No time, no time!

And just when you think you have time to breathe... the sky comes crashing down on you and the ground beneath begins to shake.

I have many many delayed posts with many many photos of Lourdes, Florence, Rome, Geneva, Paris and graduation day (no, not mine! I graduate NEXT year, yes with a Masters, no I do not get a ceremony for my Bachelors, yes they think its a waste of time to make me wear the gown twice, and no I do not get a mortar board)... but that's what Facebook is for and I shall spare this blog.

Just to fill the void. Lionel was back for graduation and so I followed his happy family entourage on holiday to Geneva and Paris and came back with a cold. Graduation was quite a long and draggy affair and I'm not looking forward to my own, despite the fact that it will coincide with Imperial's centenary celebrations. 100 years of living science. That's what they're promoting. It's lovely to be back in a sciency environment and soak in all the natural goodness of being a science geek.

Today marks the start of week 5 and to my horror I've discovered an accounting exam 2 weeks from now. My final year project readings have begun - Brain Sonification for Computer Interface. So so cool!!! To harness the power of the brain in the form of music through signal analysis and estimation! It's frightening but oh so cool! Did I not say it's cool? It's COOL!

Besides that, EESoc, OSC and re-apping are just turning my life upside down. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Money to handle, lists to compile, events to sort out. Given its a lot easier than juggling all of MSoc and M-Nite, but I think I need to cut myself some slack.

So that's all I have to say. This onion bagel smells too good to eat! But I think I will have to.

Lionel just flew off 20 minutes ago.

Sometimes life seems like a dream, I'd hate to wake up from.

This is for the original bloggers...

Remember when we were this young? When boarding school life was the bane of our existence and the only things that made it worthwhile were the friendships, the dinner chats...
There were the birthdays, the dressing up and down, the jokes and the singing...


There were the late nights and snacking and discoveries and romance battle-plans...






















And boy did we wish (or at least I did) we had better looking hair back then...





Then we left TCHBS, took our results and moved on with our lives... and all that kept us together was a promise to update a blog

March 2003

We obviously didn't move on with our cameras...

August 2003

And some of us had to go to far away places... and not meet up for months on end... 2005

But hey, at least we're better looking now! August 2006

I miss you guys!!!

Pardon the sentimental crap... hehe,
but I couldn't resist posting this

Asian Film Fest

So one of the wardens has decided that he will film a foreign film every week. It must be of high artistic quality (a Cannes candidate if possible) and original and powerful in its mastery of cinematography. In other words there probably will not be a single Asian movie on the list, unless it's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (I never got the ending, just like I didn't get House of Flying Daggers, but don't get me wrong - I loved watching it!).

Being the protector of all things Asian in my hall, I'm coming up with my own list of movies.

So far my list includes:

1. Raise the Red Lantern
2. Hero (I liked it, ok!!!)
3. The Road Home
4. Devdas
5. Swades
6. Asoka
7. The Soong Sisters
8. Children of Heaven
9. Farewell my Concubine
10. The Wedding Banquet
11. Monsoon Wedding
12. Zatoichi
13. The Way Home
14. Salaam Bombay


And of course we have to have the all-too-popular Kungfu Hustle. I'm not too sure of its artistic quality, but it's one hell of a good laugh!

Any other suggestions? I know there aren't any Malaysian selections in the list, but how well received will Sepet or Puteri Gunung Ledang be here? I'm just asking.

Charlotte is a happy yellow ducky

Did I mention that regardless of my many nights of prayer for a puke-free landing, one of my freshers still had the audacity to vomit on my landing? Thankfully it was in his room and not the corridor, but still the stench of regurgitated salmon lingers on.

I'm cooking again and that makes me happy. (There are also only 4 days more before Lionel gets here, and that makes me even happier, but lets focus on the little things for now). I persuaded my freshers to let me cook claypot chicken rice for them because it's damn hard to cook something nice for just one person. I, hands-in-the-air, white-flag-raised, cannot do it! It seems a strange concept to persuade people to let me cook for them. It's usually the other way around.

