You all are worse than my mum!

grammatically speaking, that should read 'all of you are...' but real English just doesn't have that added punch of in-your-face Manglish.

but I digress.

The last thing Charme said to me was: just drop a line a day on your blog so that we know you're safe! :)

Come on! Even my mum has stopped calling everyday!

[oh but I DO love all this sudden concern and love!]

My mum really annoyed me yesterday. But in retrospect, the things she says are hilarious! Heaven knows what the Malaysian papers are saying (or showing) about the London bombings, but its got alot of Malaysians more worried than the Londoners, and that includes my ever paranoid and over-protective mother. Yesterday, she called me and devised a security plan for me should I ever be stuck inside Marks & Spencer in the event of a bomb scare. (It's happened to her before, you see. Back in the 70's). Why Marks & Spencer? Because it's owned by Jews - a possible target, no?

I know my mother worries because she is a mother and mothers worry (and I just know I will turn into her one day!), but I swear it is going to test every fibre of my patience to go home this summer and be under her care. Since my dad's recovery from cancer, there is not a single item of food that my mother does not scrutinise for preservatives, genetic-modification, carsinogens, sugar, vitamin C produced the wrong way, eggs laid by the wrong chickens and who knows what else! Sometimes it seems that everything I eat or buy is unhealthy or cancer-inducing, one way or another. She's even got me taking these pills to boost my immunity, which is possibly a placebo as I haven't been taking them, and my housemates got sick instead of me! (The only time I was sick this year was due to MNite and no amount of immunity pills could have prevented fatigue and stress!). I'm okay with the cod liver oil and the vitamin C and maybe the vegetable supplements because we don't eat enough veggies in this house (you hear that, Lu??). But other than subscribing to the 8 glasses of water a day, 7 hours of sleep and heaps of veggies and fruits health plan, I believe my mother needs to learn how to take everything else in moderation.

My mum just reminded me yesterday not to bring any cookies or artificially sweetened dried fruits (and a bunch of other stuff I've forgotten) back from London. I am going to need a magnifying glass to carefully read the labels of anything I intend to bring home as gifts! She also mentioned that she shouldn't be telling me what to do as I am officially all of twenty-two years. But.. sigh! I can do anything I want in London, but hey, she's the boss at home! At least she still allows me to eat hawker food (because she knows the hawkers personally and has possibly inspected all their ingredients herself).

London, paranoid?

Londoners have been urged to return to normal life. That means - go to work! use the buses! use the tube! relive the hustle and bustle of one of the busiest cities in the world as if crazed terrorists never showed their venomous hatred towards us. Show them we're not afraid.

And just after I'd told haoxiang that I don't really feel any different living in a city that's been under seige, on my way to Starbucks (my new haven for a comfy spot to do some reading) at the crossroads of Cromwell Road and Gloucester Road, I saw a huge black cloud of smoke rising from one of the buildings facing Natwest (next to the money changer). My first instinct was to kay poh as I was at a perfect spot to watch the drama of fire engine trucks racing down Cromwell road, followed later by police cars and an ambulance. After 5 minutes, I figured that they should be able to get the situation under control pretty fast, so I went into Starbucks to order my Caramel Frappucino (I swear it's not helping the fats... oh yes, with cream please!). But from inside Starbucks you could see ash spewing onto the streets and they stopped serving us at Starbucks due to the 'dangerous situation' outside. People were starting to leave Starbucks, and cashiers and waiters were running out of KFC and Illy cafe and Burger King - some to kay poh, others just wanting to get as far away as possible in case it was more than just a house fire.

Since it was a hot day and I really needed to get my readings done, I walked to the Starbucks at Sainsbury's. Two hours later, on my way back, even more fire trucks were along Cromwell road and even more police. They'd managed to cordon off the entire stretch of Cromwell road from Natwest till the Natural History Museum. There wasn't anymore smoke, and I don't think anyone was badly hurt because the ambulances were still there but not doing anything, but you could see that alot of extra precaution was being taken. I mean, we didn't even see this much drama last year, not even a fire truck, when smoke was spewing out the fourth floor of Linstead Hall due to someone's cooking accident last year!

It has affected us. Paranoia is here to visit for awhile.

On the meritocracy debate...

Such people make me worry like hell for the future of my nation when they say things like this.

And then, some make you sigh with relief like this. It's a small glimmer of hope in a vast, dark ocean.

News bytes courtesy of Education in Malaysia.

The day after

We are all waking up to an uneasy calm in the city. Lionel and I have decided to stay home from work.

My desktop latest news update has beeped that the death toll has risen to 50. There are still bodies in the underground, being removed at Russell Square. Although many tube services are up and running, the Hammersmith and Circle Line are still closed for now, and delays and limited services are to be expected. Buses are running, but with extra high security. I don't think anyone is going to do any travelling for now. It's not that the probability of another bomb will be high (security will be at its maximum today), it's just the unease of being able to trust any form of transport, or any public spaces for that matter.

