little peeing boy, Mannekin Pis, a visit... three times! By the end of Saturday we were such experts on Brussels, we were giving other European tourists directions to the little Bronze statue (who must be dreadfully cold now that they've taken away his little costume).

Brussels is so small, we managed to bump into Fidel, Raymond, Manda and Khairiah twice! At the same spot! Belgian restaurant owners around the Grand Plaza are also the freakiest thing, as we discovered. These guys beat the Petaling Street peddlers at being completely in your face hands down! It's a good thing the schweeeet mussels totally make up for it. Also I hear that the chocolates are the best part of Brussels. I wouldn't know. I still don't like chocolates. But the displays were really pretty. And the chocolate strawberries and waffles were yummilicious. The more I think of it, the more Brussels becomes symbolic of all the best aphrodisiacs.

Our 4 star hotel was probably part of the attraction too. The best part of it for Lionel was TV (I know it sounds jakun, but we live without a TV in London!) and being able to watch BBC and football highlights. The best part for me was being right in the centre of museums galore! But we didn't enter a single one. Nope! We were for most of the day, stuck at the Grand Plaza exploring every single road and alleyway until we could map out the city ourselves!

In fact we got so good at it, we walked all the way from the Grand Plaza back to the Eurostar train station pretty much by instinct. I wasn't all too happy walking about some dodgy areas and what looked like Edgware road slums, but you just can't get lost in Brussels. And we managed to get into the shade of the station before the weather turned crazy and started sleeting like mad! To add to the excitement, Lionel had to leave his camera at Brussels immigration... which thankfully Fidel managed to pick up since he was leaving 4 hours later than us.

Now we're just waiting for Fidel to bring the camera home.

I can't stand writing this presentation for tomorrow. Stupid group project!

Just passing by to say...

Happy Year of the Rooster! Every year got fish! 1000 success!

And that Wednesday's steamboat was a really tasty way to start the new year. I must say I hate all the work that's involved in preparing the steamboat, but watching everyone tuck in after a day of preparation is all good!

Back to my presentation slides. Off to Brussels tomorrow. CL has given me a mission to find the female Manneken Pis.

And just for the heck of it... a Confucius saying for the new KFC year...

Confucius, he say - Man who put rooster in freezer get stiff cock but woman who pounce on dead rooster go down on limp cock

If you were the all true engineer type, you might be tempted to plot a graph of my blogging frequency against time and notice a consistent lapse of blogdation during times of impending coursework doom-dates (I find deadlines much too gentle a word).

This time my excuse is the second year EEE Group Project. Do you know what I love about Group Projects? It's actually fun to be researching a topic completely out of your course (in my case - legislation on electronic privacy rights in the UK and US affecting e-commerce, workplace privacy and medical privacy). Do you know what else I love about Group Projects? Nothing else!

I celebrated the end of my group project by attending the SingSoc Chinese New Year dinner and making a tiramisu cake - which was devoured by my housemates and Fidel in a day and a half. My second attempt at making another tiramisu to replace the one the almost instantly vanished was rather poor. When they say too many cooks spoil the broth, the were soooo right! In this case, Lionel, Lu and Fidel taking turns to beat eggs and whip cream resulted in what looked and tasted like egg mayo. Luckily the chocolate cheese cake I made first turned out nicely (like a gigantic chocolate chip cookie in a mixing bowl!), but I'm never letting the guys help me make tiramisu again. Lu tried making meringues out of the leftover eggwhites. Even that strangely failed.

Did I mention I've finally put to rest the M-nite script? Save for a few touch-ups here and there, it's finished! Thus after putting so much blood and sweat into it, not to mention the many nights dreaming that M-nite had only a handful of an audience and I always turned up after the show (which stank!) was over... I think it's only fair that you grace this year's Imperial College Malaysian Night. Script-writing may seem like a trivial task, but script-writing for IC's Malaysian Night (which is a one of a kind!) isn't just about writing dialogue nor story-telling. The times I had to envision how one scene melts into another as smoothly as possible, entrances and exits which didn't clash, the settings and the ability for props to build the stage, using the talents we had to the maximum, trying to fit dances in, songs, stunts, not to mention trying out several witty jokes on people before I picked the best one to put in (thank God I live in a nut-house with a stand-up comedian wannabe... and the crazy boyfriend who wants to read what I'm writing over my shoulder!), I don't think I knew what I was dealing with when I first started!