I'll be off to Geneva on Thursday with Lionel and family. We're fearing the worst of the weather. Anyone who's been to Geneva has any tips? Nic Osman said I should go see the longest bench in the world. They're apparently big on bench construction in Geneva. Then I'll be off to Paris on Sunday where the Parisien ISE bunch (Hugo, Adam, Hai and Kunal) are. See, I kept my promise when I said I'd come visit you. I didn't think it'd be this soon either!

And then it'll be graduation day and everyone will be back and we'll sit on queens lawn, some in gowns, some not, and wonder how time rushed by us so fast. wonder if we'd have made it this far without each other. wonder where all of us will go from here.

Just in case you're wondering, the title to this post has absolutely no meaning at all. In the mean time, I'm going to get back to my cooking in the kitchen. Wheeee!!

Elegantly wasted

It's 5 in the morning.

There's a screaming in my head, possibly from the copious amount of wine I was made to down last night at the coming up dinner, an annual ritual we put freshers through that involves forcing them to dress up to the nines and party at a swanky hotel. Re-app pressure is not a good excuse to drink, but you do it anyway. You'd do anything to be a part of the team.

But strangely enough the alcohol has woken me up and I just can't go back to sleep. My mind and body are not synchronising and definitely pretty pissed off with each other. One's dead beat but the other is just refusing to give in to fatigue. Bah!

And my mother is probably not going to be very happy to find out that I partied in my newly tailored baju kebaya. Getting a tailored kebaya is like a rite of passage. It means I'm old enough to be trusted with dry-cleaning my own clothes and not spilling wine on the sari cloth my dad bought from India for me to make it. I didn't get any wine on it, and thanks to my mother's ingenious plans to make it a size too small for me, I also couldn't eat as much as I wanted to. My mother has crafty ways of keeping me slim. It's not fair, but it works.

It's about time I tried to get some sleep before daybreak. Damn the pounding in my head!

Let me grow old in peace...

I cannot keep up with this! What on earth possessed me to supervise barely 19 year olds who are testing their limits with every vice on earth? (God, if there is anything I want more - except for my aunty to be cured of cancer, and maybe for Lionel's PhD to be approved, oh and maybe for peace on earth... it would be for not a single fresher to empty his or her stomach contents onto any space of floor on my landing while I'm still the re-app in charge).

I was working behind the bar tonight, with Alex, and totally winning at Dai Dee. Sorry, Jason, if you ever read this - you so totally got owned! And really that's all I was doing, but I'm completely beat! Back in the glorious days of my first year, being on duty at the bar was soooo much fun. True there was actual alcohol in the bar back then and there was a lot more work to be done and not a moment to stand still and watch the world go by, but I never felt this tired and drained.

Now I'm conceding to the fact that I'm old, 4 years older than most of these kids. And I just want to get my subscription for a pair of new tortoise shell glasses and shuffle into my carpet slippers and grow old in peace...

(expect whiny, ranty posts from now on...)

Aku rindu...

Do you know what I miss?

Waking up in the morning and smelling nutella on onion bagels
or the sound of you tip-toeing out the door for lectures

Dancing on cold kitchen tiles as the kettle gently bubbles and becomes my morning cup of Milo

Dashing red-faced and breathless into the lecture theatre to find a seat waiting for me in a crowded room.

Gossiping in the labs and laughing till tears come streaming down and talking about love, life and dreams; some gone, some real, some floating in the stratosphere.

Sauntering into the JCR to find a ready table laid with Bridge and good company.

Shopping at Sainsbury's with an experimental recipe in my head.

Cooking.

Snuggling under a fleece blanket while CSI flickers on the telly.

Singing in the shower.