If you are feeling helpless, try donating blood -
call 0845 7711711 (uk residents only)
Thanks to this guy.

The weather today is still dismal.
Will be staying tuned to the news and working on my sound signals for the time being.

We're all clearly shaken and understandably paranoid. Even here at Imperial!

I appreciate the concern! *hugs*

I also have to say thanks for all the smses and calls and msn messages and helping me follow the news.
I can't sms back still, but I really appreciate your prayers and concern! Keep praying, not just for the victims, but for those responsible for these tragedies!

So silly, should have made it clearer. Lionel's at Charing Cross hospital doing a research placement for the summer. But he's home now. They told everyone in the labs to go home if they had nothing left to do to avoid the traffic jam that was sure to build up. But even as they were leaving the jam had already started.

Lionel had to walk an hour to get home, in the rain, nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are staying home and listening to the radio. My live BBC telecast has stopped working. BBC's bombarded right now. Plenty of varying news reports coming in. First they said it was 7 blasts. Now it seems there were only 4 confirmed explosions which occured on the lines in between 7 stations and well as a bus that exploded and its top was completely ripped off. BBC's website still only reports 2 official deaths, but radio news is bringing in numbers in the twenties. Several serious casualties, people with lost limbs and burn victims. I don't know if anymore people are still being evacuated out of the underground, the last I heard there were still passengers waiting to be evacuated.

There's little connection with the outside world, although telecommunication lines are slowly coming back to life, but its only understandable that they'd be all choked up. My only communication with anybody at all is through the Internet (and strangely through my 3G phone, why it only works at times like these baffles me!)

My mother has managed to speak to me and my father says to come home.

You never imagine you'd be in a situation like this. It's rather dream like. And not a nice one at all!

What a bomb!

We're alright. Lionel's currently stuck in Charing Cross hospital, but we've decided its best that he stays there for now anyway.

Everyone's staying put for now. So far its been 6 blasts and 2 fatalities. A bus and 5 tube stations.

Phone lines are choked. Msn is my only medium of communication right now.

Stay tuned and pray!

Thanks for the worrying and concern.

5 day week system for schools next year

I knew this would happen! I told you this would happen! And right in the Star today:
Saturday school activities still on

but...

There's always a but. School uniformed groups should start lobbying against this!

I hope Paris wins the bid!

It's just a few more hours.
I'm not backing the bid.

It doesn't seem fair that all of London's transport systems, utilities and the entire city itself will only be spruced up and be given a major upheaval if we win the bid.
It's not fair that the major hike in bus and tube fares will increase even more when three new stations have to be built for the Olympic village.
Why can't they clean up London without an Olympic contract? God only knows how much that needs to be done! We've been screaming about it for oh so long!

Yesterday Venki came down from Barking to walk around central London with Lu and me. We walked past the London Eye, then across the Thames to say hi to Big Ben and Westminster, then caught a bus to Chinatown and after a hearty lunch walked down to Leicester Square and then to Covent Garden where we watched several street performers and musicians, and toured all of the insides of the London Tranport Museum's shop. The Museum itself would have cost a freaking 5 quid!

Then we came to the conclusion that there was just nowhere else to go. It was raining, and thus the British Museum was a very long wet walk away. The Covent Garden performers were also taking shelter from the rain. And everything was just wet and gloomy and it felt like April showers were back again. So we went home.

What I love about London are the parks, the free museums, the kebab stalls, roast duck, krispy kremes and Covent Garden. But it just takes an annoying drizzle to spoil half of that. That and the words 'not in service' at the tube.

Booked, tagged and bound!

Yeap, I copied the title right off your blog, Sher. Hope you don't mind.

So after a lazy hazy day, spent lounging around doing various errands and then getting a cuppa with Ayish followed by more lounging around in my room watching the M-Nite dvd again and talking about the 'old days' (how can we ever get tired of our baby?), what better way can I end my day with than filling in a book tag!

Total number of books I own: I buy almost every book I read (I don't believe in borrowing or loaning or stealing etc.), so erm... that's a pretty big collection. I intend to house a library one day.

Last Book I Bought: Ooh, I went on a book spree a short while before my exams with Lionel. We came back with no less than 8 books, me thinks. Among them were Fly: an experimental life, and The Chinese Experience

Last Book I was gifted: Well, erm, here's the joke. I don't remember being given any books in the last few years. You'd think people wouldn't think I was a book aficianado. If you did give me a book and I've forgotten, well message me and I'll edit this!

Last Book I Read: The Da Vinci code. I don't believe it and I do not subscribe to it.