So, the point of all this is - come for Malaysian Night! All of you! Wherever you are! And only Maggie gets a free ticket for bringing me a stubbornly hard-to-find textbook from India.

By the way, I chose Brussels!

Brussels or Paris for Valentine's weekend? Isn't it horrible when life throws such tough choices at you? Like this morning I had to choose between Maple and Pecan crunch or 5 other choices of cereal. 6 choices of cereal... that's way too much luxury for a university student trying to save up money to escape the cold for a Valentine's getaway. I should get back to writing up my project report. But I want to make a tiramisu cake. I think too much, and all at once... and it's not even worth burning my brain cells over more than half the things I'm thinking about.

By the way, thanks for taking the time to click a few radio buttons on the survey below. Believe me, you don't know how grateful I am (and I'll be even more grateful if you think you have the time to do the survey again because it was fun!). 7% of the year is way too much stress on one.

Hey guys... do this for me! Pleeeeease!

http://www.my3q.com/home2/55/xangelcharl/20145.phtml

7% of the year depends on it!

and by popular demand, Charlotte takes a break from her matronly duties to provide a few selected updates.

Why only a few selected ones? Because there are only a few to select from.

Pardon the corn. Back to the pop...

... geez, I embarrass even my own self!

My birthday came and went uneventfully. I still appreciate ALL you darlings (not you, xk) for the well wishes, and forgotten birthday cards and belated birthday presents *wink wink, nudge nudge*. But sincerely, I was really touched by all the sms-es from far and away. And although my mother called three times (I'm not sure why... to make sure I properly turn 22?) and my grandmother made me call her, and my aunty called to wish me and then to ask me why Lionel is not a practising Christian, you've got to love my eccentric family on my birthday. And not just because they give generous ang pows and birthday presents. (My mother sent me 2 cards... one of which was blank. Maybe I'm supposed to save it for next year).

I had an extremely quiet birthday by all accounts. Lionel, who wanted to take me out to Belgo's for garlic mussels (say "Mm-mm-mmmmm") was hotter than the radiator on Sunday, and his fever took a turn for the worse. So, guess who ended up playing Florence Nightingle to a sick, sick boy? My godmother came around with a H-U-G-E chocolate walnut cake to make up for it. No one touched the cake till Tuesday, and even though 8 of the remaining healthier Emperor's gate occupants took a big sinful slice each... there is still more than one third of a cake still sitting in the fridge. On my birthday itself, Tao bought a delightful PURE CHOCOLATE cake from Pattiserie Valerie for me... and sounded all the more delighted when I told him I don't eat chocolate. How very gallant of him to break his low-carb diet for my birthday. We had a small (well, quite small) birthday session with the MSoc Comm and juniors in the JCR, with quite a few "who's birthday is it???" hilarious moments. That night Lionel, Lu, Yue and I had a small feast in Bugis Street. Then we came home. I put Lionel to bed... and promptly fell asleep early. On my birthday! Yes, I am growing old!

So there... I've just spent my first week as a 22 year old nursing Lionel back to health. His fever has transited to flu to cold to cough and now to sore throat... and I swear one moment I'm trying to warm him up in an attempt to arrest his cold and the next moment I'm boiling loads of barley and herbs to cool him down and lower his temperature. It's a miracle I'm not sick myself yet. But pumping myself full of vitamin C seems to be doing the job.

Alright Charm, Sher... you've got your update. And just for kicks... guess what else I got for my birthday? A HUGE pair of pinkish, flourescent greenish, yellowish fluffy shoes! They're called silent slippers for walking silently around my room. I don't know why...

Happy Birthday to me!

Who's the owner of a new Tiffany & Co. ring? I am!

It's like one of those things girls always dream of owning, apart from the sexy jaguar and Cartier diamond and Jimmy Choo shoes!

Thank you, sweetie! *beams radiantly*

And just before I turn a year older tomorrow... here's something to remind me of what I am like today...

1.B A S I C Q U E S T I O NS

[my name is]: Charlotte (...when pronounced correctly. All other forms do not apply...)
[in the morning i am]: usually very wide awake... around 2am in the morning
[all i need]: is my mummy!
[love is]: giving when you don't have to give, being there when you don't have to be, seeing what others can't or don't want to see, telling them - now, everytime, forever...
[if i could see one person right now]: it would be my little sister, because she always gets so excited about giving me a birthday present and seeing my face when I unwrap the most ridiculous thing on earth, but she thinks its just perfect for me... that's what little sisters are for...
[im afraid of]: never being able to do the things I want to do
[i dream about]: life not putting me to the test so many times... it gets abit cliche, you know

2.H A V E Y O U E V E R . .