Climbing up to the attic in search of warmer duvets and better music (Buona Vista Social Club? why yes, please!) and falling asleep in the mean time.



the starkness of difference is hollow and silently screaming. but life changes and I chose to change it. why stop now?

Oversensitivities

I think (and I'd agree with you that I usually don't) that the world is becoming much too sensitive. I was on my way to Rome when the Pope came under fire from the Muslim world. I came back to London to find Badawi demanding an apology from Lee Kwan Yew on the marginalised Chinese community (not true meh?). And today the first thing I see on BBC.com is a heated debate on Jack Straw's views on the tudung.

We should all just bite our tongues from now on. Opinions are not welcome. It's enough to spark off another casual Monday morning bomb attack.

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

The world and its affairs aside, I'm feeling particularly lazy. I really should be getting dressed and going to see the bank about not being able to change my address online. But these Thai fisherman pants my brother bought me are reeeeally comfortable, and I don't feel like changing out of the just yet.

My room is a big big mess. I have a pile of stuff. Just stuff. Because I have yet to find out what's in that pile. But no time to sort that out now. Final year projects to sort out first.

It's been meeting after meeting. Lecturer after lecturer. And a list of 180 projects. I've scaled mine down to just signal processing and control theory projects, and I'm refusing to even look at the computing selections because it'll just make it worse. I'm adamant about doing a proper engineering project this year. It may be my last chance to play with wifi's and visual imaging and 3G networks and sensors, before being sent home to deal with roadworks and water plants in my sponsor company. God forbid I end up in the IT helpdesk.

It's a boring life these days. Freshers are distracting when they only have to worry about having fun...

And she resurfaces

I'm back in good ol' rainy, smoggy, dusty, sainsbury London!

Granted I actually left Malaysia more than 2 weeks ago and I've been on a spiritually fulfilling journey which encompassed Lourdes, Florence (not so spiritually fulfilling) and Rome. And then the Linstead Hall wardens bundled all the re-apps (officially we are now to be called hall seniors) up and dumped us in the middle of the New Forest to camp in heated wigwams for a night.

But now I am back and firmly rooted on London soil, awaiting the chaotic arrival of freshers who will think I belong to the Jurassic period. We've painted the welcome signs, we've filled up their fresher's packs with goodies, and we're going to smile all day tomorrow. It really is going to be a lot more fun than I make it seem.

On the other hand its strange to be in this position, especially in my final year. London's become smaller now that so many have left. Lionel's feeding his bacteria and lab mice or whatever in Singapore. Nicole's fending for herself in Stanford. Tao's eating the whole of KL. CL's gone soul searching again back in his kampu-, I mean Kuantan.

And I'm here. Missing Malaysia, missing Singapore, missing Hong Kong. I swear one plate of real char kuay teow a year is an awful, awful punishment! I miss Hokkien mee so much, some nights I cry myself to sleep.

Life's going to be hard this year... if I don't make the most out of it.

Extension of the Wan Mohd. Aimran fan club...

Haha, just teasing. But you know I'm a big fan.

Stop beating the racial drum - by Imperial's resident Malaysian writer is just one of many of his brilliant pieces. And I have to thank him for being the voice that dares to speak while the rest of the rakyat grumble, yet are too chicken to swim against the tide. (I'm one of them because my mum says she won't visit me if I'm arrested for insinuating there's even the slightest bit of racial disharmony in Malaysia)

Kudos again, Wan!

Where the sun don't stop shining

I could kiss every palm oil tree that flanks the highway back from KLIA!

It's good to be home. Where the teh tarik is schweet, the banana leaves green, the air hazy, the police corrupt and where most motorists seem intent on meeting their maker before their appointed time. I don't know why I ever left this place. I'll probably remember after 2 weeks when I'm fed up with the weather and just want to hide in an air conditioned space.

Anyway, call me, email me, write me. I don't care where in the world you are.

What did I get myself into?

4th year is going to be a killer year.