Currently Reading: Does the Glamour magazine I bought at the airport count? Oh fine, I'm starting on Angels and Demons. I'm not a Dan Brown fan, in fact I think he's awful, but since its sitting prettily in my fireplace, I might as well.

Five Books that mean a lot to me:
You are kidding! You can't make me choose! Alright, off the top of my head...

1) Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safron Foer
I just took one look at the cover and I knew I had to have it, read it, know it!
2) The Remains of The Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

If you had to take a pause in life and look down the fork in the road, this is a book you should have by your bedside. Don't ask me why. I just felt that way about it, reading it after Prelims in my little hostel room in Singapore.

3) Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

It isn't so much the story that means a lot to me, it's the people I read it with, the long forgotten times spent analysing it, tearing it apart and then seeing it in a new light, back in Mrs Menon's dining hall on hot Saturday afternoons. And then, things fell apart. Where's the centre we had now?

4) High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
The beginning of my love affair with Nick Hornby, Helen Fielding, and all other witty, tongue in cheek, satirical authors. I dedicate this top 5 list to High Fidelity.
5) Jane Eyre & The Professor - Charlotte Bronte
She's my namesake, and I can't choose between these two books. I love them both. There's also Shirley, but it's almost like Jane Eyre. I liked the Professor a little bit better because it had a happier ending.


This Book Tag is now passed to: (alright... who reads... hmm... who reads?)

Anyone who's chanced on this book tag and hasn't done it. I know the ones who read (kat, cl, fidzy, hx, jac, jills, kimmy, maggie), so there! You've been book tagged!

The Spanish Preview

I'm brown, I'm penniless and I'm home! Hot scorching Spanish days just fly by in the blink of an eye when you're not trying to avoid pick pockets or scheming gypsies (but as we learnt, we Chinese are a slipperier lot!), and while Lionel finishes with the 1200 plus photos we took, here's a little preview for you blood-thirsty blog-snappers, just to whet your appetite.

(Oh, I have to add that all these photos are courtesy of my humble Olympus mju 300, and not Lionel's mighty Nikon D70s. See, even little cameras can churn out pretty decent postcard shots!)


Our days in Barcelona drained us of our money more than any other Spanish city. Here's the famous Gaudi lizard at Park Guell. I'm glad Park Guell was free. 16 euros to visit Casa Batllio even with a 20% discount is a major rip off.

Seville on the otherhand really captures the feisty, hot-blooded Spanish spirit!

From the bull fighting rings:

The famous Maestranza bullring, which aficianodos proclaim is the most beautiful and was featured in Bizet's Carmen. I am still staunchly not a supporter after the horrifying discovery that up to 5 bulls are mercilessly tortured and killed each fight. At least the meat is fed to the poor.

To it's very red, tomato saturated food:

Enjoying a dinner of tapas at one of the many outdoor 'Bordega's or bars.

And yet Seville has that sense of serenity and spiritual one-ness, magnificently captured by the Moorish and Islamic architecture.

Like the fountains at the Alcazar

The Mercury fountain at the Alcazar. If you could only see the view we were facing! You'd have to wait for Lionel's photos though.

And the Giralda tower

The bells, bells, bells of the Giralda (isn't that a name that could inspire magic lamps and sultry arabian nights?)

And then there were the fantastical orange trees that just bloomed everywhere and gave the air that tangy scent:

In the courtyard of the Cathedral after climbing up the Giralda tower. The trees were littered with oranges, but much too far up to pluck... damn it! It isn't easy being an orange thief!


And for the Roman History enthusiasts (like Lionel), just outside Seville in the little village of Santiponce lies what was the third largest Roman city with its remarkable mosaics. However in a very Malaysian way, during the Middle Ages the ruins were used as a source of stones for buildings and much treasure hunting was carried out without any restraint and it was not until recent times that the value of Italica was realised. (The Duke of Wellington was one such criminal!).

Oh well, at least we got to see what was left of it (much to Lionel's joy!)


Overlooking the massive amphitheatre and the entrance to the amphitheatre below. You can just imagine the great gladiator fights were the precursor to bull fighting.


Then it was on to Granada, where all beauty and wonder seemed to just culminate in the Alhambra, the most sensual and romantic of all European monuments (or so some say, and having seen it for myself, I would never object!). Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountains, this was the last stronghold of the Moorish Islamic empire, before the Reconquest. However it retains all the serenity and charm left by the Moors, with the most intricate yet harmonious architecture I have ever seen, or hoped to see in my life.

I mean, just look at that:


The lovely intricate carvings in the Court of Lions, one of the many magnificent courtyards in the Nazrid Palaces.

Honeycomb-like structures on the ceilings forming an 8-sided star.