[pictured your crush naked]: I admit I am kinda loony... but not THAT kind of loony!
[actually seen ur crush naked?]: ditto the above
[been in love]: lets be reasonable...
[cried when someone died]: actually... no. I don't really know that many people who have popped off...
[drank alcohol]: more than you can imagine... and still not drunk yet! What am I doing wrong?


3.T H I S O R T H A T . .
[coke or pepsi]: pepsi... love that gassy feeling... as long as it isn't going down south
[flowers or candy]: flowers of course!
[tall or short]: what are we talking about? mike stands?

4. W I T H T H E O P P O S I T E S E X . . . . .
[what do u notice first?]: their smile
[last person u slow danced with]: i really can't remember... i'd be damned if it was David Tai during Asean Nite. Isn't that funny? I obviously don't dance alot.
[worst thing to do]: let someone down... wickedly...


5. W H O . . . . . . . . .
[makes u laugh the most?]: there's really only one standard answer for these questions... do you REALLY wanna hear it? Like 5 times?
[makes u laugh the easiest?]: ditto
[makes you smile]: ditto
[gives u a funny feeling]: ditto
[has a crush on u?]: oh... now this is interesting, but I think it was Greg that came up with the theory that I wouldn't have the slightest clue even if whoever had a crush on me came right up to my face and told me! Girls are oblivious. Guys stop griping.
[easiest to talk to]: myself

6. D O Y O U E V E R . .
[sit on the internet all day waiting for someone special to I.M. u?]: I don't even have time to sit on the internet all day... and it's rather ridiculous to message Lionel when he's sitting in the same room...
[saved aol/aim conversations]: of course! You won't believe the amount of stuff I can blackmail Xiaokai with!

7. H A V E Y O U E V E R
[fallen for ur best friend]: eventually I guess it turned out like that...
[rejected someone]: nah!
[been cheated on] : nope!
[done something u regret]: aplenty! Got a few hours to spare?

8.W H O W A S T H E L A S T P E R S O N
[u talked to]: another one of those repetitive answers. Don't be ridiculous! you know the answer to this!
[hugged]: and this!
[sent sms]: Mum
[received sms]: Mum
[u laughed with]: and THIS!

9. D O Y O U
[color ur hair] : No. I kind of like it black. Real black!
[ever booted off in the chatroom]: no... I try not to get on people's nerves... lol! that's such an untruth! getting on people's nerves.... hahahaha
[habla espanol]: si senor, si!

10.H A V E Y O U/ /D O Y O U/ /A R E Y O U
[obsessive]: oh man, am I! And compulsive! You forgot compulsive!
[could u live without the computer?]: I sort of did, for 3 months. I should be awarded most tenacious ISE student of the year!
[what's your favorite foods?]: Japanese!
[whats ur favorite fruits?]: Longans... so sinfully sweet!
[like watching sunrises or sunset]: Sunrise... sunsets are a little depressing
[what hurts the most?]: whacking your little toe into the corner of the shower when you least expect it! Oh, that and ungratefulness...
[trust others way too easily?]: Trust no one... leads back to those X-File days...
[i want]: to know how to write a damn Literature essay properly!
[i wish]: another year of adventures... surprise me!
[i love]: you, and you and YOU and you and... no, not you!
[i miss]: awesome Char Kuay Teow!
[i fear]: hey... didn't we do this one already?
[i hear ]: Lionel snoring, or sniffling, or snoriffling
[i wonder]: how anyone can find this at all interesting


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This bored me half way through. I might delete it at some point in time... so don't get too cosy with this in case its gone in a few days

Everyone's back! Emperor's Gate is complete... with the added bonus of Amar, currently sitting in the kitchen trying to draw a Champagne bottle on Solid Works.

So much work. So little time. So much procrastinating.

Tis time I got a grip of myself and my sleeping habits. Tsk!

Another day, another destiny...
This never-ending road to Calvary...

Where did 2004 go to? What will 2005 bring?

I'm starting the year anxious and overexhausted. This is scary. Very scary.

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Anu's dinner on Thursday was a hoot! Judging from the after-taste, I'm not sure if mutton curry and a bottle of JD should ever mix. But our strange group mixture of Bbians and Amanians always will. And trust you guys to get the wrong girl wasted. Hilarious...

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Leaving on a jet plane tomorrow. With Amar. And Nadia. This will be interesting.