My schedule for the year ahead looks set to be punishing. Linstead Re-app, Overseas students committee vice-chair and Electricl Engineer's Society Treasurer. It's Charlotte at her best, and trying to top herself.

Who said anything about studying?

Hmm...

My mum sms-ed me in the middle of the day, on Tuesday while I was rushing to prepare a presentation and was walking back and forth between the data resource table and my desk.

"Do u want your results?"

I'm not sure that my mum realises the inpact that one phrase has on me. All of a sudden, whatever work I was doing was absolutely insignificant when faced with this awful feeling of failure.

Anyway long story short. I got my first. Despite my mother complaining about my dismal marks in DSP and Operations Research ("You can sit for the paper yourself, Mum!") and surprisingly awful marks in Decision Analysis. What can I say. I was never able to make decisions. I can't care what the rest of my marks are... I'm just happy that I don't need to work so hard next year.

Total slacking, here I come!

In the meantime, I've got 4 weeks more to go in Hong Kong. And I'm surprisingly wishing it wasn't coming to an end so soon! Quick, come visit me while you can!!

On a day like today

Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming here. Distractions come easily when I start to think of the things happening back home. Lionel's sister getting married today. My cousin's baby celebrating it's full moon (I had no idea there was a new baby in the family, and until I figure out whether I have a niece or a nephew, it shall be an 'it').

As much as I love my life in Hong Kong, there comes a time when you think that 10 months away from home is when the cracks start to show.

Thai-erd

That says it all.

Will get back to you when I wake up.

(But I'm more likely to be at work)

One more thing - in my hurry to pack my entire wardrobe to Bangkok, I brought a camera without batteries. Go Charl!

More Memes

Name 20 people u can think of and then tag 5 more people to do the survey. Do not read the questions before you write.

1. Lionel
2. Sugania
3. Anushia
4. Charmaine
5. Sherene
6. Chien Liq
7. Wei Kiat
8. Yi Shan
9. Lu
10. Nicole
11. Ayish
12. Cheng Chun
13. Baa (Khim Nyang)
14. Bhai (Sachpal)
15. Ravi
16. Jere
17. Tao
18. Chris Tock
19. Hugo
20. Xiaokai

** Disclaimer **

I SWEAR the list isn't in order of preference or in ANY order at all... I just put down the names as and when they came to mind (and in the order that I was checking my msn list). If your name isn't here, that does not make you any less special to me!!!



1. How did u meet #14 (Bhai)?
Dammit! Why do you have to be #14, Bhai??!!

Bhai and I have had a love-hate relationship since the beginning of time. Bhai went to the same school as my first boyfriend and big surprise - he hated him and thus hated me, and Bhai has probably never agreed with any other boyfriend after that either. Getting rid of boyfriend #1 was just the beginning of a great friendship built on insults and sarcastic remarks (as well as almost identical Capricorn traits)... and in Bhai's words "The smartest thing you ever did, Charl". The only problem he has with my boyfriends now is that he thinks they are all Ah Bengs and they are never good enough for me.


2. What would u do if u hadn't met #1 (Lionel)?
Dated other guys.



Oh wait, I meant to say that I would never have found my soulmate, best friend, pillow-talk companion, adventurous travel buddy, consumer of everything I cook whether tasty or nasty, free compliment service, opener of container lids that are too tight, destroyer of bugs and cockroaches and rats that scare me, fetcher of my water, coffee, snacks, etc. when the kitchen seems too far away, supporter of all the ridiculous endeavours I come up with, sugar daddy of all my meals and soft toys, download centre for all my tv series, and provider of unlimited hugs and kisses.

I know it sounds like I can't do anything for myself. Lionel would agree.


3. What would u do if #20 (Xiaokai) and #9 (Lu) dated?
*wide-eyed look* Match made in heaven!! Here's how it'd go. They'd both meet on the World of Warcraft server and hit it off famously. They'd talk about gaming, their pure loathing of studying and small, fair, bespectacled girls. And then they'd try and meet IRL. And I'll be tearing from laughing too much. As I always do.