Another view of the Court of the Lions, or Patios de los Leones where the centre font gives the court its name. This court famously inspired Washingon Irving to write his Tales of the Alhambra

Graceful stalagtite features, which are repeated all over the palace - a unique feature of the Alhambra

A notable feature of Islamic architecture is the use of water everywhere, to create a feeling of peaceful serenity, coolness and spaciousness.


Subtly rippling pools create the illusion of mirrored images and more space, while the calm noiseless water provides a spiritual atmosphere, like this one in the Partal


Fountains provide both aural and visual beauty, like the many fonts in the Generalife (pronounced He-ne-rah-li-fay)


And of course they provide several picture-perfect moments!

The view of the Albaicin and Sacromonte, the old Moorish quarters, is just amazing! Its practically an entire hill littered with tightly packed white-washed houses, and of course the cave homes that used to belong to the gypsies, and are still in use today!

We just had to get a photo:


And on our way out, I caught this photo of the entire Alhambra (excluding the Generalife where we were at)


You don't see that everyday! When I feel like uploading the rest I'll let you know.

Hola mi chicas y mi hombres!

Hola from Granada!

Finally came across free internet. The weather is sizzling! The food is *muaks*! The hombres... ah... are sadly gay (but awfully cute). Oh and every street and alley and sidewalk is a perfect picture postcard! We´ve already taken 700 plus photos!

Its hard to put Spain into words. You´ve just gotta be here, feeling the blazing sun on your back, taking in the grandeur of the Moorish buildings, soaking in the tapas and sangrias (but not the paellas, I kinda feel short changed eating what seems to be fried rice or rice soaked in soupy curry... we Asians know how to eat rice the right way, leave it to us!) and shopping, shopping, shopping! Until Lionel puts on that ´look´ and I know its time to stop.

I can´t go on too long, so here´s a short sample of what I´ve been up to:
Gaudi and seafood in Barcelona
Flamenco and tapas and Roman ruins and bull-fighting in Seville
and currently wandering around the old Moorish quarters of Granada.

I also have to add, if you have only one place you could choose to go to in Spain... it would definitely be Seville! They love students! We get huge discounts everywhere we go! It´s good to be holders of an ISIC card!

Alright then, I´ll be back soon with loads of photos. And I´ll book tag when I get back, Sherene! Adios! (And wait for those postcards!)

Fraudulant finishings!

I had to start and end the year with a trip to the police station, didn't I?

Big sigh...

It is a quite amusing though, that a black guy tried to pass off as me and cash a cheque in my name all the way in Cockfosters, Herefordshire with a local driving liscence as ID (which I of course don't own). It wasn't quite so amusing that he tried to take 3500 pounds out of my bank account.

That's the short story. You'll have to wait for the long story when I get back and you catch me in person.

Adios!

Who is I?

It's like blogger- diarrhoea today. But I've been reading through loads of blogs, and then I come back and look at my blog, and wonder what it's all about.
Wonder if this is me.
Wonder how I would know this is me.
Wonder if I would know me, if I bumped into myself on a crowded High Street Kent.

Reading your own blog should be like staring into a mirror, and you'd better believe that I am my biggest fan. But there are those startling moments when you wonder who wrote those entries in the archives, and then the whole vicious cycle starts again.
Wonder if this is me
Wonder how I would know this is me.
Wonder if I would know me, if I passed myself by at the ticket turnstile at the Gloucestor Road tube.

And then it glares at me right in my face, that I am only Charlotte sometimes. I can be talking to three different people from the same group of friends, and I'd be three different people. Multiple personality disorder has probably been manifested in me since the day I woke up and realised different people want me to be different persons, all at the same time. And I wonder how I keep sane.
Wonder if this is me
Wonder how I would know this is me.
Wonder if I would know me, if I came up and talked to me on a sunny June day in Hyde Park

No... I would never do that. I don't talk to strangers

Your attention is required!

Newsflash #1
Emperor's Gate has Bubur Cha Cha. More Bubur Cha Cha than we can possibly wish for in a lifetime. All who want their free cold, coconutty bowl, just cha cha your way down here. You know where to find us.

Newsflash #2
All apologies have been accepted. I don't send out much hate mail nor feel good about it, but I appreciate the personal call to apologise, and the offer to chip in with the reimbursement.
[edit: My bag has been found! We haven't seen it yet, but the Union is quite sure they have the bag we are talking about and will hand it over to us on Monday. All's well, back to peace and quiet]

Newsflash #3
Have you taken a look at the Star's new look, in conjunction with their 10th anniversary? I like...
A slightly more professional touch, although it still has a little bit of that 'blank' look.

Newsflash #4
As usual I will not be blogging from Spain much. Will only be able to upload photos when I get back. Miss me! Leave me lots of tagboard messages! (I know you girls will!)

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!

------

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) ----

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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.