4. Would #6 (Chien Liq) and #10 (Nicole) make a good couple?
OH... MY...
HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHahahahAHAHAHAHHAhahahhaAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

No. Not unless you want a repeat of the Holocaust.


5. Describe #3 (Anu)
a. Cries before exams
b. Bites her fingernails
c. Adores Ronan Keating
d. Puts on her baby voice when she wants something
e. Calls me a pandi (pig) when she doesn't get her way
f. ...
Ah heck, this list will never be exhaustive enough. Anu's one of my bestest friends who'll one day be the skinniest doctor Melbourne has ever seen.


6. Do you think #8 (Yi Shan) is attractive?
No.

I'm sorry, that was too harsh. I don't think Yi Shan is attractive but I think that Yi Shan thinks he's cute.

7. Tell me something about #7 (Wei Kiat)
He likes to hurt people. Physically. He also likes guns. I mean the ones that shoot. I mean the ones that shoot fire. I mean... oh what the heck. He's also very apt at writing secret admirer letters to himself.

8. Do you know anything about #12 (Cheng Chun)'s family?
Has 2 sisters who have really swanky London/US apartments!

9. What is #1's (Lionel) favourite thing?
ME! and maybe his Nikon.

10. What would you do if #11 (Ayish) confesses that he/she likes you?
Aww... so flattering!

11. What languages does #15 (Ravi) speak?
Idiot-speak.

Oh and a smattering of English, Malay, Chinese swear-words, probably some Vietnamese too now...

12. Who is #9 (Lu) going out with?
His duvet

13. How old is #16 (Jere)?
Last time I checked... about 12. I mean so what if his I.C. says he's 22, the national registry has been known to make mistakes from time to time.

14. When was the last time you talked to #13 (Baa)?
When I was still in London, on MSN

15. Who is #2 (Sugania)'s favourite singer?
Madonna. This is easy.

16. Would you date #4 (Charmaine)?
Hell yeah! I mean who wouldn't? Charmie's hot and smart and funny and such a babe and we'd have a hell of a time, you know it!

17. Would you date #6 (Chien Liq)?
Are you kidding?? Oh, I'm sorry... that was about as harsh as saying Yi Shan's not attractive. Actually it might be fun... not as fun as dating Charmaine because CL isn't as hot and he whines all the time.

18. Is #15 (RAvi) single?
He shouldn't be single. Ravi's like the sweetest darling there is. Why aren't all the girls lining up for him. Oh wait, they probably are. Ravi, why are you being so fussy and pick one already!

19. What is #17 (Tao)'s last name?
Cheah! How many people have tried calling him Mr. Tao?

20. Would you consider being in a relationship with #19 (Hugo)?
Lol!!! This is seriously funnier than the idea of dating Charmaine or CL. Hugo wants me to be his trophy wife, to cook for him make his mum happy. I can have boyfriends but I'd be constantly worrying about Hugo stealing them away. He IS the better looking one.

21. What schools did #17 (Tao) go to?
Schools my mother doesn't approve of for Penangnites. Lol!!! Sri Inai and KTJ.

23. What is your favourite thing about #5 (Sherene)?
That she's absolutely CRAZZZEEEEE!!! She's such a babe and she's got the personality of a firecracker! You can never never never be bored with Sherene, and she's the bestest girlfriend you can have! And of course for the fact that was both LURVE Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black... especially when he's eating peanut butter.

24. What do you think about #13 (Baa)?
He's the greenest wooliest mammal there is. Baa's so clever and he tells the lamest jokes which is so funny!!! And of course he's a great friend who made dinners at THE Chinese High Boarding School so much more entertaining.

25. What do #4 (Charmaine) and # 18 (Chris Tock) have in common?
They both have names starting with "CH"? They don't like to study? They like to procrastinate academic work? You have to catch hold of both of them, sit them down and tie them to a chair to force them to study? And yet you can be sure their mind has wandered off to something else.

26. What special qualities does #5 (Sherene) hold in your life?
Sherene (and Charmaine too) were possibly the only girlfriends I had at that point of time in my life when I met them... and have remained my best girlfriends till now.

And I shall tag... EVERYBODY. I'm not fussy.

Guns in the Hands of Babes V

When will I stop harping about this? When my government grows more brains.

I hate how news reports are ever so slightly (oh why am I being diplomatic?) skewed in favour of gun training.

Just a question. Are we going to tighten gun laws now that 1 tenth of Malaysian 18 year olds will know how to fire an M16?

I am not a supporter of anti-gun societies. Give me a strong and valid reason for training our young ones to hold firearms and I'd support it, whole heartedly. Right now reason #1 "it will instill discipline and make them braver" and reason #2 "Singapore has implemented it" only makes me wonder WHY we bother to spend money educating Malaysians if they are going to take in such pure rubbish as valid substantiations. (I think I spelt that wrong... but I've been working over the weekend and I can't care to stare at my computer screen while I type).

A few weeks ago Lionel asked me if there was anything in our constitution regarding firearms. According to most war conventions, anyone who picks up a firearm is no longer considered a civillian, regardless of age, and is allowed to be shot during war because they are now considered soldiers. That's a rather interesting train of thought. Care to explain that to our youngsters who are so eager to hold guns?

In fact the naivety of their responses is worrying:

Trainee Sharifah Rabiatul said it was a privilege to learn to use an M16 because the opportunity was not given to everyone. “I think it will make me braver, tougher and stronger. I don’t think it will be dangerous at all,” said Sharifah, who was among the 350 trainees who left Bukit Jalil for Bandar Muadzam Shah, Pahang.

Yup, spending 2 days learning to fire a bullet will do that.

Of course it won't. The mental preparation for fire arm training does not start a day before holding your weapon. You want to know why they can do it in Singapore? It's because the mental preparation and discipline is instilled long before the first gun theory lesson. You want to make them tougher and stronger? Try waking up at 6am for a 2km jog every morning. You want to make them braver and independent? Try solo camping. I have a sneaky feeling that more teens would rather choose the cowardly option of firing a gun over setting up their own tent in the middle of the jungle and spending the night there. I dare say the jogging and camping would be far cheaper than spending more money on guns and ammunition. And a much healthier mental and physical exercise too.

All this talk about exercise and hx's comment on the odac blog about obese snails is reminding me of what a little pig i'm turning into. My mum has been reminding me over and over that walking cannot be my only form of exercise. After all the only reason I walk home from work is because I'm miserly trying to save on cab money. Everything has a hidden agenda. Even NS.

Guns in the Hands of Babes IV

Not sticking by their guns now are they? Well not completely.

What is the point of an exercise being implemented in a program meant to foster unity when you make it optional? You either train a reserve army or you encourage bonding amongst teenagers. You cannot do both.

As the ministry of defence tries to pull the wool over the nation's eyes... it's a rather feeble attempt.

“Using blanks at the shooting range is not appropriate. What is there to worry about if there is security?” says Najib.

There is everything to worry about.

Were the NS trainees given ample mental preparation? Were they given psychometric tests to weed out trainees with weak mental strength and not prepared for the repercussions of firing a gun? (You may think this is stupid when they're probably only going to fire one bullet, but it's a required procedure that army/policemen go through... and firing one bullet can shock you). Were they given full warning about the dangers of holding a gun that if loaded wrongly, not cleaned properly or misfired could results in deaths of not just the shooter but the people around?

Or as in the true Malaysian style, was nothing else but a short term goal to discipline our wayward Malaysian kids the only thing on the minds of the powers that be?

Dim Sum Girl

Only dim sum girls will be talking this summer.

Have a great one folks. Summer, not the dim sum girl!